Canon R5 Settings For Wildlife Photography

guys this is janine from pangolin and if you're watching this video i assume you might have purchased a canon eos r5 or you're at least thinking about it in this video i'm going to guide you step by step through how to set up this camera for wildlife photography first i will go through the extensive shooting menu with you and point out all the changes from factory settings that i find relevant to boost your performance then i will explain how to set up your focusing system to make sure that you don't miss the best moments out there and lastly i will go one step further and introduce you to my favorite customizations for the buttons and wheels on this camera at the end your canon eos r5 will be streamlined and ready to support you for the upcoming action out in the field you might have noticed that picking up a brand new camera can be rather intimidating and not always as straightforward easy and even manageable as what you might have thought however nowadays cameras are extremely customizable and even small changes can make a huge difference for wildlife photography let's get started when we open the menu and start with the first red tab you will have to make a choice whether you would like to shoot raw or jpeg this tab is also the location you could find the potential crop ratio if you feel that your subject is too far away if you've seen my canon r5 review you will see that the 1.6 crop factor actually works beautifully at times last the dual pixel raw function is quite an amazing feature that allows you to make more changes to your image in retrospective such as your background clarity or even your focus if it was slightly off however it does make your file sizes nearly double and on high burst shooting with wildlife photography that is not manageable with your storage space usually you tend to take more than one picture of a scene anyway to try and get it right so i don't find it all too crucial at the moment and keep it disabled until maybe one day storage will become less of an issue in our next tab you might want to have a look at your iso speed settings if you shoot a manual with automatic iso like me you have to consider setting yourself a maximum iso cap to avoid excessive noise i personally have tried to avoid exceeding 6400 iso on the canon eos r5 however i have kept my iso uncapped so far to remain more flexible that means that you're really going to have to watch your eyes over all other settings in tab 2 i've kept off for now including the highlight tone priority which can help you retrieve burnt highlights in retrospective as i want to keep my option to reach the camera's lowest iso sensitivity tab 3 of your shooting menu is affecting your overall look of your photograph and even though your white balance has no direct effect on your raw image as you can always change it in retrospective i like to choose a set white balance in order to keep a steady tone while out in the field next i would go to color space and select adobe rgb which is generally more vibrant and can easily be converted to srgb without losing any color within your image also it will allow you to edit potential jpeg images much more easily as it simply has a broader color space then i will continue to choose a picture style again it really doesn't affect your raw image at all however it does affect your jpeg and your in-camera review which will then allow you to get a much better idea of a potential final outcome while being out in the field i prefer setting my picture style to standard and then increasing the sharpness saturation and contrast slightly as images look rather flat otherwise and this allows me to judge my final outcome on the small screen for the very same reason i then increase my clarity by one point as well please be aware though that if you choose to shoot on jpg you might prefer neutral which does not add extra sharpening as sharpening throughout your entire image on a jpeg file can ruin a print the next two tabs in the shooting menu i keep according to factory settings tab 6 was rather interesting to me as i was chuffed to see the return of an interval timer that allows you to shoot time lapses why do i say return well the highly praised 1dx series didn't have an interval timer so i'm very glad to see it here and then you can also choose your shutter mode in this tab if you're not quite sure what that means please follow the link above and you get more directions i'm quite old school and prefer mechanical shutter as 12 frames a second is more than enough for me that way i don't just avoid accumulating too many photographs on my hard drives but also the potential issue of a rolling shutter that can occur with electronic shutter if you need total silence or simply want more frames you have the option to switch to an electronic shutter however this will also mean that you do not have the capability to use dual pixel raw next we need to make sure to turn the release shutter without card off so that we don't forget to insert a card by accident this is a really tough lesson to learn and can so easily be avoided by setting a security net within your settings in tab number seven we can customize the look of our viewfinder and back screen to suit our individual preferences without causing unnecessary delays or using up too much of our battery life the touch shutter function can pretty much be ignored as we rarely use live view in wildlife photography and i personally don't want to take an accidental picture just by touching the back of the screen however image review is an important one i want both my review duration plus my viewfinder review to be off and disabled to avoid unwelcomed interruptions in my shooting experience that might cause me to lose my subject in the viewfinder when tracking it this is also why the high speed display will remain turned off you really want to choose yourself when to review your images rather than having your camera pushing it onto you in a very unwelcome moment and if you do enjoy shooting on live view please don't forget to also shut off the review of your back screen as that can be controlled separately next up is the exposure simulation which does cost you some battery life but is one of the biggest advantages of going mirrorless being able to see what effect your exposure value has on your image is invaluable in wildlife photography