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Canon creates on-screen user-guides for EOS-1D X

Jul 18, 2012 at 17:23:51 GMT

CAMERA NEWS CANON

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Canon USA has published a series of user guides for its flagship EOS-1D X full-frame DSLR, in the form of HD videos that are designed to be played-back on the camera's rear LCD. There are 18 topics covered, including a series of videos looking at how to get the best out of the AF system. Canon video tutorials are also available for the EOS-1D Mark IV, 5D Mark III, 5D Mark II, 7D and 60D. (From UnitedByPhotography, via CanonWatch)

(From UnitedByPhotography, via CanonWatch).

Click here to see the full list of, and download, Canon's tutorial videos for the EOS-1D X

Edit: in an earlier version of this news story we said the EOS-1D X was the first EOS camera to get a video tutorial. Videos for other models have been available for some time and the story has been corrected.

Comments

Total comments: 50

Can't imagine that a professional 1DX photographer is waiting for a video tutorial on the camera display.
Looks similar to me as a computer programmer who runs the Windows Video Tour now and then. Or a startup screen with: 'welcome, that funny TV screen in front of you is a called a monitor'...

0 upvotes

I've long thought that all cameras should have detailed in-camera movies, teaching how to do everything. (These ones look very specific/advanced, but I guess if you're buying a $7,000 camera, you're past the basics. I can't wait til all cameras come with full training.)

Comment edited 5 minutes after posting

0 upvotes

I see the 1D X/1D C as a great departure from the 1D/1Ds lines. Those of us who shoot 1-series already will be used to the old 45-point AF system, and slightly quirky ergonomics (different to the 5/7). While fundamentally the camera is the same to operate at a basic level, I think the transition up to the X brings a lot of new functionality. I can see the point of having a reminder on how to operate the new functions.

0 upvotes

I'd also like to have Tetris & SuperMario.

4 upvotes

What i see here is a possibility for users to be able to watch personal videos on their cameras probably with a given hack... I haven't found of one convincing use of why someone wants to do that but time will tell

0 upvotes

The narrator of the AF one sounds like CHuck Westfall

0 upvotes

Just make an affordable working press camera !
£7000 for a camera ? who are they trying to kid.

0 upvotes

Mine cost £5299

0 upvotes

Generally, people that use this camera really don't need a user guide and people that need a user guide probably shouldn't start with a camera like this, just my 2 cents.

Comment edited 51 seconds after posting

2 upvotes

Youtube comments seem brighter than some of the comments around here. The user manual is twice as thick as either the 1Ds3 or 1D4's, indicating there is quite a lot to get to grips with.

1 upvote

is this somewhat similar to the Nikon D3100 tutorial stuff? if so, great canon! now anyone with 7K to spend can look like a pro! :maximumsarcasam:

1 upvote

The menu did come as a bit of a shock from my 1Ds3 and 1D4, so these look helpful. Nice one Canon :)

2 upvotes

Dunno why people are so resistant to new things. The videos are not mandatory for you to download and watch, it's an option. Some people think they're so clever with sarcastic remarks but I don't get the point of it. Either watch or not, your choice.

9 upvotes

It's not new things. It's the level of complexity that makes all this necessary. It is what it is, but untill recently the greatest photographs in history were made with cameras that had 30-page instruction books. My Canon camera has 40 pages on focusing. Frankly, I'd like to see them put the whole 400-page manual on the camera with a search function.

0 upvotes

Great feature!

Now the field photographer has been added one more reason to tell the editor why the SHOT got away.

The video was playing...

1 upvote

sorry

Comment edited 25 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

to put them in youtube would be handy without the need of downloading. Of course downloading directly into camera is also handy for different reason. I suppose Canon wants us to visit their website as well.. so people get used to it and there's more useful infos there.

0 upvotes

Just another example of Canon's great work in the R&D department.

Where would we be without them.

0 upvotes

Although I really like the idea of video tutorials, I can't really understand why one would want to play these back on the camera itself. When I watch photo related tutorials I try out the given tips or settings on my camera. This would be hard to do if you need the camera itself to watch these files. Or would this be aimed at people who go out on the field and watch the videos?

0 upvotes

You can watch them on your PC or your phone too... Not just the camera.

1 upvote

Yes, but they are "designed to". So I'm wondering why..

0 upvotes

Imagine a photographer new to 1D X wants to try out a new feature in the field. Having it on youtube is no help at all, while seeing it right on the camera, when you can immediately find and try all the buttons/dials/switches etc referred, is useful.

0 upvotes

We are dealing here with one of the most, if not the most advanced AF systems ever developed folks ..... so it is quite obvious that the idea behind those videos is to show the users visually the easiest way to control the system ...and to get the best of it. Simple as that!

1 upvote

Apparently it is too late for the Olympics...photographers will be too busy to watch the tutorials.

