So you got yourself a new camera, unpacked it and all you see is buttons, wheels and sliders. What do they all do!

Below I’ll try to explain most of the buttons and what they do, for a typical Canon camera; in this case my wifes Canon EOS 20D. Obviously, the layout and buttons will differ per type, but this should give you a general impression and should apply to pretty much all the DSLRs out there.

So here’s the front:

1. The lens
An easy one. This is where your lenses connect to.

2. Lens release button
Pressing this button enables you to screw off the current lens. Twist it counter-clockwise while holding the release button and the lens will come off.

3. Body
The main area where you hold the camera.

4. Shutter button
Pressing this button will, if you have the lens set to AF (Auto Focus), autofocus if you hold it down just a little bit. Pressing the button down completely will take a picture.

5. Popup flash
Most cameras nowadays have this (I know the 1D and 5D don’t though). Pressing the flash button on the side (see nr. 6) will make the flash pop up, ready for use.

6. Flash popup button
Pressing this button will make the internal flash pop up.

7. Focus assist beam
If you’re in a dark environment, this will emit light enabling the autofocus to do its job. It will try to light the area a little bit to help the camera determin what its looking at. Sometimes it’s also used to indicate things such as the self-timer where it flashes while counting down.

8. Depth of Field preview
Depth of Field, also called DOF, determins how much of the picture is in focus. Without going into details on this one at this point (there will be a more detailed explanation in another post) pressing this button will give you a preview of the DOF. Note however that the image will look very dark when you press this button. This is normal.

On to the back!

1. Viewfinder
This is where you will hunt for your pictures. Looking through the viewfinder you will get about 95-98% of your picture. You will also see some focus points and rings (usually just 1 in the middle). When you look through the viewfinder and press the shutter halfway you will see details of the current camera settings in the bottom, and the focus points will blink when the subject is in focus at that point.

2. Dioptre adjuster
If you are a bit short/far sighted this dial will allow you to get the information in the viewfinder in focus. Very useful if you want to take pictures without wearing your glasses.

3. “The joystick”
You will find this multi-directional button is used for a lot of different things. Amongst these are navigating through the menus. Moving the joystick goes through the items, and pressing it will enter the settings.

4. Exposure Lock (FEL) and zoombutton
This button has 2 functions. When you’re reviewing your pictures you can use it to zoom in on them. When you’re taking pictures pressing this button will lock the exposure at that time and lets you use this setting for the next picture. More on this in a later article.

5. Focus selection and zoombutton
Another multi-functional button. When reviewing pictures this button lets you zoom out. When taking pictures you can use it to select the focus points. A red light will light up through the viewfinder to indicate which focus point(s) is/are active.

6. Menu button
Pressing this button will let you enter the menu. In the menu you can alter the camera settings. Refer to the manual to see what settings you can set and tweak for your camera.

7. Info button
When reviewing pictures pressing this button once will show you some information about the picture. Pressing it again will show you pretty much everything about the picture such as used exposure, shutterspeed, aperture .. everything.

8. Jump button
When reviewing you can use this to jump through the pages with pictures.

9. Play button
Want to see how your pictures came out? Pressing this button will make the camera go into play-mode where you can review your pictures.

10. Delete button
Took a picture you don’t like? Press this button while reviewing the picture you want to delete and use the dial and set button to confirm the deletion. You can also choose to delete all the pictures on the memory card.

11. On/off button
Obviously this turns the camera on or off. There’s actually 2 modes of “on”. If you put it halfway up the camera is in a mode where you can tweak less settings and the dial and joystick button are disabled. I never found a use for this, and usually just leave the camera on. The sleepmode automatically enables after 2 mins of not using the camera, which is the same as Off.

12. Dial button
You can use this to tweak settings of the camera. In general this dial will let you set the exposure compensation. When reviewing turning the dial will browse through the images. The set button in the middle is used when you’re navigating through the menu.

