Canon EOS 70D For Dummies
Overview
Start getting great photos with your Canon EOS 70D right away
The Canon EOS 70D features upgraded focusing technology, a 20.2 megapixel sensor, and faster frame-per-second shooting. Whether you're new to dSLR photography or just getting acquainted with the 70D, this handy, full-color guide will have you taking great photos before you know it. You'll learn to use all the on-board controls, shoot in auto mode, use live view, control exposure and lighting, manipulate focus and color, transfer your images to the computer for editing, and share the results in prints or online. Colorful photos throughout illustrate what you can achieve.
- Upgraded features in the Canon EOS 70D include a new focusing technology
that speeds up autofocus for video and live view shooting, a larger sensor, faster frame-by-frame shooting, and a wider ISO range
Canon EOS 70D For Dummies makes it easy to get terrific photos with your Canon dSLR camera.
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About The Author
Julie Adair King has been covering digital cameras and photography for over a decade. Along with the perennially popular Digital Photography For Dummies, she has written For Dummies guides on a wide variety of Canon and Nikon dSLR cameras. She also teaches at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre.
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canon eos 70d for dummies
CHEAT SHEET
Your Canon 70D has so many features that it can be difficult to remember what each control does. To help you sort things out, study this handy reference to the external controls and exposure modes. Print out this guide, tuck it in your camera bag, and get a head start on taking great photographs!Canon EOS 70D layoutHere’s an overview of the buttons, dials, and other external controls on your Canon EOS 70D camera.
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When you shoot with flash on your Canon EOS 70D, the camera attempts to adjust the flash output to produce a good exposure in the current lighting conditions. On some occasions, you may find that you want a little more or less light than the camera thinks is appropriate.
You can adjust the flash output by using the Flash Exposure Compensation feature, which affects the output level of the flash unit.
For full access to all your Canon EOS 70D's exposure controls, set the Mode dial to one of its advanced exposure modes, highlighted in the following figure.
To fully control exposure and other picture properties, choose one of these exposure modes.
Using these modes lets you manipulate two critical exposure controls, aperture and shutter speed.
Canon
For autofocusing on your Canon EOS 70D, the AF (autofocus) mode determines the autofocusing method, as it does for viewfinder shooting. But the options for Live View and Movie autofocusing work differently from the normal ones; you get all four of the following options. (For Movie mode, you lose the Quick mode option.
The screen that appears on your Canon EOS 70D with your first press of the Info button displays a different collection of settings depending on your exposure mode. In the advanced exposure modes (P, Tv, Av, M, B, and C), you see the data shown in the following figure. In the automatic exposure modes, some of this data is dimmed because you don’t have access to the related camera settings in those modes.
When you select the Custom Functions menu on your Canon EOS 70D, which is available only when the Mode dial is set to P, Tv, Av, M, B, or C, you delve into submenus containing advanced camera settings. Navigating these screens involves a few special techniques.
Initially, you see the screen shown in the following figure.
Your Canon 70D has so many features that it can be difficult to remember what each control does. To help you sort things out, study this handy reference to the external controls and exposure modes. Print out this guide, tuck it in your camera bag, and get a head start on taking great photographs!Canon EOS 70D layoutHere’s an overview of the buttons, dials, and other external controls on your Canon EOS 70D camera.
Camera menus on your Canon EOS 70D are organized into the categories labeled in the following figure. However, which menus appear depends on the exposure mode. For example, if you’re shooting in Scene Intelligent Auto mode — represented by the green A+ on the Mode dial — you see only a handful of menus because you have limited control over camera operation in that mode.
One of the many advantages of investing in the Canon EOS 70D is that you can customize its performance to suit the way you like to shoot. Here's a quick rundown of options that each item in Setup Menu 1 offers:
Start your camera customization on Setup Menu 1.
Select Folder: Through this option, you can select the folder on the memory card that will store your images.
As you might expect, the majority of the basic operational options on the Canon EOS 70D live on the Setup menus. Setup Menu 2, shown in the following figure, offers these options:
Auto Power Off: To help save battery power, your camera automatically powers down after a certain period of inactivity. By default, the shutdown happens after 1 minute, but you can change the delay to as long as 30 minutes.
Many of the basic operational options on the Canon EOS 70D live on the Setup menus. Setup Menu 3, shown in the following figure, offers the following goodies:
Head to Setup Menu 3 to enable or disable the Wi-Fi functions.
