Photography - Canon EOS 4000D/REBEL T100 Camera User Course

Understanding the Mode Dial

If you've used the Canon 4000d / Rebel T100 at all you will know that the Dial Mode on the top Right is really very important because that's the dial that switches the camera on and also tells the camera the type of picture you want to take and the circumstances in which you're taking the picture. This means that the camera can help you take the pictures that you want, without you needing the expert knowledge to set the aperture and shutter speed yourself.

In other words, you can concentrate on the composition and content of the picture and leave the camera to sort out the technical aspects. However the Canon 4000D also allows you partial or full control of the settings, so that you can make these decisions when you feel confident enough. The four options at the top of the dial - M, AV, TV, and P are called the creative or manual modes and the reason they are called the creative modes is because you can actually change many of the settings in the camera so that you can become more creative with your photography and actually have some real impact on the type of picture you want to take. These modes allow you to control the aperture - useful for controlling the depth of field, or the shutter speed - ideal for introducing movement blur into a shot, or freezing the subject in an action picture. Full Manual control (M) allows you to change all the settings and so give you complete control over the exposure of the shot to suit your taste.

The Modes which are from the Off switch down are called the Basic Modes or the Preset Modes and that's because these modes actually tell the camera the sort of picture you want to take and control the exposure settings for you. So, you may want to take a portrait or a sports picture or even a night-time picture and by choosing these modes the you tell the camera to change the settings accordingly so that you get the best exposure in those circumstances.

For example the Portrait Mode will enhance skin tones and also reduce the depth of field which is very good for portraiture as it makes the subject stand out from the background.

The Sports Mode will allow you to take action shots by increasing the shutter speed so that you don't get any blur. It will also trigger continuous shutter so that you can shoot 3 frames per second.

And the Food Option enhances colors and slows down the shutter speed so that you get a wider and deeper depth of field. It also switches off the built in flash so that you don't get glare from the plate.

So you can see, that the Dial Mode really controls the camera, which means it is very important to understand the options you can choose from. Other settings in the camera are very dependent on the Dial Mode choice. For example you can see all the options in the menu tabs if you have the Dial Mode set to Manual. However if you are on a Basic Mode, you will only have access to a few of them.

The shooting menu controls the choices you have when you are actually taking photographs with your camera, like file size, picture style and white balance. Don't worry if these phrases don't mean anything to you, this video explains them in detail.

In general, though: 

The menu tabs for the Canon 4000D or Rebel T100are the way you change the settings in the camera and set it up to how you want to use it. There are 13 menu tabs - 10 for stills and 3 for video. You can access them by pressing the menu button on the back of the camera. However, before you start looking at the menu tabs it's worth moving the Mode dial switch to Manual Mode. This is so that you can see all the tabs on the back of the camera. If you have the Mode dial switched onto a preset mode then you may not see all of the tabs.

When you're looking at the menu tabs you can navigate through them either by using the rotating Main Dial on the top or the cross keys on the back of the camera. The menu tabs for stills consist of 4 Shooting Tabs and these refer to things like Image Quality, Metering Mode, Custom White Balance, and Picture Styles. The next two tabs are the Playback Tabs and they refer to things that you can do after you've taken the picture, like how to protect your images or look at the histograms. The next three Menu Tabs are the Set Up Tabs and they help you set up the camera. They help you format the card, select the folders that your images and files are saved in to, help you to set your LCD brightness and engage your Wi-Fi connectivity. The final one is the Custom Tab and this allows you to save your favorite settings so that you can access them all very easily and quickly.

In order to see the Video Tabs you have to turn the Mode dial right round to the video setting which is at the other end of the Mode dial, and if you press the menu button here again you'll see the three Movie Tabs. They deal exclusively with shooting videos and they will help you with Movie Exposure, the Autofocus Method for video, the movie recording size, recording sound and also exposure compensation. When you look at the Video Menu Tabs you will see that there are also some of the other tabs which you saw when you were looking at the stills Menu Tabs. That is because they also offer settings that can be applied to videos (like Picture style and White balance), or the general set up of the camera.

