First excuse my lack of proper terminology...

Ok, you know how on point and shoot digital cameras most people just hold it out and shoot the picture using the display screen rather than looking through the eyepiece?

I cannot figure out how to do that on my Canon Rebel dSLR. I have looked through the manual, but don't see it. I am sure I missed it, but am wondering if it is possible to take pictures that way with this? If so, can someone walk me through how to turn that feature on, or reference me to the page in the manual, or a link perhaps? Thanks guys, you have been so helpful all along!

SLRs (at least Canon's) won't let you do that. the LCD is for reviewing only.

i'm guessing most of the reason is a lot of those cameras that do you let you do it have electronic viewfinders. due to the nature of SLR, you're shooting through the lens. that image in the viewfinder isn't being reproduced - or worse as in point & shoot - completely off target - it's exactly what the sensor will see.

you'll be better off for it anyway.

I am pretty sure you cannot do that with any of Canon's digital SLRs.

Oops. bradk beat me to it.

You use a lot more battery life if you use the screen to frame your shot.

i can't imagine that'd be a huge factor in this case. although i do use an external flash, i can easily get 2 days of moderate - heavy shooting on one charge of my EOS 20D battery. I initially purchased the battery grip thinking the second online battery would give me some reassurance but i found out it was more trouble than it's worth. even if i do have to swap batteries, it's a painless procedure.

There are some new dSLRs that allow you to frame your shot through the viewfinder (not Canon, but Sony and/or Olympus??). Apparently it doesn't work very well, has a lag time when you move the camera and eats batteries.

I found I hold my XT much steadier than my Powershot S60 becuase I look through viewfinder. (Well, I've started to that on the S60, too - but I rarely use it anymore!)

Dirk

I found I hold my XT much steadier than my Powershot S60 becuase I look through viewfinder. (Well, I've started to that on the S60, too - but I rarely use it anymore!)

Dirk
Thank you - I have just a point and shoot digital, but I HATE using the screen to frame shots - when I'm taking photos for strangers in WDW, I ALWAYS use their viewfinder too. I think my brain knew I'd hold it steadier if I had it closer into my body! (No, it couldn't be an 'old habits' thing - nor a precursor to bifocals!) I'm glad to have a 'reason' though to not break myself of that habit!

And I think my viewfinder frames it to 2:3 ratio, and the screen does it squarer - since I print most everything up 4x6, the viewfinder helps with composition and filling the screen more!

Not to mention the fact that the XT has an 8 MP sensor, and the LCD displays roughly .2 MP Kind of hard to display 8,000,000 pixels worth of information on a display that has about 200,000. I know, it is the same problem with point-and-shoot cameras. However, point-and-shoot cameras do a lot of the adjusting for you, where the SLRs are mostly manual.

Thanks you guys, at least I know I am not totally crazy. I just couldn't find it in the book anywhere...That is perfectly fine with me. I would rarely use the feature anyway.