- Canon EOS Utility 3 (Version 3.8.0.1): This program offers an easy-to-use tool for downloading pictures directly from your camera. Additionally, it enables tethered shooting, which means that you can connect the camera to the computer via the supplied cable and then operate the camera remotely from the computer.
Tethered shooting is great when you're photographing products or portraits in a studio setting, with clients or colleagues on hand to supervise or collaborate. If you set the camera to Live View mode, you can see the live preview on the computer monitor, as shown, giving everyone a larger view of things than the camera monitor provides. You can adjust most camera settings using the control panel shown on the right side of the figure. After the shot, photos can be displayed immediately on the computer monitor and automatically downloaded to the computer.
The EOS Utility program enables you to operate your camera remotely from your computer.I don't have room to cover tethered shooting in this book, but you can get details in the program's instruction manual, also available for download from the Canon website. (More about downloading programs and manuals momentarily.)
- Canon Digital Photo Professional 4 (Version 4.8.30): This product, featured in the following image, offers a nice assortment of photo-editing and organizing features. It also has a tool that you can use to process Raw files.
Two cool features worth special note:
- Display metadata: After you select an image by clicking its thumbnail, you can view its metadata, which is hidden data that contains all the camera settings you used to take the shot. To display the metadata panel, labeled, open the program's View menu and select Info.
- Display focus point(s): You also can display the focus point or points that the camera used to establish the focusing distance for the picture. In the figure, for example, notice the red focus box atop the subject. To enable the focus-point display, open the program’s Preview menu and choose AF Points. If you want a larger view of a single image, open the View menu and choose Vertical Thumbnails. Your window then looks like the one in the figure, with thumbnails of your images on the left and a larger preview on the right.
Digital Photo Professional 4 provides a good, free solution for viewing, organizing, and editing your photos.To download these programs, head for the T7/2000D product page for your country. (The web address is www.USA.Canon.com if you live in the United States.) Then follow the Drivers and Downloads links to the programs. You have the option to download an entire bundle of Canon programs; this download link is provided under the label “Recommended Downloads.” The problem is that because the bundle was developed for several different camera models, it contains programs that don't work with the T7/2000D. For that reason, I recommend just downloading the two aforementioned programs. You also can download the user manuals for each program, but you get to those via the Manuals link rather than the software link. (Don't blame me; I just report the news.)
Keep in mind that every time Canon updates the software, the version number changes. So don't be concerned if the links you find at the website have a later version number than listed above. You can't, however, use older versions of these programs with your camera.