- Taking Your Photography to the Next Level
- Poring Over the Picture
- P: Program Mode
- S: Shutter Priority Mode
- A: Aperture Priority Mode
- M: Manual Mode
- User Settings Mode?Saving Your Favorite Settings to the Mode Dial
- Customizing My Menu
- How I Shoot: A Closer Look at the Camera Settings I Use
- Chapter 4 Assignments
User Settings Mode—Saving Your Favorite Settings to the Mode Dial
The User Settings mode is a great feature if you’re looking to have your favorite settings at the touch of a dial. These are located on the dial as U1 and U2. If you have a favorite group of settings that you find you are using often and want to have them close at hand, then these modes are for you.
- Set the camera to your favorite settings (under any of the semi-automatic modes or Manual mode), adjusting aperture, shutter speed, ISO, flash, focus point, metering, and/or bracketing.
Go to the setup menu, and highlight Save user settings (A).
Highlight Save to U1 or Save to U2 (B), then press OK to save your settings (C).
- When you want to use those settings again, just rotate the top dial to U1 or U2, and the camera will choose your saved settings so that you’re ready to go.
I find it useful to set up one user setting for Aperture Priority mode with bracketing turned on and ISO set to 100 (I find it too easy to forget that I have bracketing enabled), and to configure the other user setting for Shutter Priority mode with Auto ISO sensitivity enabled for times when freezing fast action is more important than ISO setting (and I also find it easy to forget I have Auto ISO sensitivity enabled). This makes it simple for me to jump right to those settings, but also to jump out again.