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1d MarkII (N) Tips and Tricks

Andreas Kanon

New member
I am a relative new owner of a 1d Mark2N and came from using a Nikon for many years so i have some learning to do.
If you have any tips and tricks that you feel like sharing they are much appreciated.
I shoot 99% wildlife so if you have anything specific regarding that genre then by all means share :)
 
Welcome to OPF!

I shoot nature and wildlife, birds in particular, with a 1DMk2. These cameras are very customizable via Custom and Personal Functions. Here's a few things I use in my camera that I feel help me in this type of shooting:

CF4 - set to 3. I leave the camera in AI Servo all the time, and by starting/stopping AutoFocus with the * button, I have full control over AutoFocus. I also generally shoot in Manual Exposure mode whenever feasible, but if I have it in Av, this will also allow the exposure to continue to change as the position or scene of the subject changes.

Generally I have the center AF point manually selected, and have CF17 set to 1. This allows the camera to expand to the 7 adjacent AF points when needed. This works for me well in tracking birds in flight.

On occasion, I'll have the camera set to automatically select the AF Point (so-called "ring of fire"), again using the * button via CF4, and then have the "Assist" button (to the left of the * button) set to switch to the "Registered" AF point (which I set to the center AF point). This provides significant flexibility in the appropriate circumstances.

CF20 is set to 1, again useful for birds in flight. This makes tracking a little bit easier, and helps prevent "hunting" if it briefly loses focus on the bird.

That should get you started, if you weren't familiar with these. These functions are not always completely intuitive, and can require some thought and practice to understand what they do, and how you can use them to your benefit.

Hope this helps!
 

Andreas Kanon

New member
Hi and thank you Don for your tips!
I will go through those and try them out.
I had some settings where i used the * to lock AF but then i couldn't release the shutter for some reason??
The AF did lock but it seems like i am missing something.

/Andreas
 
You're quite welcome, Andreas.

As for your problem, I can't quite figure out where it was coming from. One of the advantages of using CF4 to assign AF to the * button is that you can always press the shutter to take the shot, and don't have to wait for the camera to achieve AF lock.

Play around with it more, and if you can figure out what settings resulted in this behavior, repost, and I'm sure we can figure it out.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Andreas,

I'll reinforce that welcome :)

Shoot manual with flash and if all fails, use "P", humbling as it may be, but it is very good in complex situations.

Asher
 
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