Ideal K10D settings and shooting mode

jmdeegan · 04-08-2009, 12:16 PM

Wanted to see what everyone was using in terms of changes from the factory defaults.

Also, looking for some input relative to the shooting mode. Since I have been unable to get out and shoot a lot, and also because i've finally got my wife using the k10 as the primary camera when i am not home, it tends to end up in green mode a lot more than it used to.

do most shoot manual and fiddle with everything? or some other preferred method?

reason i ask--i am just under 3 weeks away from a family trip to disney, and while i know i could shoot the whole trip on green, i'd rather not...but i also don't need to forget a critical part of the setting and end up botching a family photo memory because of it.

will be re-reading my k10d guidebook as well, but wanted forum feedback

thx

RBellavance · 04-08-2009, 12:54 PM

I'm going from memory here, but this should cover most of the important settings...

I use Av mode the vast majority of the time, with aperture control on the rear e-dial and ISO on the front one (no button push for changing ISO!).

I normally don't use Auto-ISO.

Autofocus mode is normally in AF.S, in "SEL" mode. I try to use the AF point closest to where I want the focus to be, to avoid recomposing too much.

Metering is almost alway in Matrix mode.

Under- and over-exposure "blinkies" are enabled in instant review, along with histogram.

I've also enabled the Custom option "Link AF point to AE".

Finally, I shoot in RAW+JPEG (*** quality).

Oh, and the "USER" setting is for my wife: "P" mode with Auto-ISO (100-800), and Auto WB.

I will deviate from these settings mostly when I use an external flash (M mode instead of Av) or do macro (MF instead of AF.S).

UpNorth · 04-08-2009, 01:02 PM

In situations like yours (I.e. family vacation - so you MIGHT have a couple of other things going on, besides worrying about all the settings on your camera)

I like to shoot in P mode. That way, when I WANT to control the aperture and/or shutter speed I can (using front/rear e-dials), and when I want to just get the quick shot and let the camera decide the settings, I'm just a push of the green button away....

Good luck, and have fun at Disney.....

Tim

**sabarrett** · 04-08-2009, 02:28 PM

We were at Disney a couple of years ago, and from what I remember I shot most of the trip in AV mode, center focus, center weighted exposure, AF-C or AF-S, whatever the situation warranted. I leave the focus on center as that way I know where the focus is and i never have to worry about forgetting to put it where i need it and having a shot come out wrong. I shot the whole trip in JPG, and although I wished a few shots were not on jpg only. For the most part, the shots were juast snapshots of family and jpg was fine. If there were some special shots for some reason, I just pushed the raw button and captured them when needed. We arrived on Sunday and left on thurs morning. All in all I shot almost 1000 pictures. I used only one memory card (4gig), but brought another just in case. If you have multiples, a good idea may be to use one per day, just in case. Oh, and bring at least two extra batteries. I just put the two spares in my pockets and never noticed them. by the end of the day, had swapped at least one. I just recharged them in the room at night.

As I am thinking, I think I used the SV mode a couple of times while in rides, so I could control where shots were being taken quickly. I just jumped the iso around till the settings looked good and shot. Some times I did go to P mode, as my wife is not a camera buff, but just a point and shooter. It just made for less frustration.

All I had at the time was the 17-70 and it made a nice travel lens. I see you have a few others to choose from. The 50-135 or the 55-300 would be nice to have too, however the 300 may just be too slow for much use. I was starving for light many times. My guess is you will like the 16-45 and the 50-135 most of the time. On rides you may want the 50 (faster) and for fireworks or the general park scenery, the 10-20.

One word of advice, use the photopass system. We preordered the cd, as that took I think 40% off and they shot 100 pictures of us in the parks, plus you get to edit the shots with the nice borders and such. We checked the shots out after we were home and they were good, so we went ahead and got the disk. if you pre-order and then decide not to buy, you are not out the money (at least that was the case for us), but if you don't preorder, you pay the full cost. They used a 6mp Nikon D70 and about 2/3 of the photogs actually knew something about what they were doing and took good shots. The others just were on P and shot shots.

As others have said, have a good time. Remember, this is a vacation, so make sure to enjoy the family too. I had to remind myself of this many times, as I kept wanting to take the perfect shot, rather than watching the kids enjoy Micky and his friends.

