Canon cameras ship with defaults that look fine but quietly work against you in real shooting. Change a few early settings and you get more honest exposure previews, cleaner files, and fewer missed shots without buying anything new.
Coming to you from James Reader, this practical video walks through the first settings he changes on every Canon body he picks up. He starts with file format and explains why shooting raw with a small JPEG can make everyday work smoother. The JPEG is there for fast previews and easy archiving, not for final use. That simple pairing saves card space while keeping things quick on a laptop. It also sets up the bigger point that what you see on the back of the camera is never the raw file. The camera is always showing a JPEG preview, whether you realize it or not.
Picture styles come next, and this is where many people tune out too early. Reader makes it clear that picture styles still affect what you see, even when shooting raw. Standard can look punchy but often misleads exposure, especially in high dynamic range scenes. Neutral and Faithful give a softer, more honest preview that doesn’t exaggerate contrast or saturation. That matters when judging clipped highlights on the LCD or EVF. He also calls out Lightroom users who leave their profile set to Adobe Color and never see true Canon color. Switching to camera-matching profiles changes the starting point more than most expect.
Exposure tools get a lot of attention, and for good reason. The histogram, zebras, and exposure meter are all based on that JPEG preview, not the raw data. That means you usually have more highlight headroom than the camera suggests. Reader explains how he slightly underexposes stills to protect highlights, trusting Canon’s shadow recovery later. For video, he flips the approach and exposes brighter to get cleaner shadows when shooting log. The contrast between photo and video exposure alone makes this section worth watching.
He also covers small menu changes that prevent mistakes. Extending the metering timer keeps exposure feedback visible while recomposing. Turning off “release shutter without card” stops empty shoots. Enabling a 3 x 3 grid adds reference points for framing without turning composition into a rule-following exercise. These changes don’t affect image quality directly, but they affect consistency on real shoots.
Depth of field preview is another setting many never touch. By default, the lens stays wide open for focusing, so the background blur you see is often wrong. If the camera supports exposure plus depth of field simulation, you can preview what is actually in focus as you stop down. That matters when placement and separation are tight. Not every Canon mirrorless body has this option, which Reader points out so expectations stay realistic.
Autofocus settings are handled with restraint. He avoids blanket advice and focuses on control. Locking subject detection instead of leaving it on auto improves reliability. Moving autofocus off the shutter button and setting focus priority prevents the camera from firing before focus is locked. These are quiet changes that reduce throwaway frames.
The video goes deeper into shutter modes, log profiles, zebra levels, white balance locking, battery-saving tweaks, and custom menus, especially for video shooters who want cleaner files and fewer surprises. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Reader.
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