Camera user settings

[Mircula]

Hiho,

I just got my new 40D and I am thinking about how to set up my individualized camera user settings c1-c3.

I thought it would be interesting how people use these, for what and which settings they include.....


I was maybe planning on doing one for mirror lockup stuff and one for night photography…..

And I am also not quite sure how I should set them exactly for the different situations.......


Ciao,

Mirc

[Dan Gamble]

I'd be curious to see what people are doing with them as well.

I've notice when I'm shooting under halogen light that theres no really accurate White Balance preset which matches to it all that well so I'm thinking of making one for those conditions to save both having to do a manual white balance at the start of every shoot in my house or re-doing the colour balance for every single pic in ACR/Lightroom.

Not too sure that this is really the right application for the User Presets though. Just something I'd like to do.

[etherial]

I simply use them for base settings for events that I shoot. I shoot dog shows, and have competing needs-

I set one for still shots where dogs are sitting or standing etc. This is about accuracy and picture quality therefore settings are something like - AI Focus, specific focus point selected, Av mode, F4 or 5.6 (stopped down from 2.8), ISO set at 100-400ish.

I set a second one for movement shots which I am looking to freeze motion and need a shutter of faster than 1/500. therefore the settings might be - AI servo, AF point expansion, High speed burst, Manual mode, aperture f2.8 or f4 (depending on how bad the lighting is), shutter at 1/500 or 1/640 or faster if I can, and auto ISO.

You can see these are quite different setups and when shooting dog events you might have to change between them frequently, therefore having the Custom user settings is very useful, one click of the dial and all that changes. Very useful indeed!

[vk2gwk]

Interesting to see that I have almost the same two "custom" settings on my camera (5D2) as "etherial". C1 for fast action and C2 for the more "quiet" stuff. The only difference is that I hardly ever use AI Focus. Either ONE SHOT or AI Servo. The AI Focus has the drawback that when you do some recomposing the focus shifts - something I do not want.

It really depends on what you intend to shoot and then again on how much light you can expect. With my C1 setting I shot a hockey game last weekend while it was rather grey and rainy. The standard "custom" setting for "action" resulted in fairly high ISO values (3200). So then it was prudent to sacrifice some shutterspeed (and risk some blur) or use a wider aperture with the risk of a shallow DOF to get less noise..... It is all a matter of balancing.

[Tricky]

I have my custom settings as follows:

C1 - set up for multiple exposures, for high dynamic range HDR images. In this mode, the camera is set to +2, 0, and -2 exposures, with mirror lock up and 2 second timer.

C2 - as above, but with exposures of 0, +1/3rd, +2/3rd. Don't use this a lot, but in low light situations I find you get less noise with the 7D by overexposing slightly and then pulling back in photoshop.

C3 - single exposure, with 2 sec timer and mirror lock-up, at f/8 aperture priority. Intended to be the sharpest solution when shooting a single frame using a tripod, for example when focus stacking a series of images in a macro context.

I tend to leave the manual mode on 1/200 and f/14, being the setting I use most when taking macro pictures using the MT-24 flash.

I tend to leave Av mode on f/5.6 and ISO 400, being a 'fast' exposure solution for those moments when I turn on the camera and want to be able to take pictures straight away, ie when there's a passing moment to be captured.

[hus]

My settings for

C1:- EV+2, EV0, and EV-2 exposures @ iso 100 on 2 second timer for HDR photography, this pretty much matches Tricky's setting

C2:- EV+1, EV0, and EV-1 exposure @ iso 100 on 2 second timer

[Dan Gamble]

My settings for

C1:- EV+2, EV0, and EV-2 exposures @ iso 100 on 2 second timer for HDR photography, this pretty much matches Tricky's setting

C2:- EV+1, EV0, and EV-1 exposure @ iso 100 on 2 second timer

What are your applications for these settings may I ask?

... 2 second timer... Hmmm... Macro???