0 upvotes

wouldn't it be nice if they uploaded them to Youtube or something?

its a good move.
the 1D series has become VERY COMPLEX machine.
and japanese english hasn't improved at all.
Reading the manual has been very frustrating.

Comment edited 57 seconds after posting

2 upvotes

You can download them from the Canon website...

0 upvotes

Why are there so many damn derogatory people on this forum?

And for what its worth, I walked into my little local camera shop here in sleepy old Perth, Western Australia and there on the shelf is a 1DX...

Good to see Canon Australia is looking after us!

7 upvotes

Pro enough to buy a pro camera, lazy enough not to read the manual.
OK.

4 upvotes

Yep, that sounds like 75% of my pro customers. Although perhaps lazy is the wrong word.

Comment edited 22 seconds after posting

0 upvotes

This could very well be the greatest camera of all time...Until the 1DX MK2 comes out that is...

1 upvote

Might be, if your definition of greatest does not include small size, light weight or high resolution. Everybody gives different weights to different parameters, and at some point every parameter, even Number One on one's list, becomes "good enough", giving way to importance of other things.

0 upvotes

Pee Wee Herman likes this.

0 upvotes

What user guide! its useless

Noone can not take a bad shot with this !! Seriously, Your hands could shake 1/300 sec, while it take 1/9999999 its shot :)

Sure this comment was a joke, but there is no other joke about this top class work horse !

2 upvotes

AWESOME! Video tutorials for a camera that I can neither find nor buy. BRILLIANT!

0 upvotes

My 1Dx came in on the 18th, so if you didn't have one on pre-order I guess that's not Canon's fault.

1 upvote

Here's an idea. Make cameras that are so intuitive to use that no videos are necessary--so after you spend all the money you can concentrate on taking photos. Might even sell more cameras if people thought they wouldn't have to go back to school for each new model.

6 upvotes

If you had ever used a 1D or 5D3 or 7D, you would know why such videos are helpful for understanding the AF system.

3 upvotes

they do, they are called powershot (point and shoot) if you want a good camera, that unfortunelty requires options and a lot of settings. each setting, each shoot is different, often requires different settings.

Hence why these are professional cameras, not cheap little disposable point and shoots.

2 upvotes

Intuitive is a highly subjective term. Intuitive means it's consistent with your previous experience. If you don't have that experience, it isn't intuitive, so you need a manual anyway. If you've never used a pro camera before, the camera can't be intuitive except maybe how to set shutter speed and aperture. But you won't get the most out of that expensive camera by just setting those two controls. To get the most out of your investment, you should be using the subtle specialized features that make a pro camera pro, which are by nature usually not intuitive.

Not having to go back to school for each model also is a false hope. It means you're almost asking camera makers to never improve their designs, because then you would have to learn the new, easier way. I'm not joking...I see people every day who upgrade but use their old, time-wasting methods because they can't be bothered to learn the improvements they actually paid for. They stick to what they know.

3 upvotes

Downloaded and unzipped the back-button AF video. Playing the .MOV on my PC yields audio, but no video.

1 upvote

The audio is fairly standard fare: 16-bit linear PCM (the fact that it's stereo and uncompressed explains the large file sizes). Should play fine in QuickTime Player. Works for me, at least.

0 upvotes

if your on windows, don't install that slow unoptimized software, just download a codec pack and play every video type ever made. on windows 7 videocodecs by shark007 are great.

0 upvotes

Great Idea. They realized everyone was making money by doing video demonstrations on youtube. Now they can steal some of that business back.

0 upvotes

Step 1. Notice others are making YouTube guides.
Step 2. Make own video guides.
Step 3. ?
Step 4. PROFIT!!!

Comment edited 45 seconds after posting

3 upvotes

Looks like they have videos for other cameras too. 1DIV, 5DII, 5DIII, 7D, 60D

Comment edited 37 seconds after posting

2 upvotes

The files are huge – they total over 5 GB – but this is a good idea whose time has come.

Tip: inside the ZIP files are standard QuickTime MOV files, so you can play them on your computer or other device too, if you feel like it.

2 upvotes

Great Idea! Surprised no has done it before..
Now if I could just find one to buy :-0

1 upvote

Wow! Isn't about time? I was always puzzle to think that, while the technology is available, Canon and other brands of the same calliber had not thought about making this available in its cameras. Just think, pay great buck for a camera which has a less than general user guide and having to hunt ,and pay on top,for a printed user guide. A user/manual guide takes very little memory space so why not include it in the internal/fix camera memory? Someone in Canon decided to switch from drinking coffee to mate! (southamerican tea drink which stimulates brain activity).

Comment edited 2 minutes after posting

2 upvotes

Way to go Canon....

1 upvote

Designing the videos to be played back on the LCD is pretty creative IMO.

1 upvote

Total comments: 50


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