1DX Mark II - getting the most out of the camera, tips and tricks

Jack Douglas said:

privatebydesign said:

arthurbikemad said:

Think all here know its not full M if you have auto ISO selected, however there are times that auto ISO and Exp comp in M mode are handy. I mention it as unless the button is configured it can not be selected/changed.

Click to expand...

Not if you read back in the forums they don't.

I am not saying it isn't a great feature, just that selecting it via M Mode is not intuitive. I use Auto ISO in my EOS-M in Av and it is fantastic, but in that situation it is doing a very narrow and specific task, it is taking focal length information and keeping shutter speed above reasonable hand holdable levels, combine that with a limited ISO range so you never get noise levels you won't accept and the feature is very strong.

But using Auto ISO in M Mode is not M Mode, it is an Auto Mode and I think would be more intuitive if it was labeled differently.

Click to expand...

Scott, it's your English childhood schooling that makes you focus on exactness or correctness, while others really don't get into that. I'm just like you except that often I'm so clueless about something I can't tell if it's correct or not, especially in photography.

I have to laugh. I'd be in a group reviewing an exam that someone had created and pointing out that the wording was misleading and that students would answer all over the map. The response I typically got was that I was too picky and a refusal to reword. Then, after, having to mark this "common" exam, there it was - students answering correctly but being mislead by the instructor's ambiguity and me having to mark all kinds of incorrect answers as correct and wasting all kinds of time. ;D

Jack

Click to expand...

We have three things to play with aperture, shutter speed and ISO. You can play with them in P, Tv, Av and M mode. I am happy to rename M to Maximum mode, if that helps. The thing is, that when you shoot birds and wildlife and you cannot direct what you shoot, M-mode, usually referred to as Manual mode, with auto ISO is very handy. However, I need to do exposure compensation, since the ISO is auto, but that is cumbersome and time consuming. So very often I go to Manual mode and do the exposure compensation manually by changing ISO manually. I hope that was clarifying.

Jack Douglas said:

Eldar, I think it was well understood already and I hope to hear a solution to your request on exposure compensation.

Engineers may be technically good but totally miss the boat on ergonomics and that seems to be a problem with all the manufacturers. Then there is the issue of once you commit to something and it turns out to not have been the best choice it may not be practical to change since people get used to it and don't want change.

I see this in the 1D, 5D lines after having used the 6D in, for example, the ease with which the 6D handles one handed image review and deletion with the alternate "joystick" arrangement. Put that on the other series and the screaming begins.

It seems Canon needs to give more flexibility to button option assignment.

Jack

Click to expand...

All I need is a firmware upgrade, where I can push the Q-button, with the menu set to EC, adjust EC up and down and see what I am doing in the viewfinder. That is, as far as I know, not possible in any way today. To me that is a serious limitation to the auto ISO functionality. I never use auto ISO in any other mode.

If you mean EC in M mode on 1DX2 you can set the centre button to do just that, but you have to hold the button and turn the scroll wheel at the same time to set EC, EC is shown on the lower display and exposure on the right, there is another option where the same button can be assigned for ISO, then holding the same as before scrolls the ISO up and down, even scrolls back to Auto unlike on some other bodies where oddly you can not scroll back to Auto, it has to be set with the ISO button.

Perhaps I have miss understood. haha.. :-X

Yes sorry, set.

Thanks, I´ll be happy to try that when I get the camera back from repair. If that works I am a happy man

My camera actually fell off the lens, while I was carrying it and hit the rock I was walking on, so now I suddenly found something to waste $2k on, unless Canon agrees that it was caused by a faulty locking mechanism in the lens mount and agree that it is a warranty repair. Jury is still out, so fingers crossed.

Oh gutted! I have a small para cord that teathers the camera to the lens, tripod, wrist, anything else I can safely setup a secondary fail safe, well on my 5D3 I do as not bothered to make one up for the 1D yet, maybe I will tomorrow now you say that! Before I found I often pressed the lense release button while climbing around in brush etc and unclipped the body from the lens risking just what happened to you.

Jack Douglas said:

Why is M with auto ISO so desirable other than be an auto exposure mode? I guess this question would digress into the merits of manual vs. auto??

Click to expand...

There are many shooting situations where M with Auto ISO work well with the need for EC, indeed it is strange it has taken so long to catch on.

Think of this scenario, you are using 400 f4 to shoot a bird, you know you need f8 to get the entire bird sharp because of dof, you know you need a 1/640 sec to get exactly the wing blur you want and you know you need plus 2/3 stop EC because the bird is lighter than mid tone, ergo the only other variable to allow for illumination levels is ISO.

My comment is not on the need for EC in M mode with Auto ISO and I'd hate to think I upset Eldar, it is one of nomenclature. Traditionally M has meant you dictate exposure, if you introduce an auto element to those exposures then it isn't manual mode.

The main reason I have taken issue with this is because, as I said earlier, I teach and people honestly believing they are in manual and dictating things when all they are doing is riding auto iso and getting excessively noisy images when they don't need to. Also their manual exposures always end up being mid toned when that is nothing close to what they actually set their cameras to get!

Jack Douglas said:

Scott, I understand this:

Think of this scenario, you are using 400 f4 to shoot a bird, you know you need f8 to get the entire bird sharp because of dof, you know you need a 1/640 sec to get exactly the wing blur you want and you know you need plus 2/3 stop EC because the bird is lighter than mid tone, ergo the only other variable to allow for illumination levels is ISO.

