Recommended Canon 5D Mark IV Settings

By Nasim Mansurov 57 Comments

 Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)

 Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
 Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
 Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)


The Canon 5D Mark IV is a highly sophisticated camera, and that means it has a very complex
menu system with numerous options. Even advanced photographers may find it tricky to set the
Canon 5D IV correctly at first, so we decided to share our recommended camera settings to give
you a place to start. Please keep in mind that the settings below are simply our personal
recommendations, and they certainly are not the only way to properly setup and configure this
camera.
Before going into the camera menu, let’s first get started on the exterior controls. The Canon 5D
Mark IV has a lot of menu options, but there are some things that you can only control with the
external controls. In addition, even if menu settings provide options to change particular settings,
using external buttons / controls is simply faster and more intuitive.

Autofocus, Drive Modes and Metering

Just like most other Canon DSLRs, the 5D Mark IV has a very simple and uncluttered front, with
a single programmable button that is by default used for exposure preview. The top of the
camera, however, has a number of dual function buttons that make it easy and convenient to
switch between different camera modes and settings. Here they are, to the right of the flash
hotshoe:

Let’s go through each of these one by one:

1. The first dual function button is used for setting up either White Balance or Metering
Mode. Press this button once and you can use the rotary dial on the back of the camera to
toggle between different white balance presets, such as AWB (Auto White Balance),
Daylight, Shade, Cloudy, Tungsten Light, White Fluorescent Light, Flash, Custom and
Color Temp in Kelvin. I won’t go over these in detail, as you can read about these in my
What is White Balance? and John Bosley’s excellent Understanding White Balance
articles. You can also change white balance using the camera menu, as shown below. The
second function of the button lets you switch between different metering modes by
rotating the dial on top of the camera. The metering modes you will see are: Evaluative,
Partial, Spot and Center-Weighted Average. Once again, I won’t go over each mode in
detail, as you can read my Camera Metering Modes article, where each metering mode is
covered in detail. If you do not know where to start, keep your metering mode in the
default “Evaluative” mode, which is the one that looks like an eye. Metering can only be
set through this button and there is no place to change it in the camera menu.
2. The second “DRIVE * AF” button is used for setting different drive and autofocus
modes. Once again, you will need to rotate the rear dial to switch between different drive
modes, while the top rotary dial is used to switch between autofocus modes. When you
going through the drive modes, you will see the following options:
o Single Shooting – pressing the shutter release button will only fire one shot. If
you continue to hold, nothing will happen.
o High-Speed Continuous Shooting – pressing and holding the shutter release
button will continuously fire the camera at a speed of 7 frames per second.
o Low-Speed Continuous Shooting – pressing and holding the shutter release
button will continuously fire the camera at a lower speed of approximately 3
frames per second.
o Silent Single Shooting – similar to the first setting, but the mirror is raised slower
for less noise.
o Silent Continuous Shooting – similar to the second setting, but the mirror is
raised slower for less noise when firing continuously.
o 10 second Self-Timer / Remote Control – after you press the shutter release
button or engage a remote trigger, the camera waits for 10 seconds before taking a
picture.
o 2 second Self-Timer / Remote Control – similar as above, except the wait time
is reduced to 2 seconds.

Depending on what you are planning to shoot, you will probably toggle the most between
Single Shooting and High Speed Continuous Shooting modes. By default, I keep mine at
Single Shooting mode, but if I need to capture fast action (such as wildlife or sports), I
switch to High Speed Continuous Shooting mode.

When toggling between different autofocus (AF) modes, you will see the following
choices:

o One Shot – is used only for stationary subjects that do not move. When you half-
press the shutter button, autofocus locks on the subject and if the subject moves,
the focus will not change, resulting in a blurry picture. Only use this mode for
photographing stationary subjects (landscapes, architecture, etc).
o AI Focus – this mode is a combination of both One Shot and AI Servo (below)
modes in one setting. The camera evaluates the subject/scene and automatically
switches between the above two modes depending on what you are
photographing.
o AI Servo – this setting is used for photographing moving subjects. When you
half-press the shutter button and your subject moves, the camera will re-acquire
focus. I usually keep my camera in AI Servo autofocus mode when photographing
people, especially my kids running around.
For most stationary subjects, keeping the camera on AI Focus mode works really well.
However, if you are planning to shoot a moving subject, then the AI Servo mode is what
you want to switch to.

