Viewfinder and live view focus

[Phoenix6969]

Prior to having the AF points while looking through the viewfinder, I had he generic square focusing box,same as with the liveview one. Now I have those annoying red AF red dots. I'd like to revert to the earlier format/system, but do no know how. Can someone please explain?

For information I read over (and over he manual) and did a facory reset to no avail. 

Thanks

Phoenix

[Skirball · Accepted solution]

What camera are you using?

Are you saying you have the "little red dots" in the viewfinder, or in live view.  Those dots are your focus points when not using Live View (which uses a different, inferior focus system).  They're actually quite important for using a dSLR, but you can choose to use them or not.

For the viewfinder you don't have a choice (assuming you're using a DSLR).  You're looking at the actual image, through the lens.  There are no graphics in there, other than the LED on the bottom that tell you your settings, and those AF points that are embedded in the screen.  If you're using a camera with an electronic view finder that's not necessarily true, but seeing as how this is the EOS forum I'm going to assume you're using a dSLR, which do not have an electronic view finder.

If you're trying to change the settings in Live View I'll ahve to defer to someone else, I don't really use it.  But I wouldn't be surprised if you can choose between the box and the dots.

[RobertTheFat]

I think I see what he's talking about. On some of the cameras with advanced AF (7D, 5D3, 70D(?) ...), you see dots or squares in the viewfinder, depending on whether you've selected a point or zone mode. And for fully automatic AF, you see a more or less rectangular figure. So, OP, I think you want to read in the manual about autofocus modes. (P. 70 in the 5D3 manual, p. 88 in the 7D manual, etc.)

[Skirball]

Oh, the little squares around the AF points.  Yes, you're probably right.  I thought he was referring to the big focusing rectangle in LiveView.

[Phoenix6969]

Thanks very much yes, I am not an expert in this domain, but basically ts is the problem. I want my camera as simple as possible and the "idiot box" (green/red) was ideal. Now when looking through my viewfinder I have these annoying red dots which d not help me rather distract my view. What I'd like to do is revert to this original format, and I'm not even certain what I touched for this new set up to take place. This happened previously, a few years back with an earlier model, and I am uncertain how I remedied that...I'll return to the guide and see what I can figure out but those damned red dots are haunting my sleep...thanks for your help 😉

[Phoenix6969]

Sorry, my model is a Canon Rebel T3i