External Button Customization

1. Switching the movie-record button to control your ISO. This one is a game-changer for those of you that jumped from Canon to Nikon and hated how there wasn’t a way to switch your ISO with your right hand. Do this by simply selecting Menu, Custom Setting Menu (the pencil), Controls, then select “Assign Movie Record Button (f9)” and change it to ISO.

2. Switching the OK button to zoom. This really helps me when I’m on the fly and I need to check if the shot I just took was in focus or if I’m using Live View and I want to zoom in to make tweaks to the focus (with a manual control 45mm tilt-shift, for example). Do this by going to Menu, Custom Setting Menu, Controls, then select “OK Button”, and select both the “Playback Mode” & “Live View” and change them to “Zoom On/Off, 1:1 (100%)”.

3. Assigning your preview button to a virtual leveler. This is awesome for those of you that shoot landscapes or that simply love to have your images consistently leveled. It places a small virtual leveler on the bottom of your viewfinder with the push of a button. Set this up by going to Menu, Custom Setting Menu, Controls, Assign Preview Button, and switching “Press” to “Viewfinder Virtual Horizon.”

4. Easier Image playback. If you came from Canon, you almost certainly miss Canon’s big wheel that lets you zip through your images on the fly. While this doesn’t come anywhere close, it certainly beats having to skip through each image using the multi-selector. This setting enables the main-command dial to scroll through images far more quickly and effortlessly than mindlessly jamming on the arrow buttons to get to the image you want. To set this, go to Menu, Custom Setting Menu, Controls, Customize Command Dials, then turn “Menus and Playback” On.

5. Making sure you can’t take an image without an SD card inserted. This one is common sense and most of you will already have this switched, but it really helps for those of you that may forget to put in a card, shoot some images, and then realize that the images were never taken because you didn’t have any memory inserted. Lock this by going to Menu, Custom Setting Menu, Controls, Slot Empty Release Lock, and turning it to Lock.