Be more confident: How to Use a Canon T90

How to Use a Canon T90

The Canon T90 is a professional film SLR camera that can, in the
digital era, be picked up for less than some people would pay for a
camera strap. As the most advanced manual-focus camera [1] ever made,
someone who acquires one of these might find it a little intimidating.
If that's you, and you don't feel like ploughing through 126 pages of
manual [2], this guide will explain how to use one of these legendary
cameras.

!! Steps !!

!! Preparation !!

Check the battery, if you have any fitted.

* _ Press and hold the battery check button. Open up the side
panel, then press and hold the battery check button (indicated).
Don't hit the manual film rewind button, which is right beneath
it.

* The battery check here shows three bars, indicating a happy
T90. Check the top LCD. It\'ll be reading "BC". It\'ll also
indicate up to three bars at the bottom (each of them made out of
three little bars). If you see two or three, then you\'re safe. If
you see one, you might be good for a roll of film [3], but it's a
good idea to carry some spares with you. If you see none, then you
should replace your batteries as soon as possible (though the
camera will function perfectly right up until they're totally
drained).

Replace the batteries if needs be.

* Unlatch the battery tray. The latch is on the right hand side
of the camera (if you're looking from the back). Flip out the
lever then turn the latch anti-clockwise.

* Remove the battery tray. The battery tray is a little flimsy,
so don't yank it out.

* A loaded battery tray. Fit the batteries into the battery
tray. You\'ll need four AA batteries for this, either carbon-zinc
batteries (cheap "heavy duty" ones), alkaline batteries, or Ni-Cds
batteries. Canon didn\'t explicitly mention using Ni-Mh batteries,
so do this at your own risk. Make sure you insert them with the +
and - terminals of the batteries [4] pointing in the correct
direction, as the battery tray indicates.

* Slide your loaded battery tray into the camera. Reinsert the
battery tray. You may find that right at the end, you have to
apply a little bit of pressure, holding the battery tray all the
way in so that you can latch it. This is normal. Turn the latch
clockwise to lock the battery tray in place.

Fit the lens. There are two types of Canon FD lenses [5], which fit
in slightly different ways. Note that in the pictures the red dots
are not lined up perfectly as the description suggests they should
be; this was to stop the lens plopping off while the picture was
being taken, sorry.

* Lenses without locking rings mount just like almost every
other SLR lens from other systems. *Lenses without chrome locking
rings:* These are sometimes called "New FD" or "FD-n" lenses. Line
up the red dot on the lens with the red dot on the camera body. If
you're looking at it from the front, grip the aperture ring and
turn the lens clockwise until it locks into place (you'll feel, or
perhaps hear, a distinct click when it's locked).

* Older FD lenses have a chrome locking ring. *Lenses without
chrome locking rings:* Line up the red dot on the locking ring
with the red dot on the camera body. Gently rotate the locking
ring until it\'s tight enough. These lenses never really lock into
place like the New FD lenses (and lenses from almost every other
SLR camera system) do. Use your judgment [6] as to what is tight
enough, but be careful not to over-tighten it.

* "A" means "automatic", which allows the aperture to be set by
the camera, automatically or otherwise. Set the lens\' aperture
[7] ring to "A". In aperture-priority mode, the aperture is set
from the camera, not the aperture ring. You will find that if it's
not already on "A", you'll have to push a button in order to turn
it to the "A" position.

* Make sure your stopped-down-metering switch isn\'t pressed in
(left picture). If it is, push it towards the lens then release it
so that it\'s not (as in the left picture). Make sure the
stopped-down metering [8] switch isn't pressed. You don't care
what this does, but it's the switch on the right-hand-side
(looking from the front) of the lens mount on the camera. If this
is pushed in as shown in the picture, push it towards the lens,
then release it. (The stopped-down-metering switch does have its
uses, in particular for using some non-Canon-FD lenses on the T90,
but if you're using Canon FD lenses, you won't need to care about
it. This is the primary cause of confusing "EEEE EEE" errors.)

