40D Custom Functions and Menu settings...What's yours

If feel that the 40D's C1/C2/C3 and Green Star Menu features are one of the most overlooked features of the 40D. Once I got down to reading the manual (novel idea) I found these to be quite useful. C1/C2/C3 save ALL the camera settings. These along with user defined picture styles makes PS editing a lot quicker.

Here are mine:

C1
AV
RAW
6.5 fps
ISO 100
AWB
AI Servo
Evaluative Meter
All Focus Points
High Tone Priority OFF

C2
AV
RAW
6.5 fps
ISO 400
AWB
One Shot
Spot Meter
Center Focus Point
Highlight Tone Priority ON

C3
AV
RAW
Single Shot
ISO 1600
Spot Meter
Center Focus Point
High Tone Priority ON

GREEN STAR MENU settings

Quality
Erase images
ISO expansion
High ISO Speed Noise Reduct'n
Highlight Tone Priority
Sensor cleaning
My Menu Settings

I am still playing with these settings, but the ability to make one click changes to my favorite settings for situations is a great benefit to me.

btw...you can tell if Highlight Tone Priority is on by looking at the viewfinder or top LCD window:

ISO 4oo = ON (note the little "o's")

ISO 400 = OFF (off allows ISO 100 and 3200 to become available..)

I don't have my 40D yet, but I just wanted to confirm that the custom settings don't change when you turn off your camera? I think I read somewhere that they needed to be reset after every on/off.

Sageg wrote in post #4048805
I don't have my 40D yet, but I just wanted to confirm that the custom settings don't change when you turn off your camera? I think I read somewhere that they needed to be reset after every on/off.

They stay set even when you turn the camera off.

Thanks! I'm very glad to see that the other poster was wrong.

Sageg wrote in post #4048805
I don't have my 40D yet, but I just wanted to confirm that the custom settings don't change when you turn off your camera? I think I read somewhere that they needed to be reset after every on/off.

I think you misunderstood. The problem is not that the custom settings need to be reset, it is that any changes that you make to them will need to be reset after each time that the camera goes into "sleep" mode. For instance, with S200's C1 he forgot to say what aperture he had set when he registered the C1 (that also becomes part of the custom settings) but let's say it was f/4. He turns the mode wheel to C1 and f/4 becomes his default aperture. After a few minutes he decides he needs more dof so he changes it to f/11. Everything is cool until a minute later, while he is trying to find the perfect compositional angle, the camera falls asleep. A simple half-press on the shutter release will arouse it, but now he finds that the aperture has defaulted back to f/4. If he were using M instead of Av both aperture and shutter speed would have defaulted back.

tzalman wrote in post #4049075
I think you misunderstood. The problem is not that the custom settings need to be reset, it is that any changes that you make to them will need to be reset after each time that the camera goes into "sleep" mode. For instance, with S200's C1 he forgot to say what aperture he had set when he registered the C1 (that also becomes part of the custom settings) but let's say it was f/4. He turns the mode wheel to C1 and f/4 becomes his default aperture. After a few minutes he decides he needs more dof so he changes it to f/11. Everything is cool until a minute later, while he is trying to find the perfect compositional angle, the camera falls asleep. A simple half-press on the shutter release will arouse it, but now he finds that the aperture has defaulted back to f/4. If he were using M instead of Av both aperture and shutter speed would have defaulted back.

YES....this is true. It would be an issue if you were studio and tripod mount...but then again I would not be using C functions. I intentionally set my f to 1.4 for this reason...but that's just me.

This is one of the features that I am most looking forward to using when my 40D arrives this week! It will make life so much easier.

How do you program these custom settings exactly?

versedmb wrote in post #4049514
This is one of the features that I am most looking forward to using when my 40D arrives this week! It will make life so much easier.

How do you program these custom settings exactly?

It's in the Custom Functions setting. It's clearly spelled out in the manual.

Ah. I get it. I'll have to read the manual carefully so I can maximize this to my shooting style.