Robert S Donovan · 04-08-2009, 07:46 PM

Originally posted by UpNorth

In situations like yours (I.e. family vacation - so you MIGHT have a couple of other things going on, besides worrying about all the settings on your camera)

I like to shoot in P mode. That way, when I WANT to control the aperture and/or shutter speed I can (using front/rear e-dials), and when I want to just get the quick shot and let the camera decide the settings, I'm just a push of the green button away....

Good luck, and have fun at Disney.....

Tim

I agree with Tim. I'd add take a big SD card (at least 8GB) and shoot in RAW so you can fix minor exposure and WB issues later while the kids are sleeping and you and the misses are enjoying a night cap. I like to use a battery grip for better camera handling and no worrying about batteries (recharge every night). Leave the camera bag at the room and pick whichever lens you normally shoot with (for me it would either be my 35 f/2 or 50 f/1.7, though the kit lens is light and has a great range). That way you won't be fumbling with the camera bag changing lenses, missing the shot and pissing the wife and kids off

Damn Brit · 04-08-2009, 07:53 PM

Get yourself the Magic Lantern Guide for the K10D, it's well worth it.

jwebberfb · 04-08-2009, 08:36 PM

We just got back ourselves. Shot primarily with the 16-45. Great images. The only suggestion I would add is to be cautious when using that lens in tight spots indoors (for example if you do character dining and are trying to capture the characters for up close and personal shots) unless you are using a dedicated flash. The barrell extension to go wider causes a problem at anything less than about 21mm due to a shadow being cast bt the onboard flash. For that reason I would likely carry a prime lens at wider angle to get those shots without worry of trying to remember avoiding backing up too much. Also would make for a lighter setup than carrying a dedicated flash. As previously mentioned the photopass guys and gals do a great job, with good equipment, and are not in any way too pushy/salesman like. Its purely up to you whether you want them to photo you, etc. My absolute favorite shot from Disney was a night shot from just behind the merry go round....focus on the top of the Merry Go Round while standing at about Dumbos with the castle in the back ground while the fireworks are going off. It is a can't miss photo opp. Enjoy!!

Last edited by jwebberfb; 04-08-2009 at 08:43 PM.

bt*ist · 04-09-2009, 01:09 AM

In terms of altering the defaults, I've set contrast +1 and saturation +2 in the menu. I shoot AV and have set the front wheel to exposure compensation

PaddyB · 04-09-2009, 02:13 AM

I'm pretty sure most experienced people would tell you there is no ideal shooting mode, you just use whatever gets you the results you want. Anyway, this is what I've found:

Settings:

I almost always shoot RAW because I've found the AWB to be unreliable at times.

When I do shoot JPEG or convert RAW files in camera I think the K10D jpegs are softer and more "filmlike" than other similar cameras, even with +1 contrast and +2 sharpness. I wonder if it has something to do with the algorithims used (as I read on dpreview or somewhere once). Maybe I'm crazy or suggestible but thats how they look to me. I dont like increasing the saturation in most cases because to me it makes skin-tones unnatural. It perks up some landscape and architecture shots but I've found it makes lush bright greens to look almost "neon".

I am also a beginner so I like to shoot in the following quite a bit:

P - Av rear Tv front. Its nice to have the green button if I need to give up and relenquish control to the computer (but it isnt that smart of a computer IMO, which is good because I've learned a lot from reshooting what the computer F's up).

I use auto ISO mostly but in low light I use a combination of these two custom e-dial setups:

In Av - Av rear ISO front

In Tv - Tv rear ISO front

That works better for me than shooting in Sv.

I use evaluative metering mostly but have to switch to spot frequently because there is bad high contrast lighting frequently in Taiwan that fools the meter. I'm not exactly sure what to use center-weighted for yet.

I let the camera pick my AF mostly but also use center focus quite a bit too.

