Canon EOS-D30 Review: 6. Operation: Digital Photography Review

Top of camera controls (left) - Exposure Modes

Top of the camera on the left hand side is situated the exposure mode dial. This dial controls the manner of exposure operation be it fully automatic, a preprogrammed scene composition, flexible program or a range of manual and semiautomatic options.

In the user manual Canon breaks these exposure modes into groups. Each of these exposure modes are described below.

The first six modes (referred to as "Easy Photography") below are all based on Full Auto exposure where the following options are disabled: Image size/Quality selection (locked to Large/Fine JPEG), Custom Functions, AE-lock, Focus Point selection, White Balance (locked to Auto), Exposure Compensation, Flash Compensation, Metering Mode (locked to evaluative). If blur will occur because of camera shake the shutter speed will blink on the viewfinder status bar and on the top LCD.

Icon	Mode	AF mode	Drive mode	Flash
	Fully Automatic Exposure Camera has complete control over exposure, point-and-shoot operation.	• AI Focus	• Single • Self-Timer	• Automatic pop-up
	Portrait Apertures are kept as large as possible (small F number) to produce a shallow Depth of Field (blurred background).	• One Shot	• Continuous • Self-Timer	• Automatic pop-up
	Landscape Apertures are kept as small as possible (large F numbers) to produce the largest possible depth of field.	• One Shot	• Single • Self-Timer	• Disabled
	Close-up (Macro) Aperture is kept to a medium setting to ensure the subject DOF is deep enough but the background is blurred.	• One Shot	• Single • Self-Timer	• Disabled
	Sports Shutter speed is kept as high as possible to ensure capture of fast moving objects.	• AI Servo	• Continuous • Self-Timer	• Disabled
	Night Scene Allows for slow shutter speeds combined with flash to illuminate foreground and background.	• One Shot	• Single • Self-Timer	• Manual

The five exposure modes will be more familiar (and preferred) by most prosumer / professionals. All menu functions and settings are available in these modes and can be used in any combination.

Icon	Mode
P	Program Auto Exposure (Flexible) Very similar to AUTO exposure but you have access to all the normal manual controls, can set the ISO, exposure compensation, use AE lock, bracketing etc. The Program AE on the D30 is flexible, that means that you can select one of a variety of equal exposures by rolling the main dial (top of camera). Example: • 1/30 F2.8 (metered) • 1/20 F3.2 (roll left one click) • 1/15 F4.0 (roll left two clicks) etc.
Tv	Shutter Priority Auto Exposure In this mode you select the shutter speed and the camera will attempt to select the best aperture for a proper exposure (based on the current metering mode). Shutter speed is displayed on the viewfinder status bar and on the top LCD, roll the main dial to select different shutter speeds. A half-press of the shutter release causes the cameras exposure system to calculate the aperture, if it's outside of the cameras exposure range (for instance trying to take a shot at 1/500s in darkness) the aperture will blink. Available shutter speeds below represent 1/3 stop increments (52 total), 1/2 stop increments can be selected through custom function 4. 1/4000, 1/3200, 1/2500, 1/2000, 1/1600, 1/1250, 1/1000, 1/800, 1/640, 1/500, 1/400, 1/320, 1/250, 1/200, 1/160, 1/125, 1/100, 1/80, 1/60, 1/50, 1/40, 1/30, 1/25, 1/20, 1/15, 1/13, 1/10, 1/8, 1/6, 1/5, 1/4, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.8, 1, 1.3, 1.6, 2, 2.5, 3.2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 13, 15, 20, 25, 30 sec
Av	Aperture Priority Auto Exposure In this mode you select the aperture and the camera will attempt to select the best shutter speed for a proper exposure (based on the current metering mode). Aperture is displayed on the viewfinder status bar and on the top LCD, roll the main dial to select different apertures. A half-press of the shutter release causes the cameras exposure system to calculate the shutter speed, if it's outside of the cameras exposure range the shutter speed will blink. Available apertures will differ depending on the lens used, the list below represent 1/3 stop increments (40 total), 1/2 stop increments can be selected through custom function 4. F1.0, F1.1, F1.2, F1.4, F1.6, F1.8, F2.0, F2.2, F2.5, F2.8, F3.2, F3.5, F4.0, F4.5, F5.0, F5.6, F6.3, F7.1, F8.0, F9.0, F10, F11, F13, F14, F16, F18, F20, F22, F25, F29, F32, F36, F40, F45, F51, F57, F64, F72, F81, F91,
M	Full Manual Exposure In this mode you select the aperture and the shutter speed from any combination of the above (plus BULB for shutter speed, apertures limited by the lens used). Top dial selects shutter speed, rear dial selects aperture. Half-press the shutter release and the meter on the viewfinder status bar and top LCD will reflect the exposure level compared to the calculated ideal exposure, if it's outside of +/- 2EV the indicator bar will blink either + or -.
A-DEP	Automatic Depth-Of-Field AE This mode, seen before on other Canon EOS cameras automatically controls the depth of field to ensure that all the subjects covered by the focusing points, from those close to the camera to those far away from the camera remain sharply defined (are within the depth of field).

Top of camera controls (right)

Top of the camera on the right side is the main information LCD, directly above it the "main dial" and shutter release. To the left of the LCD are three buttons, top is metering / flash compensation, middle drive mode and bottom AF mode / white balance.

These "settings change" buttons are press once (you don't have to hold them) then roll a dial then press again (or half-press the shutter release) to return to shooting mode.

The table below shows the relationship between each of the three buttons and the parameters changed by either rolling the main dial (top) or quick control dial (rear).

Button	Main Dial	Quick Control Dial
	Metering Mode • Evaluative (35 zone) • Partial (9.5% of screen) • Center Weighted Average	Flash Compensation +/-2 EV in 1/2 or 1/3 EV steps
	Drive Mode • Single shot • Continuous (approx. 3 fps max 8 images @ Large/Fine JPEG) • Self-Timer
	Auto Focus Mode • One Shot (focus lock on half-press) • AI Servo (continuous predictive focus) AI Focus mode (camera will automatically choose between One Shot and AI Servo) is only available in Full Auto.	White Balance Mode • Auto (3000 - 7000 K) • Daylight (5500 K) • Cloudy (6000 K) • Tungsten (3200 K) • Fluorescent (4000 K) • Flash (6000 K) • Custom (2000 - 10,000 K)

It's worth commenting that both the main dial and quick control dial have a very definite click and quality feel to them, stiff enough not to be accidentally knocked (you can disable the quick control dial too).

Bookmark:	Digg	del.icio.us	Reddit	Google

Actions:	< Previous	Next >	Print page

Please wait, fetching latest prices.