1D Mark IV need-to-knows

Here again are two important tips for 1D Mark IV users:

  1. Disable ALO (Automatic Lighting Optimisation) and Peripheral Illumination adjustment.  Otherwise your RAW images will be underexposed!
  2. Focus-point linked metering does work when using evaluative metering (Canon do not tell you this, but evaluative metering is biased heavily towards the selected focus point). But unless you disable most of the 45 focus points and just use 19 of them, it does not work when using spot meter, even if you have enabled the focus-point linked spot metering function.

These are two small but important gotchas, wouldn’t you say? I thought they wewre important enough to point out again separately.

0 thoughts on “1D Mark IV need-to-knows

  1. Yes. But on the 7D, these options are in the normal shooting menus (the first two menus), so they are easier to find. Unless you shoot JPG,you should disable these two options.

  2. Thanks for the tips Michael. I turned off ALO and Peripheral Illumination adjustment on my 7D the last time you mentioned about these options on another topic, and I found that the pictures on the LCD are more representative of what they would look like on the computer monitor. I also found that I need to add + 2/3 compensation to get proper exposure. Otherwise, the pictures would come out slightly dark. Do you have the same experience with your 7D?

  3. Indeed. Use my 7D all the time. And sometimes it can be dark, but usually it does a pretty good job. So yes, instead of capturing insufficient light and then digitally adding it, I try to add enough light to start. The histogram is the best judge for this… in a scene with strong whites, it should extend all the way to the edge just before hitting it.

    To get the right exposure you can use exposure compensation and manual, or spot meter.

    When you spot meter off a gray card, are the images still dark?

  4. Michael, I have not tried with a gray card, which I will. I normally look at the histogram and then adjust from there.

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