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Archive 2014 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings

  
 
dmccombs
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


I recently changed from a 1DSmk3 to 5D Mark III. I have spend the last day configuring settings including the C!-C3 settings. On the 1D cameras you could back up your settings to a CF or SD card. This was great in case you wiped out a setting or sent your camera in for service. It seems like Canon resets your settings just for fun every time they touch the camera.

I have looked around, and it appears that there isn't a way to back up settings to card. How are other people backing u their settings? IF you can't back up to a card, has anyone created a spreadsheet to record all the settings in?



Feb 22, 2014 at 10:59 AM
dgdg
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


Your C1-3 settings should be preserved with canon servicing. I've had a repair and clean/check and each time c1-3 were unaffected. Everything else is wiped. I keep a table of my MFA settings. All my other settings I can reenter in five minutes while watching netflix.


Feb 22, 2014 at 02:22 PM
EB-1
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


dmccombs wrote:
I recently changed from a 1DSmk3 to 5D Mark III. I have spend the last day configuring settings including the C!-C3 settings. On the 1D cameras you could back up your settings to a CF or SD card. This was great in case you wiped out a setting or sent your camera in for service. It seems like Canon resets your settings just for fun every time they touch the camera.

I have looked around, and it appears that there isn't a way to back up settings to card. How are other people backing u their settings? IF you can't
...Show more

There is no way, and that really sucks. I have two 5D3 bodies so now I go through each menu and make sure they are the same.

EBH



Feb 22, 2014 at 02:25 PM
dmccombs
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


Thanks for the feedback.

I don't remember all the settings after a few months, so I need to backup more than just the MFA numbers. I don't plan on buying a 2nd 5Dmk3, so I guess I will have to make up a spreadsheet.

DGDG, it sounds like you have had better luck with Canon wiping out settings, than I have.



Feb 22, 2014 at 07:56 PM
SeverianTL
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


Every time you take a photo the then current camera settings are recorded in the photo metadata, including all custom function settings (i.e., your C.Fn's -- not your custom mode settings, unless you happen to be in a custom mode for that shot), AF settings, AFMA value for the lens in use, metering mode, etc. This means that if you forget what settings you were using for a particular session, you can recover that info using an EXIF reader to read the "makernotes" section of the metadata. But you will have to restore those settings manually. It would be nice if EOS Utility or some other software could read camera settings and save them to a text file (XML file, say) and later read that file and reset them in the camera. Unfortunately, Canon has restricted that functionality to the 1D.


Feb 22, 2014 at 08:44 PM
EB-1
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


I'm skeptical that absolutely every camera setting is in the EXIF data.

EBH



Feb 22, 2014 at 09:07 PM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


dmccombs wrote:
Thanks for the feedback.

I don't remember all the settings after a few months, so I need to backup more than just the MFA numbers. I don't plan on buying a 2nd 5Dmk3, so I guess I will have to make up a spreadsheet.

DGDG, it sounds like you have had better luck with Canon wiping out settings, than I have.


if you have a smart phone then store your settings as a note on there . your phone is always likely to be with you so you can use a note as a quick reference . also you can note down any changes you make as you go and what effect that had .
heck you could take a quick snap of each of the menu screens and embed those into the note as well



Feb 23, 2014 at 01:48 AM
SeverianTL
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


EB-1 wrote:
I'm skeptical that absolutely every camera setting is in the EXIF data.

EBH


You are correct: not absolutely everything and how much appears to vary with the camera model (perhaps even with firmware version). I was under the impression that all of the relevant settings were captured in the metadata based on an extensive study of some 7D .cr2 files with ExifTool for an image analysis project I was pursuing last summer. As far as I could tell all the in-use settings were recorded. But I just checked some of my 5D3 raws and there's definitely desirable info that's not there or hard to use:

  1. For instance, the AFMA value recorded for a zoom lens is what the camera interpolated for the focal length used in the shot, not the two values for the wide and long ends of the zoom range.
  2. The 7D records the tweaks made to AI Servo tracking but the 5D3 doesn't. Then again, maybe it does. The problem is that these makernotes are in a proprietary format that folks like Phil Harvey (the ExifTool guy) have to reverse engineer and maybe they just haven't figured out how to decode everything yet.
  3. Some of the custom function/controls info is presented by ExifTool as a list of numbers where each number represent the option you've set for a corresponding custom function but you aren't told which C.Fn. or control that is and which option the number represents (though zero always means the default option). It varies from model to model and you have to figure that out yourself (very straightforward on the 7D but haven't done it for the 5D3 yet).

So definitely suboptimal for recovering all of the settings you want, and a failure for recovering every setting there is.

Edited on Feb 23, 2014 at 10:31 AM · View previous versions



Feb 23, 2014 at 10:29 AM
dmccombs
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


Ian,

That's a great idea to keep a copy on the phone, and taking pictures of each screen may be easier than spreadsheet. That will be a lot of snapshots though since we need to capture settings for C1, C2, and C3. You've given me something to think about.

My phone can view spreadsheets, so that is still an option too.

Thanks for the suggestions...



Feb 23, 2014 at 10:31 AM
ben egbert
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · 5D Mark III - Backup Settings


dgdg wrote:
Your C1-3 settings should be preserved with canon servicing. I've had a repair and clean/check and each time c1-3 were unaffected. Everything else is wiped. I keep a table of my MFA settings. All my other settings I can reenter in five minutes while watching netflix.



My last service trip included a firmware update and my C1-C3 settings were wiped out.



Feb 23, 2014 at 10:40 AM





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