I have a Canon EOS 10QD and I can't find where to select the film speed or my FStops. What do the pictures on the dial stand for?

-- Rebekah Peirce (PeirceGoddess@aol.com), September 04, 2000

Answers

No 10/10s/10QD owners out there, huh? Well, I used to own one and traded it for an Elan because of the quick control dial on the back. That makes it easier to set shutter and aperture in manual mode and to set exposure comp in AV, Tv and P modes. The 10 had other good features that made it cost a bit more though.

As for the 10, as I recall, you set the the aperture in manual mode by activating the exposure system (press the shutter half way down), and then pressing the AE Lock button (It's under your right thumb and probably marked with an *), and then turning the Main Dial (the one next to the shutter). In Av mode, just turning the Main Dial sets the aperture and the camera selects the shutter speed. In Av mode, it's just the opposite. In P mode the Main Dial shifts the aperture and shutter combination to whatever you want while still keeping the exposure correct. If you want to bias the exposure up or down in P, Av or Tv modes, you basically do the same thing as when selecting the aperture in manual mode (Use the AE Lock button and Main Dial).

The pictures represent several different schemes (Pic Modes) for the combination of shutter, aperture, AF mode, film transport mode and exposure modes. For example the little running figure is the Sports Mode, it uses reating exposures (5 frames per second) and a bias towards faster shutter speeds and wider apertures than the green or P modes. The flower represents Macro mode (uses spot metering, slow speeds and small apertures in single shot mode), The mountain is for Landsapes and the head shot is for Portraits. In some of the modes the flash will pop up automatically, in others it wont. The truth is you're better off without Pic Modes and ought to stick mostly to the other side of the Lock position. Those are called Creative Modes by Canon, and they give you a lot more freedom to choose things for yourself. But sometimes when you are in a big hurry Pic Modes can be usefull.

The other symbol (series of lines) past the little runner is used for setting and using the personal modes that come with the optional bar code reader. There is also a camera shake mode that uses the focus sensor to detect excessive camera shake for the shutter speed and lens length chosen. Both of these last two modes were quite advanced technology, but were seldom used and were discontinued.

One nice feature of the 10/10s/10QD is the interval timer. At least it's nice if you need it. You'd pay big bucks for that feature alone for other cameras. The other hidden feature of the all the 10's is that they don't use ANY battery power to keep the shutter open for doing ultra long exposures of star trails and such things.

Odd that I can't remember how to set the ISO (film speed). I know it will set itself to whatever the DX code is on the film can but sometimes you want to change that to bias the flash exposure or rate a film differently. It seems to me, that you pushed a button (or maybe two) that had the letters "ISO" next to it and them gave that Main Dial a twirl. On the Elan, you set the Command Dial (the one on the left side of the camera) to the ISO position and then turned the Main Dial, but I think the 10 was different.

Hope that helps

-- Jim Strutz (jimstrutz@juno.com), September 06, 2000.

On the 10s - turn on the camera (move command dial from L). On the back of the camera push the blue func button twice. ISO should display in the LCD, using the main dial change the film speed. If you are using DX film this should automatically be set. If not using DX when loading film the LCD should display the film speed for changing.

-- Greg Lefebvre (gslefeb@excite.com), November 13, 2000.