March 22, 2023

Canon R5 Mirrorless Camera - controls

There are 4 things that affect exposure: shutter, aperture, iso, and exposure compensation. This page discusses the various ways the R5 lets you control these.

There are 3 wheels to control things, 4 if you have an R lens with a control ring (or an EF adapter with control ring).

Control Ring

The default behavior is to control exposure compensation, but it only can do this when the shutter is half pressed. This can be changed (as can many things) via the menus.

Av mode

Front dial - aperture Mode dial - ISO Rear dial - E compensation

Tv mode

Front dial - shutter speed Mode dial - ISO Rear dial - E compensation

P (program) mode

Front dial - aperture (and shutter) Mode dial - ISO Rear dial - E compensation

Here, shutter and aperture are "linked" to produce a proper exposure, so moving the front dial changes both.

M (manual) mode

Front dial - shutter speed Mode dial - ISO Rear dial - aperture

Fv mode

Front dial - shutter, aperture, E comp, ISO Mode dial - selects which of the above Rear dial - N/A

Fv is a whole new thing that they call "flexible priority". It is pretty much the same as P mode until you decide to override the cameras initial choice. It offers a quicker way to "tweak" the P mode setting. You use the "thumb dial" (what I like to call the "mode dial" to select which thing you are going to override (shutter, aperture, E comp, or ISO), then you use the front dial to make the change. You can even fiddle with more than one of the "exposure variables", adjusting for example both shutter and aperture.

Important: to reset all the exposure controls to full auto, use the "trash can" button on the back of the camera. Press it to reset the currently selected thing to auto. Press and hold it to reset all the controls to auto.

The settings "stick" from exposure to exposure

The above video is quite good and he goes through much more than just the Fv mode. He goes through virtually every setting on the R5 and tells you how he sets up his camera. He is a wildlife shooter, so not all of his choices will apply, but he offers lots of good information.

The idea with Fv is that if you use P mode a lot (as I am doing more and more) and want to easily grab more control now and then, you can learn to use this mode and do so more efficiently. Alternatively, you can just ignore it.


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Tom's Digital Photography Info / tom@mmto.org