CHG_CANON Loc: the Windy City

Download the PDF version from the support section of usa.canon.com. You can print individual pages, if needed. Text search against the PDF is much more efficient. Place the PDF on all your mobile devices as well as your various computers. When storing the PDF from the Canon site, rename to file to an accurate name like: EOS R User Manual.PDF

VietVet Loc: Brooklyn, NY

Thanks for the heads up. I made a shortcut on the computer to access the manual but your method is a much better solution. Somehow my manual must have found its way to the trash.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

I also keep all my camera and other important manuals on my nightstand. They’re all loaded onto my iPad as PDFs.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

A lot of folks just never read the manual ever.... and then ask someone else to do it for them and this is sad. The manual is important and needs to be read and understood first , but what do I know?

jayluber Loc: Phoenix, AZ

I was shooting the Mobius Arch in Alabama Hills Sat night and while setting up in the dark I found I could not adjust the aperture. It was stuck on 5.6 the wheel would not change it. I examined the lens and was getting real frustrated till I saw the L and realized camera was locked. The lock button must have been moved when I put camera in the bag.
There are so many icons and other stuff that appear in the view finder or the window on top that it's had to recall what they all indicate.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

The lock button is an important feature. It prevents accidentally changing your settings while using the camera, by partially disabling the function of the quick control dial on the back of the camera. When the camera is in its shooting mode, that dial is normally used to adjust the lens aperture (in M exposure mode) or to tweak Exposure Compensation (in Av, Tv, P or M + Auto ISO exposure modes).

That dial is also used to navigate the camera's menus while accessing them, as well as to work with images in playback mode. The lock doesn't prevent the menu and playback functions. It only effects the quick control dial in shooting mode.

Older Canon had that lock button as a third setting on the camera's on/off switch (often referred to as the "hockey stick").

Newer models, where on/off has been relocated to the top of the camera have the slider-style locking switch (as shown in an image at the link provided in an earlier response).

I use that lock on my cameras most of the time. Without it, it's just too easy to change camera settings accidentally (I wish there were a similar lock for the main control dial, located right behind the shutter release button. That's also possible to accidentally change, although it's not nearly as susceptible as the dial on the back of the camera). Without the lock, I see settings accidentally changes sometimes while shooting rapidly and moving around with the camera.

FYI: Again, while locked the rear quick control dial still works as normal during image playback and menu modes. The lock only prevents its functions while shooting.

A fast and easy way to work around the lock is to use the Q button (rather than having to stop to unlock it, make your changes, and then relock the dial). The Q button calls up a rapid access display of all the major functions on the camera's LCD monitor, where things aren't locked and you can change any of the shooting functions assigned to the disabled quick control dial. The Q button menu is particularly fast and easy to use on cameras that have a Touch Screen. It's pretty quick and easy to use even on those cameras without that feature.

TravelingLight2 Loc: Fulltime RV'er from Telluride, CO

I agree...and at 71 my beard is also quite gray...and I find that I just don't learn like I used to! But this is a good forum and a good group of folks!

TravelingLight2 Loc: Fulltime RV'er from Telluride, CO

Actually great info...that is why I look at this forum at least twice a day.

hassighedgehog Loc: Corona, CA

Pentax manuals may be better than some. My K-50 manual is fairly easy to understand and has an index as well as a table of contents. The Lumix DMC ZS60 is another story.

Leitz Loc: Solms

Not many here would have guessed the answer would be in the manual!

jayluber Loc: Phoenix, AZ

Manual? you mean the M setting on the knob????

Sam9987

I'm with you on this one.

graybeard

I have the PDF. It is just not my initial reaction to run to the manual. I am an ex-COBOL programmer. The very last thing we ever did whenever we had a problem was to go to the manual.