Canon 40D - what default settings would you change for gen..

External Since: Oct 03, 2007 Posts: 24

The question would apply to many cameras, but I'm playing with my 40D
right now...

For general shooting, I suppose (possibly after a few weeks) most
would set the control dial to P.

You might shoot raw, or not, depending on how much space you have left
on the card.

What about the default contrast/sharpness settings?

Would you set a single focus point instead of 9?

What about the flash sync speed... it's pretty annoying to have the
shutter do a 1/2 sec exposure when you want a close-up of some object
that is in some shady location.

Other suggestions?

Ed

External Since: Oct 09, 2006 Posts: 333

EAL wrote:
> The question would apply to many cameras, but I'm playing with my 40D
> right now...

Nice!

> For general shooting, I suppose (possibly after a few weeks) most
> would set the control dial to P.

I did that with my 300D right out of the box.

> You might shoot raw, or not, depending on how much space you have left
> on the card.

I'll usually shoot highest-quality, largest JPG, for ease of processing
and workflow, and switch to RAW when the subject/desire/intent calls for
it, particularly for landscapes, high-contrast or low-light scenes, and
the like - places where I want to make use of the additional dynamic
range provided by the RAW format.

> What about the default contrast/sharpness settings?

My rule of thumb is to leave all these settings at "0" or default -
these things are easy to tweak in software, and it's better to NOT have
the camera apply excessive processing first. Remember, it's much harder
to UNDO something the camera has done to the picture, than to simply do
it manually later.

> Would you set a single focus point instead of 9?

That would depend entirely on what I'm shooting. I'll usually use all 7
of my 300D's focus points - the camera can often be aimed to "encourage"
a particular point to lock on, and holding focus-lock then allows me to
recompose. There are rare times I'll select a specific focus point, but
I find making the change usually consumes more time than it's worth, and
can screw me up later if I forget to set it back. In fact, I'm more
likely to simply switch to manual focus than to select one specific
focus point.

> What about the flash sync speed... it's pretty annoying to have the
> shutter do a 1/2 sec exposure when you want a close-up of some object
> that is in some shady location.

That, too, will vary with the situation. Sometimes you want a slow
shutter sync, to get particular effects. Sometimes you want it faster
to reduce or virtually eliminate the effect of ambient light.

> Other suggestions?

Take a course - community college, online, or whatever suits you - in
basic photography. It doesn't need to be a digital-specific course,
just something that teaches the theory and application behind concepts
such as exposure, exposure compensation, depth-of-field, adjusting
shutter and aperture for different purposes, and so on. A good grasp on
the basics will make it easier to see and understand what's happening
when you choose various settings, and determine what settings to use to
achieve a particular outcome.