Would you like a default button?

[Jonny]

Today i was thinking to myself, as i worked, what really bugged me about my 1DM2N and what i loved. Then i got to thinking about what i would like to see in the future and i decided this:

I want a button that will set my camera back to a default setting so i can change back to my prefered set up very fast. There is nothing worse than finding you have shot your last 50 shots on ISO1600 because you forgot to change it back or you have over exposed for the last 30 mins because you didn't notice that the EC was set +1 from an earlier shoot.

It reminded me of an incident that happened to me the other week. I was shooting the full moon in AV with mirror lock up enabled when i heard a bang behind me. I was in a pub car park over looking the sea and a drunk driver had just backed into another car. The driver knew what he had done but started to speed off. I grabbed the cam and tried to snap his plates but ........bloody mirror lock up was still on and i missed the shot.

Now if i had a small button that returned me quicky to AV / F5.6 / ISO 400 ect.... i may have had time to press it a grab the pic.

You would soon get into the habit of pressing it as soon as you picked the camera up in a hurry.

I can think of other uses for it too .....

I bet this has been raised before.

What do you think?

[nitsch]

But what would happen if you got your settings all tweaked the way you wanted them then you accidentally pressed the reset button! :)

[Jonny]

But what would happen if you got your settings all tweaked the way you wanted them then you accidentally pressed the reset button! :)

I have to assume you are joking with that.

If not :

I suppose it would just be the same as hitting buttons now, i often move the dial be accident and adjust settings.

You could just make it a combination of 2 buttons if it was a real problem.

[nitsch]

I have to assume you are joking with that.

If not :

I suppose it would just be the same as hitting buttons now, i often move the dial be accident and adjust settings.

You could just make it a combination of 2 buttons if it was a real problem.

Yeah sorry Jon I was just being a bit silly. It's a good idea, especially in the scenario you described. I've done the same - forgetting I had mirror lock up on (or even worse forgetting it was in self timer mode :oops: ) - it's not a good look!

[olz]

Jup... I tried something similar. I know that the 1D's have no prespecified modes, but on a 20D you can quickly just use the dial to put it in on the green square or some of those other icon modes, and it will override mirror lockup etc.

But i agree. A programmable default button would be nice.

[ssim]

Are you referring to the factory default settings. This is a two second procedure according to the manual (see below).

I don't disagree with you but I think it is a damned if you do and damned if you don't kind of situation. If you do that shooting at iso 1600 and then hit your switch to go to "your" default settings and the next time you pick up your camera you are wanting a higher ISO are you not in the exact same situation.

I think that there is alot more that Canon could do within the firmware but we also don't want to get a bloated firmware that could potentially slow down the camera.

Speaking for myself, we have become too reliant on the camera. I can remember having to change films when we needed to go to a different speed. You wound the film back so the leader was still out and noted on the film can what frame number to go back to. I know many times when I have run into that same situation that you described I have given myself the verbal kick in the butt and cursed out Canon for not protecting me from myself. I have to start to take responsibility for my own actions. I've gotten much better at it with not having faced a similar situation for quite some time now.

[PacAce]

Jonny, Not sure if you know this or not but you can save your camera settings to the CF card and retrieve it later. The only problem is that unless you save the settings in all your CF cards, it won't be accessible if you swap cards all the time without first inserting the CF card that is holding the saved settings.

Details are on page 173 of the 1DmkIIN manual.

[Tincam]

I'd love to have a button like that. One that I could assign settings to, so that when pushed I would know exactly where everything was set. There have been many times where I've shot at the wrong iso, or exposure compensation, or at jpeg when I assumed I was in raw. Good idea Jonny!

[Doom1701e]

We need a hack to re-assign the Direct Print button!

[nitsch]

We need a hack to re-asign the Direct Print button!

Amen to that!

[Hermeto]

Even better if it was a toggle button that switches back and fort between ‘Default’ and ‘Current’ settings..
‘Default’ being adjustable to whatever combination of ISO - shutter speed - aperture you like and ‘Current’ being whatever setting it was *before* you hit ‘Default’..

[RTMiller]

I don't know if I want a 'default' button but I would like to see them find a better use for the JUMP button. That button is a total waste of space.

[Jonny]

Jonny, Not sure if you know this or not but you can save your camera settings to the CF card and retrieve it later. The only problem is that unless you save the settings in all your CF cards, it won't be accessible if you swap cards all the time without first inserting the CF card that is holding the saved settings.

Details are on page 173 of the 1DmkIIN manual.


Thanks leo, i was aware of that feature which is useful to transfer your settings between cameras but it wouldn't really help day to day for me.

As ssim says i guess i just need to rely on myself more.......but i am not someone you should rely on!

[ninab]

Even better if it was a toggle button that switches back and fort between ‘Default’ and ‘Current’ settings..
‘Default’ being adjustable to whatever combination of ISO - shutter speed - aperture you like and ‘Current’ being whatever setting it was *before* you hit ‘Default’..


yes! yes! yes! yes!

[FatPete]

I may be missing something here (if so, I apologise)... but did you know you can reprogram the 'factory defaults' when the camera is attached to your computer. For example, I've set mine so that pressing the reset buttons stays on 'Raw+Large' instead of back to Large.

You can also force it to reset to another shooting mode etc instead of 'P'

[Curtis N]

I grabbed the cam and tried to snap his plates but ........bloody mirror lock up was still on and i missed the shot. Now if i had a small button that returned me quicky to AV / F5.6 / ISO 400 ect.... i may have had time to press it a grab the pic.You think pushing a special button would be faster than pushing the shutter button twice? I have my doubts.

I wouldn't mind a button to set every function to default settings, as long as I can determine what those default are. Going from indoor flash to outdoor fill flash requires changing several settings, at least for me.

[Jonny]

I wouldn't mind a button to set every function to default settings, as long as I can determine what those default are. ]


Thats the idea.

[YosemiteJunkie]

Now that's one I could go for.

[tag141]

Then I think we better hook up our cameras to the PC and have a look at what FatPete is getting at. Maybe, just maybe he's on to something.

[FatPete]

Then I think we better hook up our cameras to the PC and have a look at what FatPete is getting at. Maybe, just maybe he's on to something.

I actually stumbled upon this accidentally because the instruction book doesn't go into any detail in the Personal Functions section.

Use the software that lets you set personal functions (don't forget you need Firewire, not USB), and look at Personal Function 25 ("Sets the default settings when CLEAR buttons are pressed"). This then allows you to configure a range of camera settings that are then uploaded to the camera.

[Jim_T]

What I'd like to do is program all my favorite settings into the camera and have it always revert to them whenever the camera is powered down and turned on again. A option on the menu to turn this feature on and off could be handy.

Usually, when I make mistakes with wrong ISO etc, its because I set the parameters a day or two before and forgot that I changed the settings . I never have problems during the same shoot :)