* Turn the "FINDER" switch to the solid circle. Turn on the
viewfinder display. Open the flap on the side again and look at
the switch right at the top, marked "FINDER". Turn this to the
central position, i.e. the solid circle. This turns on some
critical readings in the viewfinder, so you want to leave this on
if you're not hopelessly low on battery.
Load the film. This is mostly automatic. All you need to do is this:

* Turn on the camera [9]. Put the power switch into the "A"
position, as indicated in the picture.

* Open the back of the camera. The buttons to do this are on
the right hand side of the camera (if you're looking at it from
the back). Hold down the button marked "1" in the picture, while
pushing the switch marked "2" downwards. The back will pop open.

* Drop a film cassette into the chamber on the left. There's only
one way that it will fit in, so don't lose sleep over this.

* Be very careful not to touch the shutter blades._ These are very
precise and delicate components. Do not touch them, ever.

* Pull out the film leader. Extend it so that the edge of the
film leader is at the orange index mark, as shown in the picture.
Make sure that the perforations on the film line up with the
sprockets just to the left of the take-up spool.

* Close the back of the camera. The T90 will load the film
automatically and set the correct ISO (film speed [10]).

!! Shooting !!

Familiarise yourself with the three basic controls. Two of these
we'll be referring to by name later, so learn them now:

* The power switch of the Canon T90, set to "L", meaning "off".
*The power switch,* which isn't actually a power switch (the
camera is always on). This is the switch with two positions, L and
A (for "Locked" and "Auto", or "off" and "on" to the rest of us,
respectively). If you're worried about the camera merrily shooting
its way through a roll of film while it's stored (or you hitting
the shutter by accident), then keep this at "L" while you're not
using it.

* The T90's shutter button. *The shutter button.* This makes it
go "click".

* The control dial. This does a lot of things, as we'll see
later. *The control dial.* This is the big dial just behind the
shutter button.

The drive mode switch and drive mode buttons are under the flap
on the right of the camera. Pick a drive mode. Open the flap on
the right of the camera. At the bottom, you'll notice a switch
with two positions, S-C and a clock icon. We'll refer to this as
the "drive mode switch", and confuse you by referring to the big
yellow button in the centre as the "drive mode button". Here are
your shooting options:

_ The arrow next to the "L" indicates "I'm too poor for high speed"
mode. *Continuous, low speed mode.* This is like the above, but
advances at a mere two frames per second. To get this mode, turn
the drive mode switch to the S-C position, then press the drive
mode button until an arrow appears next to the L on the top LCD.

* The arrow next to "SINGLE" indicates that you were a sniper in
a previous life. One shot, one kill! *Single-shot mode.* This will
take a single shot for each press of the shutter button, no matter
how long you hold it down (the film is still automatically
advanced). This might be useful if you're shooting stills and are
paranoid about wasting film. To use this, turn the drive mode
switch to the S-C position until an arrow appears next to "SINGLE"
on the top LCD.

* The arrow next to the "2" indicates the two-second self timer
is set. Pressing the drive mode button would set it to 10 seconds,
in case you wanted to get yourself in the shot, too. *Self-timer.*
This is most useful for shooting from a tripod when you're making
long exposures; having a delay after you push the shutter means
any vibration you caused while doing so will have dissipated. To
turn on the self timer, turn the drive mode switch to the clock
icon, then press the drive mode button to choose either a 2 or 10
second timer delay (an arrow will appear next to 2 and 10 on the
top LCD as you switch between them).

* Get out there, especially when the light is great. (Shot with
a Canon T90, a Canon FD 28mm f/2.8 and Kodak Ektar 100.)Get
outside. [12] Looking at beautiful photos is one thing, and
learning how to make them is another. But if you're going to take
some of your own, you need to get up, get your stuff packed and go
outside. And if you're going to do this, you need to avoid some
common attitudes and pitfalls which keep people indoors looking at
photographs -- or, worse, talking about making photographs --
rather than taking them. Discard attitudes such as not trusting
your own ability to take great shots, or thinking that all the
good photos have already being taken; your perspective is unique
and is definitely worth being represented in photos.
Holding down the Mode button while turning the main control wheel
will select an exposure mode. Pick a shooting mode. An
understanding of camera exposure might be helpful here; see How
to Understand Camera Exposure [13]. The T90 will set either
aperture, shutter speed, or both for you automatically. Which
ones they will set, depends on the mode you have it in. So, hold
down the "Mode" button while turning the main control dial.
You'll see that different things, like "Tv, Av, Program", and so
on appear in the top LCD. Here are the ones that you care about:

