Technique
GET TO KNOW YOUR CAMERA
Customise FoCus peAking
Next time – Sony In the next instalment of our customisation series (11 March) Matt Golowczynski looks at the useful features you might want to enable or adjust on a Sony mirrorless model – from changing the names of folders to battery-saving tips.
You can alter the colour of the highlight, and also the focus peaking level
fujIfILm’s most recent cameras allow a great deal of control over the focus-peaking option, and you may want to customise this so that it works better with the subject or scene being photographed. Control is offered in two ways: the colour of the highlight and the peaking level. If you’ve ever tried to shoot a subject that’s the same colour as the peaking highlight, you will appreciate why you may want to change the first of these options, although the manual does not provide much information on why you may want to adjust the level, or exactly what this is. The peaking level lets you determine the point at which the camera identifies contrast. setting the option to Low brings the threshold down so that a
broader range of contrasting areas is highlighted than with the High option. The Low option is suited to scenes low in contrast, where you will benefit from having more highlighted areas to guide you. Being more selective, the High option is better when you want a very specific part of the subject or scene in focus, perhaps when using a wide aperture or when you’re at an acute angle to the subject. The sharpness of your lens is also a factor; using the Low setting with a super sharp lens, for example, may provide you with too many highlighted areas to be useful. The above can be adjusted through the focus Peaking option within the mf Assist settings, which is located in the Af/mf settings menu.
Combine AF LoCk And Ae LoCk If you’ve ever tried to customise the dedicated function buttons on your camera, you may be aware that many further controls can also have their functions changed, as can the Af-L (Autofocus Lock) and Ae-L (Auto-exposure lock) controls. In many instances, it’s perfectly appropriate to have the camera lock focus and exposure simultaneously, which explains why on some cameras these are
combined in a single control. Therefore you may find it useful to programme one of these buttons to combine the two functions, which will free up the other button. This unassigned button is very close to your thumb, which makes it a great candidate for something you may want to access while your eye is to the viewfinder (focus area, Af mode and so on). you can find this option within the Button/Dial menu. By freeing up a button close to your thumb you can put it to better use
Changing the Movie File Destination let’s you dictate where movie clips will be saved
movie FiLe destinAtion THe Card slot setting option, which is found in the save Data setting option in the setup menu, lets you determine whether the secondary card acts as an overflow for the first, or as a mirror so that it backs everything up from your main card. you can also set it to store jPeGs while the other stores raw files. This may make it appear as if movies have to be recorded onto the same card as the other files, although this is not the case. The movie file Destination option further down this menu lets you determine where movies are sent, and knowing how to adjust this has two benefits. Not only does it allow you to keep all your videos conveniently in one place, but it also means that you can make sure these are recorded to a card whose performance makes it suitable for video. so, for example, you can use a conventional card in one slot for general shooting and one with a uHs speed Class 3 (u3) rating in the other.