Tip 1. Camera Button/Command Setup
I learnt these setup tricks through experimentation and chatting to professional photographers. I find they make the camera easier to use and result in better photographs. They may take a little while to get accustomed to but I think you will find them useful once you have them mastered.
- Spot Metering mapped to FUNC button In a complicated scene that contains both bright and dark elements the camera’s metering can get confused. What I do is select an object that is ‘mid-grey’, aim the camera at the object and press/hold FUNC (the meter now is representing this object). I then adjust settings to correctly expose for this object and release FUNC. Now I recompose shot and start shooting. I review the histogram often to make sure my ‘mid-grey’ object was a good choice, and I found it takes some practice to select a good mid-grey object.
- Shutter Release button mapped to purely releasing shutter By default the Shutter Release also performs auto-focus. De-coupling these allows you to decide when to focus and when to shoot. This tip goes hand-in-hand with the next one…
- AF-ON (or AE-L/AF-L) mapped to AF-ON (Auto-focus) Since your thumb is right next to the AF-ON (AE-L/AF-L) button its no effort to tap this prior to shooting. What it allows you to do is decide which object you want to focus on without having to half-press/recompose for each shot. I found this one of the hardest changes to get used to, but once mastered it allowed complete control over the focusing.
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Command Dials mapped to Menus and Playback
This maps the Rear Dial to next/previous photo and the Front Dial to cycle through shot info/histogram etc.
I find it much easier to flick through photos using the rear dial than the multi-selector (which requires you to adjust your grip on the camera).
There are two other advantages to this :-
- 1. It is very easy to zoom in and out since you just need to hold the magnification button while turning the rear dial.
- 2. The image-zoom isn’t reset each time you change image, meaning it’s very easy to flick through your images judging sharpness