500D changing settings

Jsake wrote:

I recently acquired a 500D, mostly as a demonstration and learning tool. it appears that when looking through the view finder, you can only change settings after a half press of the shutter brings up the meter and settings display along the bottom. this disappears after a few seconds, and attempting to change shutter speed etc has no effect until the display is brought back my a half press of the shutter.

Can this behaviour be changed? is there a setting to allow a permanent display in the viewfinder?

Unfortunately, no I'm pretty sure there isn't any way to show the settings in the VF for longer. It's the same on most Canon DSLRs, even the 5D series. You have to go up to the 1D series to get the option to display them for longer! This has always been a bugbear of mine - it really baffles me why they thought this was a good idea.

This is one reason why I always set these cameras for back button AF. Otherwise it performs AF every time you half-press the shutter button just to view/change the settings.

On the 550D (and I think the same on the 500D), there is a bit of a workaround (though not a solution). If you have the settings screen on the rear LCD active whilst looking through the viewfinder, you will be able to change settings, even though you can't see them changing in the VF. If you are familiar with the direction of the dial, and understand third-stops etc. then you can do it fairly confidently by feel. It's not ideal because the glare from the screen can be distracting, but if you turn the brightness down a bit or use the 'night' display mode it's not so bad. On the 550D you have to disable the eye-sensor and turn the LCD on manually to achieve this. It's a menu item called 'LCD auto off'.

I think Canon's philosophy here was to lock the settings when they are not displayed anywhere on the camera. A consequence of there being no top-plate LCD is that they lock very frequently.