The above is a quick summary, but if you are looking for detailed information on
autofocus modes, see my DSLR autofocus modes article.

3. The next button is used to dial Flash Exposure Compensation and change ISO. If you
shoot flash, rotating the rear dial will allow you to either increase or decrease flash
power. Changing ISO is accomplished with the top dial and you can toggle between Auto
ISO to regular ISO levels like 100, 200, 400, etc. all the way to ISO 102,400 (Hi 2).
Personally, I am a fan of the Auto ISO setting, as it automatically selects the right ISO for
me depending on the brightness of the scene. If you are a beginner, I recommend using
the Auto ISO setting, the behavior of which can be fine-tuned in the camera menu (as
explained in detail further down below).
4. The last button is used to light up the top LCD of the camera, which can be useful when
photographing in the dark.

There is an extra button called “M-Fn” on the top of the camera right next to the top dial. By
default, this one is set to “FEL” (Flash Exposure Lock), which I personally find to be rather
useless on the 5D Mark IV. I went ahead and changed mine to “AE lock (hold)” for situations
when I need to lock and hold my exposure. This can be achieved by going to Menu -> Camera
Menu 3 (Camera Icon with dots) -> Custom Controls -> M-Fn -> AE lock (hold). The Custom
Controls are explained further down below.

Camera Shooting Mode Dial

On the top left side of the camera you will find a camera shooting mode dial (often referred to as
the “PASM” dial). I have my dial set to “Av” (Aperture Priority Mode) 90% of the time, because
the camera does a great job in giving me good exposures. Once you get to know the camera
better, I would recommend to explore the “C1” – “C3” settings (more on this below under Setup
Menu), because they could save you a lot of time when switching between different shooting
environments (say when switching between photographing sports / wildlife and landscapes).
Some situations, such as when photographing panoramas or using off-camera flash call for using
the Manual (M) mode, but I would only recommend to use this mode when you get comfortable
with the exposure triangle. I personally favor Manual mode when photographing birds to keep
my shutter speed the same, while letting the camera control ISO via Auto ISO.

Back Buttons

The Canon 5D Mark IV has a number of buttons on the back of the camera that also serve
particular needs. To the top right of the camera, you can find three buttons: AF-ON, AE Lock
(Asterisk) and AF Area Mode. The AF-ON button can be used in conjunction with the Custom
Functions (see below) for “back-button AF” that you can use for the focusing and recomposing.

The AE Lock button is used to lock the exposure, which can be useful for keeping the exposure
consistent between shots or when using the above-mentioned focus and recompose technique.

The last AF Area Mode button is used for selecting a particular focus point. When you press this
button once, the top LCD will display “SEL [ ]”, which allows switching between different focus
points in the viewfinder, or switching to dynamic focusing / automatic selection (with all focus
points activated). If you look through the viewfinder and rotate the rear dial, you will see the
focus points go vertically from top to bottom and vice versa. If you rotate the top dial, the focus
points will switch horizontally from left to right and vice versa. Personally, I do not like the fact
that I have to press a button to activate focus points, so I always use the multi-controller instead,
as explained in detail below.
There is one more button on the back of the camera that can be quite handy for making quick
adjustments to the camera and that’s the “Q” button that is located to the right of the magnifying
glass and playback buttons. I love this button, because it serves as a shortcut to get to the most
important settings without having to dig through the many menu items. It gives you access to the
exposure triangle, exposure and flash exposure compensation, custom controls, picture styles,
white balance + white balance shift, auto lighting optimizer, AF operation, metering mode, drive
mode and image size / quality settings. So this button is a great shortcut to seeing a summary of
all settings on the camera that are currently applied. From here, you can override the top buttons
easily by simply using the multi-controller on the back of the camera. If you would like to see
this menu permanently on the screen, you can press the “Info.” button on the top left side (toggle
it until you see the same menu). The only downside of keeping it permanently on the screen, is
that you will be using the battery more due to LCD being active all the time.

Let’s go through the camera Menu settings now.

