Canon EOS-10D Review: 7. Operation & Controls: 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 semi-automatic options.

In the user manual Canon breaks these exposure modes into three groups; Basic & Image Zone exposure modes and Creative zone exposure modes.

Basic & Image zone exposure modes

Full Auto and the six scene exposure modes ('Image zone') are collectively referred to as the 'Basic Zone'. In all of these modes the following camera options are either disabled or limited:

• Flash mode
• AF mode
• Drive mode
• White Balance
• ISO Sensitivity
• Metering Mode
• Flash Compensation
• Exposure Compensation
• Focus Point selection
• Parameters
• Custom Functions
• AE Lock
• AE / WB Bracketing
• RAW image format

[ Refer to table below ]
[ Refer to table below ]
[ Refer to table below ]
[ Auto ]
[ Auto ]
[ Evaluative ]
[ 0 EV ]
[ 0 EV ]
[ Auto ]
[ Standard ]
[ unavailable ]
[ unavailable ]
[ unavailable ]
[ unavailable ]

In the basic zone the camera will indicate that blur may occur because of slow shutter speeds, it does so by blinking the shutter speed on the LCD panel and viewfinder status bar.

Icon	Mode	AF mode	Drive mode	Flash mode
	Fully Automatic Exposure Camera has complete control over exposure, point-and-shoot operation.	• AI Focus	• Single • Self-Timer	• Automatic pop-up • Red-eye on/off
	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 • Red-eye on/off
	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 pop-up • Red-eye on/off
	Flash off Disables internal and external flash for taking automatic slow exposures.	• AI Focus	• Single • Self-Timer	• Disabled

Creative zone exposure modes

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

Icon	Mode
	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 EOS-10D 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.
	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 6. 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
	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 6. 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 (exact range depends on lens used)
	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 -.
	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 this are four buttons (LCD panel backlight, AF/WB, Drive/ISO, Metering/Flash compen). In front of these buttons is the main dial and shutter release button.

Settings buttons are press once (you don't have to hold them), roll a dial to change setting value and then half-press the shutter release to return to shooting mode.

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

Button	Main Dial	Quick Control Dial
	Auto Focus Mode • One Shot (focus lock on half-press) • AI Focus (locks but monitors movement) • AI Servo (continuous predictive focus) AI Focus mode initially locks just like One Shot mode but monitors the focused subject, if the subject moves it will automatically switch to an AI Servo operation.	White Balance Mode • Auto (3000 - 7000 K) • Daylight (approx. 5200 K) • Shade (approx. 7000 K) • Cloudy (approx. 6000 K) • Tungsten (approx. 3200 K) • Fluorescent (approx. 4000 K) • Flash (approx. 6000 K) • Custom (2000 - 10000 K from white / grey card) • Kelvin temperature (2800 - 10000 K selectable)
	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 (3 fps, 9 frames @ Large/Fine) • Self-Timer Self-Timer delay is by default 10 seconds, however if you use mirror lockup (C.Fn 12) the delay is reduced to 2 seconds.	ISO Sensitivity • 100 • 200 • 400 • 800 • 1600 • H (3200) *

* Can only be selected if 'ISO Expansion' is set to 'On' in the camera menu

Notable improvement: AI Focus mode can now be selected in creative modes, Two new WB options (Shade and Kelvin), Extended continuous shooting buffer (one more shot), Expanded ISO sensitivity range (up to a maximum of ISO 3200 from ISO 1000 of the EOS-D60).

< Previous | Next >