as it cannot simply be recreated also it creates a permanent awareness and you will never forget your exposure value of -2 by accident again it will simply speed up your learning curve on how to judge exposure and light out in the field exponentially especially when you're only just starting off with your photography last we have quite a complex menu that allows you to entirely customize the information displayed on your back screen and viewfinder when shooting which can be quite helpful your screen info settings allow you to choose which options you want to have available when pressing the info button i personally get overwhelmed by too much information on my image and feel like i'm wasting my time looking for settings that are displayed alongside the rim most of the time i have my back screen turned onto option 5 which also saves battery life as it is mostly a black screen but sometimes i need to have the live view option available to avoid having to press the info button 5 times to get to my desired display i turn option 2 3 and 4 off my preferred live view option is number one with all the basic settings displayed what it really lacks is the water level though which is often crucial when using the live view as you tend to be in very awkward positions such as your belly when making use of it by pressing info i get the additional option to customize each display individually how to set up your screens is very dependent on your personal taste and you can play around with it to match your workflow and shooting process next you can do the same adjustments to your electronic viewfinder another huge advantage to your dslr cameras again i like my settings to be as basic as possible but notice that it can be very misleading if you do not have your crop factor displayed as you might forget what you have set it to therefore i opted for option 2 which displays basic information on the sides your info button can further customize each display the following options on this tab are left according to factory settings but if you are a photographer that prefers shooting according to your histogram you might enjoy the option of changing its size within your display so that it doesn't take up too much of your viewing experience the very last thing on our shooting menu is actually one of the most important menu settings for wildlife photography while we do strive to increase our battery life when out in the field it is more important to get the best and smoothest viewfinder performance out for your camera to allow you to track fast moving subjects uninterrupted setting it to smooth makes your viewfinder experience come very close to looking through a mirror on an actual dslr camera while the power saving option provides you with that jerky experience that i've really been dreading so much on mirrorless cameras if this type of information is helpful to you please don't forget to subscribe to get all our new video content last but not least you might have noticed that our shooting menu might have ignored some rudimentary settings out of our quick menu namely the metering and drive modes that we should definitely not ignore while metering is once again a very personal choice in your shooting process i suggest to put it on evaluative metering if you would like to learn more about the final ulcers of canon's metering modes please check out the link on the top right hand corner here more straightforward than that is our drive mode which is ideally set to high continuous shooting as it will allow you to capture every moment of the action and then choosing the perfect frame in retrospective as wildlife moments cannot easily be recreated capturing the perfect split second is so important and missing that is simply not a risk i'm willing to take next in line is the ping auto focus menu which has become so much more exciting since the new animal eye tracking first of all i'm going to show you a fully automated version which can be a bit tricky at times and then i will make sure to show you my dual focusing system that i prefer if you would like to know why please check out my canon r5 review here firstly and you would be surprised how many people forget about it you need to turn your auto focus operation to servo af which tracks your animal continuously while pressing your focus button this is crucial as animals tend to move pretty continuously as well on one shot you will receive blurry or off-focus images every time the slightest movement takes place in order to play with the amazing animal eye detection you then have to choose the face detection and tracking method your subject to detect will then be set to animals when doing that you must just remember to set it back to people when you are changing your subject matter next you will still have to enable your eye detection to complete the magic formula you'll have a fully functional animal eye detection programmed onto your main focus button as i have mentioned in my canon r5 review this is not always the most desirable setup to have however if you do trust the animal eye tracking over your own focusing skills i do suggest one little extra crutch which will make this function so much more easy to handle and direct if you go straight to tab 5 of the focus menu you get to choose your initial servo af point for eye detection rather than just leaving it on automatic this will allow you the chance to direct your focus in the first split second onto your subject before it will start tracking it therefore you can tell the camera what exactly you're interested in within your photograph before the animal eye detection takes over without any clear directions generally however i would not suggest giving up your basic function of choosing one specific spot that you have chosen your photograph that is an ability you never want to lose in wildlife photography especially because there's not always eyes to focus on or you merely want to choose a different area within your photograph however you would like the added assistance of the new animal eye detection because it is so helpful at times not to worry as there is a way to set up both systems simultaneously back in your auto focus method you will have to choose spot autofocus which automatically disables your eye detection whether you focus on the top or the back button you will now be able to simply focus on your subject the old-fashioned