10 PRO HIDDEN CAMERA FEATURES

Think you know your camera inside-out? Dive into your settings and discover these hidden transformative tools

- Peter Fenech

At Digital Photographer, we often advise our readers to spend time becoming familiar with all of the functions and features our cameras offer, highlighting the importance of this over getting the latest model. A new camera opens up possibilities, but these will go to waste if we don't know the layout and menu structure well enough to make setting changes. Once you do, you can make rapid adjustments without taking an eye off the viewfinder.

After a few months of using them, we probably think we know our cameras pretty well. But even if you have used it for several years, it is possible to find hidden treasure among the sub-menus and custom functions.

As an experienced shooter, what tends to happen is that we use the same tools regularly without ever truly diving into all of the available custom setup options. While accessing frequently used features becomes muscle memory, other features can be hidden in plain sight.

We've lost count of how many times we discovered that a camera we've owned for years possesses a feature we never knew about. Sometimes these might be small, but together they can help to speed up camera work, streamline our workflow and make tricky shooting scenarios easier.

Here, we've rounded up some of the key tools to keep an eye out for, proving the value of exploring all of the sub menus. You might find the solution to a long-experienced problem tucked away.

1 Speedlight commander 

You might not need to buy that external flash trigger after all

The built-in flashes on cameras have been able to trigger external speedlights for years. However, even experienced photographers can be unaware of the complete functionality of built-in flash commander units. Beyond simply making an external flash unit fire, many even go as far as allowing the photographer to control groups, channels and power output, creating many advanced lighting setup possibilities.