Rear of camera controls
The rear layout (compared to the EOS 400D) has changed fairly significantly. Thanks to its size there are no longer any buttons down the left side of the LCD monitor; the menu and display buttons are now found to the left of the viewfinder. To the right of the LCD there are now a total of nine buttons (from the 400D's seven) which provide full control over a range of camera options including the new combined direct print / white balance button. Including the ISO button on the top of the camera the EOS 450D provides a very useful range of 'hard button' direct access to the mostly commonly changed camera settings.
On-screen settings adjustment
When pressed the camera's hard buttons activate an adjustment screen (on the LCD) where a setting change can be made using the cursor buttons. The style of adjustment is identical to the EOS 400D (except for a subtle color change). Options are changed using the arrow buttons (left / right / up / down), annoyingly (an inexplicably) you can't use the main dial to change on-screen settings.
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Shooting mode buttons
The EOS 450D is a "shooting priority" camera, which means that no matter what mode you are in you can always still take a photograph by pressing the shutter release button.
Button | Operation |
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Camera Menu![]() Pressing this button enters or leaves the camera menu, described in more detail on the following pages of this review. |
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Display![]() Pressing the DISP button shows or hides the camera setting screen (which is shown by default), you can define whether the status of the screen (on or off) is recalled at power off via C.Fn 12. |
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Exposure compensation / Aperture![]() Hold this button and turn the main dial to change exposure compensation in the range -2.0 EV to +2.0 EV, steps of either 1/3 or 1/2 stop, C.Fn 1. In manual exposure mode hold this button while turning the main dial to change the aperture. |
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White Balance![]() Auto Daylight Shade Cloudy Tungsten Fluorescent Flash Custom |
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Metering mode![]() Evaluative metering Partial metering Spot metering Center-weighted average |
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Drive mode |
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SET (Live View) / Multi-function |
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AF mode![]() One shot AI Focus AI Servo |
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Picture Style |
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Play |
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Erase (during record review) |
Play mode buttons
Button | Operation |
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Camera Menu![]() Pressing this button enters or leaves the camera menu, described in more detail on the following pages of this review. |
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Display![]() Toggles between three different play display modes: • Single image view with no overlay • Single image view with folder, file number, exposure and frame count • Thumbnail image with exposure information, luminance histogram and blinking highlights • Thumbnail image with exposure information, lum & rgb histograms and blinking highlights |
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Direct Print / PictBridge |
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Jump (Main dial) ![]() Turn the dial left or right to jump through images, the dial can also be used to navigate menu options. |
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Cursor buttons![]() Press the left or right buttons to browse through images, also be used to navigate menu options. Press the up button to change the jump mode. |
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Play![]() Return to shooting mode, the same can be achieved by simply half-pressing the shutter release button. |
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Erase |
Front of camera controls
On the front right side of the camera are the final set of camera controls. First is the flash open button, a press of this will electronically release the flash unit. Below the lens release button is the depth of field preview button, hold this and the lens stops down to the indicated aperture to give a preview of the depth of field, either through the viewfinder or in Live View.
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