Thats about it, I'm a n00b too but once I learned how to setup the above my shots got a lot better.

jmdeegan · 04-09-2009, 06:18 AM

have the guide brit, thats what i meant by needing to re-read it. been a while, every time i mean to read it with the camera next to me, it doesnt happen.

agree with the big cards. i have 3 8 gig cards and a 16 gig card making the trip. will be dumping them every evening.

always shoot raw

still fiddling with learning to really make the tweaks in PP, but getting there.

lens selection...that goes back to another thread....odds are ill bring most in my sig, tho not every one will come out to the parks with me every time of course....as for leaving the bag in the room...i dunno. i kinda like having a weatherproof home for the camera when it isn't attached to my shoulder.

little side note, from some recommendations on here, i ended up getting a black rapid strap as a replacement for the stock strap, and i love it. still getting used to walking with the camera behind/to the side, but otherwise, its a great add-on.

nyu3 · 04-09-2009, 11:42 AM

Originally posted by RBellavance

I'm going from memory here, but this should cover most of the important settings...

I use Av mode the vast majority of the time, with aperture control on the rear e-dial and ISO on the front one (no button push for changing ISO!).

I normally don't use Auto-ISO.

Autofocus mode is normally in AF.S, in "SEL" mode. I try to use the AF point closest to where I want the focus to be, to avoid recomposing too much.

Metering is almost alway in Matrix mode.

Under- and over-exposure "blinkies" are enabled in instant review, along with histogram.

I've also enabled the Custom option "Link AF point to AE".

Finally, I shoot in RAW+JPEG (*** quality).

Pretty much same as this, except I use center weighted AE (I think this is supposed to work with Link AF point to AE?). And usually +0.5EV. Also, raw only

**Canada_Rockies** · 04-09-2009, 11:52 AM

Originally posted by nyu3

Pretty much same as this, except I use center weighted AE (I think this is supposed to work with Link AF point to AE?). And usually +0.5EV. Also, raw only

No, the AE/AF link only works in Matrix metering. Basically, it uses only or mostly the segment where the AF is taken.

04-08-2009, 12:16 PM	#1
jmdeegan Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: nyc Photos: Gallery Posts: 564	Ideal K10D settings and shooting mode Wanted to see what everyone was using in terms of changes from the factory defaults. Also, looking for some input relative to the shooting mode. Since I have been unable to get out and shoot a lot, and also because i've finally got my wife using the k10 as the primary camera when i am not home, it tends to end up in green mode a lot more than it used to. do most shoot manual and fiddle with everything? or some other preferred method? reason i ask--i am just under 3 weeks away from a family trip to disney, and while i know i could shoot the whole trip on green, i'd rather not...but i also don't need to forget a critical part of the setting and end up botching a family photo memory because of it. will be re-reading my k10d guidebook as well, but wanted forum feedback thx

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
What would be ideal holiday settings to have minimal post processing	Ivo_Spohr	Troubleshooting and Beginner Help	10	05-03-2010 08:33 PM
Mode-scene settings	BillM	Troubleshooting and Beginner Help	1	01-04-2010 12:23 AM
Ideal calibration settings?	Eigengrau	Digital Processing, Software, and Printing	6	03-13-2009 01:58 PM
Bulb mode settings	switch79	Photographic Technique	9	06-21-2007 05:45 PM
Best mode/settings for birds	Singinman	Photographic Technique	4	06-10-2007 02:20 AM

04-08-2009, 12:54 PM	#2
RBellavance Veteran Member Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Near Montréal, Canada Photos: Gallery Posts: 1,716	I'm going from memory here, but this should cover most of the important settings... I use Av mode the vast majority of the time, with aperture control on the rear e-dial and ISO on the front one (no button push for changing ISO!). I normally don't use Auto-ISO. Autofocus mode is normally in AF.S, in "SEL" mode. I try to use the AF point closest to where I want the focus to be, to avoid recomposing too much. Metering is almost alway in Matrix mode. Under- and over-exposure "blinkies" are enabled in instant review, along with histogram. I've also enabled the Custom option "Link AF point to AE". Finally, I shoot in RAW+JPEG (*** quality). Oh, and the "USER" setting is for my wife: "P" mode with Auto-ISO (100-800), and Auto WB. I will deviate from these settings mostly when I use an external flash (M mode instead of Av) or do macro (MF instead of AF.S).

