Custom classics

Inside every digital camera is a treasure chest of customisation tools that can make a big difference. Will Cheung helps you select which ones are worth using, with case studies

Digital cameras are wonders of imaging technology and these little marvels let you capture pro quality photographs with out of the box simplicity. Charge up the battery, slip in a memory card and off you go; you don’t even have to move the camera off its factory settings. But delve into the camera’s menus and you’ll find a multitude of extra features and functions that let you personalise camera set-up and fine-tune settings to help you successfully tackle all manner of subjects.

This sort of camera user-friendliness isn’t new and assignable buttons and custom features have been around for years, but what is different now is the extreme flexibility even on entry-level cameras. Of course, it is still the case that more expensive models have more customisation options than cheaper models, but that gap has narrowed, so regardless of where you sit on the camera ladder, there’s plenty of fun in store.

Check out your options

Cameras leave the factory with a ready-to shoot set-up and many users might not venture any further. Typically, this will be JPEG image quality, confirmation beeps active, fully auto exposures, autofocusing on the shutter button, full-area AF, auto ISO and auto white balance.

Personally, when I get a new camera the very first thing I do is turn off all annoying beeps. Then it’s image quality to raw as well as JPEGs, autofocus start is set to the back button, single point AF, manual ISO and the exposure set to aperture-priority AE. Of the factory settings, AWB is only one I keep, knowing that I can adjust it in post.