Understanding all your camera’s capabilities is a huge advantage when trying to create great photos. DSLRs have a huge variety of settings and features, most of which people either don’t understand, or just simply ignore. This is a comprehensive guide to every single one of your cameras settings, where they are, and what they do. I will go through what every button does, and what all the menu settings do, and I will be using a Nikon D600 for this tutorial. Every camera is different, so therefore your camera may differ slightly, but the majority of the settings are universal across most camera brands, you just may find that some buttons or settings may be in different places. There’s a huge amount of information, therefore I will be splitting this post into multiple parts. Here in part five, we shall go through the in-camera ‘Custom Settings’ menu.

Custom Settings Menu

The Custom Settings menu is where you can fine-tune, and therefore customise, some of your camera settings to fit your unique shooting style.

Reset Custom Settings

This allows you to reset this entire menu to it’s default settings if you no longer wish to use any current custom settings.

a Autofocus

a1: AF-C Priority Selection (The focus will not lock when AF-C is selected. The camera continues to adjust focus until shutter is released)

a2: AF-S Priority Selection (The focus will lock while shutter-release is half-pressed when AF-S is selected. Focus stays locked until shutter is released)

a3: Focus Tracking With Lock-On (When the distance between you and the subject changes, the camera waits for a time before adjusting the distance to the subject, preventing the camera from refocusing if the subject is briefly obscured by another object)

a4: Focus Point Display (Choose between focus points, for example you can select a single focus point or multiple points)

a5: Focus Point Illumination (Turn this on when attempting to focus in low-light as the camera will then shine a small light outwards, helping you to focus more easily)

a6: Focus Point Wrap-Around (Choosing ‘wrap’ means that when you select a focus point on a far edge, the camera automatically selects the corresponding focus point on the opposite side too)

a7: Number Of Focus Points (this is where you can choose how many available focus points there are to choose from when focusing, for example you can fill your screen with focus points or choose to only have 6 points spaced out)

a8: Store Points By Orientation (this means the current focus point you are using will change if you turn your camera between landscape and portrait in order to adapt to the new orientation. Turning it off means the focus point will stay the same)

b Metering/ Exposure

b1: ISO sensitivity step value (This allows you to adjust the increments used when adjusting your ISO sensitivity)

b2: EV steps for exposure cntrl (This allows you to adjust the increments used when adjusting your shutter speed, aperture, etc.)

b3: Easy exposure compensation (This controls whether or not the shortcut button is needed for exposure compensation. If set to ‘auto reset’ any exposure compensation you have selected will be reset to 0 when the camera is turned off. If ‘on’ is selected it won’t be reset. If ‘off’ is selected then exposure compensation is only adjusted using the shortcut button)

b4: Matrix metering (When turned on, this enables face detection when shooting portraits)

b5: Center-weighted area (When you can choose the size of the area given the most weight in center-weighted metering)

b6: Fine-tune optimal exposure (You can use this to ‘fine-tune’ the exposure value selected by the camera. You can fine-tune each metering method separately from +1 to –1 in steps of 1/6 EV)

c Timers/ AE Lock

c1: Shutter-Release Button AE-L (Where you can choose whether exposure ‘locks’ when the shutter-release is pressed)

c2: Standby Timer (Choose how long the camera continues to meter exposure when on but not in use. The display that shows current shutter-speed and aperture turns off when standby timer expires. Choosing a shorter standby timer will enable longer battery life)

c3: Self-Timer (This causes a delay between the shutter-release being pressed and the photo being taken. You can determine the length of the delay, number of shots taken, and interval between shots)

c4: Monitor Off Delay (You can choose how long the monitor remains on during playback when the camera is on but not in use)

c5: Remote On Duration (ML-L3) (You can choose how long the camera remains on stand-by in remote release mode. If camera is on but not in use for a selected period, remote shooting will end and ‘off’ will be selected)

d Shooting/ Display

d1: Beep (Use this menu to adjust the pitch of the beep your camera makes when focusing)

d2: Continuous Low-Speed (You can choose the maximum frame rate in Cl Mode aka continuous low speed)

d3: Max. Continuous Release (You can set the maximum number of shots that can be taken in a single burst in continuous mode between 1 and 100)

d4: Exposure Delay Mode (When the slightest camera movement could blur your photo, you can select 1s, 2s, or 3s to delay shutter release)

