What are custom modes and why use them?
This can be used for both photography and video!
Not all Canon cameras have these custom settings on the mode dial – only the ‘pro’ level cameras.
How to set it up
Setting a custom mode is easy: select ALL the desired camera settings, including the custom functions, then go into the menu Camera User Setting, Register then select the dial position you want it to be associated too. From now how, when ever you put the dial on the selected custom mode, all the camera settings are going to be set as those at the time you registered the settings.
Note: if you select a custom mode then apply some changes, these changes will not be registered. They will be lost when the camera powers off which can happen quickly if you set your camera to auto power off after a short period of time. This is contrary to other dial controls where the last setting is kept between on/off.
Uses
Photographers have found various uses for this feature, including:
- giving a quick access to mirror lockup
- activating the highlight tone priority
- quickly switching between completely different camera settings to adapt to shooting conditions
As you can see, Custom modes are quite useful, make sure you take a moment to register at least one with your favorite settings.
How do you use Custom Modes?
He loves the stories that the still image can tell. In the summer of 2008, he read a story written by Arnold Kim called “I Quit My Job” — Arn is the owner of macrumors.com. He started macrumors in 2000 as a hobby, and by 2008 he was making more money with the site than he was on his day job, so he quit. The surprise to the story is that he was a doctor making more than six figures! Right then and there, planetMitch dreamed about doing the same thing.
September 2008 rolled around, and Canon announced this new version of the incredible 5D — the Canon EOS 5D Mark II. It was the first Canon DSLR to shoot full HD video and the earth moved! (It really was a huge deal in the photography world.) planetMitch knew if there was ever a chance to ride a wave of something he was really passionate about, this was it — and the blog at planet5D.com was born. It is now one of the most popular HDSLR blogs on the planet, and he is making a full-time living from blogging. He couldn’t be happier!
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- I’m a photographer, should I be learning to shoot video? - December 8, 2013
Another great use of Custom modes is to set up the first one (C1) with your standard settings for your video shoot: picture profile, white balance, shutter speed, aperture, … When you’re on set and say your next scene requires a different aperture, set the aperture (or what ever else your changing) and record your custom mode to C2. That way, when you need to go back to your standard settings, switch the camera to C1 and voila you’re ready to shoot.
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