Canon EOS M6 Mk II Tips and Tricks

c_man wrote:

palombian wrote:

I charge my M6II every day from my desktop PC USB-C port (after downloading the files the same way).

Hi there, could you expand on that a little, please?

As I tried connecting the M6II to my Mac, via USB-C cable (directly; no adapters), turning on the Cannon, and hoped to see the SD appear on the Mac's desktop to be able browse the contents and transfer photos from the Canon to the Apple. However, the SD card did not show up. How are you 'downloading' the files?

For greatest battery longevity do keep in mind that Li-ion batteries hate being topped off (kept in a state of full charge).  They’re most comfortable in the mid range (ideally).

It’s heat that kills Li-ion batts, and that final 10% (when charging to 100%) generates the most heat.  Ideally (for greatest longevity), a Li-ion battery would always range from about 20% charge up to 80% charge (max).

Of course this is not always practical, and personally I do always charge up my batteries (to 100%) right after shooting   .  This isn’t a whole lot of cycles over the course of a year (I rotate through my batts), so I’m willing to accept perhaps a shorter overall lifespan for the convenience of max capacity and having a ready-to-go battery.

Just food for thought.

R2

ps.  BTW I don’t know the answer to your specific question (I don’t have a Mac).

bgreg wrote:

R2D2 wrote:

c_man wrote:

palombian wrote:

I charge my M6II every day from my desktop PC USB-C port (after downloading the files the same way).

Hi there, could you expand on that a little, please?

As I tried connecting the M6II to my Mac, via USB-C cable (directly; no adapters), turning on the Cannon, and hoped to see the SD appear on the Mac's desktop to be able browse the contents and transfer photos from the Canon to the Apple. However, the SD card did not show up. How are you 'downloading' the files?

For greatest battery longevity do keep in mind that Li-ion batteries hate being topped off (kept in a state of full charge). They’re most comfortable in the mid range (ideally).

It’s heat that kills Li-ion batts, and that final 10% (when charging to 100%) generates the most heat. Ideally (for greatest longevity), a Li-ion battery would always range from about 20% charge up to 80% charge (max).

Of course this is not always practical, and personally I do always charge up my batteries (to 100%) right after shooting . This isn’t a whole lot of cycles over the course of a year (I rotate through my batts), so I’m willing to accept perhaps a shorter overall lifespan for the convenience of max capacity and having a ready-to-go battery.

Just food for thought.

R2

ps. BTW I don’t know the answer to your specific question (I don’t have a Mac).

I don't think there are a lot of people concerned about screwing around with figuring out 80% charge loads . Just use the battery like normal and when it croaks buy a new one. Easy. A $40 battery($20 wasabi)/ year is nothing compared to the cost of film/year. I don't know how we ever lived through that.(smile)

There are plenty of people who ask about battery longevity.  It's been a perennial topic on the forums for years.

You can of course do what you want (like I said above, I do the same as you), but this is a tip that applies to all Li-ion batteries no matter if they're in a camera, iPhone, shaver, or car.  It's just good info to keep in mind.

R2

c_man wrote:

palombian wrote:

I charge my M6II every day from my desktop PC USB-C port (after downloading the files the same way).

Hi there, could you expand on that a little, please?

As I tried connecting the M6II to my Mac, via USB-C cable (directly; no adapters), turning on the Cannon, and hoped to see the SD appear on the Mac's desktop to be able browse the contents and transfer photos from the Canon to the Apple. However, the SD card did not show up. How are you 'downloading' the files?

I use EOS Utility since it organizes the files by date (depending on your choice).

It exists for Mac too.

But I also can access the SD card in Windows Explorer.

Acula MD wrote:

Wanted to share a tip I don't think I've seen anywhere:

I have my M-Fn button set to "Maximize Screen Brightness (temp)" which does what it says: press once to make the LCD screen super bright and press again to return back to whatever you have it set at.

I tried to map this function to a few different buttons, but it seems that M-Fn is the only one that lets you brighten the screen during playback/review as well. With other buttons you have to brighten the screen THEN hit the playback button.

I've found this extremely useful in direct sunlight. I have no trouble seeing the back screen at all with maximized brightness. Even if I'm using the viewfinder, I'll usually want to review what I shot on the back screen, so I just maximize the brightness.

Great tip, thanks. Did not know screen brightness could work like that. Someone on the software team was very thoughtful in gettin that customization in!

I'd do that except all the buttons are mapped to things I use more frequently. I have screen brightness on  a custom menu but it is more cumbersome to change than your method.

Another thing is less of a tip maybe but more of a personal preference:

I have C1 set to electronic shutter and C2 set to mechanical. I wish switching between shutter modes was mappable to a button, but this works too. I use C1 for static scenes, but if I need to capture anything moving i just flip to C2, which is on burst by default.

I do this as well, works great.

I just wish I had a C3, C4, and C5 as well!

Me too!

My solution to this was a second m6ii body from Canon refurb at a great price... this also gives the ability to shoot telephoto zoom (55-250mm + optional 1.5x teleconverter) and wide zoom (11-22 or 18-150) seamlessly without changing lenses, which is amazing in fast-paced situations. Or at night low light to shoot fast portrait (Sigma 56mm f1.4) and wider (Canon 32mmm f1.4 or Sigma 16mm f1.4) without changing lenses. An extreme solution I know, but I shoot almost every day and this saves tons of time, plus less chance of dust on sensor. I like to shoot with different focal lengths at many locations (trains, sunsets, astro) and was changing lenses constantly sometimes.

Oh and C1 + C2 are set to the Fine Detail picture style. I shoot RAW only, but I like to see an approximation of what I'll be working with. I shoot with a "flat" picture style for video, but what's annoying is the picture style carries over to the photo modes like aperture priority, manual, etc. So I would have to switch picture styles every time going from video to photo if I didn't want the jpg previews to be all grey for my photos.

Sorry for the long post, hope that helps someone. Have learned a lot from this forum so far, especially this thread. Love my m6 mkii!

Creating your own custom menus has been mentioned here before and I know many folks do this, but I'm going to mention it again since I find it so, so useful.

When (not if) you run out of buttons on the M6ii to customize to do all the things you want at your fingertips, putting your other most-used functions into your own custom menu(s) can save tons of time. You can also group them by your own category just as Canon menus are grouped.

This is great because Canon's own menus have so many choices --- finding what you need to change takes time. When the Sun sets, I just have to go to my first custom menu to change everything I use for night shooting, all in one place.

To use this, go to the last menu group (star) 'MY MENU' set up and add your own custom menu tabs, then for each tab you can add whatever menu items you want.

Here are my custom menus... the first for all-around shooting, the second used for Astrophotography (I use focus bracketing for shooting stacked deep sky images with mAnual focus lenses).

Hello...

Thank you for this tip. 

Larry Rexley wrote:

Creating your own custom menus has been mentioned here before and I know many folks do this, but I'm going to mention it again since I find it so, so useful.

When (not if) you run out of buttons on the M6ii to customize to do all the things you want at your fingertips, putting your other most-used functions into your own custom menu(s) can save tons of time. You can also group them by your own category just as Canon menus are grouped.

This is great because Canon's own menus have so many choices --- finding what you need to change takes time. When the Sun sets, I just have to go to my first custom menu to change everything I use for night shooting, all in one place.

To use this, go to the last menu group (star) 'MY MENU' set up and add your own custom menu tabs, then for each tab you can add whatever menu items you want.

Here are my custom menus... the first for all-around shooting, the second used for Astrophotography (I use focus bracketing for shooting stacked deep sky images with mAnual focus lenses).