October 27, 2024
I bet there’s a clock that you forgot to change!
Did you forget to change the time on one of your clocks as daylight savings time ends? I bet you did and its the one in your camera.
I hope you have enjoyed your extra hour in bed. In the UK, the clocks have moved back an hour as Daily Savings Time has ended. Many clocks will have automatically changed overnight. However, some still need a helping hand. I will have to remember how to change the time on my oven again. After being an hour wrong for the past six months, my car will finally show the right time. However, I imagine there’s a clock you rarely see that hasn’t been changed today—the one on your camera.
Every camera records the time a photograph has been taken. I use this data to ensure that when I bring my photos into Lightroom for editing, they go into a folder for the date the picture was taken. If the time is wrong by an hour, they could go to the wrong folder if you take pictures around midnight.
I use Canon cameras, so I’ll demonstrate two ways to set the correct time using that system. Most other manufacturers will do this in a similar way. If you aren’t sure, have a quick read of your manual, and you’ll find it quite early in that thick book.
The first method is the good old-fashioned manual way. Go into the Menu and toggle to the Settings menu. In Canon, that is the yellow spanner menu. Move down to the Date / Time / Zone menu and press OK. Now move the cursor to the picture of the sun and press OK again. Move the up and down arrows so the word Off appears over the sun. This has switched off Daylight Savings Time. Move to the OK button and select this. The camera is now set for the winter months, but there is an even easier way.
This time, we are going to use the Canon Camera Connect app. Select the Camera Date Time Settings button. You’ll need to connect to the camera’s wi-fi, which takes a few seconds. This is coffee break photography, so you can have a slurp of the coffee while you are waiting. Once connected, ensure that the Automatic Setting switch is toggled on. Every time you connect your camera to the app, it will check to see if the camera is set to the time on your phone and automatically update the settings. This is my preferred option as it will also work if you are travelling across time zones as well.
There we have it: your camera clock is set right. Now go and dig out your car manual and try to work out how on earth you will change the clocks in there!