d5: Flash Warning (If ‘on’ is selected, the flash-ready indicator (M) will blink if the flash is required for an optimal exposure)

d6: File Number Sequence (When you take a photo, the camera names the file by adding one to the last file number used. This menu controls whether file numbering continues from the last number used when either a new folder is created, card is formatted, or a new card is inserted)

d7: Viewfinder Grid Display (If you need extra assistance when composing a photo, turn this on to enable the viewfinder grid)

d8: Easy ISO (Selecting ‘easy ISO’ simply means you don't have to push the ISO button AND rotate the dial. Simply rotate the dial when using the camera in A mode)

e Bracketing/ Flash

e1: Flash Sync Speed (This is when the firing of your flash synchronises with your shutter speed. It’s important to know your sync speed when using flash; if your shutter speed is too quick, then it’ll be quicker than your light, therefore only illuminating a portion of your image. This option adjusts your sync speed)

e2: Flash Shutter Speed (This option determines the slowest shutter speed available when using front/rear-curtain sync or red-eye reduction in P or A modes)

e3: Flash Cntrl For Built-In Flash (You can control the flash mode for the built-in flash as well as external flashes. You can choose from Manual, TTL (automatic), RPT (Repeating Flash) and CMD (commander mode) and whether the flash goes off once or continuously for the duration that the shutter-release is pressed)

e4: Exposure Comp. For Flash (You can choose how the camera adjusts flash level when exposure compensation is used. You can choose ‘entire frame’ where flash level and exposure compensation are adjusted to modify exposure over the entire frame, and ‘background only’ which means the exposure compensation only applies to the background of the image)

e5: Modelling Flash (If ‘on’ is selected when using an external flash, a modelling flash will be emitted when the camera Pv button is pressed)

e6: Auto Bracketing Set (This option determines which settings are affected when AE & flash bracketing or AE bracketing is selected)

e7: Bracketing Order (When ‘MTR > under > over (H)’ is selected, exposure, flash, and white balance bracketing are performed in the following order: the unmodified shot is taken first, followed by the shot with the lowest value, followed by the shot with the highest value. If ‘Under > MTR > over (I)’ is selected, shooting will proceed in order from the lowest to the highest value)

f Controls

f1: OK Button (This option determines the role assigned to the ‘OK’ button during viewfinder photography, playback, and live view)

f2: Assign Fn Button (This option determines the role assigned to the ‘Fn’ button either by itself or used in combination with other buttons)

f3: Assign Preview Button (This option determines the role assigned to the ‘preview’ button either by itself or used in combination with other buttons)

f4: Assign AE-L/AF-L Button (This option determines the role assigned to the ‘AE-L/AF-L’ button either by itself or used in combination with other buttons)

f5: Customise Command Dials (This option controls the operation of the main and sub-command dials)

f6: Release Button To Use Dial (Selecting ‘yes’ allows adjustments that are normally made by holding a button and rotating a command dial to instead be made by rotating the command dial after the button is released)

f7: Slot Empty Release Lock (If this menu is set to ‘lock’ you cannot release the shutter if there is no card in the camera. If set to ‘enable release’ you can release the shutter without a card but photos are displayed on the monitor with a red ‘demo’ hint)

f8: Reverse Indicators (You can adjust whether the - and + signs on the exposure compensation display appear with the + to the left or the + to the right)

g Movie

g1: Assign FN Button (This option determines the role assigned to the ‘Fn’ button either by itself or used in combination with other buttons when in movie mode)

g2: Assign Preview Button (This option determines the role assigned to the ‘preview’ button either by itself or used in combination with other buttons when in movie mode)

g3: Assign AE-L/AF-L Button (This option determines the role assigned to the ‘AE-L/AF-L’ button either by itself or used in combination with other buttons when in movie mode)

g4: Assign Shutter Button (This option determines the role assigned to the shutter-release button either by itself or used in combination with other buttons when in movie mode)

Hopefully this was helpful for you and allowed you to understand your camera a bit better. If you want to learn more about in-camera menus, make sure to keep your eye out for Part Six of ‘Every Setting On Your DSLR Explained’, where I will go through the setup menu and what each option does. You can also read more about the custom settings menu here in the online Nikon manual.

All images in this post are copyright (c) of Aby-Joanne Photography.

Custom Settings Menu- Every Setting On Your DSLR Explained (Part Five)