First Canon (RP): Any Recommended Settings?

RobDMB · Mar 27, 2019

Hi,

Picked up an RP. Never owned a Canon before (DSLR or Mirrorless) so am trying to get used to the settings? Any tips on things I want to change or shooting modes? Do most people stay in single shot or continuous?

Also, are there settings on the RP to enable electronic first curtain shutter (EFCS)? I did not see any in the menu as there has been on my prior mirrorless.

Thanks!

Rob

jalywol · Mar 27, 2019

RobDMB said:
Hi,

Picked up an RP. Never owned a Canon before (DSLR or Mirrorless) so am trying to get used to the settings? Any tips on things I want to change or shooting modes? Do most people stay in single shot or continuous?

Also, are there settings on the RP to enable electronic first curtain shutter (EFCS)? I did not see any in the menu as there has been on my prior mirrorless.

Thanks!

Rob

What was your prior mirrorless? I can give you a comparison to Panasonic M43, and maybe Oly, as there are a few things that are different between them and the RP that I have come across so far. And, apparently, EFCS is on by default on the RP, and I don't know yet if there is a setting or scene mode that shuts it off.

-J

RobDMB · Mar 27, 2019

Prior Olympus User. Good to know ECFS is on by default - shutter a little louder than I expected btw - not bad though.

csxfan · Mar 27, 2019

one thing i learned was to set the focus type (method) to to single point or spot (the one right next to face plus tracking). ive found that my portrait shots are sharper with this setting when focusing on the eye. also i think i get better results with this for stills period.

jalywol · Mar 27, 2019

RobDMB said:
Prior Olympus User. Good to know ECFS is on by default - shutter a little louder than I expected btw - not bad though.

One thing that takes a little getting used to is that the live view doesn't show DOF the way Oly or Panasonic (or Sony) do, since these Canons focus and meter wide open, not stopping down to their set aperture value until the actual exposure is made. So, I have one of the assignable buttons set to "DOF preview" (it works just like my original film SLR did, so it's not a big deal, but it's just different than how other mirrorless work).
If you use manual focus with magnification, it behaves more like Oly than Panasonic. However, you have to first push the magnify button and then the INFO button to get the magnified area to show up (the Olys have you double push the same button, and Panasonic does it totally differently).
When using a legacy lens, I have not been having good luck with getting proper exposures in Aperture Priority, which is the mode that works best with these lenses on both Oly and Panasonic. I have, however, found the FV mode to work quite well so far with the legacy manual lens I have used.
I use my RP primarily in single shot AF, however tracking does work apparently reasonably well. With Oly, unless you have the EM1 or EM1mkII, tracking is completely hopeless, and the RP is head and shoulders over the strictly CDAF Olys for tracking moving objects.
Setting a Custom White Balance is much harder on the RP than in a Panasonic, but it may be similar to what Oly does (I don't remember off the top of my head, as I haven't used an Oly recently). It's a two step process, not one, like the Panasonics have.
Low light AF is very good. I still think Panasonic is a little better here, but I think the RP is close to it, and it may be a bit better than the Olys are in that department. But, all of them are very good, in my book. (The Sonys I had (A7, A6000) were absolutely hopeless in low light AF, BTW.)
I bought a cheap EF mount 25mm AF extension tube for use with an EF 70-300mm on the EF-RF adapter, to see if I could make it work, and surprisingly enough it does! So if you like to do some macro stuff, and have EF lenses, you can use the extension tube in between the RF adapter and the lens, it will will indeed work. (Note: this process did NOT work on the Sony A7 with the LAEA4 A-mount to F mount adapter, so I did not have high hopes for the same type situation here, but the RF-EF adapter absolutely worked fine (at least so far) with the EF extension tube, which I was quite happy about).
I am sure there are more idiosyncracies that I am missing, but these were the ones that stuck out so far for me.
-J

nlk10010 · Mar 28, 2019

RobDMB said:
Prior Olympus User. Good to know ECFS is on by default - shutter a little louder than I expected btw - not bad though.

Just got my RP as well and am curious about this ECFS thingie.

IF what you're talking about is electronic shutter (Silent Shooting) and not something to do with flash then my understanding is different. I have read that the only way you can enable electronic shutter is in "silent shooting" Scene (auto) mode.

Of course if I'm mistaken about all this then......nevermind.

jalywol · Mar 28, 2019

nlk10010 said:
RobDMB said:

Prior Olympus User. Good to know ECFS is on by default - shutter a little louder than I expected btw - not bad though.

Click to expand...

Just got my RP as well and am curious about this ECFS thingie.

IF what you're talking about is electronic shutter (Silent Shooting) and not something to do with flash then my understanding is different. I have read that the only way you can enable electronic shutter is in "silent shooting" Scene (auto) mode.

Of course if I'm mistaken about all this then......nevermind.

Full electronic shutter ("silent shutter mode") (exposure is completely done electronically with the mechanical shutter not used at all), is only available via the scene mode.

EFCS is something different. EFCS is electronic FIRST CURTAIN shutter.

Prior to availability of EFCS, all mirrorless cameras exposed by first closing the mechanical shutter completely (to blackout the sensor) when the shutter button was pressed. This was followed by the exposure, when the mechanical shutter was lifted over the sensor at the set shutter speed to complete the exposure, followed by the complete opening of the shutter again once the exposure was completed (to allow Live View again).

That first full shutter closure, before the exposure, was what caused shutter shock, as the slap of the moving shutter closing would reverberate through the body for long enough to affect the actual exposure at certain speeds and with certain lenses.

