What is your Camera Starting Point?

Craig

Craig

Member
Staff member
Since Michael and Roni brought this up in another thread I thought it would be fun to start another:

When you "reset" your camera before or after shooting, where do you start?

I start at iso 800, A mode at f3.5, matrix metering, the "auto" auto focus mode(I dont know the real name...) auto white balance, matrix metering, quality at large fine jpeg
 
Reset?

Tell me what this "reset"[nb]Why yes I've shot wide open at ISO 6400 before. Why do you ask?[/nb] means. ; ;D ;D ;D
 
"Roger" said:
1. Why yes I've shot wide open at ISO 6400 before. Why do you ask?
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what a perfect bright white shot you took! that white is so crisp and clear!
 
"Roger" said:
Reset?

Tell me what this "reset"[nb]Why yes I've shot wide open at ISO 6400 before. Why do you ask?[/nb] means. ; ;D ;D ;D
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Gee- why am I[nb]Yup- been there done that more times than I care to admit[/nb] overexposing and all my shots are at 1/8000 second shutter speed. ; ???
 
When I change lenses I reset the auto-iso to keep the shutter mol higher than the 1/Focal Length rule of thumb. ; Aside from that- not much else gets changed on my camera unless I'm night shooting or something.
 
Well, ; Craig. ; Up until today, my starting point was the ending point from my last session. :D

Now you're just gonna confuse me! ; Should my starting point be where Craig's, Michael's, Jason's, Justin's, Roger's, Tim's, other Tim's, Dan's, Tom's, Boris', Brian's, Sylvia's, or Jeff's is? (or anyone else's I didn't mention)

Oy!
 
Roni, your starting point should be....


Yours.




Honestly, once you get to that point, you'll know what you are planning on using your camera for on a regular basis, and then that'll be it.

Either that or you'll have a camera with the ability to preprogram different options at the switch of a dial (or a menu)[nb]You don't know the power of the dark side.....[/nb]
 
I understand the concept of doing a reset, but does that mean you all are going through all the menu options and physically changing these settings or does your camera have the ability to press some buttons and make the changes all at once. ;
 
"Roger" said:
Roni, your starting point should be....

Yours.
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Exactly. ; I should have been more clear in my original post. ; Like Roger said, you'll figure out what the right setting for you are. ; The important thing is that you change them back to the same thing each time so you don't have to remember what you used last time.

"Jeff Fillmore" said:
Gee- why am I overexposing and all my shots are at 1/8000 second shutter speed. ; ???
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Me too... many times.
 
"Grumpwurst" said:
I understand the concept of doing a reset, but does that mean you all are going through all the menu options and physically changing these settings or does your camera have the ability to press some buttons and make the changes all at once.
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Hold down ISO, wheel.

Hold down mode, wheel.

Turn appropriate wheel to set value to desired result.


There are harder cameras to do this with, and I think Canon figured it out a little better than Nikon by having the customizable dial options....then it's just a turn.
 
"Craig" said:
When you "reset" your camera before or after shooting, where do you start?
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Thanks for the blog post idea, Craig! ; I screwed up last weekend forgetting to set my camera to my starting point so this was fresh in my mind this week.

BTW, mine is probably a bit different. ; Keep in mind the age of my camera, a Nikon D70:

Shooting Mode: Program (takes care of shutter and aperture settings and I spin the back control dial to change them for my purposes.)
Exposure Mode: Matrix
Focus: AF-S
ISO: 200
Auto ISO: 1/15s Min. shutter speed before bumping ISO up (can't set Max ISO)
EV: +0.3
Shutter: Single
Quality: JPEG, Fine or RAW
WB: Auto -3

If I have a VR lens on, I turn it ON and set it to Normal

When shooting ice hockey I change these dramatically. ; Or if I am using a tripod, I will turn off Auto ISO. ; If doing HDR, I change the EVs constantly which is what got me in trouble last weekend. You get the point. ; In the heat of shooting and with the pressure on, you sometimes forget to check all those settings so it's best to do that BEFORE you start. ;

One of those D'oh! moments :-[. ;
 
"Grumpwurst" said:
I understand the concept of doing a reset, but does that mean you all are going through all the menu options and physically changing these settings or does your camera have the ability to press some buttons and make the changes all at once. ;
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I change them all by hand one at a time, but I use the buttons on the camera to do it, not through the menu. ; Some of the newer bodies will let you save your settings to a CF card. ; So, I guess you could load your baseline settings to a card and reload them from there if you wanted.
 
My default values, or 'reset' values, are thus: ; "P" Program mode, ISO200 (default base ISO), Autofocus: Single, Focus area: Center spot, Metering mode: Center weighted, White balance: Auto, Flash: Off, DRO (Dynamic Range Optimization): Off, HDR (High Dynamic Range): Off, EV: -0.0.

From there, I can make whatever adjustments I deem fit, turn on any features I want, etc...but I like to always make sure the camera is restored to these settings before shutting down, so it will be like this when I start up again the next time.
 
I never thought to 'reset' mine. I've just always been in the habit of checking my settings before I shoot. Hmm...resetting the setting, what an ingenious idea!
 
We are not talking about doing a camera RESET which puts all the settings back to factory (or New Out of the Box). ; Just the settings which most of us feel comfortable starting with so we don't start off with something strange when we press the shutter for a new photo session/event/etc.
 
"Scottwdw" said:
We are not talking about doing a camera RESET
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I gotcha, resetting the camera would get rid of all my custom functions that I have set on mine. You're just referring to ISO, f stops and shutter speed.
Ever snap a photo only to have the self timer start counting down? Yep, been there done that.
 
"jtrain75" said:
I gotcha, resetting the camera would get rid of all my custom functions that I have set on mine. You're just referring to ISO, f stops and shutter speed.
Ever snap a photo only to have the self timer start counting down? Yep, been there done that.
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Yep and that's a good example of what one tries to avoid by checking to make sure you are at your starting point. ; Some people refer to it as their Base settings. ; I call it Zeroing out...think that came from a Scott Kelby D-Town episode.
 
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