Canon EOS-1D Review: 8. Operation & Controls: Digital Photography Review

Exposure / Focus / Metering / Drive modes (cont.)

Metering modes

Mode	Description
	Evaluative This metering mode is suitable for general shots and even those which are backlit. It uses the 21 metering zones in conjunction with the current AF point to calculate the optimum exposure.
	Partial Partial metering is more effective for strongly backlit subjects, metering is weighted at the center of the frame covering 13.5% of the viewfinder area.
	Spot Spot metering is useful for metering very precisely a single subject or area within a scene. The metering is weighted at the center of the frame covering 3.8% of the viewfinder area. With AF points limited to 11 or 9 (custom function 13 is 1 or 3) the metered spot will follow the AF point.
	Center-weighted Average In this mode the entire frame is metered but more emphasis (weight) is placed on the center portion of the frame.

• P.Fn 2 allows you to disable any of the metering modes.

Drive modes

Mode	Description
	Single frame A single shot is taken for a full press of the shutter release.
	High speed continuous (8 fps) *1 Press and hold the shutter release and the camera shoots at its highest frame rate (approx. 8 frames per second) until the buffer is full. As soon as there is space in the buffer (images have been written out to the CF card) the next shot will be taken. Personal function 19 allows you re-program this high speed frame rate to approx. 4, 5, 6, 7 or 8 fps. See table below for estimated number of frames at different ISO sensitivities.
	Low speed continuous (4 fps) *2 Press and hold the shutter release and the camera shoots at its low frame rate (approx. 4 frames per second) until the buffer is full. As soon as there is space in the buffer (images have been written out to the CF card) the next shot will be taken. Typically at this lower speed, with a fast CF card and at ISO 200 you can shoot until the card is full. See table below for estimated number of frames at different ISO sensitivities.
	Self-timer 10-sec delay Camera pauses 10 seconds before taking shot. Countdown is displayed on the top LCD.
	Self-timer 2-sec delay Camera pauses 2 seconds before taking shot. Countdown is displayed on the top LCD.

*1	• P.Fn 19 allows you re-program this low speed frame rate to approx. 8, 7, 6, 5 or 4 fps.
*2	• P.Fn 19 allows you re-program this low speed frame rate to approx. 3, 2, or 1 fps.

Looking through the viewfinder the camera displays the capacity of the buffer as a two digit numeric (right side of the viewfinder display). This buffer burst capacity at different ISO sensitivities (these are camera estimates, real burst capacity will depend on scene complexity, noise and CF card write speed):

ISO	Camera est. JPEG / RAW
ISO 200	21 / 16
ISO 400	20 / 16
ISO 800	20 / 14
ISO 1600	14 / 14

• P.Fn 20 allows you to limit the number of shots in continuous mode, when this setting is enabled the camera will only shoot the specified number of frames for any single press-and-hold of the shutter release button.

Top of Camera Controls: Right Side

Right side of camera controls

Button / combination
	Acquires a flash exposure lock, attached flash will pre-flash and meter for the correct flash output. Also used in multi-spot metering mode to select a meter point.	No function
	Illuminates top or rear LCD status panels with blue LEDs for six seconds.	No function
	Select exposure compensation: • +/-3 EV in 1/3 or 1/2 EV steps *1
	AE Lock - lock exposure as it is currently metered, this allows you to then recompose the image and shoot.
	Enter AF point select mode: Main dial dial (top) used to select AF points horizontally, quick command dial (rear) used to select AF points vertically.

*1	• Exposure compensation steps can be set to 1/3 or 1/2 EV via C.Fn 6.
	• C.Fn 4 allows you reprogram the function of the shutter release and AE Lock buttons to various combinations of AF / AE Lock.

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