Using the LCD monitor and touchscreen

- On the back of the T5i and T4i is a large LCD monitor. This bright LCD monitor is really useful, because you could view it from just about any angle from behind the camera. It also could speed up working with your camera, since it's a giant touchscreen. Many of the items that you used to have to use buttons and dials for can be accessed with a simple press. The LCD monitor serves five real purposes. You can review images on the LCD monitor. You could do this immediately after you take a photo, or you can use the camera's playback controls to browse through the photos on your memory cards. You can use the LCD monitor as a live view display as you're shooting. This is an alternative to looking through the viewfinder. Many photographers find it useful. Additionally, when you're shooting video, the LCD monitor is really the only way to see your scene. That's because the camera's mirror is in the locked Up position when shooting video. So the viewfinder isn't an option. You can also use the LCD monitor to view your camera's menu options and make changes to the camera. To change settings for many of the items shown in the information display, press the quick control button. You can then highlight items and press Set to view options for the highlighted item. You can also often just tap the screen and choose from the available options. Lastly, you can use the LCD monitor to see the shooting function settings. This gives you information about how the camera is configured. We'll explore these options more throughout this course. For now, let's just identify some of the major icons in the shooting functions view and talk briefly about them. The shooting mode indicator lets you know if you're shooting in a mode like manual or aperture priority. This next set of numbers is the shutter speed. Next is the aperture indicator for your lens. A D+ icon means that the highlight tone priority is enabled, which protects the brightest highlights. Next is the sensitivity of the camera. It is indicated by its ISO setting. The exposure level indicator works the same way as it did in the viewfinder. Next is flash compensation value, which indicates if you've increased or decreased the intensity of your off-camera flash. The next row contains a lot of information. You could check which picture style's applied to the files, as well as what preset is being used for white balance. Speaking of white balance, the next two indicators show you if you've corrected the white balance or are shooting a bracketed set for options. In the next row, some of the important icons include auto focus operation, which will show how the camera is currently focusing. I also check the drive mode indicator to determine if I'm shooting in a burst mode or with a timer. The metering mode shows which method your camera is using to evaluate exposure. Be sure to check the image record quality, as well, to know if you're shooting a RAW file, a JPEG file, or a RAW plus JPEG. The bottom row has a lot of information, too. I tend to look at the following as being most useful. The battery check lets you know how much power you have left. I also like to see the maximum burst indicator to know how many shots I can capture before the camera's buffer is full. The last number will also show me how many images can fit on my memory card. To change settings for many of the items that you see here is quite simple. Just press the quick control button. You could then highlight the items using the multi-controller and press the set button in order to edit it. This is a great way to quickly change many of the important settings on your camera without having to go digging in menus or hunting for a specific button. A few more items related to touch controls. You might want to make those a bit quieter. If you press the menu key and you choose the first record tab, you can actually turn the sound off, so that every single touch of the screen doesn't lead to a beep. That can be pretty annoying to the people around you. While you're in the menus, you may also want to visit the third setup tab. Here, you'll see the touch control item. Now, don't use any sharp objects on the screen, or you could damage it. Same goes true with wet fingers. So don't touch the screen with a wet hand or if it's raining. If it is raining, or you get water on the screen, power it down, get someplace safe, and gently dry it off. You're not going to want to put any protective sheets over that screen, as well, because it could become unresponsive.