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Canon Rebel DSLR Camera Info Button

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JodyBuchanan

JodyBuchanan

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I remember back when I got my first real camera. It was a Canon Rebel T3i and it was fabulous. The day I bought it, I tore open the package, put the battery in and started snapping away. Of course, I had to choose the mode first and of course, that was Auto. These days, I much prefer a more refined mode that gives me more control, but Auto mode on Canon’s Rebel series really does rock. Especially with every new camera model. They just keep getting better and better.

The point of the story I just told you was that I was like so many other people out there when it comes to getting a new toy. We all pretty much jump right in without learning about the piece of equipment we just spent so much money on. For instance, do you have any idea what the “Info” button on the back of a Rebel series camera does? I’m not sure I knew the answer to that question for at least a few years after I began photographing with mine. I mean, I didn’t care. The camera worked fine without me knowing.

In today’s post, I’d like to visit that button and explain exactly what it does, or better yet, what it displays. This will be a fast post because there’s not a tremendous amount of information to share. It’s an important area to discover though because it can be a time-saver when photographing in the field.

The Info Button​

To see what the Info button on your Canon Rebel camera does, it will depend on what type of view your using; the viewfinder or Live View. Both view types show similar bits of information and for this post, I’ll be using the viewfinder mode. To turn Live View mode on, simply press the button that sits directly to the right of the viewfinder on the back of the camera. This is the button with the little red dot next to it. To turn Live View mode off and to return to the viewfinder mode, simply press that same button again. When you turn the camera on, it should default to viewfinder mode.

Also, the Info button is located to the left of the viewfinder. When not in Live View, simply press this button to get to the screen I’ll show you below.

canon-t6i.jpg

Now, just to let you know, things on this screen change slightly with each new version of in the Rebel series. I’ve owned the T2i, T3i, T6i and now the T7i and each camera has a different look on this particular screen. Up to the T6i, the information that’s displayed in the above photo has been shown. Now, in the T7i, a horizon indicator is shown, which is sort of like a attitude indicator or a gyro in an airplane. Also, if you push any of the four arrow buttons that are located on the back of the camera on the T7i, certain settings can be changed. Because of these expanded options, I’ll need to write an entirely new post to discuss them.

Okay, let’s get to what’s actually show on this screen. It’s really very helpful stuff.

All the way at the top shows the free space (Freespace) that’s available on the data card installed in the camera. As of right now, I have 29.2GB available, which is fine. I must have a 32GB card inside. Please be aware that this ins’t displaying how many photos I have left to take. It shows the actual available space. With my current JPEG setting, I can take 2840 more photos with this 29GB. To find out how many more photos I can take, all I need to do is press the Live View button and that number will be displayed on the screen. If it isn’t, I can press the Info button a few times until it is. On the T6i, the number of available photos is shown in the top left area.

Next in the list is the Color Space the camera is set to. Currently, my camera is set to sRGB, which is very common. The other color space available to me is Adobe RGB. To learn about color space in general and more specifically, color space in Adobe Photoshop, please take a look at this post.

The next line down shows what your White Balance Shift/Bracket settings are. This is quite the deep topic and I’ll cover this area in another post, but at least know that if you have gone into your Menu settings and have altered your white balance at all, those settings will appear here. Oftentimes, when a photographer alters these settings, it’s for a particular shoot. It’s a good idea to check out the Info screen every so often because if those changes are still live, they’ll be visible and act as a reminder to change them back to something normal.

The next few lines display what’s currently enabled and what’s not. For instance, right now, the Live View mode, Sensor Cleaning, sensitive Touch Screen and Red Eye Reduction are all enabled on my camera. All of these settings can be changed inside of the menu area. Also, the Sleep time for this camera is currently set to two minutes. I believe this setting is 10 or 30 seconds by default, which is far too short of a time for me. I always increase this to two minutes.

Finally, the Auto Rotate option is set to on and the camera is set to make a sound when the shutter button is pushed half way down. Below that is the date and time and that’s all this screen shows.

So, what’s the good of this screen? Well, it’s really good at showing you where you are at the moment. Cameras are full of options and this screen displays some of the more common ones that are changed as well as how much space your data card has left on it. Many photographers will click this button many times throughout the day to see what their most recent settings are. In my opinion, the more information at our fingertips, the better.

PS – This post refers to almost all Canon Rebel cameras, including the T2i, T3i, T4i, T5i, T6i and the T7i.
 
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