The general layout of the Menus is quite logical and easy to learn. A new photographer will very quickly be able to navigate through them. The Menu Tabs are important because the camera has so few external buttons, so the tabs control any changes you want to make to the way the camera functions.

The playback menu controls what you can do with your pictures after you have taken them. They allow you to  apply filters, protect images or look at histograms. This video explains which ones you need to know about.

The set up menu is like the back office - here you decide language, date, monitor brightness and custom functions, Some of these settings you will never use, some you will set once and forget. some you will want to change depending on the kind of pictures you want to take. This video shows you where they are and what you should be changing to get the effect you want.

The Canon 4000D / Rebel T100 has a specific video mode, and so has some specific menu tabs for shooting video. This video show you what they are and also how to change them to get better videos from this DSLR.

The creative filters allow you to change the feel of your picture - you can change it into a grainy black and white picture or apply a soft focus. These options can be great fun.

White balance is all about controlling the tonal quality of your pictures. Different light affects the way our photos or videos look. For example, the same picture would look very different if it was shot on a bright sunny day or on a dark cloudy day. Often our brain filters out these subtle differences to make everything look more or less the same. However a camera is completely objective and so you sometimes need to make sure that the camera is seeing the image in the way that you want it to look. By setting the white balance, you tell the camera what in the picture is white, and by doing that, you are telling the camera how to set all the other colors too.

So White balance can help you to get more ‘natural’ looking pictures and videos. But it can also be used creatively too. This video explains how you can use the white balance settings on the Canon 4000D to push your photography further.

PS I really like this feature!

In this one we're going to talk about Autofocus. Canon haven't really described autofocus in their manuals very well and so it does come across as quite a complicated system. In fact, it is relatively simple so we're going to go through this on a very basic level so that it's very understandable and then hopefully we will be able to use it that much more easily.

When we take our pictures the first thing to understand is that the kit lens that you've probably bought with this camera is really designed for Autofocus. It is not really designed for manual focus. You can use it for manual in which case you would look at it through the viewfinder and you would have it, obviously, on manual as opposed to Autofocus, and looking through the viewfinder, you would then turn the focusing ring so that the picture actually looked sharp. If you are going to do that you need to make sure that the dioptric adjuster is correctly adjusted for your eyesight because otherwise what you see through here and think is sharp won't be sharp for the camera.  

So let's see if I can explain to you the Autofocus system for the 4000D. 

Canon have not done themselves any favors here because they've actually made it seem more complicated than it really is and they've done that by using the same terminology for two different systems, and that obviously then makes it slightly confusing. So for me, I describe the 4000D as having  AF modes and we have AF methods. Let me explain what I mean by that. When you look through the viewfinder you have three options for your Autofocus and those are Autofocus modes. You have SINGLE, you have AI SERVO, and you have AI FOCUS. When you're looking through the back screen you also have a chance to change the method. The AF method through the back screen are FLEXIZONE, AF LIVE, and AF QUICK. Now the modes and the methods are not the same but if you read some of the Canon literature on this, because they use the term ‘mode’ for both of these, it can seem a lot more confusing than it really is. This video explains things more clearly.

Like most digital SLR cameras, the Canon Rebel T100, or EOS 4000D, has a built-in flash and also a hotshoe for an off-camera flash. The built-in flash is very good for casual photography, perhaps of family or friends. It has a GN (guide number) of 90, which means that it is effective over a distance of about 2-3 metres under normal settings (100 ISO, f4). The advantage of the built-in flash is that, being built into the camera, you always have it with you, and it is automatically dedicated to produce the best exposure, using the camera's ETTL system (Evaluative Through The Lens), which means that the camera shares its exposure settings with the flash so that the picture looks good. This is particularly useful if you are using the flash to fill-in. The other advantage is that if you are using the Basic Modes (automatic through to night portrait), then the camera will prompt you if flash is required, so you don't have to think about it.

