The menu tabs for the Canon 1300D or Rebel T6 are the way you change the settings in the camera and set it up to how you want to use it. There are 13 menu tabs – 10 for stills and 3 for video. You can access them by pressing the menu button on the back of the camera. However, before you start looking at the menu tabs it's worth moving the Dial Mode switch to Manual Mode. This is so that you can see all the tabs on the back of the camera. If you have the Dial Mode switched onto a preset mode then you may not see all of the tabs.
When you're looking at the tabs you can navigate through them either by using the rotating Main Dial on the top or the cross keys on the back of the camera. The menu tabs for stills consist of 4 Shooting Tabs and these refer to things like Image Quality, Metering Mode, Custom White Balance, and Picture Styles. The next two tabs are the Playback Tabs and they refer to things that you can do after you've taken the picture, like how to protect your images or look at the histograms. The next three Menu Tabs are the Set Up Tabs and they help you set up the camera. They help you format the card, select the folders that your images and files are saved in to, help you to set your LCD brightness and engage your Wi-Fi connectivity. The final one is the Custom Tab and this allows you to save your favorite settings so that you can access them all very easily and quickly.
In order to see the Video Tabs you have to turn the Mode Dial right round to the video setting which is at the other end of the Mode Dial, and if you press the menu button here again you'll see the three Movie Tabs. They deal exclusively with shooting videos and they will help you with Movie Exposure, the Autofocus Method for video, the movie recording size, recording sound and also exposure compensation. When you look at the Video Menu Tabs you will see that there are also some of the other tabs which you saw when you were looking at the stills Menu Tabs. That is because they also offer settings that can be applied to videos (like Picture style and White balance), or the general set up of the camera.
The general layout of the Menus is quite logical and easy to learn. A new photographer will very quickly be able to navigate through them. The Menu Tabs are important because the camera has so few external buttons, so the tabs control any changes you want to make to the way the camera functions.
