Canon PowerShot G15, Manual, Page: 5 / 12

Manual mode “M” on the Canon camera (FIGURE 2)
(See Canon manual for complete instructions)
To select the manual mode which is marked “M”, simply turn the mode
dial so that the “M” lines up with the white mark on the left. Manual
mode allows the user to choose exposure level, aperture value, ISo and
shutter speed. These are settings that you can use to maximize the
quality of your pictures. If you have no prior experience with manual
settings, some experimentation will be needed to get familiar with
the effects of the different settings. When in manual mode, pressing
the shutter halfway will produce a number on the bottom right of the
LCD. This number can be positive, negative or zero. Zero means that
your picture is correctly exposed (i.e. has the right amount of light), a
positive number means it is overexposed (i.e. too bright), and a nega-
tive number means the scene is underexposed (not enough light). You
can then adjust the settings if you wish. In some cases, a “correctly”
exposed scene may not result in the best picture of the evidence or
whatever you are trying to photograph.
Shutter speed – Use the front dial (on front of the Canon) to
adjust the shutter speed. You can choose values from 15 to
1/4000 (which means 15 seconds to 1/4000 of a second). The
higher the number, the longer the shutter will stay open and the
more light you allow into the camera. Therefore, a setting of 15
would maximize the shutter open time. Start off with a setting
of 1/60 (meaning 1/60 of a second).
Aperture (F-stop) – To the right of the Canon LCD is a dial that
says ISo on top. Turn it clockwise to increase the F-stop, and
counterclockwise to decrease the F-stop. The values range from
F1.8 to F8.0. Start off with something like F2.5. The lower the
F-stop, the more light is let in.
Exposure compensation dial – (on the top side of the Canon, left
of the oN/oFF button) Use this dial to adjust image brightness.
By turning this dial, you can adjust the exposure from -3 to +3 in
increments of 1/3. Start off with this dial set to 0.
ISo – Choose the ISo speed with the dial to the right of the
Canon LCD. First click the upper half of the dial to select the ISo
setting mode, next rotate the ring clockwise to increase the ISo
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