favourite settings

What are your favourite user settings for K5.

Most of the time on (AV).

Take care.

Natural. sRGB. Centre weighted metering. Premium Quality JPEG. Av or M as appropriate, usually Av generally but M for studio flash. +1 sharpness.

I think that sums it up, hope it's helpful, but that's just my preference and it might not be yours.

Evaluative metering, lowest practicable ISO' always always full manual.

I'll add centre point focus to my list as well.

Oh yes should have said raw always too and, like John, natural. Focus point positioned as needed per shot and/or manual focus with live view and zoomed-

Here's mine for landscapes 95% of the time:

Evaluative mainly (spot for high contrast metering)
Centre focus point
Raw
Iso 80
AV 95% of the time
Increasingly starting to use LV, terrific for shots with motion (waterfalls etc)and great for positioning NDgrads

Simon

As another new member who only received the K5 on Tuesday, I find this info very useful for pointers to start experimenting with settings away from the Auto mode.

Andy

For rugby
TAv 1/1000sec F4 ISO 100-3200

That man stole my settings


Pete

M-mode
Center AF point
Center-weighted metering
AWB
RAW (always)
ISO 200 (dependant on situation) as a starting point

EDIT... This is for my K-x... Sorry,misread thread... Although I can't see that using a K5 would change them much...

Great thread

Av, Reversal film, white balance to cloudy or shade 99% of the time, iso 80-10000, JPEG **** almost 99% of the time, central focus point 95% of the time

I run mine in "P" program mode with the program line set to "Normal". This means I can use the rear dial to adjust the aperture, making it AV mode (which I use most of the time), or the front dial for the shutter speed, making it TV mode, without having to change the mode dial. If I mess up these settings then the green button is a life-saver putting it back into its starting position .

I use centre point focusing most of the time because it means the arrow buttons go to the function settings without having to check in the viewfinder if a long press of the OK button is needed. Otherwise there is a risk that in trying to set a function, like, say, the drive mode to self-timer, that I have moved the focus point before realising why nothing appears to be happening.

I prefer Centre Weighted exposure.

I have auto ISO set restricted to 200-800 just to make sure that I make any decision to go higher but actually usually leave ISO fixed to 200 as a manual starting point.

I have lens correction off because it seriously slows down the minimum time between shots. I do any necessary correction in post editing on my PC.

I used to just use JPEG (16M & **** quality) but have recently started started using RAW+ & DNG because I have been won-over by Adobe Lightroom. The downside is that I am going to have to increase the size of my backup network drive .

I have set the Dynamic Range Setting to Highlight Correction: On and Shadow Correction: Medium.

I have unticked a few things in the "Memory Setting" as I have messed up a few shots by forgetting that I had on a previous occasion changed something, usually the EV Compensation . I have left ticked; Drive Mode, Sensitivity, Flash Exposure Comp, Extended Bracketing, Playback Info Display & File No.


In the custom settings I have "Using Aperture Ring" (27) set to "Permitted" because I have a few old manual lenses.

I also use The "AF Fine Adjustment", (Custom 26) but I think this needs some confidence & test-commitment to set the values so would recommend a new user leaves this alone.

Like others just beware that these are my personal settings and might not work for you.

Glyn

Me too GlynM, I also run in P mode most of the time. Why do so many people opt for Av mode when you get Av mode and more from P mode?

I have several 'favourite' user settings. Remember, you can store up to five. At the moment mine all use P mode. I enable highlight correction and a low level of shadow correction, but the downside of highlight correction is that the minimum ISO is then 160. Perhaps I'll re-think enabling that.

My favourite, favourite user setting uses the MTF Program Line, which means the aperture is biased to get the best from the lens. I also have user modes for Fast, shallow depth-of-field and deep depth-of-field.

In Fast mode I set the fast Program line and permit higher auto ISO settings.

I think the deep depth-of-field Program Line is useful for quick tourist snapping, when you don't have time to consult DoF tables. I find that getting the depth-of-field right is my biggest challenge, moving from a compact travel zoom. I guess it becomes intuitive with experience but I think the camera could do more to assist. For instance, it could display a DoF table based on the focal length and aperture setting.