5D III - Let's talk settings!

What settings you change that are a big deal to you? I'm not talking basic stuff, stuff that made a big difference on how you use the cameras on a day by day basis.

For example, a few things I changed I think are going to make the camera much more friendly for me.

The SET button I have set to ISO, now instead of fumbling for the tiny button up top (which is harder to press now) I can just hold down the SET button and move the top wheel to change it. Just feels a lot easier.

Love the new minimum shutter speed, I have it set to 1/60 now so when I am in AV mode it never drops below that, but seriously considering just setting it to 1/125 because I mostly shoot people and that's the minimum I like to shoot at.

I have been considering turning on only cross type points for the Select-able AF points. This reduces the amount of points, but I think it will make it more reliable. I haven't had a chance to really test this theory.

First thing I did was turn off the LCD AUTO brightness, that thing drives me nuts. Initially look at your review image and it is grossly underexposed and then hit play again it is fine. Too difficult to know quickly what my exposure looks like. I do use the histogram as well. I set it to manual: 4 for now. I just don't like it changing on me when I am trying to quickly view my review image.

The multi-function lock is another one of my favorites. By default it only locks the job wheel, but you can include the quick wheel and/or the multi-controller. I have it lock both wheels, and now with the mode lock I can be assured I can lock all my settings and not worry about it changing. Mode never gave me a lot of problems but I did frequently knock either the aperture or shutter speed dials from time to time, so being able to just flip the lock switch when I know I won't be changing much is a nice change.

I changed the multi-function button (press in middle) to reset AF point to center. This is pretty useful to quickly set the af point back to center. Not much else you can use the button for.

I am using the warnings in view finder to tell me when I have a custom white balance set, the two uses I find for this (depending on what you do more) is to let you know when you are using spot metering or using custom white balance. The other options not that big of a deal. I'd love to use it for both, but it doesn't differentiate which is set. So you get a ! no matter what trigger you set. It is a fairly good size icon, they could have easily made it say CWB or SPOT so you can tell which is being flagged. Either way, minorly useful.

Those are the main changes I found I thought would be useful that actually changed how you work with the camera.

Be curious what others are doing.

The only thing i've really done is switch the back wheel and shutter wheel in manual mode.

Just feels better to have fstop on the shutter wheel like in AV mode.

Kechar wrote in post #14142438
The only thing i've really done is switch the back wheel and shutter wheel in manual mode.

Just feels better to have fstop on the shutter wheel like in AV mode.

Yeah that drives me crazy how it switches, I never bothered to change it. Not sure if it was possible on my 7D, may consider that myself.

Another change I made that is pretty useful. Changing the DOF button to be a toggle for one-shot / servo. Because I didn't really use DOF before, and now the button is super convienient spot now, this is a great use of the button. It's out of the way where it won't be hit by accident, and since you have to "hold" it down, it's perfect for using in servo mode. Probably my favorite customization now!

LOVE the Focus Priority settings under the AF -- it basically tells the camera not to shoot unless your focus is locked on, even in servo mode. So if you hold down the shutter button while servo is on, it won't fire until it has focus. You can either tell it to prioritize taking a shot, or ensuring focus... AF on this thing is freaking killer... can't wait to shoot a wedding with these guys

dho81 wrote in post #14143258
LOVE the Focus Priority settings under the AF -- it basically tells the camera not to shoot unless your focus is locked on, even in servo mode. So if you hold down the shutter button while servo is on, it won't fire until it has focus. You can either tell it to prioritize taking a shot, or ensuring focus... AF on this thing is freaking killer... can't wait to shoot a wedding with these guys

The only thing I got out of that was I love that the 5D has an actual focus system! I can't wait to try it in low light conditions!

Saxi wrote in post #14142149
I have been considering turning on only cross type points for the Select-able AF points. This reduces the amount of points, but I think it will make it more reliable. I haven't had a chance to really test this theory.

Just to clarify, doing this (or setting it to 15 or 9) reduces the amount of focus points that you can select, but the other points are still there and will still work if you are using AF point expansion. They are not disabled or turned off in any way, just not selectable.

I'll be curious to see what people find with this latest AF system, but based on experience with my 1DsII I think I would reduce the selectable points to 15. That way switching from the top left corner to the top right corner is only 3 clicks on the joystick rather than 12.

Based on my experience with the 7D, I would choose to enable orientation linked AF settings. This allows you to have different settings when holding the camera vertical vs horizontal. Very convenient when switching back and forth.

What I did so far:
- Move focus to back button
- Set to record separately, RAW to CF, S1 JPEG
- Make sure all my lens has Lens aberration correction enabled
- Set the auto-ISO 100-12800, min shutter speed 125
- Set the pic style for JPEG, sharpness 5, contrast +1, saturation +2
- Change the Selectable AF point to Only cross-type points
- Enable the orientation linked AF point
- Set autorotate to on computer only
- Set ISO speed setting to 1/1
- Custom Control: back button focus, swap Tv/Av in M mode, M-Fn = level, use joystick for AF select
- and finally set the custom setting C1 to C3

Saxi wrote in post #14142842
Another change I made that is pretty useful. Changing the DOF button to be a toggle for one-shot / servo. Because I didn't really use DOF before, and now the button is super convienient spot now, this is a great use of the button. It's out of the way where it won't be hit by accident, and since you have to "hold" it down, it's perfect for using in servo mode. Probably my favorite customization now!

Good idea, I might do the same. Mine comes in Mon.

Subscribed... to toy with later

I set the DoF button to bring up the electronic level.

What else...hmm...I added mirror lock-up to the custom menu, along with format card and speedlite control. Changed a bunch of basic settings to suit my needs, but I won't bore anyone with those.

The biggest change I did was get a UniWB profile set up as my custom white balance, but it's not working well (despite producing photos with perfect multipliers). See my thread about it here.

Any other comments on settings?

I've change the DOF button to switch to registered AF point. I've also reversed shutter speed and aperture dials. Changed Set button to zoom during playback.

The very first things I changed.

Disable shooting without CF card
Turn off AF confirmation beep
AF to af-on and shutter button to Start Meter
Switch top wheel to AV and big wheel to Tv

Oh, I also changed the multi-controller settings so that it can directly change the selected AF point. That option is somewhere in the custom settings.