Help with problem on new Canon 30D camera.

[senatore]

Only received the new camera yesterday so I spent most of the evening setting it up.I think I managed pretty well except with one thing :-

Allthough I followed the instructions on page 93 of the manual "Setting the exposure compensation" exactly when I move the quick control dial the marker on the exposure index does not move.

Have I got a faulty camera?( everything else seems to be OK).Or am I doing something wrong or is something turned off when it should be on.Should I be pressing another button as well as the shutter button? Any advice would be most welcome.

I hope I haven't got to send it back!!

Max.

[Roy C]

Only received the new camera yesterday so I spent most of the evening setting it up.I think I managed pretty well except with one thing :-

Allthough I followed the instructions on page 93 of the manual "Setting the exposure compensation" exactly when I move the quick control dial the marker on the exposure index does not move.

Have I got a faulty camera?( everything else seems to be OK).Or am I doing something wrong or is something turned off when it should be on.Should I be pressing another button as well as the shutter button? Any advice would be most welcome.

I hope I haven't got to send it back!!

Max.
Max, make sure the on/off switch is in the top position (there are two on positions) and then half depress the shutter button, you will now be able to set the compensation with the big wheel.

[Keith Reeder]

Yep,

that's exactly what occured to me when I saw Max' posting - the "on" and "very on", on/off switch!

;)

[senatore]

You two have made me very happy.No repacking to do. Thanks very much problem solved.

Did I miss this "on and very on" in the manual.Probably knowing me!!!!

Thanks again.

Max.

[gmax]

Yep,

that's exactly what occured to me when I saw Max' posting - the "on" and "very on", on/off switch!

;)

:'D Same thing here! BTW, nice technical definition Keith

[citrinella]

I too have found this a bit difficult, even with the switch "very on". Sometimes it just refuses to budge. Usually when I am trying to get it back to 0 <s>

Mike.

P.S. On reflection, wonder if the on switch might be a problem - usually sort this by switching off and back to "very on".

[Tannin]

Nope, it's a bit of weirdo user interface design from Canon. Very strange. To adjust EC, you need two things: (a) the switch has to be "very on" (thanks Keith!), and (b) you need to be in the activation timeslot, which lasts from when you half press the shutter until only a second or two later.

It drives me nuts! It's too easy to set by accident, and too hard to set back to zero after you are finished with it. There must be a dozen better ways to do it, but here is one that would do:

* Just have the EC wheel live all the time, and (for the love of mike!) have a really obvious indication in the viewfinder - not just a display that you have to remember to watch all the time in case it's accidently become set to something you don't want, but something you can't miss, like a red light or something flashing.

But it's London to a brick that Canon won't change it anytime soon. Canon, for all their many virtues, are mega-reluctant to do anything to change their user interfaces. Look how hard everyone had to scream to finally get ISO in the viewfinder after all these years. Still no mirror lock-up function outside of the cumbersome, fiddle custom functions. And yet they stick a direct print button on a DSLR!

Get used to it. If you want the best lenses and the best all-round image quality, it's the price you pay. You do get used to these things after a while.

[macshark]

It drives me nuts! It's too easy to set by accident, and too hard to set back to zero after you are finished with it. There must be a dozen better ways to do it, but here is one that would do:

* Just have the EC wheel live all the time, and (for the love of mike!) have a really obvious indication in the viewfinder - not just a display that you have to remember to watch all the time in case it's accidently become set to something you don't want, but something you can't miss, like a red light or something flashing.


Agreed. This is nuts. Is Pentax the only vendor who got this right?

[Keith Reeder]

The Nikon way was never a problem as I recall...

[mjmw]

I have obviously been using Canon EOS for too long - I don't find it strange at all...or annoying...I just leave it always on and have always relied on half-pressing the shutter to do anything, so never thought that it should be any different.

The 1 series bodies have a seperate switch (which can get knocked and is more annoying but a legacy to the EOS 1, 3 and 5 bodies) but I think they have moved to the 'really on' style with the 1D mkIII - thinking that through, where has the focus-beep switch position gone then? Is there a really, really on position?

ISO in the viewfinder...yes, for DSLR I agree but was another legacy - little point 'in the old days' plus the fact that the priority will currently be megapixels and LCD displays because they sell cameras ;)

[Keith Reeder]

I must admit that the EVC setting approach never seems to get in my way.

ISO in the VF? Don't see the point personally. For me ISO is such an embedded part of my thinking when I'm taking pictures that I never don't know what ISO I'm on (apologies for the garbled grammar there!)

When I used Auto ISO on my Nikon bodies it was useful though...