Video System: This option is related to viewing your images and movies on a television. Select NTSC if you live in North America or other countries that adhere to the NTSC video standard; select PAL for playback in areas that follow that code of video conduct.
Your choice of exposure mode determines how much control you have over picture settings, including options that affect exposure, color, and autofocusing features. Set the exposure mode via the Mode dial shown here. For the most control, switch to P, Tv, Av, or M mode. Canon refers to those modes as Creative Zone modes; the others are Basic Zone modes.
A fast shutter speed is the key to capturing a blur-free shot of a moving subject, whether it's a spinning Ferris wheel, a butterfly flitting from flower to flower, or a hockey-playing teen. In the first image below, a shutter speed of 1/125 second was too slow for the Canon EOS 70D to catch the subject without blur.
The first picture-taking setting to consider on your Canon EOS 70D is the exposure mode, which you select via the Mode dial, shown in the figure below. Remember that before you can rotate the dial, you must press and hold the lock button in the center of the dial.
Your exposure mode choice determines how much control you have over two critical exposure settings — aperture and shutter speed — as well as many other options, including those related to color, autofocusing, and flash photography.
Canon
Compared with understanding some aspects of digital photography, making sense of the Canon EOS 70D color options is easy-breezy. Color problems aren't all that common, and when they are, they're usually simple to fix with a quick shift of your camera's White Balance control.
Every light source emits a particular color cast.
Canon
The Image Quality setting on your Canon EOS 70D determines two important aspects of your pictures: resolution, or pixel count; and file format, which refers to the type of computer file the camera uses to store your picture data. Resolution and file format play a role in the quality of your photos, so selecting the right Image Quality option is an important decision.
Canon
The Canon EOS 70D is set by default to start autofocusing as soon as you engage Live View or Movie mode. You may be able to see the picture going in and out of focus and hear the autofocus motor as the camera searches for a focusing target. For still photography, the idea is to have the camera find a preliminary focusing target so that when you press the shutter button halfway to set the final focusing distance, the camera can lock focus more quickly.
Canon
In Scene Intelligent Auto and Flash Off modes, the Canon EOS 70D tries to figure out what type of picture you want to take. If you don't want to rely on the camera to make that judgment, you can choose from one of seven automatic scene modes that are designed to capture specific subjects using traditional recipes.
Canon
When you set the Mode dial to the advanced exposure modes, Shooting Menu 2 offers a Flash Control option. Using this menu item, you can adjust flash power, and the Flash Control option also enables you to customize a few other aspects of the built-in flash as well as control an external flash.
To explore your options, choose Flash Control, as shown on the left in the following figure, to access the screen shown on the right in the figure.
Canon
Your Canon EOS 70D camera offers the following exposure modes, which you select via the Mode dial on top of the camera. The shooting mode determines how much control you have over exposure, ISO, and aperture. (Modes described as automatic scene modes in the table offer fully automatic photography, but some let you alter color and exposure slightly through the Shoot by Ambience and Shoot by Lighting or Scene Type features.
Scattered across the Canon EOS 70D's exterior are a number of buttons, dials, and switches that you use to change picture-taking settings, review and edit your photos, and perform various other operations. Here's a quick introduction to the topside and back-of-body controls.
Topside controls on the Canon EOS 70D
Your virtual tour begins on the top of the camera, shown in the following figure.
Canon
You can adjust aperture and shutter speed only in the advanced exposure modes on your Canon EOS 70D. To see the current exposure settings, press the shutter button halfway. The following actions then take place:
The exposure meter comes to life. If autofocus is enabled, the autofocus mechanism starts to do its thing.
Canon
One of the many cool features of the Canon EOS 70D is its articulating monitor. When you first take the camera out of its box, the monitor is positioned with the screen facing the back of the body, as shown on the left in the following figure, protecting the screen from scratches and smudges. (It's a good idea to place the monitor in this position when you're not using the camera.
On your Canon EOS 70D, near the upper right of the rubber eyepiece that surrounds the viewfinder is a dial (see the following figure) that enables you to adjust the viewfinder focus to match your eyesight. The dial is officially known as the diopter adjustment control.
If you don’t take this step, scenes that appear out of focus through the viewfinder may actually be sharply focused through the lens, and vice versa.
Canon
With a dSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, like the Canon EOS 70D, you can change lenses to suit different photographic needs, going from an extreme close-up lens to a super-long telephoto, for example. In addition, a dSLR lens has a focusing ring that gives you the option of focusing manually instead of relying on the camera's autofocus mechanism.
