My Configuration

Throughout this review, I’ve alluded to a number of configuration options that I’ve elected to use with my 5D mark III. While most reviews focus solely on the details of the camera, I thought it might be useful to touch on how I set my camera up for what I consider to optimal. I don’t expect these would be ideal for every photographer.

This generally falls into 2 broad categories: making the AF system behave the way I want, and how I setup shooting controls.

AF Settings

For autofocus, I use a methodology called rear-button focusing. I find this offers a number of benefits that using the shutter release for focusing lacks.

For starters, the AF system is kept off until the rear focus button is pressed. This means I can largely use the camera as if it was in manual focus mode, but I can do this without changing the AF/MF switch on the lens—the exception being focus by wire lenses like all STM lenses, as well as the 85mm f/1.2L II USM among others.

A second side effect of rear button focusing is that I can leave the camera in AI Servo AF and simply release the AF-On button when the camera has achieved focus. I don’t always do this, but it’s extremely useful when subjects alternate between static shots and action where switching between AI Servo and One Shot would result in missed shots.

Further, I configure my camera so that both the AF-On and Exposure Lock (*) buttons activate the AF system. My standard setup is to have AF-On activating the primary AF mode, and the exposure lock button activating the alternate AF mode.

For most situations, I’ll probably only ever use the AF-On button for focusing. But in situations that fluctuate between tracking action and more static shots I can quickly adapt without having to mess with camera settings.

For example, many times when photographing birds, I’ll be working a bird on a perch or on the ground, but frequently there will be good opportunities for birds in flight. In my experience, a slow moving bird on the ground or a perch is best shot using single point spot AF, however tracking a bird in flight is something I find much easier to do with the 61-point auto mode. So I’ll set my AF mode to 61-point automatic, then save it to the alternate configuration by holding the AF Point select button and pressing the backlight button. Then I’ll set the camera to single-point spot.

With the camera setup like that, I can work any slow moving subject by pressing AF-On to focus, and if flight action happens and I need to track I only need to move my thumb from the AF-On button to the adjacent exposure lock button to have the camera operating in full-grid tracking mode.

Control Settings

I usually leave my camera in continuous drive mode. The 3 FPS frame rate in continuous low is slow enough that it’s very easy to squeeze off a single shot, however, when you want or need it, you can fire multiple frames without the quality sapping effect of rapidly mashing on the shutter release.

I’ve also taken to reversing the function of the main and secondary dials in manual exposure mode, though this is more of a personal thing that anything. I primarily shoot aperture priority and manual, and generally, my general mental model is that the aperture controls the effect I’m interested in and the shutter speed adjusts the exposure. Therefore, it’s natural for me to always want the aperture on the front dial unless I’m explicitly shooting in shutter priority.

I general make 3 other customizations though they are much more fluid. When I first got the camera I had set the set button magnify the image. This made sense to me since Canon removed the magnification secondary function from the AF point select button, and I’ve generally found it handy to be able to magnify images for review single-handedly.

However, recently, I’ve been experimenting with the SET button providing a way to change the ISO. I started experimenting with this since it allows the ISO to be changed rapidly when shooting from the battery grip, something I find I do quite a bit. I’m not sure about the long-term viability of retraining myself for this mode of operation though, and I haven’t updated all of my custom settings to reflect this.

The M-Fn and DoF Preview buttons fluctuate between AE Lock hold, which locks the exposure until the button is pressed again or the camera is powered down, DoF Preview (only on the DoF Preview button), and the viewfinder level depending on what I expect to need. Using the AF configuration I described above has one nice side effect of almost completely eliminating the need for me to use any of the AF related functions, though I do have the multi controller configured for direct AF point selection.

Custom Shooting Modes

While the 5D mark III supports 3 custom settings, I only use 2 of them, and I’ve set them up primarily for video work to ease the load of switching from stills to video. Both C1 and C2 are configured for manual exposure, both have the picture style set for CineStyle, both are set to a kelvin white balance. By and large, the rest of the control setup mimics my normal camera settings, though generally the M-Fn button is always set to activate the VF electronic level, and the SET button to magnify the image.

My Menu

I find the My Menu invaluable to make getting at some of the more buried functions easier. Most of these functions aren’t things that I need to quickly or frequently access to, but having them one menu click away instead of a half dozen is certainly handy. Currently, my “My Menu” includes:

• Mirror Lockup
• VF Grid Display
• Format Card
• Sensor Cleaning
• Time Code
• HDMI Output mode (Mirroring)

Conclusions

The problem with writing a review of a camera some 2 years after it’s been released is that even though the camera hasn’t changed, the time has moved on and the features and performance aren’t nearly as impressive as they were on release. What can you say about it that hasn’t already been said? What conclusions can you draw that haven’t already been drawn?

Then again, when I set out to write this review, I didn’t set out to make a buy or skip recommendation, or rate the camera on some points scale. I set out to discuss points that I didn’t feel had been touched on much in other reviews—and occasionally to scratch a technical itch. That said, even after writing more than 17,000 words on the matter, I still feel as though this is not nearly as complete of a look at the 5D mark III as I want it to be. I’m not sure if that’s a testimony to how much complexity has been built into modern digital cameras, or simply an indictment of me being long winded and demanding more from myself.