way in order to add the animal eye tracking you now have to customize one of your buttons to take over the eye detection autofocus i prefer choosing the star button as i rarely use an exposure lock and have the auto focus on button set as my regular focus as long as you keep the star button pressed animal eye detection will now dominate your focusing even if you decide to release your shutter on the top focus button this is a massive step in your initial setup with this accomplished we are now coming back to the first tab of the r5 focus menu i just wanted to warn you not to enable the continuous autofocus this is really a bit confusing as it is named exactly the same as nikon's equivalent to our server autofocus but in this case it simply means that the camera just keeps on autofocusing at all times and therefore eating up our precious battery life in turn i did activate the touch and drag autofocus though as i really enjoyed the additional option of using the top right hand corner to direct my single focus point very smoothly this finally brings us to our second tab while manual focus is not something i use a lot of wildlife photography i simply think that the camera is just faster than me in most cases and therefore i do have the peaking settings turned on that way you will see a slight coloration of the subject in your frame as it turns sharp which can be incredibly helpful tab 3 then deals with the preset autofocus cases the choice of the cases is often a big question mark on wildlife photography and boils down to personal preference and because of that i tend to simply program it in my green setup menu which makes the cases obsolete as it overrides them entirely alternatively you can also adjust them within your case my go-to preference is to calm the autofocus down by making it more sticky to your subject so once i actually find my subject little movements or alterations in the subject or the camera will not make me lose my focus so fast but that also means that it will take you a longer time to pick up a new focus on a new subject which can be a nuisance at times depending on what you shoot therefore you will be required to make alterations to your shooting settings as you go along depending on your daily subject in turn i keep my acceleration deceleration tracking theory responsive as i'm regularly dealing with subjects that change their speed at which they move if you have tried different settings in your tracking sensitivity and simply don't come right you can also try to slow down or speed up how quickly your tracking will change its subject entirely as i like to keep the focus tracking more sticky i keep it on slow your next menu point should be turned on at all times as per your factory settings as your autofocus can otherwise simply decide to stop working at any given point in time when it finds your auto focus process too slow this can really throw you off your game and make you question the entire integrity of the system believe me it has happened to us out there the only other menu point i have changed within the autofocus settings is my auto focus method selection control as i've always had a problem with a sneaky mfn button i just find it more intuitive to use the wheel like in any other selection process instead of a completely random button here in the front coming to our blue replay menu i haven't changed all too much and it really isn't that important to your photography process the two things i find really useful is to first of all change the magnification to actual size as it will zoom straight in allowing you to check for the sharpness of your image secondly i like to enable my auto focus point display as it gives you a great feedback to your personal focusing accuracy and maybe an answer as to why a photograph might have not worked out the purple network menu is great for sports photographers or journalists who need to send their images straight to an agency or other devices however when shooting out in remote areas i find that any of the network settings tend to drain your battery much faster which is why i turn it to airplane mode this menu also gives you the option to send images straight to your phone or control the camera through your phone via the canon app which allows for really creative wildlife photography lastly i make sure to disable my gps device as it makes it impossible to track endangered species on your photograph approaches as we move our way slowly through the settings you will be relieved to hear that the yellow setup menu will also be quick in tab one of the setup menu i like to make sure that in my recording options my cards switch over automatically so that i have the maximum shooting capacity at all times as i don't shoot onto two cards simultaneously this allows for the best and most fluid shooting experience out there if you do like to shoot an immediate backup onto a second card then this is also the menu point to set it up in the second thing i alter within the yellow menu is a very useful tool called power saving as everything is electronic on a mirrorless camera it tends to consume your batteries a lot faster than your average dslr camera making sure that all displays turn off frequently will help you get the most out of your battery life in the field therefore my display turns off after 30 seconds my viewfinder after one minute and the camera goes into standby after 30 seconds the eco mode is providing you an even more advanced power saving method that will dim the screen after merely one second and go into sleeping mode after less than 10 seconds this can actually be a bit obnoxious to work with but if you need a battery boost out in the field and you are desperate this can actually be your saving grace the yellow menu is also the place where you would set up your custom shooting modes i personally don't make much use of the custom shooting modes but there will be one example that i will set up with you together normally i like to make the marginal changes of my settings straight in camera whenever the situation requires it but when it comes to slow motion panning shots and you have to change both your shutter and your aperture by so many stops at one time in order to achieve the right settings i often find myself overwhelmed in missing the moment therefore i'd like to set up my slow motion panning on custom shooting mode 1. it is as simple