C'mon! You didn't really think I was going to do that, did you?

Lately I've received a ton of questions about what settings to use on a camera.

SHOW US YOUR CAMERA SETTINGS DAMNIT!!!

The idea behind camera settings is mostly an upfront decision.

To answer the many viewer requests, I'm going to RIP through the settings I use on this

camera, and hopefully this helps.

And note, I said I was going to RIP through these.

Ready?

Go!

Turn the camera on. Flip the photo/video switch to video.

Turn the top knob to manual. Push the MENU button.

Ratchet to the first Menu. SHOOT1.

Image quality. RAW.

Doesn't matter for this camera. JPEG.

Highest setting on left. Image review.

4 seconds. Doesn't matter.

Beep. Enable.

I like beeps. Release shutter without card.

Doesn't matter. Mine's on.

Lens aberration Correction. Peripheral Illumination.

Disabled. This tries to correct the edges or vignetting,

and it depends on what lens you are using. I've found it unreliable.

Chromatic aberration. Enabled.

I don't know if it makes a difference. I haven't tested it.

External Speedlight control. Don't care.

Mirror lockup. OFF.

Next Sub menu. SHOOT 2.

Exposure compensation. Dead center at zero.

ISO Speed settings. Doesn't matter.

Set the ISO when you're ready to shoot using controls on the camera.

Auto lighting optimizer. Off.

White balance. Custom.

Custom White balance. We'll set that later when we're ready to film

the shot. WB Shift Bracketing.

Leave it at 0. Color Space.

sRGB or Adobe RGB. I use Adobe RGB.

Next menu. SHOOT 3.

Picture Style. User Defined 1.

Hit info. Sharpness all the way to the left at ZERO.

Contrast all the way to the left at -4. Saturation.

Two clicks to the left at -2. Color tone.

Leave in the middle at ZERO. Long exposure noise reduction.

OFF. High ISO speed noise reduction.

Leave on Standard. Highlight Tone Priority.

OFF. Dust Delete Data.

Don't care. Multiple Exposure and HDR mode.

Not available for movie shooting. Don't care.

Next menu. SHOOT3.

AF mode. Live mode.

Don't care. Grid Display.

Off. Set it what you like.

Movie recording size. 1920.

24 frames per second. Set as appropriate for your shot.

ALL-I. This camera allows me to capture all the data

for every frame instead of trying to interlace or interframe the video.

Sound Recording. Manual.

Recording Level. Dead center.

I record sound using an off camera mic so the camera sound is only used as a reference

audio track. If you record sound into your camera as the

main source, test and adjust this setting suit your needs.

Wind filter. Disabled.

Silent live view shooting. Don't care.

I leave it at Mode 1. Metering timer.

Default is 16 seconds. Don't care.

I leave it there. Next menu.

SHOOT 4. Time code.

Count up. Record run.

Start time. Don't care.

Movie recording count. Record time.

Movie Play count. Record time.

HDMI. Time code.

Off. Silent Control.

Disabled. Don't care, don't use it.

Movie shooting button. The default front button.

HDMI output + LCD. No mirroring for my external monitoring.

Next major menu. Auto Focus.

AF 1 through AF 5 menus. I skip the whole thing.

I focus manually when I shoot. Next menu.

Playback settings. First menu.

PLAY 1. Don't care.

Second menu. PLAY2.

Don't care. Third menu.

PLAY3. Histogram display.

Brightness or RCG. I like brightness.

Move play count. Record time.

Magnification (approximate). 10x (magnify from center).

That helps with focusing when I zoom up to the eyes of a subject.

Control over HDMI. Don't care.

Next major menu. Setup.

SET UP 1. Record function plus card/folder selection.

Record function. Auto switch card.

I keep both a CF card and an SD card in my camera so I don't run out of space.

Record/play. Card 1.

I record to CF card first. Folder.

Don't care. File numbering.

Continuous. I rename the files later.

File name. Don't care.

I leave it at that obtuse ZE2A thing. Auto Rotate.

Off. Don't shoot sideways.

Format card. I always do this before I shoot to make sure

the card empty and working. Next submenu.

SET UP 2. Auto power off.

15 minutes. I hate when the damn camera turns off when

I'm setting it up or directing someone. LCD Brightness.

Your choice. I leave mine on Auto.

Date/Time/Zone. Set to the current date, time, and time zone

once. It remembers.

Language. English. Set it to your language.

I once set it to something else and it took me forever to find the menu again and set

it back to English. Viewfinder Grid display.

Don't care. When shooting video you're looking at the

LCD display or an external monitor, not though the viewfinder.

GPS device settings. Don't care.

I have no GPS unit connected. HDMI frame rate.

Auto for my off camera monitor. Next menu.

SET UP 3. Video system.

NTSC for North America. PAL for others.

Battery Info. Don't care.

Sensor cleaning. Auto clean.

Info button display options. All on.

Rate button function. Don't care.

Next submenu. SET UP 4.

Don't care. Next Main menu.

Custom Functions. CF 1 menu.

Exposure level increments. One third.

ISO Speed setting increments. One Third.

Don't care about all the rest. CF 2 menu.

Don't care. CF 3 menu.

Don't care. CF 4 menu.

Don't care. Last Menu.

My Menu Settings. Don't care.

I don't use it.

OK. You're going to have different settings and menus on your camera, and these are set

depending on what you are shooting, what type of camera you have, and how much you want

to control the look of what you shot in post-production.

If your camera uses picture profiles, or you're interested in learning about these, I highly

suggest reading and watching a very thorough discussion of these from Phillip Bloom, the

link is in the description below.

I hope that helps, and thanks for watching.

Go! Turn the camera on.

Flip the photo/video switch to video. Turn the top knob to manual.

Push the MENU button. Ratchet to first Menu.

SHOOT1. Image quality.

RAW. Doesn't matter for this camera.

JPEG. Highest setting on left.

Image review. 4 seconds.

Doesn't matter. Beep.

Enable. I like beeps.

Release shutter without card. Doesn't matter.

Mine's on. Lens aberration Correction.

Peripheral Illumination. Disabled.

This tries to correct...Oh my god it's too fast!