Shoot Menu 1

Here are the settings I use for Camera Menu 1, with explanations:

 Image Quality: RAW – I always recommend to shoot in RAW format. As explained in

my RAW versus JPEG article, there is a huge difference between RAW and JPEG. With
RAW, you also do not have to worry about other camera settings such as picture styles,
white balance and lighting optimizer, because you can modify those in post-processing.
 Dual Pixel RAW: this is a new feature on the Canon 5D Mark IV that allows pixel-level
adjustment when enabled. You can read more about this feature in this article. I would
keep this disabled, since the file size will pretty much double – only use Dual Pixel RAW
when you need it!
 Image review: 2 sec – I leave this at 2 seconds. After you take an image, it will be shown
on the rear LCD for 2 seconds. If you want to preserve the battery life, you can turn this
off as well.
 Beep: Disable – leave this disabled, since the camera will beep every time focus is
achieved, which is annoying.
 Release shutter without card: OFF – you do not want the camera to fire without a
memory card, in case you forget to insert one.
 Lens aberration correction: I disable all corrections, because they only apply to JPEG
images. If you are a JPEG shooter, leaving these on will reduce vignetting, chromatic
aberration and distortion issues in your images.
o Peripheral illum corr: Off
o Distortion correction: Off
o Digital Lens Optimizer: Off
o Chromatic aberr corr: Off
o Diffraction correction: Off
 External Speedlite control: Only applies when you photograph with flash
o Flash firing: Enable
o E-TTL II meter.: Evaluative
o Flash sync. speed in Av mode: AUTO
o Flash function settings (only available when external flash unit is mounted)
o Flash C.Fn settings (only available when external flash unit is mounted)

Shoot Menu 2

 Expo.comp./AEB: 0 – this is for setting exposure compensation or exposure bracketing. I

would not bother with setting exposure compensation through the menu, since you can do
it much quicker with the large rotary dial on the back of the camera
 ISO speed settings:
o ISO speed: Auto – as explained earlier, I like to use the Auto ISO feature, since I
do not have to worry about the exposure.
o Range for stills: 100-H2 – this setting affects what you are able to see when
changing ISO through the ISO button or through the Quick menu. I want to keep
the entire range for ISO selection, so I leave it at 100-H2 range.
o Auto range: 100-6400 – now this setting is particularly useful when shooting in
“Auto ISO” mode. I am not comfortable with noise above ISO 6400 on the 5D
Mark IV, so I keep the maximum range limited to ISO 6400. In some situations, I
might push my maximum limit to 12800.
o Min. shutter spd.: Auto – with the “Auto” setting, the camera will automatically
adjust the shutter speed of the camera to the reciprocal rule. For steady hands and
good posture, this might be sufficient. However, if you have shaky hands, then the
default “Auto” setting might not do justice to keep you away from camera shake.
If you notice blur in your images, you can move the slider under “Auto” to the
right towards “Faster” with the top dial, which will double the shutter speed
value. For example, if at 35mm focal length you are getting 1/50 shutter speed,
moving to Auto(1) will double the shutter speed to 1/100.
 Auto Lighting Optimizer: OFF – ALO settings are only applicable to JPEG images and I
usually keep them turned off.
 White balance: AWB – Just like ALO, white balance setting also does not matter, as you
can adjust it later in post-processing.
 Custom White Balance – unless you want to set custom white balance with a gray card,
skip this setting.
 WB Shift/Bkt.: 0,0/±0 – don’t mess with this unless you know what you are doing.
 Color space: Adobe RGB – although color space does not matter for RAW images,
Adobe RGB gives a slightly more accurate histogram to determine the correct exposure
(since the camera shows histogram based on camera-rendered JPEG image, even if you
shoot exclusively in RAW).

Shoot Menu 3

 Picture Style: Standard – does not matter for shooting RAW images. I set mine to
“Standard” and use the Standard camera profile in Lightroom for consistency. For more
details about this, check out my article “how to get accurate Canon colors.”
 Long exp. noise reduction: OFF – I leave this off, but you might want to turn it on if you
are planning to shoot very long exposures such as when doing astrophotography.
 High ISO speed NR: OFF – another one I leave off, as it only affects JPEG images.
 Highlight tone priority: OFF – unlike Auto Lighting Optimizer (ALO), Highlight tone
priority does affect RAW data, since it actually underexposes an image to recover
highlights. Unless you shoot JPEG, instead of letting the camera underexpose images
with HTP to keep highlight details, I would recommend to properly expose images and
even slightly over-expose, then recover the data in post. This technique is known as
“Exposing to the right” and it gives you better results, especially when dealing with
noise.
 Dust Delete Data – this is used for removing dust in images if you have dust particles on
the image sensor. I never use this feature, since I prefer cleaning the camera sensor
instead.
 Multiple exposure: Disable – this is used for creative photography when stacking photos
on top of each other.
 HDR Mode: Disable HDR – only relevant when shooting in JPEG mode.

