Filter
Top Products
Canon 5D Mark III Experience
13
2. MENUS and CUSTOM FUNCTIONS
Setting up the 5D Mk III
The Menus and Custom Functions of the Canon EOS dSLR cameras allow you to have
greater, more precise control over how your camera functions. They are an important
part of what makes the 5D Mk III a more powerful tool than a camera such as the
Canon 60D, and they allow you to customize the camera to work for you, to work how
you work. I highly recommend that you dig into these menus and change the settings to
the options that allow you to use the camera in the manner that works best for you and
your way of photographing.
Perhaps the most exciting and useful change to the 5D Mk III menus is the addition of
the Autofocus (AF) Menus. All of the autofocus related settings and Custom
Functions are now collected into one menu tab with sub-sections (AF1, AF2, etc.) for
easier access and use, and are described with more easily comprehensible wording. If
you are coming from the EOS 7D, you will appreciated this more user-friendly set-up of
familiar options. The AF Menu also includes autofocus presets where the various AF
parameters (called “Cases”) are already configured for specific action situations, such
as if the subject is accelerating quickly, moving erratically, new subjects are entering the
frame, or various combinations of these conditions.
Some of the Menu items are only used when shooting, reviewing, or processing images,
but many of them should be set up in advance. Below are explanations and some
recommended settings for the Menus and Custom Functions of the Canon 5D Mk III.
Please note that this guide will go into further detail about most of these settings and
functions later in the detailed sections about autofocusing, exposure, white balance, etc.
Some of the menu settings may not make sense until after reading the entire guide and
working with the camera a bit, so don’t become overwhelmed if you don’t yet
understand the settings or terminology used to describe the Menu and Custom Function
settings and their options. And if you don’t yet understand some of the settings or why
you might wish to change them, leave those on the default or recommended settings for
now. Although I have attempted to explain many of these items in a more
understandable and unified way than the manual, you still may need to first read
through the entire chapter to learn about related Menu and Custom Function settings,
plus read the applicable sections of this text, before you will completely understand a
specific item and how you may wish to set it. You will want to return to them later after
you have completed the guide, worked with your camera, begun to better understand its
controls and functions, and started to determine exactly how you want to work. This is
particularly true regarding the camera’s buttons and controls as well as the highly
customizable autofocus system.
Place your Mode Dial on Av (and the Live View/ Movie Shooting Switch to Live View)
before you go through these settings because all the options don’t appear in the Menus
if your camera is in Auto+ or Program mode. You may wish to first review the Camera
Controls section of Chapter 3 if you are not yet familiar with the 5D Mk III controls.