The question is why not manually set the ISO for the needed exposure level that goes with the blur and DOF requirements and that's it or doesn't the ISO affect exposure in the way that I'm thinking?

Jack

Click to expand...

That is the only variable bit that you don't have an artistic need to control, so if your bird flight path goes across different backgrounds or it comes from under canopy cover into an open better illuminated area the auto part makes a lot of sense. The camera can get the exposure 'right' much faster than we can. M mode traditionally only worked well in relatively constant subject illumination.

Of course we lived without auto iso for over 100 years, but new features push new images and there is no doubt that making stand out images is more difficult than ever. I have Nat Geo's going back over fifty years, the standard of photography has changed dramatically and there is no doubt that many of the stand out images are better technically than ever before. Same with the Olympics, or even look at modern wedding images from some of the real masters.

A couple things I will contribute for now...I will try to add more later as I think of more tips...

1) You can set both the AF-On button and the * button to be focus buttons. However, most don't realize there are two totally different ways that these can be customized. Each way has different options for selection.

The first way is to set the button to Metering+AF start and then hit the INFO button and select the focusing mode, AF points etc....I think there are 4 options you can adjust doing it this way.

The second way is to not assign Metering + AF start but instead use the "Register/recall shooting func" Then hit INFO and you get a whole bunch of options you can assign to that button. If you want it to AF make sure to tick that off at the bottom of the list. This way allows changes to almost everything including aperture, ISO, SS settings and AF settings etc.

2) If you so desire you can set the main camera focus setting to One Shot but keep the two back buttons on AI Servo. In this case you leave the shutter button active. If you are holding the back button the camera will stay in AI Servo and hitting the shutter doesn't trigger the One Shot. If you release the back button the shutter works as One Shot. If you do it this way you loose the ability to focus recompose with the back button as some people like to do but you can still focus recompose with half press of the shutter button.

3) The #1 best thing I've ever found in the 1 series and it doesn't work in any of the other cameras is the ability to set the M-Fn button (up by the shutter button) to cycle through the C modes (and AV, TV, M). This is the setting marked by a "C" when setting up the M-Fn in Custom Controls menu. Personally I use M mode 100% of the time (and no Auto-ISO). The M-Fn button will just cycle through M mode and the C1 (and C2 or C3 if you want). I use this to have two different SS/Aperuture/ISO settings ready to go with a simple press of the M-Fn. I usually use this to have a "perched" setting (lower ISO, lower SS) and a "flight" setting (higher ISO faster SS). I find this amazingly effective to change between modes when flight opportunities arise. I've also used this to have a sunny and shade modes when I have subjects in both lights or the sun is going in and out behind clouds.

If you decide to use the C modes I recommend setting them to Auto Update Set (Enable) so you can change them and the settings stick as needed.

You can do a similar thing with the "Register/recall shooting function" but then you have to dig into the menu every time the light changes and you want different SS/ISO/Av.

4) Using the Set button to select ISO is my preferred way to do it. However, if you like to use EC in M with Auto-ISO that uses the Set button to do it without using the menus so ISO has to be done another way.

5)AF joystick should be set to move focus points. Remember you can push in the joystick to switch back to the centre point at any time (or you can change this behaviour to select the saved focus point instead (hit INFO while changing the joystick setting in Custom Controls)
To change AF modes, pushing the upper right most back button and then using the top wheel works the best for me.

6)In C.Fn2:Exposure menu I select Same expo. for new aperture as "ISO". This means when I slap on a TC the camera automatically changes my ISO to match my previously set exposure. Not critical but was introduced for the 200-400 and with that lens it is critical when you are slapping the TC in and out with the switch in under a second. However, you have to leave the camera on(I do always anyways) when swapping TCs to have this work.

I'll think of some more things and post more later...

Jack Douglas said:

Why is M with auto ISO so desirable other than be an auto exposure mode? I guess this question would digress into the merits of manual vs. auto??

Eldar, that sure is a bummer. So it seems like that click that ensures the pair stay together somehow didn't happen??

Jack

Click to expand...

The M mode with auto ISO is very desirable, when you want to control both shutter speed and aperture, in shifting light conditions and are willing to fluctuate on ISO. If things are more stable, I often shoot in full manual, where I control EC with ISO adjustments. However, adjusting ISO and shifting AF points around takes time and attention, so I prefer to use auto ISO. I use Av mode occasionally, when I know I have enough light to get proper shutter speeds at a given ISO setting, but I never use Tv mode.

The locking mechanism on my 1DX-II does give the click, but it does not lock properly. If you don´t get the click, you cannot control the lens aperture, so that is easy to detect. Canon´s (CPS that is) initial reaction was that the drop damage is not covered by warranty, but I claimed that it was a faulty locking mechanism that caused the damage. I have been told that they will come back with an answer next week. I have confirmed with my insurance company though that if Canon refuse to take it as warranty, they will cover it under the insurance.

Eldar said:

The M mode with auto ISO is very desirable, when you want to control both shutter speed and aperture, in shifting light conditions and are willing to fluctuate on ISO. If things are more stable, I often shoot in full manual, where I control EC with ISO adjustments. However, adjusting ISO and shifting AF points around takes time and attention, so I prefer to use auto ISO. I use Av mode occasionally, when I know I have enough light to get proper shutter speeds at a given ISO setting, but I never use Tv mode.

Click to expand...

+1