Shoot Menu 4

 Interval timer: Disable – built-in intervalometer for shooting timelapse sequences. Sadly,
you can only specify up to 99 shots, but if you leave it at 00, the camera will take
photographs indefinitely.
 Bulb timer: Disable – disabled in all normal modes, so you can only activate it when you
select “B” from the PASM dial. Now this is a killer feature and something that I wish
every camera had. Many DSLRs are normally limited to 30 second exposures – anything
longer requires a remote camera shutter release accessory that has the capability to hold
exposure for longer than 30 seconds. The Canon 5D Mark IV has a built-in mode to set a
specific timer in bulb mode, so you do not need any remote shutter release to be able to
shoot for longer than 30 seconds. This is particularly useful when doing long exposure
photography and when working with neutral density filters.
 Anti-flicker shoot.: Disable – if you shoot in artificial light covering sports or other
events, this is another killer feature that can really help in obtaining images that are
properly exposed top to bottom. As described in our light flickering article, shooting
indoors can be quite challenging. Once you turn this feature on, the camera will
automatically delay the shutter to match the light frequency.
 Mirror lockup: OFF – unless you want to reduce vibrations from the camera when the
mirror is raised (when shooting at very low shutter speeds on a tripod), leave this turned
off. When mirror lockup is on, pressing the shutter release or firing the camera with a
remote will raise the mirror and the second time you trigger the shutter will start the
exposure, then lower the mirror at the end of the exposure.

Shoot Menu 5 and 6: Live View Functions

Live View settings do not affect images, so I usually leave them at default settings.
Movie Menu 4 and 5

If you have the Live View switch on the back of the camera to “Movie” mode (red camera),
instead of the above Live View menus you will see two movie menus instead of Live View. I
don’t shoot video, so these are also set to default settings.

Autofocus Menu 1 (AF Config. Tool)

The Canon 5D Mark IV sports a high-end, complex autofocus system that can be fine-tuned for
practically any situation. Since the goal of this article is to provide recommended settings and not
particularly focus on what each camera feature does, I am not going to spend a lot of time
explaining why I chose a particular setting. The below autofocus settings are provided as a
guidance to what worked well for me when photographing birds, so your mileage might vary.
My recommendation would be to read Chapter 4 in the camera manual to understand what each
autofocus setting does in detail.

In menu 1 of Autofocus, you will find 6 Cases or “templates” to use for different situations.
These cases are basically six different combinations of three settings: “Tracking sensitivity”,
“Acceleration/deceleration tracking” and “AF point auto switching”:

 Case 1: For subjects that change speed and move erratically – I found this one to be the
optimal default setting for bird photography.
 Case 2: Continue to track subjects, ignoring possible obstacles – if you need to actively
track a bird in flight while ignoring trees and other objects in the scene.
 Case 3: Instantly focus on subjects suddenly entering AF points – if there are many birds
in the frame and you want to focus on the closest one.
 Case 4: For subjects that accelerate or decelerate quickly – when camera to subject
distance changes fast, such as a bird flying towards you.
 Case 5: For erratic subjects moving quickly in any direction – if a bird is perched and you
are anticipating it to fly off.
 Case 6: For subjects that change speed and move erratically – suitable for photographing
smaller birds that fly erratically, or for photographing birds diving / fighting in air

Although these cases can be very useful in different situations, it is probably best to stick to Case
1 as the default setting.

The nice thing about the above cases, is that you can actually fine tune each one of them to suit
your needs by modifying the three setting parameters.

Autofocus Menu 2 (AI Servo)

In the second menu you will find only two settings relevant to AI Servo mode:

 AI Servo 1st image priority: Focus Priority – I set mine to focus priority for the 1st
image, because I do not want the camera to start shooting if the subject is not in focus.
This might be annoying to use in certain situations though, particularly when the subject
is very erratic and the camera struggles with autofocus acquisition. By default, it is set to
“Equal Priority”.
 AI Servo 2nd image priority: Equal Priority – once focus is locked and the camera is
already shooting and actively tracking the subject, I want to give equal priority to
focusing and releasing.