The Canon T90 in "P". Note that it reads "P-1" and "WIDE", meaning
the program has been shifted towards favouring longer shutter
speeds and smaller apertures. "TELE", the opposite of a "WIDE"
program, favours faster shutter speeds and smaller apertures. *P*,
for program automatic. This will set both aperture and shutter
speed for you, and will guess a combination that works for most
people most of the time. Once you're in P mode, turning the
command dial will shift between different aperture or shutter
speed combinations. This is called program shift. Note that this
is not_ the same as exposure compensation (detailed below), in
which a shot is deliberately over- or under-exposed. It simply
picks different combinations (for example, 1/30 at f/4, or 1/125
at f/2, rather than the default 1/60 at f/2.8), keeping the
exposure the same. You can shift up to two stops in each
direction.

(You will have noticed a "P" mode, but this isn't the same as
"Program". "Program" doesn't allow you to shift between combinations
of aperture and shutter speeds.) Aperture priority allows you to
set a large aperture to force a shallow depth of field (and blurred
backgrounds). (Shot with a Canon T90, Canon FD 135mm f/3.5 wide-open,
Kodak Portra 400VC.) *Av*, meaning aperture-priority, meaning that you
turn the main control dial to select an aperture and the camera
automatically chooses a shutter speed to match it (again, see How to
Understand Camera Exposure [14] if you're unsure what any of this
means). Turning the control dial to the left will select a larger
aperture (smaller f/number, meaning less depth of field and faster
shutter speeds) and turning it to the right will select a smaller
aperture (meaning the inverse).

See also How to Use Your Camera\'s Aperture Priority Mode [15], and
How to Choose a Lens Aperture (F Stop) [16].

* "Tv" mode means that you set a shutter speed, and the camera
automatically selects an aperture. *Tv*, meaning shutter-priority,
meaning that you pick a shutter speed and the camera automatically
sets an aperture for you. This might be useful if you want to
force a fast shutter speed to freeze motion (or avoid camera
shake), or if you want a slow one to blur motion (like those
awesome blurred water shots you see). Once you're in TV mode,
turning the control dial to the right will select a faster shutter
speed, and turning it to the right will select a slower one.

Top picture: the exposure compensation button. Bottom picture:
LCD indicating that exposure compensation has been set, in this
case to force a whole stop of overexposure. *Set exposure
compensation if you need it.* The T90's meter is a relatively
dumb, centre-weighted one (meaning that it pays more attention to
light at the centre of the frame than it does to light sources on
the periphery). It's not smart enough to know that bright
subjects should be kept bright, nor that things meant to be dark
should be kept that way. This is where exposure compensation
comes in; it forces the camera to use a longer or shorter shutter
speed (in P and Av modes), or a larger or smaller aperture (in Tv
mode), than it would do normally, forcing it to over- or
under-expose.

To set exposure compensation, hold down the exposure compensation
button (marked "EXP. COMP.") and turn the main control wheel at the
same time. Each click on the control wheel is one third of a stop,
i.e. forcing a shutter speed one third longer than it'd choose by
itself. Turn the dial towards the right to over-expose, and towards
the left to under-expose. You'll notice that the exposure compensation
readout on the top LCD changes, as indicated in the picture. It reads
"2", towards the right of the centre, which indicates twice the normal
exposure, or one stop.

Some examples of times you'll need exposure compensation:

* A strongly back-lit subject like this one, not shot on a T90,
will require deliberate overexposure to maintain detail in the
foreground. *Strongly back-lit subjects.* You may want to add two
stops of overexposure (so that the readout on the top LCD goes all
the way over to the right, at the "4" position).

* *Snow.* The T90 is not smart enough to know that snow is snow and
that it should be kept bright, so it'll attempt to expose it to
turn it grey. You might want to add anywhere from two thirds stop
to a whole stop or more.[1] [17]

* *Bright sunsets.* You'll lose some of the great details in the sky
if you don't underexpose a little. Try underexposing by two thirds
of a stop if you're shooting a slide film. This'll also ensure
that shadows stay dark, as they should be.

