Is it just me?
About once a year, I feel the urge to fiddle with the button layout on my camera and customize it again. Is it a seasonal illness, like hay fever?
This year, I started using two LUMIX cameras (the G9PROII and the S5) that have almost the same body, so I wanted to standardize the button layout and make the operation feel the same. For some reason, I had been using them with slightly different settings, which led to accidental operation.
![Panasonic｜パナソニック LUMIX S5 ミラーレス一眼カメラ 標準ズームレンズキット DC-S5K-K [ズームレンズ]](https://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/biccamera/cabinet/product/5866/00000008461623_a01.jpg?_ex=128x128)
![Panasonic｜パナソニック LUMIX G9PROII 標準ズームレンズキット ミラーレス一眼カメラ DC-G9M2L [ズームレンズ]](https://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/biccamera/cabinet/product/8938/00000012146792_a01.jpg?_ex=128x128)
*Both of these cameras are still on sale, so the links should still be active.
I’m not sure who would benefit from writing about this, but as usual, I’ll just put it up here as a personal reminder.
For example, with the LUMIX G9 PRO II, you can assign any function in the operation menu to any of the 25 buttons if you want to. I don’t know much about cameras from other companies, but I think 25 buttons is a lot.
Of course, it’s not a good idea to customize the camera blindly, and in many cases it’s more reasonable to leave it as the default settings. I think the idea is that you should arrange the settings to suit your own needs in a way that feels just right.
In my case, “own needs” is something like this.
1) I only need to tweak the settings for still photography. I don’t use video much, so I leave the camera in its default state so that I can read the manual straightforwardly.
2) I mainly take hand-held snapshots of landscapes, trains, and street scenes, and I don’t pursue serious dynamic photography.
3) Focusing is done using the old-fashioned thumb AF
After a lot of trial and error, here are the results of my settings on the G9PROII (and S5). Sorry for the dull photos I took with my smartphone without putting in much effort.
Part 1: Top and back of the camera
The third button on the right is the one to look out for. The button on the top right of the camera, which is the easiest to press, is the exposure compensation button by default, but I’ve assigned it to the ‘SCP: AF Point Scope, which enlarges the area you want to focus on when AF is active’ function. I find it very useful because I can use thumb AF and index finger SCP to fine-tune the AF position while zooming in.
I like SCP so much that I’m thinking of changing my thumb AF to SCP (if I use thumb SCP and half-press the shutter button, I can complete the release in one continuous motion), but that’s a story for another time.
By the way, where did the default exposure compensation function go? I haven’t assigned it to any particular button, but have set it so that I can directly adjust the compensation by turning the dial around the rear cross-key with my thumb.
The second button on the left, the default AF mode button, is assigned to “BKT: bracket shooting”. In my case, the most frequently used function is focus bracketing (continuous shooting while shifting the focus position).
The Fn1 button in the lower left is still set to “Switch level display on/off” by default. This is a button that I often press by mistake, so I think it makes sense to assign it to a function like this that I want to use from time to time but that won’t have much of an effect if I accidentally press it.
Part 2: Lower back
This is the so-called ‘cross key’ that is integrated with the dial. Starting from the top and moving clockwise
・Up (Fn9): ”Drive mode setting: selection of continuous shooting speed and timer seconds”
・Right (Fn11) is “AE LOCK: Temporarily lock exposure by turning off AE”
・Down (Fn10) is “Metering Mode: Select balance, center-weighted, or pinpoint metering”
・Left (Fn12) is “AF Mode: Select the number of AF points and the subject to be automatically recognized by AF”
.
I can’t really explain why it’s like this, but I’ve been using my SLR PENTAX camera in this way since I first got used to it, so it’s become a habit. I’ve assigned the most frequently used AF modes to the left, which is the most natural place to press with your thumb, and the other buttons are for functions that I don’t use that often but want to be able to operate without taking my eye off the viewfinder when I do use them. I’ve grouped the exposure-related functions together on the bottom right, which is close to my thumb, and assigned the drive modes to the remaining top buttons.
Fn13-Fn17 in the top left are used to assign function calls to the joystick, but I don’t use the joystick for anything other than moving the focus area, so I haven’t set it up.
Part 3: Front and touch panel
The buttons on the front are assigned to functions that allow you to tweak the color tone of JPG images as they are taken.
Fn2 is ‘Photo Style’
Fn3 is ”LUT”
I tend to take photos in RAW format most of the time, so I don’t use these buttons very often, but sometimes I feel like playing around with them. By the way, the S5 doesn’t have a button corresponding to Fn3 on the bottom of the front panel.
Fn4-Fn8 are not physical buttons, but touch panel switches, and I don’t use them, so I’ve hidden them as they are in the default settings. If I were to use them in the future, it would be good to gather the video-related operations here.
Well, there are so many buttons and switches that can be operated without opening the menu, and in addition to that, if you press the Q button shown in “Part 1”, you can call up a list of 12 functions on the rear monitor. If you register the functions you want to find easily in an emergency (such as “Flash mode” or “Long-exposure noise reduction”) here, even if it’s not enough to assign physical buttons, you’ll be all set.
It was a bit of a hassle, but I think I’ve managed to set the buttons and switches on the S5 and G9PROII to feel almost the same. I can’t wait to try out how much more user-friendly the two cameras have become in the spring and early summer photography season!