Autofocus Menu 3 (One Shot)

There are thee settings in the AF menu 3, which are relevant to One Shot mode:

 Lens electronic MF: Enable after One-Shot AF – enables using the manual focus ring
after focus is already obtained
 AF-assist beam firing: ON – allow the use of the AF assist beam in front of the camera
when shooting in low light situations
 One-Shot AF release prior.: Focus priority – do not allow the camera to fire if the focus is
not achieved in One Shot mode

Autofocus Menu 4

The next two menus have a lot of different options, some of which are useful and important:

 Lens drive when AF impossible: Continue focus search – if focus cannot be achieved, the
camera can continue searching or stop. I prefer to let the camera continue to search.
 Selectable AF point: All points – you want to be able to switch between all focus points.
 Select AF area selec. mode: everything checked – I want to be able to toggle between all
AF area modes.
 AF area selection method: M-Fn button – the M-Fn button that I previously programmed
to AE Lock can be used in combination with the focus AF Area Mode button to toggle
between different AF area modes.
 Orientation linked AF point: Separate AF pts: Pt only – I love this feature, as it will
remember what focus point I set when shooting vertical vs horizontal images. I set mine
to only remember the focus point.
 Initial AFpt, AI Servo AF: AUTO – leave this one on AUTO.
 Auto AF pt sel.: EOS iTR AF: ON – leave this one ON.

Autofocus Menu 5

The last Autofocus Menu has 5 options:

 AF point selection movement: Stops at AF area edges – I do not like when AF points
automatically move over to the other side when I am close to the edge.
 AF point display during focus: All (constant) – I prefer seeing all focus points, not just
the selected one in the viewfinder.
 VF display illumination: AUTO – let the camera decide when to illuminate the focus
points in red inside the viewfinder.
 AF status in viewfinder: Show in field of view – shows “AF” in the field of view when
autofocus is active.
 AF Microadjustment: Disable – unless you want to specifically adjust phase detection
autofocus, do not touch this setting. If you want to make AF adjustments, read my
detailed article on calibrating lenses.

Playback Menu 1 and 2

Playback menus are used for altering images after they are captured. I normally do not mess with
these and leave the settings in Menu 1 and 2 at default. The only setting I do change is in
Playback Menu 2 – Image jump with rotary dial. I personally do not like the fact that the images
jump by 10 by default when rotating the top dial, so I set it to “Display images one by one”
instead. This way, whether I turn the top or the rear dials, both will display images one by one
without skipping.

Playback Menu 3

The playback menu 3 has some important settings that I often use:

 Highlight alert: Enable – this will show the “blinkies” when there is overexposure / loss
of highlight data.
 AF point disp. Enable – when displaying images, I want to see where the focus point was.
 Playback grid: Off – it is nice to see a grid in the viewfinder, but I don’t want to see it
after the image is captured.
 Histogram disp: Brightness – if you want to see a histogram for each color channel, pick
RGB.
 Movie play count: Rec time.
 Magnificatn (apx): Actual size – this allows me to see 100% crop when I press the
magnification button when playing back images.
 Ctrl over HDMI: Disable.

Setup Menu 1

 Record func+card/folder sel.

o Record func.: Auto switch card – once the first card fills up, it will overflow to the
second one.
o Record/play: 1 – you can select which card to start recording images first.
o Folder: 100EOS5D – you can use an existing folder or create a new one where
photos will be stored.
 File numbering: Continuous – I want the camera to increment file numbers even if I
change the memory card.
 File name: 5M1A_ – you can set how you want files to be named.
 Auto rotate: On (middle setting) – rotating vertical images in landscape view makes them
appear much smaller. I prefer the camera to write the orientation to images, but not
actually rotate them when displaying.
 Format card – used for formatting the inserted memory card.

Setup Menu 2

 Auto power off: 1 min – I leave it at 1 minute to turn off the camera when it is not in use.
 LCD brightness: Auto – middle selection is good, although you might want to increase or
decrease brightness depending on shooting conditions.
 LCD color tone: Standard – unless you want to tweak the output of the screen, you
should keep it standard.
 Date/Time/Zone: make sure to keep the date and time zone settings accurate.
 Language: English
 Viewfinder display
o Electronic level: Show – cool feature, allows seeing level right inside the
viewfinder.
o Grid display: Show – I use the grid for framing and alignment.
o Show/hide in viewfinder: Everything turned off – the viewfinder is already pretty
cluttered with information, so I usually do not want to add more.
 Touch control: Standard – the default Standard setting seems to work best for me, but if
you don’t find the LCD to be responsive, you can set it to “Sensitive”. Those who get
annoyed by the touchscreen have the option to turn it off from here as well.

