# Best Eos 7D Mk II custom settings



## daniela (Mar 31, 2016)

Hi Guys!

I´m struggling with the customization of Camera. I got several hints how to customze. Some of them are good, others do not meet my needs. What is the best layout of the button functions for taking pictures od birds and animals? What is your favourite button layout and the AF setting for birding?

Cheers, Daniela


----------



## surapon (Mar 31, 2016)

daniela said:


> Hi Guys!
> 
> I´m struggling with the customization of Camera. I got several hints how to customze. Some of them are good, others do not meet my needs. What is the best layout of the button functions for taking pictures od birds and animals? What is your favourite button layout and the AF setting for birding?
> 
> Cheers, Daniela




Dear friend Daniela.
Just for me, which I have learn from the PRO. I am Lazy Photographer, and Point and shoot type with Minimum Thinking, and I will get my best Photos 95% at all times.
For all of my Canon DSLRs :
1) I set C-1 for Panic button / Emergency shooting in the less light area. ISO= AUTO, F = 8.0, SS = 1/500 sec, AWB & Continuous shooting mode
2) I set C-2 for Bird in flight shooting ISO = AUTO, F= 11, SS = 1/800 sec., AWB, Continuous shooting mode, AF AL Servo= Case 1
3) Set C-3 for Night time scenery and Model/ Beautiful Lady= with flash , ISO = 100, F= 11, SS = 1/20 sec., AWB , Single spot AF at center = at the Lady 's face = for great Model Light, and show the back ground of the city light.
4) For Picture Styles ;---Please see the Picture Attached.
Enjoy.
Surapon


----------



## surapon (Mar 31, 2016)

Another Sample of my photos.


----------



## xps (Apr 1, 2016)

Hi Daniela!

I am just looking for the same optimal customization. One tipp from the www:


Found at: http://www.the-digital-picture.com/News/News-Post.aspx?News=13844

_Open the box, find the battery and charger and plug it in. If you have another charged battery available, you can continue to the battery-required steps without a wait.
While the battery is charging, unpack the other items you want from the box. For me, this is primarily the camera, the neck strap and the Canon Solution Disk.
Install Canon Solution Disk software to get support for the latest camera(s). Canon Digital Photo Pro (DPP), EOS Utility, Photostitch and Lens Registration Utility are the options I manually include in the install.
Attach the neck strap.
Insert the battery (after charging completes).
Power the camera on.
The date and time setup screen will show at startup the first time. Use the Rear Control dial and the Set button to update this information. The GPS feature, if enabled, should take care of precise date/time maintenance going forward.
Insert one (or two) memory card(s) (format them via the tools menu option before taking pictures).
Set the camera's mode to one other than fully auto (the GreenSquare+ mode only provides a small subset of available menu options), C1, C2 or C3 (Custom modes do not retain settings for use in other modes).
Scroll through all of the menu tabs to configure the cameras as follows:
Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Image quality: Use top dial to set RAW to "RAW" and Rear Control dial to set JPEG to "–"
Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Image review: 4 sec.
Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Beep: Disable
Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Release without card: Disable/off
Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Lens aberration correction: All disabled (though I suggest leaving CA correction enabled for most uses – all can be applied in DPP)
 Shooting Menu, Tab 2: ISO Speed range: 100-H2(51200)
Shooting Menu, Tab 2: Auto Lighting Optimizer: Off
Shooting Menu, Tab 3: Picture Style: Neutral with sharpness set to "1" (Note: the low contrast "Neutral" picture style provides a histogram on the back of the camera that accurately shows me blown highlights and blocked shadows on the camera LCD. I usually change the Picture Style to "Standard" in DPP after capture.)
Shooting Menu, Tab 3: Long exposure noise reduction: I usually have this option set to "Auto", but my choice varies for the situation.
Shooting Menu, Tab 3: High ISO speed noise reduction: Off (noise reduction is destructive to images details – I prefer to add NR sparingly in post)
Shooting Menu, Tab 4: Anti-flicker shoot: Enable
AF Menu, Tab 2: AI Servo 1st image priority: Focus (I want the images in focus more than I want the time-priority capture)
AF Menu, Tab 2: AI Servo 2nd image priority: Focus (same reason)
AF Menu, Tab 4: Orientation linked AF point: Separate AF pts: Area + pt
Playback Menu, Tab 3: Highlight alert: Enable (flash portions of images that are overexposed)
Playback Menu, Tab 3: Playback grid: 3x3
Playback Menu, Tab 3: Histogram disp: RGB (I want to monitor all three color channels for blown or blocked pixels)
Playback Menu, Tab 3: Magnification (apx): 1X
Tools Menu, Tab 1: Auto rotate: On/Computer only (this provides the largest playback image size on the camera LCD)
Tools Menu, Tab 2: Viewfinder display: Viewfinder level: Show, VF grid display: Enable
Custom Functions, Tab 3: Custom Controls: Set: Playback; Multicontroller: Direct AF point selection; AF area select lever: Direct AF area selection
Custom Functions, Tab 4: Default erase option: [Erase] selected
My Menu: Add tab; Register the following options for Tab 1: Long exposure noise reduction, Mirror lockup, Format card, Date/Time/Zone (great for determining what time it is), Sensor cleaning_


----------



## xps (Apr 1, 2016)

Some _really _helpful tipps how the AF works from Canon (pdf-Book). 
It helped me a lot. Maybe one of the best summaries and explanations how the AF on the 7DII works

Page 48 ff. includes a summry, how to customize it for special shooting situations.

http://learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2014/eos7dmk2_afGuidebook.shtml


_German Version:_*
http://www3.canon.de/images/pro/fot/slr/geh/file/EOS_7D_Mk2_AF_Guidebook.pdf
*
Canon hides this book. As the German Canon page is not very cusomer friendly (just a lot of pictures and advertisements ) it is a little bit difficult to get information...


----------



## Mikehit (Apr 1, 2016)

if you google '7D2 settings bird photography' you will find a whole host of different answers, but you can do worse than this video: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNAk3_Ao6QE

The two main tweak are whether to use back-button focus (which can take some getting used to) and which 'case' setting to use and how to tweak them.
I am just experimenting with zone focus and iTR which is where the focus point will follow the subject round the screen if you do not manage to keep the chosen focus point exactly on the subject. It works well so far and best against bland backgrounds.

I have my in-flight settings saved to C1 on the custom dial and for perched/static shots I have single-point focus saved to C2.

One thing I learned quickly for birds in flight it so learn the old 'sunny f16' rule. The reason for this is that if the bird flies past sky, then against a tree-line the change in background may screw up the exposure on the bird. 
The sunny f16 rule says that if the subject is not in shadow, on a bright sunny days with blue sky, the correct exposure at f16 will have the shutter speed equal to 1/ISO (tweak it for the conditions eg on cloudy days it will be 1/ISO at f8). You can then calculate equivalent exposure for different apertures. 
So if the bird remains well lit when in flight, set the exposure mode to Manual, use the sunny f16 rule and the bird will remain correctly exposed.


----------