The important thing to remember about any external flash you buy for the camera is that the hotshoe will only work with Canon EX flash guns.

The options you can change are limited compared to the external flash, but one useful choice is front curtain or rear curtain, because this will have an effect on how your action pictures are shot. if the flash is set to first curtain, then the flash will fire as the shutter opens. If the flash is set to rear curtain, then the flash will fire just before the shutter closes. This may not seem important, but if you are shooting fast-moving subjects, firing the flash first will make it look like the subject is moving backwards (because the subject is frozen by the flash, and then there is some ghostly movement as the subject moves forward). If the flash fires at the end of the shot, the ghostly movement happens first, and the subject is frozen by the flash, which makes the subject like they are going forwards.

You can also change the exposure compensation settings and the ETTL choosing either evaluative or average. In this instance, Evaluative will set the flash according the light on the subject, whereas Average will set the flash according to an average of all the light in the frame. Because the flash is using ETTL, it knows the lens settings, so it will concentrate the flash light if the lens is zoomed (50 -100mm) or disperse the light if the lens is on a wide focal length (24mm, for example).

There are more creative options for the external flash, though that does depend to some degree on the flash gun you have.

With both you get the option to change the flash synchronization - either front (first) curtain or rear (second) curtain. Front curtain fires the flash as the shutter opens and rear curtain fires the flash just as the shutter closes. If the subject is stationary, then this won't matter much, but if the subject is moving, then when the flash fires will affect the impression of movement in the picture. The off-camera flash options may also offer High Speed Sync, which allows you to shoot pictures in bright light with a shallow depth of field. With both flash options you get Flash Exposure Bracketing (FEB), which allows you to bracket your shots - shoot the same picture with different flash intensity, and then pick the one you prefer.

If the external flash has ETTL settings, then it will also respond to the zoom setting of the lens. This is very useful as, if the lens is on a wide-angle setting the flash will try to disperse its light over a wide area, whereas if the lens is on long setting, then the flash will narrow the beam of light to try to get more distance. In many cases the external flash will also operate as a slave flash, which means that you can place the flash away from the camera, and it can be triggered by the built-in flash on the camera.

Using flash Is all about controlling the light. This video goes into using flash in more details, showing you when to use flash and how to get the best results.

The Canon 4000D or Rebel T100 is an excellent camera for shooting both stills and movies and these are the best settings to shoot movies. In order to make any changes in the 4000D for video you need to be in the Video Mode. Turn the Dial Mode round to the very bottom option which shows a video camera, and you will hear that the mirror inside the camera pop up. That enables you to see through the viewing screen at the back which is the only way you can shoot video on this camera. It also gives you access to the menu tabs which are dedicated to video and the first thing that you really need to do here is choose your video system. This was developed when TV systems were very different and if you wanted to show your videos on a TV screen you had to align what was shot on the camera to the TVs that you are going to be showing the video on. There are two systems, one is PAL and the other is NTSC. NTSC tends to be the system which is operated in the United States and PAL tends to be the system which is operated in Europe and other parts of the world. There's not an enormous amount of difference. However it does change the way that the camera operates very slightly. So when you start to look at the frame rates you will see that under NTSC you get a frame rate option of 60 frames per second or 30 frames per second. When you're in PAL you get the option of 50 frames a second and 25 frames per second. They're the real differences that you will notice. Most people these days don't shoot on DSLR in order to show their videos on televisions. They tend to use it for social media or showing on a laptop. In which case it doesn't make really any difference. But in order to change that you need to go into the menus and you go to Tab 2 and down at the bottom you have the option to change Video System.

The second thing you need to think about is file size and frame rate. These things are quite important because they will decide the quality of the videos that you shoot. This camera is pretty good - it'll shoot 1080p which is full HD and it will also shoot 720p which is standard HD - both of which are perfectly acceptable for social media platforms. In order to make those changes we go again into Video Tab 2 and find Movie Recording Size. If we press on that option then we get four choices. Depending on whether you've chosen NTSC or PAL, you maximum rates will be either 60fps or 50fps.