Setup Menu 3

 Video system: For NTSC.

 Battery info.: Shows battery level and life.
 Sensor cleaning:
o Auto cleaning: Enable – the camera will shake off dust when turned on or off.
o Clean now – to clean the sensor now.
o Clean manually – this is different than the above options, since it is used for
manually cleaning the sensor. The mirror will lock up and you can proceed to
cleaning the sensor.
 INFO button display options: All checked – good for looking at important camera
settings and the level works pretty well for shooting on a tripod.
 Custom Quick Control: if you want to change the way the Quick control screen (activated
by pressing the Info. button or the “Q” button) looks, you can change it from here.
 INFO. button LV display options: when using live view, you can toggle between
different overlays on your LCD. In this menu, you can customize which screens will be
available in live view when you press the Info button and what you will see in them. I
would keep it at default, unless you want to add or remove information from the different
screens. The “Histogram disp” option is also kept to “Brightness” on mine.
 RATE tn function: Rating – controls the RATE button function. Can be set to Rating or
Protect.
Setup Menu 4

 HDMI frame rate: AUTO.

 GPS settings: Disable – I enable GPS when traveling and turn it off if I need to preserve
battery life.
 Communication Settings: from here you can enable built-in WiFi and set up its options.
You can also enable FTP transfer, which is neat. Only enable these if you are planning to
use them. To preserve battery life, I would keep WiFi disabled by default.

Setup Menu 5

 Multi function lock – allows selecting controls that are deactivated when multi-function
lock switch is set to LOCK (on the bottom of the camera rear). By default, only the Quick
Control Dial (rotary dial) is checked. But if you want to lock other controls, you can
select them from here.
 Custom shooting mode (C1-C3) – there are three setting banks on the shooting mode dial.
Once you set appropriate settings for a given scenario, you can save them in these two
modes.
o Register settings – this will allow to save your current settings to C1, C2 or C3
shooting mode. Once saved, all you have to do is switch to the appropriate mode
and the settings will be retrieved. I had mine set to three different scenarios – one
for sports/wildlife, one for landscapes and one for people. For C1
(sports/wildlife), I have Auto ISO turned on, Exposure mode set to Manual, Drive
set to Continuous High, AF mode set to AI Servo, AF point selection set to
Surround (8 points around the center). For C2 (landscapes), I have Auto ISO
turned off, ISO 100, Exposure mode set to Manual (M), Drive set to Silent Single
Shooting, AF mode set to One Shot, AF point selection set to Spot AF. For C3
(people), I keep Auto ISO on, Exposure mode set to Aperture Priority (Av), Drive
set to Silent Single Shooting, AF mode set to AI Focus, AF point selection set to
Spot AF.
o Clear settings – used to clear the above-mentioned modes and revert to defaults.
o Auto update set.: Disable – I do not want the camera to automatically save
adjustments in C1-C3 modes. This way, if I change a setting, it is only a
temporary change. If I need to make a permanent change, I go to “Register
settings” menu above.
 Clear all camera settings – this will reset everything on the camera and revert to factory
defaults.
 Copyright information – I always put my name and copyright details when I first setup
the camera.
 Certification Logo Display – displays certification logos.
 Camera firmware ver. – displays current camera firmware.

Custom Functions I: Exposure

Custom Functions menu is used to fine tune the many parameters of the camera. Some of them
are very important and should not be messed with, while others make it easier to use the camera.
Let’s go through each one of them, one by one.

 Exposure level increments: 1/3 stop – this will allow adjusting the exposure in 1/3 or 1/2
increments. I prefer 1/3 increments.
 ISO speed setting increments: 1/3 stop – same here for ISO.
 Bracketing auto cancel: On – if you turn bracketing on, the setting will not be permanent
– it will turn itself off when you turn off the camera.
 Bracketing sequence: -, 0, + – I prefer bracketing in this order.
 Number of bracketed shots: 3 shots – depends on how you bracket. I usually go between
3 and 5 shots.
 Safety shift: OFF – used when the camera maxes out in Aperture Priority (Av) or Shutter
Priority (Tv) modes. For example, if the exposure is too bright and the camera is also
maxed out at 1/4000 shutter speed, with this setting turned on the camera will stop down
the aperture to balance out the exposure.
 Same expo. for new aperture: OFF.