So, what most mirrorless camera manufacturers have done is implement a method of using an electronic sensor blackout before the exposure rather than using a mechanical first curtain shutter based blackout. The actual exposure is still done with the mechanical shutter moving up the sensor; it's just the initial blackout before that that's done electronically with EFCS.

EFCS avoids two problems: First, there's no shutter shock from that first curtain mechanical shutter slap, and second, there's no rolling shutter effect that can happen when you shoot moving objects with a completely electronic (no mechanical components at all) shutter.

EFCS is a neat way to get around the drawbacks of both mechanical and electronic shutter functionality. (At least until a true global shutter is introduced, which will eliminate the need for ANY mechanical shutter AND prevent rolling shutter effect, AND be totally silent. However, that technology, while it does exist, is not yet developed enough for cameras with CMOS technology large sensors at this point in time).

-J

nlk10010 · Mar 28, 2019

See, you learn something every day.

Thanks, jaywol.

RobDMB · Mar 30, 2019

I wanted to set the directional pad to AF point selection. In the menu there are two options. One is AF Point Selection and another is Direct AF Point Selection. Could anyone tell me what the difference is?

Oldwino · Mar 30, 2019

Though I hate to say it, Ken Rockwell has a pretty good guide to setting up the RP on his site. It’s a pretty solid starting point.

Ebrahim Saadawi · Mar 31, 2019

Let me give you what I think are absolute must DOs.

1- Set Picture Style to:

Faithful

Sharpness ( I crank it all the way up for Jpegs and all the way down for Video but thats a personal one)

Contrast: All the way down. (This is just objectively better, it removes any over contrast Canon gives, increasing dynamic range by easily two stops, all without washing out the image at all. This is a must do on ANY Canon camera the moment you get one)

Saturation: This one is personal. I go for +2 from middle for Jpegs and -2 for video)

Tone: 0 (Middle. Don't play with that one it alters the great Canon skin tones to magenta or green)

2- Set White Balance to: Auto Ambience Priority. This gives the signature warm Canon colour rendition, as AWB white priority tries to neutralize and yellow cast even when shooting a sunset it makes it white, and shooting inside tungsten lights it tries to remove its normal colour to make it white, just not all the great)

3- Download Canon Camera Connect App on your phone and turn on auto transfer. This is the single best feature on these Canon mirrorless camera. I never remove an SD card anymore, all the photos I take just show up on my phone. Download Adobe Photoshop Express on your mobile device and have fun. It's Lightroom-grade software for free on your phone/tablet!

4- Use Eye AF for portraits. It makes you just forget about focusing once and for all. Gets the eye in-focus every shot. Use Single Shot AF for everything else. This isn't a sports camera.

5- Go to Custom Functions, High ISO noise Reduction: It has four options, Off, low, normal and high. Set it to High if you're not a pixel-peeping snob counting tree leafs. It gives at least two extra stops of clean lowlight performance in Jpegs. And it's brilliant on these new Digic 8 chips, as at 100 ISO it does'nt kick in so you don't have to disable it for landscape shots or so.

6- Av on Canons just works great. Set aperture and let the camera do the rest.

If I remeber or see something important I'll share. Enjoy your lovely camera.

nlk10010 · Mar 31, 2019

RobDMB said:
I wanted to set the directional pad to AF point selection. In the menu there are two options. One is AF Point Selection and another is Direct AF Point Selection. Could anyone tell me what the difference is?

At the risk of swinging and missing a second time, the only way I've found to set it so the directional pad controls the AF point is to hit the "Focus Area" button (the one on the back below AE-Lock) first.

The "AF Point Selection" option, according to the manual, has to do with how the camera chooses the center of the area to be metered; e.g. if you set the AF point manually then it uses that as the center of the area to be metered (depending on the metering method).

Not sure about "Direct AF Point Selection", though.

Frankly, while I used to think that the best way to move the AF point was with a joystick or directional pad, once I started using my D-Lux 7, and now the EOS-RP, I am finding the (relative) touchscreen way of doing things a much easier and quicker method.

I will be monitoring this thread for the "real" answer to your question, though.

JaimitoFrog · Mar 31, 2019

Oldwino said:
Though I hate to say it, Ken Rockwell has a pretty good guide to setting up the RP on his site. It’s a pretty solid starting point.

Yeah, he has a detailed list worth looking through even if you dont use all of it.

Canon EOS RP User's Guide

The good thing about modern digital cams is that so much of it can be customized. You will need to shoot a lot and try the settings. No one setup will be perfect for everyone.

a1z26 · Mar 31, 2019

I am pretty familiar with Canon APS-C stuff so I can get around the menus and know the concepts, etc. I third that the infamous Ken Rockwell RP "user's guide" is very much worth reading. The only tip that really didn't work for me was his eco-mode suggestions--different things on the camera dim and time out pretty quickly with that setting and I find that very distracting while I'm trying to shoot.

The one thing I have learned specific to the RP is that for my shooting style I need quick access to the spot focus focus frame. Not the small one, but the even smaller "spot" one, the one the EOS R people are waiting for in their next firmware update. Sometimes it's bad because if you miss by "that" much on the spot you're way out of focus, but it makes some more difficult focusing tasks much easier and surefire, at least for me. So I don't have a "setting" for it, but for me it was a light-bulb going off to be aware of it and know how to get to it.

Also the top dial on the right toward the back gives you access to exposure compensation in everything but manual mode, if my recollection from actual usage is correct. I've always appreciated having this setting handy on any camera where the focus point and suggested exposure did not quite mesh for me.

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First Canon (RP): Any Recommended Settings?

RobDMB

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