Just wondering with the new My Menu features and the Custom functions on the Digic 4's, what are people actually using them for?
I am usually an Av or M shooter and thus never use the Custom functions. ThusI am looking for setting to get most from my 5D mark 2.
As for My Menu,
Mirror Lockup
Format
Battery
Speedlite controls
are the usual suspects!
cheers for sharing!
Rich
Here's mine for the 5D2:
- Custom WB
- Format
- Live View/Movie func. set.
- Highlight tone priority
- Mirror lockup
- Camera user settings
I'm always fiddling with custom WB, so it goes on top. Live View is there because I switch the "Silent Shoot" setting for various situations, such as reduced vibration on a tripod. Mirror lockup for the same. I have HTP there to enable for ISO 1600 and 3200, and make it easier to disable for ISO 800 or less, since it adds much more noise at those settings (and no noise at ISO 3200).
I use the "Camera user settings" a lot. C1 is always my video setting. I change C2 and C3 for each shooting situation, but usually C2 is flash:
- Manual
- 1/200
- f/8
- ISO 400
- single focus
- single shot
And C3 is natural light continuous:
- Aperture priMority
- Wide open
- ~ISO 800
- AI Focus
- AEB +/- 1 stop
- Continuous shooting
When I first got the 5D2 in December I went through all the custom functions and carefully selected the appropriate settings for myself.
That really helpful, i haven't given HTP a dig yet, pretty much because ther pictures so far have been staggering from my Mark 2!
with C1 what do you change for video? -i can see any settings that you can keep? as the camera always goes to back to auto?
also i take it for your C2- its for an low powered flash ambient effect, with out having the flash blow everything out (on ETTL) and keeping recycle time low? and C3 is you effective daylight quickly catch the shot?
Originally Posted by richscorer
Live view is on stills+movie
Metering timer 30 minutes
Custom picture profile (low sharpness, low contrast)
HTP usually enabled
1/3 stop ISO increments enabled (easier to get desired exposure).
ISO expansion on
Auto lighting optimizer
Auto power off 4 minute instead of 1 minute
Normally I keep 1/3-stop ISO increments disabled, because they're not real analog gain, just digitally manipulated versions, and half of them have really bad read noise (e.g. ISO 250 has read noise as bad as ISO 640). Similarly, I enable ISO expansion for more flexibility of image control, since raw is not an option.
Yeah, the lack of manual control in video is one of the biggest limitations.
At f/8 and 1/200 it's usually strong enough to drown out all ambient light, which is why I use it for bounce flash. When I want to preserve ambient light, I use the regular Av mode with a little exposure compensation.
The ETTL does a very good job at preserving highlights, but I find that I often need +1 EC on the 5D2. At ISO 400, even with bounced flash at f/8, I find that the recycle time is pretty low on the 580 II.
I thought I was doing myself a favor by using 1/3-stop ISO increments. Are you saying that I am introducing more noise into my pictures than if I just used full-stop ISO increments? I use a 50D by the way...
Yes. Here is a chart of for the 5D2, but it's the same for the 50D:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1032&message=31378147
These should be avoided: 125, 250, 500, 1000.
The others just have 1/3 stop less highlight headroom: 160, 320, 640, 1250.
I don't like having my highlight headroom change every time I change ISO, so I just use EC instead of the tweener ISO settings.
Wow I have learnt something new about the ISO of my 5D! - not that I have used them yet, must hang up from not having them on my old 400D!
I am going to give the video setting a try as i am into anything that is going to make my videos look like Spielberg made it!
Personally I settle for Av mode on movie settings -I think that would be awesome.
I'm copying and pasting - and adding a little to - a thread I started on the same subject and was kindly pointed here by richscorer. I think it makes sense to try to keep everything roughly in the same place.
C1: My default settings. I'm always changing the settings for P, Tv
and Av and then forgetting to put them back (shooting in bright
daylight at ISO3200, for example). So this is primarily for use in good
daylight and with speedlight (580 EXII), or as a starting point before
changing other settings.
ISO100; Evaluative metering; AI Focus
C2: For use in tracking fast-moving subjects, such as birds in flight:
ISO200; Spot metering; AI Servo; Center focus point only; AF point area expansion = Enable
C3: For use in low-light situations without speedlight:ISO3200
(changed to ISO6400 for last night in club only); Eval metering; AI
Focus; High ISO speed noise reduction = Strong; Speedlight flash =
disable (so that I can both make use of the AF Assist beam and quickly
switch to C1 if I want to use the flash).
It's a shame there aren't more C numbers on the dial - if there
were, I'd set some frequently used Tv and Av settings but as it is I've
set up catch-all settings based on P. If I'm wanting to use Tv or Av
though, those settings are remembered anyway if I have to switch
briefly to one of my custom modes.
I hear what Daniel Browning said about about changing the C settings depending on the scenario, but the fact that these settings save so many deep custom function settings etc is both very useful but could make me reluctant to keep switching stuff around - I keep most menu settings as global so I may be making a mountain out of a molehill but even so some, such as switching the speedlight off on C3, I want to keep like that just for that scenario.
My Menu:
Live View/Movie func. set
External Speedlight control
Mirror lockup
AF point area expansion
(Those
are the only ones I think it's worth having in there but I've also put
in High ISO speed noise reduction and Highlight tone priority just because I have the space. I'm not sure yet if they'll ever
get used though).
My "Set" button is configured to open the Quality menu but I nearly
always shoot in large RAW and small JPG - I'm still struggling to find
the time to learn photoshop so I rarely have the time to PP my images
much, so having (relatively) low res, noise-reduced and ready-to-email
images is very useful. And I don't want to waste drive space with both
large RAW and large JPG files.
Does anyone else use AF point area expansion? I'm a bit confused about this one. In the manual, on p.80, it says that the invisible and unselectable AF points around the center point are used during AI Servo to help with tracking. But then it seems to say on p.180 when discussing the Custom Function settings that these AF points are switched off by default and you have to enable them in the settings before they will help with AI Servo tracking.
Now I'm still trying to get the hang of AI Servo as I struggle with the lack of focus lock confirm and often get unsharp images. But the other day I was trying to shoot various animals with this option on and I felt more photos than usual were unsharp. I then turned it off and I thought I saw an improvement. So I wonder whether the other AF points kept locking on to other, nearer objects (ie the ground) rather than the subject.
Has anyone else had similar issues?
Finally, noise might be a better subject for another thread (I know how much
debate this can cause) , but I find the Noise Reduction function makes
a huge difference at ISO 6400. But what's the disadvantage? And why do
high ISO images require more memory than low ISO images - even RAW,
which apparently have no NR applied?
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