Custom Functions II: Exposure/Drive

 Set shutter speed range: 8000, 30″ – leave at default

 Set aperture range: 1.0, 91 – leave at default

Custom Functions III: Display/Operation

 Warnings ! in viewfinder: When monochrome set, When WB is corrected, When one-

touch img qual set, When NR is set – shows an exclamation mark in the viewfinder if
these conditions are met.
 LV shooting area display: Masked
 Dial direction during Tv/Av: Normal – I leave this at normal, but if you want to flip the
direction of dials, you can set it to “Reverse direction”.
 Custom Controls – this is one of the most important menus in the camera, as it allows
customizing function button behavior. Let’s go through each one by one:
o Shutter butt. half-press: AE Lock – if you want to switch to back-button
focusing / focus and recompose technique, then change this to either “Metering
start” or “AE lock”. I keep mine at AE lock to only lock the exposure when I half-
press the shutter release. To focus, use the AF-ON button on the back of the
camera.
o AF-ON button: Metering and AF start – I want to use the rear AF-ON button to
focus, so I keep it at this setting.
o AE Lock button: AE lock – you can change the behavior of the AE Lock
(Asterisk) button as well. Some people prefer to have the AE lock button serve as
the AF-ON button. You can do that by changing the mode to “Metering and AF
start”.
o DOF preview button: Depth-of-field preview – I don’t particularly use this button,
so I leave it at its default setting.
o Lens AF stop button: AF stop – controls the behavior of the lens AF stop button.
o Multi-function button (M-Fn): AE lock (hold). As explained eariler, I use the M-
Fn button to hold exposure.
o Set button: OFF – I only want to use the center “Set” button to make changes and
access menu items, so I leave it off. Some people like to change it to “MENU” for
accessing the menu, but I don’t mind pressing the Menu button to the left of the
viewfinder.
o Main Dial: Aperture setting in M mode – you can control the behavior of the main
dial on the top of the camera in Manual mode to either change the Shutter speed
(default) or Aperture. I prefer the top dial to change aperture and the rear dial to
change the shutter speed. It is a personal preference though!
o Quick Control Dial: Shutter Speed setting in M mode – with the above change,
you need to set this one to control the shutter speed.
o Multi-controller: AF point direct selection – another very important setting for
me. If you keep the default setting (OFF), you will not be able to make quick
adjustments to focus points by using the multi-controller on the back. With AF
point direct selection enabled, you simply press any side of the multi-controller
and the focus point will immediately move there. Very useful, something that
should have been the default!
o AF area selection button: Direct AF area selection – with the multi-controller
allowing to select focus points, it makes perfect sense to use the AF area lever to
toggle between different AF areas. With this enabled, I can quickly choose
between different AF areas by pushing the button.

Custom Functions IV: Others

 Add cropping information: Off – if you choose a crop mode and you want that crop
information to be displayed in live view and recorded into image metadata, you can
choose the different options from here.
 Default Erase option: [Erase] selected – I like having the default “Erase” option, so that I
don’t have to toggle from “Cancel” to “Erase” each time I want to delete an image.
 Retract lens on power off: On – only works on some lenses that can automatically retract.
 Add IPTC information: Off – you can add IPTC information to each image metadata, but
in order to do that, you have to connect the camera to a computer and register IPTC
information.

Custom Functions V: Clear

 Clear all Custom Func. (C.Fn) – just like the title says, you can use this option to clear all
custom functions and revert to default settings.

I hope you found this article useful. Once again, these are settings that work for me and they
might not necessarily suit your needs. It is best that you explore your camera and learn about
each setting as much as you can in order to take advantage of all the available features and
customizations!

Subscribe to Our Newsletter

If you liked this article, please subscribe below to our weekly email to get more great content
like this!
Email Address First Name

By checking this box I consent to the use of my information, as detailed in the Privacy Policy.

DISCLOSURES, TERMS AND CONDITIONS AND SUPPORT OPTIONS

Filed Under: Photography Tutorials Tagged With: Canon, Canon 5D Mark IV

About Nasim Mansurov

Nasim Mansurov is the author and founder of Photography Life, based out of Denver, Colorado.
He is recognized as one of the leading educators in the photography industry, conducting
workshops, producing educational videos and frequently writing content for Photography Life.
You can follow him on Instagram and Facebook. Read more about Nasim here.