R Bodies appear to cripple my favorite old 1D set up feature

[CyberDyneSystems]

I'm talking about my old 1D "Hail Mary" set up. There were a few great threads about it on POTN.*
Set up your camera for worst case action scenario, record that set up using "Register Shooting Functions" and map that to the * button.

With this set up, you can be twiddling away on a landscape tripod shot, with the camera set to single shot AF, single frame, single AF point, stopped down to F/16 with a slow shutter speed set,. and suddenly the bird you've been trying to get a shot of for years (say an American Bittern) burst in flight out of the reeds,. No chance of getting the shot, everything is set WRONG.

UNLESS, you have * mapped to recall your registered functions. Simply point lens at bird, move thumb to *, and suddenly the 1D4 is at full FPS (12?) Aperture is wide open, shutter speed is as high as light allows, ISO is up to help shutter speed (can't recall if 1D4 had AUTO ISO?) AF switches to AI Servo, and ALL 45 "Ring of Fire" AF points are active and tracking to catch the action!

It's there on the R3, you can find it when you assign it to a custom button setting (I'm still using *) but, FPS will not stick, and nor will AI Servo)
If I'm in single shot AF it stays there, even with the rest of the registered functions kicking in, and the FPS stays put to.

I also can't actually find the "register shooting function in the regular menus.It only seems available in the "Customize Buttons" menu itself. Anyone know if I am missing something?

*PS Sadly, other than this threads on POTN I never copied the set up instructions.

 

[joayne]

 

[paddler4]

Why don't you put all of what you want on a custom setting on the mode dial rather than a button? That's easy and should retain all of your settings. Very slightly slower than a button, but not much, since the R bodies (at least the ones I'm familiar with) don't have a mode dial lock.

One thing to keep in mind is that (at least on my Canon bodies), if you modify a setting once you are in a custom mode--say, changing the aperture--an you let the camera go sleep, it will revert to the custom settings when it wakes up.

 

[Archibald]

I get into these situations pretty often. Not sure any particular panic button would serve me. I've been in some situations. I was shooting a model on a sunny day, f/5.6 at 1/1000 sec, but she is back-lit. Things are moving fast, gotta rescue the situation... quickly go to fill flash! The camera auto-changes the shutter speed to 1/250 and everything is waaay overexposed. On another occasion I was in the bushes shooting bugs with my macro gear... and a red-capped manakin shows up a few feet away. Priceless opportunity... switched to custom mode C1 which is programmed for birds. That gave me f/7.1 instead of f/13 but the focal length is too short.

 

[ShipleyNW]

Why don't you put all of what you want on a custom setting on the mode dial rather than a button? That's easy and should retain all of your settings. Very slightly slower than a button, but not much, since the R bodies (at least the ones I'm familiar with) don't have a mode dial lock.

One thing to keep in mind is that (at least on my Canon bodies), if you modify a setting once you are in a custom mode--say, changing the aperture--an you let the camera go sleep, it will revert to the custom settings when it wakes up.

That's the way I handle it. Now that the mode dial on my R5 is electronic, rather than a physical dial, I've mapped cycling my 'C' modes to the M-fn button next to the shutter release button. One or two quick presses on the M-fn button and I'm where I need to be in most situations.

 

[CyberDyneSystems]

Why don't you put all of what you want on a custom setting on the mode dial rather than a button? That's easy and should retain all of your settings. Very slightly slower than a button, but not much, since the R bodies (at least the ones I'm familiar with) don't have a mode dial lock.

One thing to keep in mind is that (at least on my Canon bodies), if you modify a setting once you are in a custom mode--say, changing the aperture--an you let the camera go sleep, it will revert to the custom settings when it wakes up.

Yes, that's a solution. It's not nearly as fast as just moving my thumb, and i don't understand why it's been limited. These new bodies are so much more capable, and we can program different buttons for different AF functions, it's very nice. But I am just trying to figure out what changed, or if I am missing something in my set up. It used to be such a fantastic feature.

 

[CyberDyneSystems]

That's the way I handle it. Now that the mode dial on my R5 is electronic, rather than a physical dial, I've mapped cycling my 'C' modes to the M-fn button next to the shutter release button. One or two quick presses on the M-fn button and I'm where I need to be in most situations.

This is very good! I had been using other back buttons to get to "MODE" but that's slow, too many things to track. The MFN button, and ONLY the MFN Button can be mapped to just switch back and forth from standard settings to custom.

If you only have one custom MODE set up, it will go back and forth between two modes only. ie: you're in manual and press MFN you are now in custom 1, press again and you're right back to the same setting you were in in Manual. This is great!

I assume that when I set up the other two different custom modes, it'll go from whatever standard mode, to C1, then to C2, C3 before going back to the standard mode? So the trick is to make sure that C1, the first mode it jumps to, is the "Hail Mary" custom mode.

Thank you!

Now I just have to retrain my shutter finger to deal with this after decades of relying on my thumb for all the important stuff.

 

[ShipleyNW]

This is very good!

When I'm out looking for birds I use my fancy schmancy 100-500. It's a shame to limit that lens to wildlife. I use it for landscapes and other static things. But birds and wildlife live in landscapes, so if we happen to be in the same place, C2 runs my action setup. Takes no time to switch.

I live in C modes. I've got all 3 mapped. I think you have to set which modes get cycled through. I forget if I had to set it up or not, but I've got M, C1, C2, C3 in the M-fn button rotation.

 

[Rick G]

That's the way I handle it. Now that the mode dial on my R5 is electronic, rather than a physical dial, I've mapped cycling my 'C' modes to the M-fn button next to the shutter release button. One or two quick presses on the M-fn button and I'm where I need to be in most situations.

Thanks, Ken! That was a subtlety that escaped my attention too. I am giving that a try too.

 

[Lester Wareham]

I setup a panic mode on the R7 but used so little I have forgotten it.

I tend to use the custom modes for switching between static and IF birds settings. Not ideal for speed.

 

[Anton Largiader]

I made a "panic mode" button on the R3 (using the front buttons) which I thought was pretty cool using Register & Recall. I even wrote about R&R at the time. I liked it a lot, and to be honest it never occurred to me that I couldn't set the shutter mode because I'm pretty much always in H+ anyway and it's not the end of the world if I end up with a burst. The main point was that if I saw a nice non-action scene, I could grab it with smaller aperture and lower ISO. Which worked OK, although I ended up overexposed because I had such a bright day once that the camera couldn't go low enough on ISO. I should have just let it go auto-everything; snapshot mode.

But, the C mode thing is interesting. I started to mess with them a while ago and kind of dropped it. I'd still want a panic button, though. Can one hold a button and go to a specific mode, or only toggle through modes? If I only had two modes I guess it would be sort of the same either way.

 

[Anton Largiader]

I played around with this a bit and so far it's a mixed bag. I think this is mostly because I really like the M-Fn button to have the Dial Function. Press it once, then every further time you press you increment through the five groups that you have assigned to Dial Function. But if M-Fn is the only button that can be reassigned to C, then Dial Function has to go somewhere else. I reassigned it to the Set button because I had that assigned to Eye Focus which I don't use, but pressing Set repeatedly only turns Dial Function on and off; it doesn't scroll through the groups as happens with M-Fn.