What custom settings for 5D Mark II?

[CraniumDesigns]

Hey everyone,

I got my new 5D Mark II today, and I am IN LOVE with it. The 17-40 on a full frame is SO wide!

Can anyone help me with the following settings and let me know what I should put them on? Keep in mind I mainly do landscapes.

High ISO speed noise reduction - currently on standard. should i put to low, strong, standard, or disable? (Guess this wouldnt apply to landscape shots)

Picture Style - Do you use these? (Landscape, Portrait, Neutral, etc). I guess they sharpen or adjust contrast in camera.

Just getting used to my new monster. Thanks!

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[goodoneian]

though i don't shoot a 5dII or even canon for that matter, i'm assuming the picture styles would only apply to jpegs to adjust saturation contrast brightness etc. and not the raw file, similar to the picture control on my d300.

[Garbz]

None of these would have an effect on your image if you shoot in RAW.

As for which to use. Take some photos and then decide how YOU want the photos to look. Otherwise you may not like the suggestions like: shoot permanently in black and white

[Iron Flatline]

If you're doing landscapes the Live View comes in quite handy. Also, in the same vein, is the Mirror Lock-Up function - it will help reduce camera shake for those slightly longer exposures. Enable the grid lines, I find it interesting to shoot a 1:1 aspect ratio. Find those settings, and add them to the custom menu for easy access. Also, set your AEB to a spread you like. A full stop is usually my preference, but you might go in smaller increments. This will help for composite or HDR shots.

[Village Idiot]

Also, disabling high ISO noise reduction is a good idea; even more so if you have noise reduction software. I'm pretty sure what you can accomplish in post will best out Canon's in camera attempts. I don't know if that adjustment will even work on RAW exposures either...

[Overread]

If you shoot in RAW the picture settings won't affect your RAW image, but they will affect the JPEG which is fitted into hte RAW image data (and it is this JPEG which is displayed on the back of the camera LCD as well as what the histogram is based on). Thus you want to keep the picture settings at neutral so that you get a result on the back that is as accurate as possible.

ISO is a bit odd - some of the settings appear to affect RAWs (those aimed at long exposure normaly) which also slow down your processing time in camera as well (which means a slower FPS). I would look into this more if I were you and check the camera manual to make sure you know which ISO modes you are dealing with.

[Montana]

I pretty much disable everthing. No noise reduction, no HTP, etc.

[gsgary]

Don't let the camera do anything, shoot raw and pp on the computer, only thing worth setting is focus if it's the same as 1D you can set the AI servo to be very fast to slow, slow or moderately slow is good for team sports once it locks on a subject there is less chance of it moving if another player runs nearby

[wgp1987]

Hello fellow 5d owner! I am jealous of the 17-40L .

Turn off any in camera processing (post processing is always of a higher quality result).

I do use the high iso expansion, i do not like shooting above iso400 but the results are impressive even at 3200!

Shooting with picture styles is another way for the camera to adjust the photo. This is another form of in camera editing. Its lame lol.

Enjoy that luscious viewfinder and insane video quality!

[sA x sKy]

Picture styles is useful if you're thinking about converting to black and white later on with the monochrome option. Putting the picture in monochrome gives you an idea if a picture will look good or not before post-processing.