04-08-2009, 01:02 PM	#3
UpNorth Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: Minnesota, U.S.A. Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 714	In situations like yours (I.e. family vacation - so you MIGHT have a couple of other things going on, besides worrying about all the settings on your camera) I like to shoot in P mode. That way, when I WANT to control the aperture and/or shutter speed I can (using front/rear e-dials), and when I want to just get the quick shot and let the camera decide the settings, I'm just a push of the green button away.... Good luck, and have fun at Disney..... Tim

04-08-2009, 02:28 PM	#4
sabarrett Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Michigan Photos: Gallery Posts: 270	We were at Disney a couple of years ago, and from what I remember I shot most of the trip in AV mode, center focus, center weighted exposure, AF-C or AF-S, whatever the situation warranted. I leave the focus on center as that way I know where the focus is and i never have to worry about forgetting to put it where i need it and having a shot come out wrong. I shot the whole trip in JPG, and although I wished a few shots were not on jpg only. For the most part, the shots were juast snapshots of family and jpg was fine. If there were some special shots for some reason, I just pushed the raw button and captured them when needed. We arrived on Sunday and left on thurs morning. All in all I shot almost 1000 pictures. I used only one memory card (4gig), but brought another just in case. If you have multiples, a good idea may be to use one per day, just in case. Oh, and bring at least two extra batteries. I just put the two spares in my pockets and never noticed them. by the end of the day, had swapped at least one. I just recharged them in the room at night. As I am thinking, I think I used the SV mode a couple of times while in rides, so I could control where shots were being taken quickly. I just jumped the iso around till the settings looked good and shot. Some times I did go to P mode, as my wife is not a camera buff, but just a point and shooter. It just made for less frustration. All I had at the time was the 17-70 and it made a nice travel lens. I see you have a few others to choose from. The 50-135 or the 55-300 would be nice to have too, however the 300 may just be too slow for much use. I was starving for light many times. My guess is you will like the 16-45 and the 50-135 most of the time. On rides you may want the 50 (faster) and for fireworks or the general park scenery, the 10-20. One word of advice, use the photopass system. We preordered the cd, as that took I think 40% off and they shot 100 pictures of us in the parks, plus you get to edit the shots with the nice borders and such. We checked the shots out after we were home and they were good, so we went ahead and got the disk. if you pre-order and then decide not to buy, you are not out the money (at least that was the case for us), but if you don't preorder, you pay the full cost. They used a 6mp Nikon D70 and about 2/3 of the photogs actually knew something about what they were doing and took good shots. The others just were on P and shot shots. As others have said, have a good time. Remember, this is a vacation, so make sure to enjoy the family too. I had to remind myself of this many times, as I kept wanting to take the perfect shot, rather than watching the kids enjoy Micky and his friends.

04-08-2009, 07:46 PM	#5
Robert S Donovan Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Anderson, SC Photos: Gallery Posts: 361	Originally posted by UpNorth In situations like yours (I.e. family vacation - so you MIGHT have a couple of other things going on, besides worrying about all the settings on your camera) I like to shoot in P mode. That way, when I WANT to control the aperture and/or shutter speed I can (using front/rear e-dials), and when I want to just get the quick shot and let the camera decide the settings, I'm just a push of the green button away.... Good luck, and have fun at Disney..... Tim I agree with Tim. I'd add take a big SD card (at least 8GB) and shoot in RAW so you can fix minor exposure and WB issues later while the kids are sleeping and you and the misses are enjoying a night cap. I like to use a battery grip for better camera handling and no worrying about batteries (recharge every night). Leave the camera bag at the room and pick whichever lens you normally shoot with (for me it would either be my 35 f/2 or 50 f/1.7, though the kit lens is light and has a great range). That way you won't be fumbling with the camera bag changing lenses, missing the shot and pissing the wife and kids off

04-08-2009, 07:53 PM	#6
Damn Brit Guest	Get yourself the Magic Lantern Guide for the K10D, it's well worth it.

04-08-2009, 08:36 PM	#7
jwebberfb New Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Murfreesboro, TN Posts: 12	We just got back ourselves. Shot primarily with the 16-45. Great images. The only suggestion I would add is to be cautious when using that lens in tight spots indoors (for example if you do character dining and are trying to capture the characters for up close and personal shots) unless you are using a dedicated flash. The barrell extension to go wider causes a problem at anything less than about 21mm due to a shadow being cast bt the onboard flash. For that reason I would likely carry a prime lens at wider angle to get those shots without worry of trying to remember avoiding backing up too much. Also would make for a lighter setup than carrying a dedicated flash. As previously mentioned the photopass guys and gals do a great job, with good equipment, and are not in any way too pushy/salesman like. Its purely up to you whether you want them to photo you, etc. My absolute favorite shot from Disney was a night shot from just behind the merry go round....focus on the top of the Merry Go Round while standing at about Dumbos with the castle in the back ground while the fireworks are going off. It is a can't miss photo opp. Enjoy!! Last edited by jwebberfb; 04-08-2009 at 08:43 PM.

