Canon 6D: the role of the SET button in reviewing photos

[Bartjan]

Dear Dpreview peeps,

This is my first post ever here so I hope I'm doing this right

I have a question regarding the Canon 6D and since I don't have any friends that have this camera, I thought I'd reach out here.

The question: can you use the SET button when assigning 'rating stars' to your photos when reviewing them? Because on my (secondhand) copy of the 6D I can't.

Coming from the 100D (excellent and underrated camera IMO, but that's another topic) I find I really miss the role of the SET button in the menu. How I'm used to using the SET button: I go to image review (the play button), I go to a photo I like, I press the SET button, a menu appears, I select rating, I select the number of stars I want to give to the photo with the cursor and by then pressing SET, and I'm done. With the 6D I now have to get that menu by pressing Q, and then select the rating and then press Q again. I find this lack of SET functionality disturbing

If anyone could shine their light on this, I'd highly appreciate it.

The reason I'm so attached to the Rating option is something that I've never seen anyone else use yet, so I'll say it here as a tip: But when I'm on a big event or trip, I always sift through the photos when I'm taking some downtime or on the way back. I give the _must keep_ photos one or more stars right then. And then I set the "Image jump w/scrollwheel" option to Display by image rating. This effectively creates a slideshow of only my best pictures. I then use this for fun, to motivate myself or to show to others, and to have a comprehensive overview of all my cool photos so far and how they relate. Since I shoot a _lot_ I find this a really nice way to keep persective. And when I get the occasional 'do I have enough good pictures yet' anxiety, I just review my slideshow and high-five myself.

Looking forward to any replies answers - thank you in advance. It's good to know there's a place to go to to thoroughly geek out about this stuff

 

[dave_bass5]

Doesn't it tell you in the manual? If it doesn't then id guess that its not a feature of that camera.

 

[Bartjan]

Hi dave_bass5,

Thanks for the tip. It's not in the basic manual - but neither is the whole rating option.

Update: Case solved! There is a more elaborate manual that I hadn't seen yet. Turns out the crippled SET button is the way it's supposed to be. Not sure why because it messes up the menu flow and the 100D that was launched around the same time has better controls.

BUT thanks to the new manual I found a super sweet other option to rate photos. It can be found at Menu -> the second Playback menu -> the second option: Rating. With this you can easily flow through photos and rate them.

 

[dave_bass5]

Cool. I must admit I thought the 6D had a Rate button like the 5D, but when I looked it wasn’t there. I cant say I’ve ever used it on my 5D3/4, but I guess some people do.

 

[Bartjan]

Ahhh yeah the rating button on the 5D range. I guess that could be a reason why the functionality is underdeveloped on the 6D: they were used to having a fancy rating button so no need to make the rating interface good on the full frame models. I can't get over how they cripple the set button in a menu setting like that. It literally does nothing when you press on it. Anyways, time to let it go