Custom Function 4 on 30D is SOOOOOO great!

I finally decided to dig into Custom Functions on my 30D and once I understood what Custom Function 4 was I changed it to 3 and now this camera rocks even more than it already did.
It only took me about an hour of playing with it to get used to it and it makes so much sense. To seperate focus from metering is one of the best things and I mean it. It opens up so many doors and give much more flexibility.
If you haven't tried it or made the change you should give it a shot.

Without getting into any of the specifics and technical explanations, change CF4 to 3, then exit the Menu and (here's the part you have to get used to) press (and release) the * button (2nd button from right) on the back on the camera on the right side by your thumb and you will see that this button now has taken on the same function as when you press the shutter half way down to focus and meter. Now the camera has performed the auto focus and the shutter button is used only to meter and release the shutter to take the picture, and that can be done in one motion now instead of pressing the shutter half way and then depressing fully. You can re-focus without changing exposure and you can change exposure without refocusing. Make sense?

Give it a shot and don't be afraid of it. Use it for a while and don't be too quick to stop using it because it 'feels funny'. After you use it for a few hours or a day you will love it.

Of course I am sure there are many that still like it as it is but to me this is one of the best, unmentioned settings that should be changed right away. You have to get out of the point & shoot mentality and then it makes a whole lot of sense.

When you see the settings for CF4 they look something like this: AE/AF. The value before the slash is what function the shutter has and the value after the slash is the function of the * button. So in this case AE/AF means that you are metering using the shutter button and the auto focus function has been moved to the * button.

Anyone else using this function and loving it?

Please correct me if I have not described this accurately.

I changed to that mode a couple months ago and really like it myself...

TMR Design wrote in post #2160181
I finally decided to dig into Custom Functions on my 30D and once I understood what Custom Function 4 was I changed it to 3 and now this camera rocks even more than it already did.
It only took me about an hour of playing with it to get used to it and it makes so much sense. To seperate focus from metering is one of the best things and I mean it. It opens up so many doors and give much more flexibility.
If you haven't tried it or made the change you should give it a shot.

Without getting into any of the specifics and technical explanations, change CF4 to 3, then exit the Menu and (here's the part you have to get used to) press (and release) the * button (2nd button from right) on the back on the camera on the right side by your thumb and you will see that this button now has taken on the same function as when you press the shutter half way down to focus and meter. Now the camera has performed the auto focus and the shutter button is used only to meter and release the shutter to take the picture, and that can be done in one motion now instead of pressing the shutter half way and then depressing fully. You can re-focus without changing exposure and you can change exposure without refocusing. Make sense?

Give it a shot and don't be afraid of it. Use it for a while and don't be too quick to stop using it because it 'feels funny'. After you use it for a few hours or a day you will love it.

Of course I am sure there are many that still like it as it is but to me this is one of the best, unmentioned settings that should be changed right away. You have to get out of the point & shoot mentality and then it makes a whole lot of sense.

When you see the settings for CF4 they look something like this: AE/AF. The value before the slash is what function the shutter has and the value after the slash is the function of the * button. So in this case AE/AF means that you are metering using the shutter button and the auto focus function has been moved to the * button.

Anyone else using this function and loving it?

Please correct me if I have not described this accurately.

The only reason I don't use it is that you can no longer use the star button for FEL.

yep mine to... since the day I got my 30D... changed it right away since Im used to my D200 before having AE lock.

Bob_A wrote in post #2160217
The only reason I don't use it is that you can no longer use the star button for FEL.

I hate to admit it but I don't know what FEL is? Can you explain?

flash exposure lock

Changed it a couple months ago thought I liked it but decided to switch it back to the orginal way. Upon switching it back to the original setup I realized how much I REALLY liked the Cfn4 set to the * button for focusing and shutter button for metering! Things got even better when I figured out I didn't have to hold the * button down after focus was established!

I do have one question though...does the camera have to be in the default mode to use the remote to set focus or does focus need to be set prior to using the remote if the Cfn4-1 is set? My apologies for hijacking this thread but thought this might be an appropriate place for this question.

Bob_A wrote in post #2160217
The only reason I don't use it is that you can no longer use the star button for FEL.

For FEL you use half-pressed shutter button (C.Fn. 4-1).

Keep it half-pressed, zoom out/recompose, whatever, focus with * and press shutter all the way.

i actually prefer CF-4 set to 1 so i can lock focus or exposure seperately, but if i need to have continous metering as the lighting condition changes, i'll set it to 3.

Bonjour43ma wrote in post #2160792
i actually prefer CF-4 set to 1 so i can lock focus or exposure seperately, but if i need to have continous metering as the lighting condition changes, i'll set it to 3.

That makes sense and actually helps me understand the difference between 1 and 3.

Elbee19 wrote in post #2160629
does the camera have to be in the default mode to use the remote to set focus or does focus need to be set prior to using the remote if the Cfn4-1 is set?

A wired remote works the same way as the shutter button on the camera. So if C. Fn. 4 is set to 1 or 3, you still need to use the * button to focus.

Hermeto wrote in post #2160668
For FEL you use half-pressed shutter button (C.Fn. 4-1).

No. With C. Fn. 4 set to 1, half-pressing the shutter button will lock the ambient exposure but not the flash exposure. Loss of FEL is a disadvantage of using this custom function.

Hermeto wrote in post #2160668
For FEL you use half-pressed shutter button (C.Fn. 4-1).

Keep it half-pressed, zoom out/recompose, whatever, focus with * and press shutter all the way.

That will give you ambient Exposure Lock (AEL), not Flash Exposure Lock (FEL). I know of no way, on a current xxD/xxxD to do FEL, except in CF4=0.

Remember in ETTL-II, there are two separate exposures, ambient and flash.

Also, remember that FEL is more than just locking the flash exposure. When FEL is initiated ('*' button), the flash exposure method will be set to 'averaging' (irrespective of whether 'evaluative' or 'averaging' was selected by the user)and the area averaged will be the area within the circle in the viewfinder (partial or spot, depending on camera) at the time the '*' button was hit (which is when the preflash will go off to do the metering).

Okay, thanks guys, I stand corrected!

This issue comes up a lot, see the long threads on page 5 (probably page 6 by now). Perhaps this should all be consolidated into one sticky at the top?

All sorts of permutations regarding one shot, AI focus and AI servo modes.

I tried CF4-1 this weekend and must admit that it wasn't difficult to get used to. I know that someone mentioned the confusion caused if you ask someone else to use your camera, a bit daunting to have to explain how to focus then shoot. The solution to this is to go to the green square mode - probably the only time any of us wuld ever use that!

Many, many of us have been using C Fn. 4-1 for a long time and there are multiple threads that discuss the advantages (and some minor disadvantages) of doing this with several different camera bodies. For example, with the 1 Series bodies you don't lose FEL capability (and on some of the older XXD cameras as well) -those camera with a dedicated FEL button.

Mark