The third thing you need to think about when shooting movies with this camera is exposure. When you're shooting stills with the Canon 4000D you have lots of choices. They're all on the Mode Dial and they go from entirely manual to semi-automatic and then to entirely automatic options In most of these Modes the camera is trying to get the best exposure for the stills that you're shooting within the given parameters that you have presented to it. With movies it's different. You have two options - you can either shoot Automatic or you can shoot Manual. With Automatic in the movie setting the camera will try to get the best possible exposure for you and in many cases it works very well, so I would suggest that initially at least you shoot in Automatic just to get a feel for how the camera works and you don't have to worry then about the exposure because the camera will do the best it can for you. However, if you want to go into Manual there are different ways of changing the various parameters for Manual that are different to the way that you would do that for stills. In the Menu, Movie Exposure is in Video Tab 1 and you get the two options, Auto or Manual. If you choose to go into Manual then you have much more control over the settings that you can have. You will see that you have options for setting the Shutter Speed for setting the Aperture and for setting the ISO. For the Shutter Speed, rotate Main Dial. By depressing the AV button here and rotating that Main Dial you can change the Aperture. The ISO is changed by pressing the flash button and rotating the Main Dial.

The fourth thing you need to think about is sound. The Canon 4000D does not have an external microphone socket. It just has an internal microphone, so sound can be a bit limited with this camera. But if you go into Menus and on Shooting Tab 2, the second one down is Sound Recording and you can set that to one of three options. You can have either Auto, Manual or Disabled. I would argue against disabling it entirely because sometimes it's useful to have sound, even if you don't intend to use it in the final cut. Auto is not bad but it will try to pick up as much sound as possible and you may not want that - you may not want the ambient sound. Manual is not too bad provided you're reasonably close to the source of sound. There is a decibel bar going across the bottom and, as with most cameras, the objective is to try to peak on about 12. In terms of its recording in itself it's actually pretty good, so I wouldn't be adverse to using the internal microphone, you just have to be a little bit careful.

The next couple of options that we are going to look at are in Video Tab 3 and it may seem that they're less important than other options, but they do affect the way that your video looks and so they are worth checking out. If we go to Video Tab 3 then at the bottom is the Picture Style option. These are the same options that you get with stills and you can choose to have Vivid or Sepia or many other options and some of them are set so that they bring out the best qualities for portrait and landscape. With video it tends to be better to try and shoot video as flat as possible and so the best option to start with is neutral and so you should always set that to neutral for video until you make the decision that you want to change the Picture Style and shoot something differently. The one just above that in Video Tab 3 is Custom White Balance. It's very important for shooting videos because if you start moving around and shooting things in different light then the one stable element - the one constant - will be the white balance.

The second part of this lecture, giving you more information about how to get the best from this DSLR.

The Canon EOS 4000D / Rebel T100, does not have an external microphone socket, but that does not mean you can't get great sound with your videos. This lecture shows you how to get the best sound using the internal microphone in this camera, and also how to use other recording devices with the 4000D. Also I show you how I improve sound quality in the edit.

The Wi-Fi connectivity on 4000D is one of its great selling points. It allows you to connect directly to a mobile device and then upload your pictures or videos to social media. It also allows you to control some of the camera’s functions remotely. In order to do this you need to download a free app called Canon Camera Connect. Canon have produced a version for both Apple and Android devices. Once you have downloaded the app you can use it to find the camera and once you have done that you can upload directly to your mobile device or use your mobile devices to operate your camera. To help you upload your pictures to the web the Cannon 4000D  allows you to reduce the size of your files for speed. This video shows you how to do it.

This bonus lecture talks about an exciting new course about Canon DSLR lenses, which would be perfect for students with a Canon EOS 4000D / Rebel T100 camera. Take a look at the PDF resource for more information!