* This shot in very little light, with a long shutter speed,
required a whole stop of overexposure to make up for reciprocity
failure on Kodak Ektar 100. (Shot on an A-1 [18], not a T90.)
*Film reciprocity.* Many films run into problems when exposure
times get very long; they require additional exposure as shutter
times increase. This is called "reciprocity failure". The deceased
Kodachrome, for example, required overexposure for speeds as short
as a tenth of a second. Most films are not this bad, but still
require overexposure at longer speeds. Find a datasheet for your
film; it'll tell you how much extra exposure you require.

Press the shutter button down very gently and look through your
viewfinder. These are the following things you care about in your
viewfinder:

* *Shutter speed.* This is the shutter speed you have either
selected (in Tv mode), or that the camera has chosen for you (in P
and Av modes). This is at the bottom of the viewfinder,
left-to-middle.

* *Aperture.* This is the pair of red digits at the bottom of the
viewfinder, just left of the centre. This tells you either what
aperture you have set (in Av mode), or what aperture the camera
has selected for you (in P and Tv modes).

* *How many shots you have used.* This is the indicator on the right
hand side of the viewfinder.

* *The split-image.* You will see three circles in the middle of
your viewfinder. The inner one of these is a split-image
rangefinder, a focusing aid that we will explain later.

* *The microprism ring.* The second-to-inner of the circles
mentioned above is another focusing aid, which we will explain
later, too.

* *Other things.* If you see a "+/-" in your viewfinder, this
indicates that you have exposure compensation set. If you see "M"
in your viewfinder, this means you've ignored step 4 under
"Preparation" above.

Focus. Turn the focus ring on your lens. You have two focusing aids,
as mentioned above. The split-image in the rangefinder will make
vertical lines appear as being split in half; when the image in your
viewfinder is in focus, vertical lines will be joined.

The other focusing aid you have is your microprism ring. When subjects
are out of focus, the area of the image within the microprism ring
will shimmer; when it's in focus, it will not.

* Take your picture. Push the shutter button down all the way. The
shutter will click and you can move on to the next beautiful thing
to photograph.

* Keep shooting until you've finished your film. Once you do, the
film will automatically rewind itself.

* Open the back of your camera (hold the button marked 1, push
down the switch marked 2) like you did when you loaded it. Open
the back of the camera and pop the film cassette out of the film
chamber. Get your pictures developed, and don't forget to show
them off to the world!

!! Tips !!

Turn on the safety shift by pressing and holding the buttons
indicated. The T90 has an excellent feature called "safety shift".
This means that if you've selected an aperture in Av
(aperture-priority) mode that requires a faster or slower shutter
speed than the T90 is capable of to get a correct exposure, it
will automatically choose a larger or smaller aperture for you.
Likewise, in Tv mode, if you select a shutter speed that requires
a larger or smaller aperture than your lens has, it will override
your choice of shutter speed and pick one that is faster or slower
than the one you have selected.

To turn on your safety shift, hold down the two buttons marked "SAFETY
SHIFT" (as indicated in the picture) at the same time, and hold them
down until "SS" appears in your top LCD. To turn it off, do exactly
the same thing until the "SS" disappears.

* The T90 is a 25 year old camera; if something doesn't work as
expected, and you're sure you followed the steps correctly, take
your camera to any camera specialist that is able to service film
cameras.[2] [19]

!! Related WikiHows !!

* How to Shoot Film [20]

* How to Get Into Film Photography on a Tight Budget [21]

* Use a Canon A-1 35mm Camera [22]

!! Sources And Citations !!

* ↑ [23] See sample pictures at Dr. Ching-Kuang Shene's page on
exposure compensation,
http://www.cs.mtu.edu/~shene/DigiCam/User-Guide/990/EXPOSURE/EV-compensation.html
[24].

* ↑ [25] If you're in the United Kingdom, the Norfolk Camera
Centre at http://www.norfolkcameracentre.co.uk [26] is excellent.

* The Canon T90, on lewiscollard.com [27]

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Friday 14 January 2011

How to Use a Canon T90

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