as changing your camera to all the desired settings and then registering them under your desired mode it is also good to know that canon now offers a completely different set of custom shooting modes for video which is very helpful and this finally brings us to the orange menu i keep most of the orange menu as is but do like to customize my buttons and wheels which you can also access through your quick menu the new feature on the r5 in comparison to the dslr cameras is that we can customize the buttons separately for video and stills which is great news for all the video enthusiasts out there i will start with our shutter button which i personally prefer to have set to only meter and release as i like to focus with the back button if you're not sure what back button focusing is or why it is a great thing when it comes to wildlife photography there is a link for you up here to check out if you have chosen back button focusing please be reminded to turn your shutter button off as it will always refocus prior to releasing which can mess up the autofocus that you had achieved with the back button next i will make sure to set the star button to eye detection as discussed earlier and because i have now spent all of that time and effort to set up the perfect focusing system between the af1 and the star button my auto focus point selection has become rather redundant in turn i would like to access a potential crop much quicker in case the animal is slightly out of my focal range now i can turn on a 1.6 crop with a simple click of a button to stay reminded whether the crop is on or off it helps me to look at the information in my viewfinder the same option is unfortunately not available for video which is why i have chosen to place the zebras on it this can sometimes be distracting when activated permanently so it's good to turn it on and off as needed my next customization will be a great relief for all video enthusiasts out there which i assume you are as you have chosen the r5 over the r6 right one of the biggest nuisances on r5 is that there is no quick switch button from stills to video so i want to suggest to you to customize your mfn button that i found so unhelpful earlier to actually switch straight to your video settings this realization had me absolutely thrilled as it saves me so much time but it was a painful trade-off to make because previously i had my custom shooting modes programmed on the mfn button so i can access my slow motion panning quicker so if you are not a big videographer i would suggest you keep it just there strangely enough you cannot program your custom shooting modes to any other buttons as far as i'm aware if you know about a workaround please let me know in the comment section below you would make my life so much easier one of my most crucial customizations is to change the set button to adjust the exposure value as i'm shooting on manual with automatic iso this is my quick version of being able to control the light within my picture with a new introduction of the third wheel on the r5 this is now not the only option of quickly accessing your exposure value which is great but like most humans i'm a creature of habit so i suggest to program the third wheel for your iso function as there doesn't seem to be a dedicated button for that anywhere else either either way it doesn't really matter which way around i would program one wheel this way in one wheel for the other one so that you have both functions available at the tip of a finger last but not least and this is such a simple one that can make your lives tons easier but so many people forget it please activate your joystick there is really not one single reason i can think of in wildlife photography why not to if you first have to press the top right hand button before pressing your joystick it's just such a waste of time something we just don't have enough of when shooting wildlife out in the field by activating your joystick you can now choose the location of your focus point quick and easy especially now that the new joystick performance has improved tremendously and then viewfinder offers no restrictions to our focus area when shooting on full frame this is it guys there's only the green menu left that you can program to your own personal preference there's a few items i like to keep quick at hand without having to search through the entire menu so let's have a look at them you can have up to three different tabs which allows you to separate all items thematically i like to have these following items in my first tab to format my card as i do that frequently to be able to switch to different cards to make sure that i'm writing onto my faster card i like to have my image stabilization under here as it is only visible in the menu when you're working with a manual lens and i like to have a quick access to change my shutter mode in case i need total silence on my second tab i keep all the focusing items such as my tracking sensitivity my acceleration deceleration tracking as well as my subject to detect in case i want to shoot people you can set your own menu up to make your own workflow even more easy and that is it guys this is the canon eos r5 menu and i really hope this video helped you but remember there is no right or wrong here these cameras are so customizable to be able to adapt them to each and everybody's personal workflow so play around with it and see what works for you and let me know in the comment section down below what are your personal preferences when it comes to the setup of the canon eos r5 give this video a thumbs up if it did help you and you could use some of the items that i mentioned and i hope to see you soon again happy shooting

Channel: Pangolin Wildlife Photography

Views: 12,070

Rating: 4.9496856 out of 5

Keywords: canon r5 settings for wildlife photography, canon r5 settings for wildlife, canon r5 settings for bird photography, canon r5 settings for birds, canon r5 settings for birds in flight, canon r5 settings for photography, canon r5 settings, wildlife photography, canon r5 review, best settings for canon eos r5, best settings for canon r5, canon, photography, r5, canon eos r5, canon eos r5 review, canon r6, r5 animal autofocus, r5 or r6, eos r5, animal eye af, animal eye autofocus

Id: VAH-T6ii5m0

Length: 28min 52sec (1732 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 24 2021