G12: Unused Features

The G series Powershot cameras have so many features that they are a veritable “Swiss Army Knife” of cameras. I really like Swiss Army Knives and have, uh, quite a few. Like my Swiss Army Knives, my G12 has a number of features that I don’t actually use but am glad to have around because, well, you never know when they might come in handy.

Before anyone gets upset, I’m not saying that the features about to be listed are useless. I’m just saying that I haven’t used them – yet.

For starters, look no farther than the Mode Dial on top of the G12. I never use Auto because Program mode is preferred for automated shooting (although I rarely use Program mode either). Somewhat surprisingly, I’ve never used the “Quick Shot” setting – no particular reason, I just haven’t. Perhaps I’ve missed something useful. Also on the Mode Dial, I’ve rarely used the “Low Light” setting but this rarity seems reasonable. I’ve used the “SCN” (think of “Scenes”) setting on occasion, especially the HDR and Nostalgic features but that’s about it. I’ve used my G12 to make videos but have yet to use the Miniature mode (although I intend to play with it).

Also on top of the G12, I rarely use the Exposure Compensation dial although I’m glad exposure compensation is provided. My usual practice is to shoot in Aperture Priority (Av) mode and, instead of using the Exposure Compensation dial, switch to Manual Exposure if the Av exposure isn’t quite right. I probably should use Exposure Compensation more often.

On the back of the G12 at left top is the Quick Print or Shortcut button. I agonized over which feature to assign to it as a shortcut and finally selected i-Contrast; however, I promptly forgot that assignment and have never used it. I don't use i-Contrast either. Also, I never print directly from the G12 so the Quick Print feature is wasted on me.

There are Dynamic Range and Shadow corrections that can be accessed through the Function button on the back of the G12. These adjustments do not apply when shooting RAW or RAW + JPEG – my normal practice – so they remain unused.

In the Main Menu, I immediately turned off these features: Digital zoom, AF-Point zoom, Servo AF, Continuous AF, Safety MF, Red-Eye Correction, Red-Eye Lamp, Blink Detection and Date Stamp.

After taking a picture, I’ve never used the G12 for editing. That is, from the Playback menu, I’ve not used these features: Smart Shuffle, Protect, Rotate, Favorites, My Category, i-Contrast, Red-Eye Correction, Trimming, Resizing or My Colors. (Actually, in finding these features, I should learn more about them.)

Well, my list of unused G12 features is shorter than I thought it would be. Plus, I’m now curious about some of these unused features and will be learning more about them.

7D Menus

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The 7D is so versatile that an extensive set of controls and options must somehow be made available – in other words, the menu system is quite extensive.

At first glance, the menu system is also intimidating and I’m not exactly new to either cameras or computers. I am, however, new to the 7D and coming to it from a 20D and G9. Here’s a set of photos of the various menus and options of my 7D. Note that these photos are not all inclusive of the 7D menu system. Many of the menu item shown offer several optional settings. In general, the procedure is:

1) Press the Menu button (back panel)
2) Rotate the Main Dial (top panel) to move left/right between the various tabs/icons at the top of the display
3) Rotate the Quick Control Dial (back panel) to move up/down between the various menu items shown
4) Press the Set Button (back panel, center of Quick Control Dial to select a menu function
5) Be prepared to repeat steps 3 and 4 (perhaps more than once).

I’m sure that most of the menus and selection processes are routine to many Canon users but perhaps this posting and images will be useful to newcomers to the system.

These settings are not necessarily the defaults nor my recommendations because I've been tinkering with them. The menu item shown as being selected is (I think) the last menu item that I accessed.

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