Canon
The Quick Control screen on your Canaon EOS 70D enables you to change certain shooting settings without using the function buttons (ISO button, Metering mode button, and so on) or menus. You can use this screen to adjust settings in any exposure mode, but the settings that are accessible depend on the mode you select.
Canon
In the advanced exposure modes on your Canon EOS 70D, you can tweak autofocusing behavior through the AF (autofocus) mode. This option determines whether the camera locks focus when you press the shutter button halfway or continues to adjust focus from the time you press the shutter button halfway until you press it the rest of the way to take the shot.
The Drive mode setting tells your Canon EOS 70D what to do when you press the shutter button: Record a single frame or a series of frames, or record one or more shots after a short delay.
Your camera offers the following Drive modes:
Single: This setting, which is the default for all exposure modes except the Portrait and Sports Scene modes, records a single image each time you press the shutter button.
Canon
Using the White Balance control on your Canon EOS 70D can easily and quickly fix color problems. The available White Balance settings are represented by the symbols shown in the table below. You can view the current setting in the Shooting Settings screen, as shown in the following figure. To adjust the setting, you have two options:
This symbol represents the Automatic White Balance setting.
The built-in flash on your Canon EOS 70D offers an easy, convenient way to add light to a dark scene. Whether you can use flash depends on your exposure mode, as outlined in the next few sections.
Using flash in the fully automatic modes
Whether flash is available and how much control you have over it depends on the exposure mode.
The ISO setting on your Canon EOS 70D controls how sensitive the image sensor is to light. At higher ISO values, you need less light to expose an image. Remember the downside to raising ISO, however: The higher the ISO, the greater the possibility of noisy images.
In the fully automatic exposure modes, the camera controls ISO.
Canon
One of the most useful features on your Canon EOS 70D for the experienced photographer is the C setting on the Mode dial. This option, which stands for Camera User Settings, enables you to set up your own exposure mode. You start by selecting and saving all the camera settings you want to use when you switch to C mode.
Canon
If none of the preset White Balance options on the Canon EOS 70D produces the right amount of color correction, you can create your own, custom setting. To use this technique, you need a piece of card stock that's either neutral gray or absolute white — not eggshell white, sand white, or any other close-but-not-perfect white.
Canon
The first decision you need to make with your Canon EOS 70D, in order to decide upon an Image Quality setting, is how many pixels you want your image to contain. Pixels are the little square tiles from which all digital images are made; pixel is short for picture element. You can see some pixels close up in the right image in the following figure, which shows a greatly magnified view of the eye area in the left image.
When you spot a clunker on your Canon EOS 70D during your picture review, you can erase it in a few ways, as outlined in the following sections.
Erasing single images
To delete photos one at a time, display the photo (in single image view) or select it (in Index view). Then press the Erase button. The words Cancel and Erase appear at the bottom of the screen, as shown in the following figure.
You can protect pictures on your Canon EOS 70D from accidental erasure by giving them protected status. After you take this step, the camera doesn't allow you to delete the picture from your memory card, regardless of whether you press the Erase button or use the Erase Images option on Playback Menu 1.
Although the Erase functions don't touch protected pictures, formatting your memory card does erase them.
By moving the Live View switch to the Movie position, you can record high-definition video with your Canon EOS 70D, with or without sound. The camera records movies in the MOV format, which is a popular file format for storing digital video. Movie filenames begin with the characters MVI_.
For best recording results, use a high-speed memory card (class 10 or UHS-1).
The Canon EOS 70D provides a range of powerful controls, offering just about every feature a serious photographer could want. It also offers fully automated exposure modes that enable people with no experience to capture beautiful images. For the most automatic of automatic photography, set your camera's Mode dial to one of the following settings:
Scene Intelligent Auto: The name of this mode, labeled in the figure below, refers to the fact that the camera analyzes the scene and selects the picture-taking options that it thinks will best capture the subject.
Canon
As ISO increases, making the image sensor more reactive to light, you increase the risk of noise, which looks like bits of sand and is similar in appearance to film grain, a defect that often mars pictures taken with high-ISO film.
The High ISO noise-reduction filter on the Canon EOS 70D, found on Shooting Menu 4 and spotlighted in the figure below, attempts to do just what its name implies: eradicate the kind of noise that's caused by using a very high ISO setting.
Canon
Noise, the defect that gives your pictures a speckled look, can occur when you have a long exposure time. The Canon EOS 70D offers a noise-removal filter, to address this cause of noise, however, you can control whether and how they're applied only in the advanced exposure modes. In other modes, the camera makes the call for you.
