[mlaird]

I just bought a K20D, and am enjoying learning about its many capabilities. Since many buttons and even the e-dials are customizable, I'm curious what people's favorite custom settings are. For example, I've read of people setting the AF button to disable AF so that they can hold focus while still half-pressing the shutter button when they want to. Others like to disable AF with the shutter button, and use the AF button to enable autofocus. I've also read in passing of folks mapping the e-dials to various settings when one of the dials is otherwise unused (like in Av or Tv mode). I'm thinking of trying the "opposite" e-dial set to either exposure compensation or ISO adjustment for those modes. I'll have to see which I find most useful.

While I've picked up a few ideas like these from reading random posts on this forum and DPReview, I haven't seen a single thread where people offer their favorite tips and tricks. Even if I don't use them all, I'm sure I'd find such techniques interesting and thought provoking.

To start it off, a couple things I did on my venerable *ist DS and now on my K20D are to set the initial zoom factor on playback to be something like 2x instead of the default 1.2-1.4x. If I'm interested in zooming in, I know I'll want to go farther than just a little bit -- I'm probably checking for blinks or something where I need to go into 4x or more.

I also turned on both the histogram and the blinking highlights and shadows in the playback menu, since I want to know when something's getting lost at one end of the histogram or the other.

So what are your favorite custom settings?

[blackcloudbrew]

One good place to start is here:

PENTAX digiich

This was a 36 segment series of articles by a Japanese photographer for Pentax. It's a very good series. The specific segment (#18) shows his settings for a K10 which is really very similar to the K20. I found this to be very helpful.

As far as the blinkies go, I personally am hot and cold with them. Sometimes on, mostly off when I get annoyed with them.

[dlacouture]

- ISO on the front wheel in Av & Tv (Ev Comp is too easy to knock accidentaly)
- AF disable on AF button
- AE-L with AF-L
- CW
- High-speed drive (nice to control this by pressure, instead of having to dwelve into the menu!)
- UniWB
- x8 zoom

[nilesj]

The first setting I customized was Allow Aperture Ring so I could use manual lenses. Second setting was Display Sensitivity so it would show ISO instead exposure count.

Otherwise I'm still learning all the new features as well.

[Ash]

A very personal choice.

front e-dial for ISO in Av, Tv
OK+front e-dial for ISO elsewhere
remaining shots to show on LCD (I use the OK button often)
histogram+blinkies on review

[mlaird]

One good place to start is here:

PENTAX digiich

This was a 36 segment series of articles by a Japanese photographer for Pentax. It's a very good series. The specific segment (#18) shows his settings for a K10 which is really very similar to the K20. I found this to be very helpful.

That is a great series; thanks very much for the link! I'm going to have to show my kids that series too; they could learn a lot from it if they have the patience to go all the way through.

[oinkely]

wow, never knew about the OK + edial to change the iso.

exactly what i wanted.

thanks.

any other great tips out there for us K20 noobies