04-09-2009, 01:09 AM	#8
bt*ist Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: London, UK Photos: Gallery Posts: 211	In terms of altering the defaults, I've set contrast +1 and saturation +2 in the menu. I shoot AV and have set the front wheel to exposure compensation

04-09-2009, 02:13 AM	#9
PaddyB Forum Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Taipei Posts: 65	I'm pretty sure most experienced people would tell you there is no ideal shooting mode, you just use whatever gets you the results you want. Anyway, this is what I've found: Settings: I almost always shoot RAW because I've found the AWB to be unreliable at times. When I do shoot JPEG or convert RAW files in camera I think the K10D jpegs are softer and more "filmlike" than other similar cameras, even with +1 contrast and +2 sharpness. I wonder if it has something to do with the algorithims used (as I read on dpreview or somewhere once). Maybe I'm crazy or suggestible but thats how they look to me. I dont like increasing the saturation in most cases because to me it makes skin-tones unnatural. It perks up some landscape and architecture shots but I've found it makes lush bright greens to look almost "neon". I am also a beginner so I like to shoot in the following quite a bit: P - Av rear Tv front. Its nice to have the green button if I need to give up and relenquish control to the computer (but it isnt that smart of a computer IMO, which is good because I've learned a lot from reshooting what the computer F's up). I use auto ISO mostly but in low light I use a combination of these two custom e-dial setups: In Av - Av rear ISO front In Tv - Tv rear ISO front That works better for me than shooting in Sv. I use evaluative metering mostly but have to switch to spot frequently because there is bad high contrast lighting frequently in Taiwan that fools the meter. I'm not exactly sure what to use center-weighted for yet. I let the camera pick my AF mostly but also use center focus quite a bit too. Thats about it, I'm a n00b too but once I learned how to setup the above my shots got a lot better.

04-09-2009, 06:18 AM	#10
jmdeegan Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: nyc Photos: Gallery Posts: 564 Original Poster	have the guide brit, thats what i meant by needing to re-read it. been a while, every time i mean to read it with the camera next to me, it doesnt happen. agree with the big cards. i have 3 8 gig cards and a 16 gig card making the trip. will be dumping them every evening. always shoot raw still fiddling with learning to really make the tweaks in PP, but getting there. lens selection...that goes back to another thread....odds are ill bring most in my sig, tho not every one will come out to the parks with me every time of course....as for leaving the bag in the room...i dunno. i kinda like having a weatherproof home for the camera when it isn't attached to my shoulder. little side note, from some recommendations on here, i ended up getting a black rapid strap as a replacement for the stock strap, and i love it. still getting used to walking with the camera behind/to the side, but otherwise, its a great add-on.

04-09-2009, 11:42 AM	#11
nyu3 Inactive Account Join Date: Apr 2009 Posts: 6	Originally posted by RBellavance I'm going from memory here, but this should cover most of the important settings... I use Av mode the vast majority of the time, with aperture control on the rear e-dial and ISO on the front one (no button push for changing ISO!). I normally don't use Auto-ISO. Autofocus mode is normally in AF.S, in "SEL" mode. I try to use the AF point closest to where I want the focus to be, to avoid recomposing too much. Metering is almost alway in Matrix mode. Under- and over-exposure "blinkies" are enabled in instant review, along with histogram. I've also enabled the Custom option "Link AF point to AE". Finally, I shoot in RAW+JPEG (*** quality). Pretty much same as this, except I use center weighted AE (I think this is supposed to work with Link AF point to AE?). And usually +0.5EV. Also, raw only

04-09-2009, 11:52 AM	#12
Canada_Rockies Loyal Site Supporter Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Sparwood, BC, Canada Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,385	Originally posted by nyu3 Pretty much same as this, except I use center weighted AE (I think this is supposed to work with Link AF point to AE?). And usually +0.5EV. Also, raw only No, the AE/AF link only works in Matrix metering. Basically, it uses only or mostly the segment where the AF is taken.