13. Print button
I never connected the camera directly to a printer and my wifes 20D doesn’t have this button, so haven’t tried it out, but this button will bring up the print menu to let you print off images directly off your camera. I don’t think i would ever use this as I have the opinion 50% of “taking a picture” takes place after you get the images into your favourite post processing software.

And lastly, the top

1. LCD Backlight
This button will light up the LCD screen so you can see the settings in darker environments.

2. AF-WB button
This button will let you alter the AF (Auto focus) mode and the WB (White balance) settings. Autofocus modes usually differ between

  • One Shot: Focus once while holding the shutter halfway. After that, while holding the shutter, you can recompose the shot while maintaining the focus.
  • AI Servo: The camera will constantly try to keep the subject focussed. This is useful when you’re tracking a moving subject such as a running person or a fast car.
  • AI Focus: A combination of the above. The camera will focus once, but if it notices the subject starts moving it will switch to AI Servo.

3. Drive/ISO
Lets you determin the Drive and ISO speed. The (auto)drive, or framerate can usually be set to

  • Normal: Lets you take one picture at a time
  • Burst: Lets you take a sequence of pictures at a certain speed. This highly depends on your camera.
  • Timer: Lets you take a picture on a timer. You will find this useful when using a tripod and want to avoid as much shaking as possible. Other people use it to be able to be in the picture themselves, but I keep trying to avoid getting captured ;)

4. Metering and Flash compensation
Metering determins how the camera should meter the settings for the subject. The camera does this by looking at certain areas you see in the viewfinder. You can set the metering to Centre-weighted, Partial, Evaluative or Spot metering (spot is not available on all cameras). Explaining metering in detail goes behond the scope of this post, but just look at it for now as “What area of the viewfinder should my camera look at for determining exposure settings?”

5. Shutter button
Already covered in point 4 of the front area

6. Top Dial
This button is used to alter settings. If you press one of the setting buttons on the top you can use this button to change 1 of the 2 settings that button represents. The big dial wheel on the back is used to alter the other setting.

7. LCD Display
Your friend. It shows a summary of all the different settings the camera is currently in. It will look daunting at first and the icons might be a bit confusing, but as you play with the camera and especially with the settings you will become familiar with them and can use the little area for quick reference to see if everything is setup the way you want it.

8. Flash Hotshoe
If you own an external flash such as the 430ex or 580ex this is where you connect it to. You can slide the flash on top of the camera. If you do, make sure the flash is in NONE-slave mode.

9. Main dial
This is where you can quickly select the different modes the camera can be in. There’s 2 different main modes, the “easy modes” which are basically preset settings and the “creative modes” which let you tweak the settings a lot. Forget about all the easy modes. Not only are these modes you didn’t buy a DSLR for, it also doesn’t let you shoot in RAW, which i highly recommend.

Creative modes consist of:

  • P - Program Mode: The basic setting if you’re not sure what settings to use or you don’t really want to think about them. This is perfect if you’re new to these types of camera and want to see what the camera can do. Look at it as the Auto mode of the easy-modes
  • Av - Apeture priority mode: This mode lets you set the Aperture of the lens (f2.8, f5.6, f8 etc.). The camera will automatically select the right shutterspeed to go with that aperture. Keep an eye on the shutterspeed. If you select a small aperture the camera will most likely need a longer shutterspeed which might make handhold photographing impossible.
  • Tv - Shutter priority mode: This mode works the other way around. You select which shutterspeed you want to use, and the camera will determin the right aperture for that setting
  • Manual mode: Full control. You can select both aperture and shutterspeed. This can lead to some really nice results, if you know what you’re doing. Just play around a lot with the settings and see what leads to what.

More on the modes in a later post.

10. The internal pop-up flash
This area will pop up when you press the pop-up flash button.

And there you have it. Above I’ve tried to show you what most buttons do and what they’re for. Of course it’s always best to have a play around yourself and see what does what. Don’t be afraid to mess up settings. You can always set them back to the original state.

In further posts I will do more elaborated explanations for the most important settings with example pictures.

Till then, happy picture hunting.