Canon
Using digital zoom on your Canon EOS 70D enables you to capture a movie using a smaller area of the image sensor than normal. The result is a movie that gives you a smaller angle of view, as if you zoomed to a longer focal length to record the scene — or, to put it another way, as if you shot the movie using the whole sensor and then cropped away the perimeter of each frame.
Canon
Both kit lenses sold with the Canon EOS 70D offer image stabilization, indicated by the initials IS in the lens name. Image stabilization attempts to compensate for small amounts of camera shake that are common when photographers handhold their cameras and use a slow shutter speed, a lens with a long focal length, or both.
To view movies on the monitor of your Canon EOS 70D, press the Playback button and display the movie in full-frame view. You can spot a movie file by looking for the little movie camera icon in the upper left of the screen. You also see a big playback symbol in the center of the screen, as shown in the following figure.
When you review still photos on your Canon EOS 70D, you can press the Info button to change the type of shooting data that appears with the photo. Choose from the following display styles, shown in the following figure:
No Information: True to its name, this display option shows just your picture, with no shooting or file data.
One of the best things about your Canon EOS 70D is being able to view pictures right after you shoot them. No more guessing whether you got the shot you want or need to try again; no more wasting money on developing and printing pictures that stink.
To switch your camera to Playback mode, just press the Playback button, labeled in the following figure.
Canon
When you press the shutter button of your Canon EOS 70D halfway, the f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO speed appear in the viewfinder, as shown in Figure 1, and in the Shooting Settings display and LCD panel, as shown in Figure 2. In Live View mode, the exposure data appears at the bottom of the monitor and takes a form similar to what you see in the viewfinder.
Your Canon EOS 70D offers Picture Styles, which you can use to further tweak color as well as saturation, contrast, and image sharpening. Sharpening is a software process that adjusts contrast in a way that creates the illusion of slightly sharper focus. The key word here is slightly: Sharpening cannot remedy poor focus but instead produces a subtle tweak to this aspect of your pictures.
Canon
Through the Multiple Exposure option on your Canon EOS 70D, found on Shooting Menu 4 (available only in the advanced exposure modes), you can capture two to nine images and then let the camera blend them into a single photo. This feature was used to create both images shown in the figure below. For the first example, a picture of some sheet music is blended with a photo of piano keys.
Canon
With a dSLR (digital single lens reflex) camera, like the Canon EOS 70D, you can change lenses to suit different photographic needs. To decide which lens is the best partner for your camera, start by considering these factors:
Lens compatibility: Your camera accepts two categories of Canon lenses: those with an EF-S design and those with a plain old EF design.
Canon
Providing specific settings on the Canon EOS 70D for landscape photography is tricky because there's no single best approach to capturing a beautiful stretch of countryside, a city skyline, or another vast subject. But, here are a few tips to help you photograph a landscape the way you see it:
Shoot in aperture-priority autoexposure mode (Av) so that you can control depth of field.
With the Creative Filters on the Canon EOS 70D, you can add special effects to your pictures. For example, this feature was used to create the three versions of the city scene shown in the following.
You can apply Creative Filters to copies of photos already on your memory card. This approach lets you experiment with different effects while keeping the original photo unaltered.
Canon
Like many dSLR cameras, the Canon EOS 70D offers Live View, a feature that enables you to use the monitor instead of the viewfinder to compose photos. You must rely on the monitor to compose shots during movie recording; using the viewfinder isn't possible.
The basics of using Live View and Movie modes are pretty simple:
Switching from viewfinder photography to Live View mode: Set the Live View switch to the still camera icon, as shown in Figure 1, and then press the Start/Stop button.
Canon
The AF (autofocus) Area mode setting on your Canon EOS 70D determines which of the 19 autofocus points the camera uses to establish focusing distance. At the default setting, all points are in play, and the camera typically focuses on the closest object, but you can choose to base focus on one of five focusing zones or on a single point that you select:
19-point automatic selection: This is the default mode; the camera selects the autofocusing point for you.
Canon
If you're nervous about pressing the shutter halfway for fear that you'll accidentally take a photo, then get familiar with the AF (Autofocus)-ON button on your Canon EOS 70D, labeled in the following figure. In the advanced exposure modes (P, Tv, Av, M, B, and C), you can hold down this button to accomplish the same goal as pressing the shutter button halfway.
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