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| RX10Mk4 |
Buttons with user assigned functions
The RX10M4 has 9 buttons with user assignable functions plus the Control Wheel plus the Fn button.
Most of the buttons allow selection of one function from a list of 126 options (21 screens with 6 options on each screen).
The resulting possible number of permutations and combinations exceeds the numerical capacity of my calculator.
This allows the thoughtful user to create a camera to his or her own specifications, which is a wonderful thing.
The downside of all this hyperchoice is the possibility (probability ?) of great confusion and uncertainty.
There is also the ever present possibility of the user becoming so immersed in the convolutions of choice that just using the camera to make pictures becomes excessively difficult.
Anyway, today’s post is about buttons with user assignable function.
I will describe briefly how to work through the mechanics of this and detail my own settings with reasons.
The reader might find this a useful starting point on the journey of evolving his or her own preferences.
Go to Menu>Camera Settings2>Custom Operation1>Custom Key (Shoot)>
This brings up a 2 screen menu with Control Wheel, Custom Button1, Custom Button2….etc.
You have to select one option for each control point from the 21 screen list which appears for most of them.
The overchoice is mind boggling so I offer some basic principles which might help.
The function of these buttons will most often be invoked in Prepare Phase of use.
There are four phases of use, Setup, Prepare, Capture and Review.
Prepare is the period of perhaps a few minutes used to re-set the camera for a new photographic situation.
This might be moving from, say, landscape to sport/action, general hand held to tripod, outdoors to indoors, …..you get the idea.
In Setup Phase we want to make settings which can stay in the menus.
In Capture Phase we want to quickly adjust primary (aperture, shutter speed, ISO) and secondary (exposure compensation, white balance) exposure and primary (activate AF, MF) and secondary (move AF area and/or type and change size) focus parameters and zoom.
In Prepare Phase we want to change the various modes which proliferate in modern cameras and some other key functions.
So as you trawl through screen after screen of options think about these principles.
My settings, which by the way are a perpetual work in progress are:
* Control Wheel (This is the lower of the two wheels, the one around the 4Way controller)
Not Set. This is the default.
Reason: I work this dial a lot and don’t want it doing something unexpected in the middle of a shoot.
* C1, ISO. I want ISO to be readily accessible.
* C2, Drive Mode. I want this readily accessible.
* C3, Shutter Type. I don’t change this often, come to think of it, hardly ever. I leave it on Auto most of the time. C3 is a bit out of the way but still reasonably accessible.
* Center Button, Focus Standard. See the previous post.
* Left Button, Steady Shot. I want this where I can reach it easily.
* Right Button, ISO Auto Min.SS. Another one I want to reach easily.
* Down Button, Quality. I want to be able to switch from JPG to RAW+JPG easily.
* AEL Button, AF-On. This is for back button focus when required.
Note that allocating AF-On to the AEL button does NOT disable AF on the shutter button. So if I want to have AF activated only by the AEL back button I have to disable AF from the shutter button in a separate operation.
I allocate [(stills) AF W/Shutter] to My Menu, it cannot be allocated to a programmable button, and set [AF W/Shutter] Off if I want AF to be controlled by the back button only.
You would think with all those gazillions of options this one would be more accessible, but it’s not.
* Focus Hold Button (that’s the one on the left side of the lens barrel).
I currently have this set to [Recall Custom Hold 1]. I will discuss this and other memory recall functions in a bespoke post soon. It’s complicated.
Function button
You can access 12 functions with this button so it is potentially very useful.
Menu>Camera Settings2>(9/10)>Function Menu Set> See lots of options.
There are two rows with 6 functions on each row. As usual there is a great long menu of options from which to select for each position.
Fn button is still very much a work in progress for me. I currently have:
Top row: Focus Area, Self timer during Bracket, Flash Mode, Flash Exposure Compensation, Smile/Face Detect, Center Lock-On AF.
And on the bottom row: AWB, DRO Auto, Creative Style, Picture Effect, Picture Profile and Shoot Mode.
I don’t use the last three and need to think some more about what should go in the Fn button list. One day.
Lens Ring Setup
This is the next item down from Function Menu Set in the Custom Operation1 screen.
I just leave it at default which is rear ring does zoom, (which I set to step zoom, leaving the zoom lever to do continuous zoom) and front ring does manual focus.
See Menu>Camera Settings 2>Zoom (screen 6/10) for the zoom settings which I think are sufficiently are self explanatory.
Clear Image Zoom and Digital Zoom can only be set if Quality is JPG only, not RAW+JPG.