Programming your camera body: how do you do yours?

[JustinO]

Given the huge number of cameras out there, and the ever-increasing ability we have to programme buttons to do what we want, perhaps a discussion on how people have programmed theirs could be of use particularly when the "time for an upgrade" bug bites... 

So go on - how have you programmed yours? 

[JustinO]

Olympus: EM 1 Mk II

 

My EM1 Mk II body is configured as follows; but this body is highly customisable: 
Fn1 - Focus Peaking.  Shows the areas that are in focus in red (colour customisable in the main menu). 
Fn2 - Preset focus (PreMF)/Manual Focus - switches between Manual focus and Preset focus.  This works really well to change the focus straight to the minimum focus distance for a lens. It's particularly useful with the 8mm fisheye for CFWA, and for the 60mm to get 1:1 magnification.  
AEL/AFL- back button focus (BBF). Separates focus from the shutter button to allow reframing without changing focus when the shutter is pressed.  Note the following: 

• When in Manual focus,  Continuous, or PreMF modes ( all accessed from the Autofocus/metering button) focus will only change when BBF button is pressed.  
• When in Servo AF mode, focus remains on the shutter button, and the AEL button defaults to AEL.  

Fn Lever - Tv/Av on position 1, ISO/WB on position 2. Enables using the front dials to control either Exposure time and Aperture value, or ISO and White balance. 
Front Preview button (Pv on a Nauticam housing) - Magnify. Enlarges the image in the viewfinder or display panel up to 14x. 
Front WB button  - not usable in a Nauticam housing.
Left Keypad button -  Autofocus point selection.  To move the focus point around the display. 
Bottom Keypad button - Manual focus. Switches between MF and whatever other focus mode I have selected (e.g. S-AF and MF,  or C-AF and MF - the modes can be changed by pressing the AF /metering button).  I usually have it set to S-AF/MF. In MF, you can either use the focus ring (if you have a focus gear on your port) or focus from back button focus. 
Top and Right Keypad buttons not customisable. 

 

Some notes on setting PreMF: 

• I have my preMF set to 0.001m in the menu. This works really well to change the focus straight to the minimum focus distance for a lens. It's particularly useful with the 8mm fisheye for CFWA, and for the 60mm to get 1:1 magnification.  
• When using the 60mm, I have also found that I need to have the focus limiter on the lens set on the 0.19 - infinity range. If I have it set on 0.19-0.4m, then for reasons I have yet to fathom, I can't get the preset to set to 1-1 at all.
• There's a quick way to adjust prefocus distance without going deep into the menus. Useful if you don't know how far away you are from the subject, or if you want to move back from 1:1 to get more of the subject in the frame: 

1. Press AF/metering button on top of the power button. 
2. When the focus/metering  menu pops up, select the PreMF on the right of the display
3. Press the info button. Your PreMF setting will then be shown.
4. Half press the shutter button to adjust the focus distance (if you have the focus ring you can also tweak it that way).
5. Press set to accept the new PreMF setting - it will also show you what it's set to.  

• If you mirror my button customisation set up and adjust PreMF this way, make sure that at some point you repeat step 1- and select your "normal" focus mode - otherwise you will have Fn2 and the bottom keypad button doing the same thing. 
• Focus Peaking does work with PreMF Mode - just as long as you don't have the shutter button half-pressed- that seems to temporarily turn it off. 

Custom Modes:

The EM1 MK II has three programmable modes that can be uploaded for quick "go to" settings, or for grabbing that quick shot when something unexpected turns up. Note these are just starting points, but default back to these every time the mode is selected: 

• C1: "Basic Blackbackground Macro": 1/250, f18, ISO 200.  PreMF mode. Single shot. AWB. Rear curtain Synch. 
• C2: "The smash 'n' grab":  1/125, f7.1, ISO 200. S-AF. "Cross" focus arrangement (to ensure at least one point of focus is on the subject), roughly on a third. Multiple shot. AWB.  Useful for those unprepared shots that turn up from time to time. Rear curtain synch.
• C3: "Basic Wideangle" 1/250, f9, ISO 400. AWB. Single Point Focus.  Set up to give me my preferred shade of blue, with sufficient depth of field. Rear curtain synch.

I shoot full manual strobes, so need to tweak power settings. I also use the Nauticam flash trigger, so I can get synchronisation with flash above 1/250.