Canon EOS-1 manual

C GET TING THE MO ST FROM Y OUR E O S-1 CLAS S DIGIT AL SLR TIP S AND TE CHNIQUES: CAMERA HANDLING & MAXIMUM IMAGE QU ALIT Y J C [...]

OVERVIEW 2 Canon’s EO S-1 class digital SLRs (E OS-1D, E OS-1Ds, E OS-1D Mark II and EO S-1Ds Mark II) are clearly the compan y’s highest quality and mo st powerful digit al SLRs t o date. Thanks to their key attributes of EF L ens compatib ility, C anon CMOS sen sor technology and DIGIC/DIGIC II Im age Proces sors, EOS-1 cl ass digit al SLRs p[...]

QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE 3 Camer a Operation Tip s Select foc us ing point s m anua l ly: Selecting the focus ing point manually speeds up the autof ocus system bec ause the camer a does not have t o decide which focu s point or points to use. M anual focusing point selection also allo ws you to c ontrol exactly where the c amera is foc using. If y ou[...]

QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE 4 Image Qua lity Optimization Tip s A v oid unintention al motion b lur: As suming an ac curately f ocused subject, you c an maximiz e image quality by eliminating u nw anted motion blur. T o reduce the effects of camer a shake, use a tripod when pos sible. U se an Imag e Stabiliz er lens for h andheld photography . T o elimin[...]

I CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 6 The 45-point AREA AF Sensor 6 The E vo lution of AF S peed & Predictiv e AF C ontr ol 7 AF Mode s 8 AF Point Sel ection M ethod s 8 AF P erf ormanc e Acc ording to S ub j ect C ontr ast & D etai l 9 AF P erf ormanc e Acc ording t o Light Lev el s 9 Shutt er R el ease Tec hni que s: Half -Pr ess v s. M a s[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 6 I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION EO S-1 class digital SLRs u se an improved vers ion of the 45-point Area AF CMOS sensor unit th at was origin ally introduc ed in 1998 with the EOS-3. The pixel den sity and lay out of sensor el ements together with the patent ed design of the camer a’s sub-mirror and separat[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 7 The E O S-1D and EOS-1Ds had the f astest AF syst ems availabl e among EOS SLRs when they were introduc ed, but the EO S-1D Mark II no w has the most powerful AF system of an y E OS c amera relea sed to date (2004). The E OS-1D Mark II was the first C anon camera t o feat ure two dedicated CPUs for AF: one for d[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 8 One- Shot AF: Thi s mode is intended for u se with stationary subjects. It locks f ocus upon c ompl etion of lens drive, al lowing the photographer to r ecompose if desir ed. One- Shot AF is al so recommended for maximum perform ance in extreme low-light s ituations. AI Servo AF: Thi s mode is intended f or use [...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 9 AF Perform ance Ac cordin g to Subject C ontrast & Detail AF Perform ance Ac cordin g to Light L evels When the c amera i s set for MFPS, the m anually selected focu sing point illumin ates in the viewfinder di splay when the shutter b utton is pres sed half way . This oc curs in both One- Shot AF and AI Ser[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 10 Shutt er R el ea se T ec hni que s: Ha lf-Pr ess v s. Mash f ocus manually until you are “in the bal lpark,” then tr y us ing AF for fine-tu ning. Ad ditionally , this is an in stance where the di stance r ange selector swit ch on “white” l enses like the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L US M can reduce the l ength o[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 11 Autofocu sing T echni ques: Off-C enter F ocusing Points vs. “Focus Loc k and Recompo se” Fine- T uning Y our Camera w ith C u stom and P er son al Fu nction s Some might think that it’s a good ide a to keep the shutter button h alf-pressed al l the time, b ut battery life w ill be shortened signific antl[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 12 shutt er relea se simply by pressing or lifting the thumb off the AE Loc k butt on. • C.Fn 4-2 keep s AF st ar t on the shutter butt on, but allows the phot ographer to stop AF t emporarily by pr essing the AE L ock button. AE Loc k i s unavail able in this mode, b ut it doe sn’t m ake any differ ence when [...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 13 f ocus ing points results in f aster manual selection, and linking s pot metering to the m anually selected focu sing point comes in handy under c er tain circ umstances, p articularly w ith off-center sub jects. • C.Fn 13-2 also reduc es the number of manual ly selectabl e focusing points to 11, ju st lik e [...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 14 • C.Fn 18-0 is the def ault setting. The camera can “r egister” (memorize) a u ser-specified f ocus ing point or even automatic f ocusing point selection, then sw itch immediat ely to the r egis tered focusing point by pre ssing the focus ing point selector button and the As si st Button. • C.Fn 18-1 le[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 15 phot ography when another subject or o bstacle tempor arily bloc ks the original subject. The def ault setting is 0.5 sec onds, but with thi s Cust om Function it c an be tweaked f a ster or slower acc ording to the photographer’s personal preferenc e. • C.Fn 20-0 is the c amera’s st andard setting. It pr[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 16 C ombining C u stom Functions: Adv anc ed Oper ations P er sonal Fu nction 15 di sables the AF-Assi st beam of c ompatible EX -series Speedlit es. Thi s c an be helpful when workin g with other photographers, to prevent your AF-Assi st be am from appe aring in their photos. The down side is that you lose the be[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 17 E vent C ombo U se the normal method for c hoosing either a specific focusin g point or AFPS. When y ou’ve m ade your selection, hold in the As sist Butt on and simultaneously pr ess the FEL b utton near the Shutter Relea se. The L CD panel on the top of the camera shou ld now c onfirm the re gistration of th[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 18 B ac kgrou nd T raditional ly photographers h ave used the FLR (focus, loc k, recompose) method when int erfacing w ith their camera and their subj ect . This is ho w it had to be done with m anual f ocus camera s and the early auto-f ocus models with a s ingle focusin g point . A lmost everyone knows how t o u[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 19 Action C ombo the m ain subj ect is the closes t and most prominent object in the fr ame and, in One- Shot, this is where AFP S works best. The Bonu s F eature is th at the QCD is now part of your focusing sy stem rather than y our e xposure c ontrol. The expos ure controls are relocat ed to the AF Point Select[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 20 B ac kgrou nd Both AFP S and Sin gle Point AF are usef ul in shooting sports. A single point i s generally be st in te am sports like footb all, basket ball, socc er, and hoc key . AFPS i s good for sports lik e ba seball, some trac k and fiel d, and many individual sports like sk iing, skating, etc. AFP S is a[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 21 Gener al Purpose C ombo Bac kgrou nd M an y photogr aphers are more comfortab le using the shutter rele ase to initiate aut ofoc u s, b ut some s till want the ability to c hang e focusing methods quic kly . Thi s i s very muc h like the Action C ombo, but it’s pro bably better suited t o all-purpose shooting[...]

I. CAMERA FEA TURES AND OPERA TION 22 and l et y ou experiment knowledge ably with other c ombinations th at might be better s uited to your specific needs. Per sonal Fu nction 00 Onc e you get a c ombination of Cu stom Functions that works bes t for you, it can then be saved (along w ith any other C.Fns you use) as a C ustom Function Gr oup by reg[...]

II. LENS IS SUES 23 AF Speed Acc ording to EF Lens Vint age EF Ext ender Is s ue s Just a s EOS cameras have impro ved over time in terms of AF calc ulation speed, EF lenses have impro ved in terms of len s drive speed. Although most if not al l EF lenses regar dless of vintag e autofocus quic kly enough to s atisfy the needs of photogr aphers who [...]

III. IMAGE QUALIT Y SETTINGS 24 RAW vs. JPEG JPEG Qua lity EO S-1 class digital SLRs allow photogr aphers to shoot RAW files, in-c amera JPEGs, or RAW p lus JPEG simu ltaneously . The RAW fi le setting records image d ata directly from the image sen sor at maximum reso lution without JPEG c ompression artifacts, thus resultin g in maximum im age qu[...]

