It's Always A Good Day When You Learn Something New

On my camera, next to the viewfinder, is this tiny little dial. It sits there inconspicuously. I know it's there, in the back of my mind, but I never need to use it so it's essentially forgotten.

All of a sudden one day, my viewfinder was blurry. I backed up, thinking I was too close to my subject for it to focus. Still blurry. I took the shot. Hmm, the picture is in focus. What is going on?

The next time I used my camera, same story. I was getting worried. What had happened to my camera to "break" the viewfinder without me knowing? How much was it going to cost to fix it?

But before doing anything else, I did a web search. "Why is my viewfinder blurry?" Voila! Remember that little dial? It solved the problem.

This little dial, called a diopter, adjusts the viewfinder for different eyes. I guess like glasses but in your camera. I don't really know all the science, I just know what it does in your viewfinder. Go play with it. Anyway, once it's set to your eye, you never need it again. Unless somehow it gets bumped. That's what I figure must have happened. Either in my bag or while putting it in and out, the dial must have gotten moved and then my viewfinder was blurry. 

Boy was I relieved that I wasn't going to have to take my camera into a shop and get it repaired!

There was one more thing I found during this little adventure. First though, understand that I've had my camera almost two years and I read through the whole manual. Basically, I should have already known about this little button that I stumbled upon.

Way up on the front of my camera, in front of the diopter and next to the shutter button, is this little black button. In white letters below it says 'ISO'. What? I press it and to my delight, it pulls up a screen to easily switch your ISO!!! Wonder of wonders!

All this time, I could switch my shutter speed and aperture with buttons and not the touch screen, but if I needed to change my ISO, I had to use the screen. Well, this means that if I'm shooting in this cold, I have to take my gloves off. Not the fastest process. Plus, I have to take the camera away from my face. Just not ideal. This little button that I've (re)discovered will make shooting changes much faster and easier!

I'm still learning things about my camera. When you don't use something, you forget about it. It's always a good day when you (re)learn something new!