In this quick tutorial photographer David Bergman from AdoramaTV teaches about the importance of button programming and customization on your camera.
Mr. Bergman shares: “I will show you how to customize buttons on Canon 5d Mark 3, but you’ll find that many other cameras have similar options. If you dig deeply into your camera menus, you’ll find an option that says “custom controls”.”
“This allows you to remap almost all the buttons and dials on your cameras. You can set them up exactly how you want them. So I shoot using the “back button autofocus” method and I find myself sometimes accidentally pressing that little star button instead of the AF-on button, since it’s closer to my thumb.”
“The default for the star button is auto-exposure lock, which I never use. So what I’ve done is I’ve changed it so that both buttons do exactly the same thing, so it doesn’t matter which button I press I’ll always have the function that I want. I also really like the way the camera setup by default and that what I’m shooting manually I control the aperture with the quick control dial on the back and then the main dial on top to control my shutter speed.”
“Some people like it the other way around, and this gives you the ability to switch those things, so you can have either one control, either function. Something I really like to do is check focus on playback by zooming into the image. The problem is the zoom button is on the left side of the back of the camera. I don’t like to pull my hand away from the lens to be able to push that button, so what I’ve done is I’ve remapped the “set” button in the middle of the quick control dial so that now all I have to do is move my thumb down there push it. It’ll zoom-in right where I want it, and I can check focus without having to fumble around for the button.”
“Lastly, if you’re the type of photographer that likes to move focus points around while you’re shooting – you can change that little joystick called the multi-controller, so that all you have to do is push that thing left right up or down and it’ll change your focus point without having to push any other buttons. This works really well because you can do it without pulling your eye away from the viewfinder. These cameras are infinitely customizable so you can set them up to work the way that you like to shoot.”