III. IMAGE QUALIT Y SETTINGS 25 In-Camer a Sharpness, C ontrast, Sat uration & C olor T one C ontrol The L evel 10 settin g for JPEG quality produc es the highest image quality level for in-c amer a JPEGs, while Level 1 yields the highes t compress ion ratio. The higher the c ompre ssion ratio, the gre ater the potential for imag e quality degr[...]

III. IMAGE QUALIT Y SETTINGS 26 im age det ail as pos sible with in-c amera JPEGs. (In-c amera sharpness settings do not ap ply to RA W files bec ause they can be o verridden during conver sion.) The def ault “no sh arpening” setting al lows maximum l atitude for post-proc essin g. In commercial printin g for ex ample, sharpening is be st appli[...]

III. IMAGE QUALIT Y SETTINGS 27 the in-c amer a setting at Level 0 and app ly sharpening during post -process ing in a c omput er. See Un sh arp M a sk . C ontrast & Satur ation: W ith EOS-1 cla ss digital SLRs, Contr ast and Saturation can be a djusted on a 5 s tep scale from -2 to +2, w ith the default setting at 0 (mid-scal e). A lthough nei[...]

IV . SHARPNESS EV ALUA TION 28 Review ing Images on the Camer a’s L CD Monitor Monit or E v aluation V s. Print ed Outp ut The first s tep in evaluating image quality for most E OS Digital SLR users is c heck ing the L CD monitor during Review or Pl aybac k. The Mark II cameras ar e equipped with a zoom function that magnifies capt ured images up[...]

IV . SHARPNESS EV ALUA TION 29 Motion Blur Camer a or Subject Movement After Focu s Lock Diffraction bou nd to look softer than it would at greater view ing distanc es or lower magnific ation. Ther efore, if printed output, espec ially at 8.5" x 11" or less, i s the final ob jective, it’s be st not to rely c ompletely on monitors to jud[...]

V . SHARPENING METHODS IN POST -PROCESSING 30 Adobe Photoshop’s Unsharp Ma sk Filt er If little or no in-c amera sharpening ha s been applied prior to view ing an EOS-1 c lass Digital SLR image at 100% magnific ation, especially with the EOS-1D Mark II, most photographers will agree that the image look s soft, even if it h as been properly focu s[...]

V . SHARPENING METHODS IN POST -PROCESSING 31 3rd P ar ty Sharpening Sof tware finely -detail ed landscapes and architectur e, etc. usually need mor e sharpening) and noi se levels. (Sh arpening acc entuates noise, e specially in sh adow areas.) There are m any other Unsharp Ma sk “tric ks” suc h as applyin g sharpening in the Lightness c hanne[...]

V . SHARPENING METHODS IN POST -PROCESSING 32 RAW C onver t ers V endor: Noel Carboni Sof tware Title: dSLR Fr act al Sharpening W eb Page: http://actions.home.att.net/dSLR_Fr actal_Sh arpen.htm l V endor: www .thep luginsite.c om Sof tware Title: F oc alBlade W eb Page: http://www . thep lugin s it e. c om/products/phot ow iz/f oc al bla de/ There[...]

VI. EQUIPMENT CALIBRA TION ISSUES 33 AF Syst em Calibration L en s Ca libr ation T esting Y our Own Camer as & Len ses If the c amera and lens are being oper ated correctly , but imag es remain con sistently out of focus, ther e is alway s the possibi lity that the camer a or lens is not performing acc ording to factory spec ifications. E OS c [...]

VI. EQUIPMENT CALIBRA TION ISSUES 34 SLR s.) If y ou are using an IS Lens, turn off the Im age Stabi lizer. 3. Select a focusin g target w ith adequate detail from c enter to edge. A newsp aper page i s a g ood choic e. 4. Mak e sure that the t arget is totally flat and a s parallel as possib le to the camera. 5. Set the camera to One- Shot AF and [...]

35 C anon, E OS and DIGIC ar e trademarks of Canon Inc. Adobe Photoshop is a register ed trademark of Adobe S ystems Incorpor ated and its subsidiaries in eac h country. The other product and brand n ames appearing in this doc ument are trademarks or registered tr ademarks of their respective owners. This document was prep ared by: T echnical Marke[...]