- The Canon R8 is here, and it's incredible.
If you picked up one of these cameras,
you're in the right place.
Today, we're gonna go over the best settings
for the Canon EOS R8.
Let's dive in.
(upbeat music)
What's up? It's Andy Feliciotti.
And now the first thing I recommend you do
when you get a new camera is write down the serial number.
Now, on the Canon R8,
the serial number is located on the bottom of the camera,
and you can easily register that on Canon's website.
You'll never know when you need this number,
for example, if your camera gets stolen,
or you need to do a repair,
so it's good to write that down.
Now, the next thing I recommend you do
is to charge the included battery.
And after charging that,
you can just pop it in the bottom of the camera here.
And I should also note that the SD card slot is located
on the bottom of the camera.
If you don't have an SD card yet,
I'll include a link to SD cards
in the description of this video.
Next, you'll also want to check
if the camera has a firmware update.
This is a pretty simple process.
It just involves dragging a file onto your SD card,
putting it in in the camera, and selecting firmware update.
Now that we have a fully charged battery
and SD card in the camera,
we can finally get started.
Now, I'm gonna split this video up into two sections:
photo settings and video settings.
So first, I'm gonna start with photo settings.
So if you're interested in video settings,
you can just skip to that part of the video.
(upbeat music)
So before we get started
on photography settings for the Canon R8,
you're gonna wanna make sure that your camera is
on photo mode and that you're not on auto.
If you're on auto, the menu will be limited,
and you won't get all
of the options we're gonna go over here.
Now that our R8 is in photo mode and not on auto,
I'm using P for program,
we can hit the menu button on the top left of the camera
to dive into the menu.
Now, the first thing we're gonna change is image quality.
By default, this is on JPEG,
but we're gonna change it to RAW.
Basically, RAW images give you more flexibility
while you're editing.
So if you're not actually planning
on editing any of your photos,
you might wanna leave this on JPEG,
but serious shooters are gonna wanna change this to RAW.
So we're gonna turn on RAW and turn off JPEG.
Now, next, we're gonna go to shooting menu number two
and go to ISO speed settings.
And in this menu, you can see minimum shutter speed,
and you can see on the bottom slower or faster.
Basically, what this affects is
if it's gonna use a faster shutter speed
and lower apertures and higher ISOs,
which I prefer because I notice sometimes photos
can come out a little blurry by the default setting.
So I like to change this to Auto 1.
And you can see here it's moving
the dial up one notch there.
And hit Set.
So basically, when you're using auto,
it basically will prefer a slightly faster shutter speed
so you can get sharper photos.
Next, we're gonna hit Menu here, and we're gonna go back.
And you can see Auto Image Optimizer.
And by default, this is on standard,
but we're gonna turn this off.
This setting mainly affects JPEG images,
but it also affects the RAW previews.
So basically, all it's doing is affecting the preview
of your image and overall going to affect the way you shoot.
So it's better to keep it off if you're shooting RAW.
Now we're gonna go over to shooting menu number five.
And you can see high ISO speed noise reduction.
So we're gonna go in here
and change it from Standard to Low.
Basically, what this is gonna do
is it's gonna use less noise reduction
when you take your photos.
'Cause you can always add that later in Lightroom.
So we're gonna keep it on low.
Also, in shooting menu number seven,
you'll see Release shutter without card.
And by default, this is on, but we're gonna turn it off.
What this does is it allows you to actually take pictures
with no memory cards in the camera.
And there is absolutely no reason to have this on
'cause all it's gonna do is it's gonna end up making it
so you forget a memory card.
So it's better to turn that off.
Now we're gonna go over to shooting menu number eight
and go to Customize Quick Controls.
Now, what this is gonna do
is it's gonna let you select items on your quick controls.
And the quick controls are the things
that pop up when you hit Q while shooting.
So while you're shooting,
there's actually a bunch of options available
while you're shooting so you don't have to dive
into the menus.
And this option here lets you pick what's on that menu.
I actually like what's on there to by default,
but it's really good to know what is here.
Because, for example, if you're more of a studio shooter,
you probably want to turn on some of the flash settings.
If you want to add something,
you're gonna have to turn off something up here,
and then you're gonna have to add it down here,
as you can see here.
Overall, a really great option,
and I'm glad they added this to the cameras.
Also, in shooting menu number eight,
you'll find Image review.
And here, we can select how long images show up
after you take a photo.
So once you take a photo, by default,
it'll pop up for two seconds so you can review it.
Now, if you're a more experienced shooter,
you might wanna turn this off.
But if you just wanna keep your photos up
so you can really inspect how they look after you took them,
of course, you can keep it on Hold or keep it on eight.
I like to keep it on the default two seconds,
but it's good to know where this setting is.
Now, in shooting menu number nine,
we're gonna go to Shooting info display.
And then we're gonna go to Screen info settings.
And here, you can change the different settings
that you cycle through when you're shooting.
By default, there are five,
and I just find this to be overwhelming.
I like to turn off number five and turn off number one.
This way you kind of get a view
with all the settings that you have available,
a view with like, a lot more options,
and then a clean view.
And I just like that out of the box.
Of course, this is gonna be up to your preference.
Also, on shooting info display is the setting
to add a grid on grid display.
So a lot of people will like to do three by three
to do the rule of thirds.
Of course, up to your preference.
I like to do by three by three,
but there's a few options there for you to pick from.
Also, on the shooting info display,
you can do the histogram display options.
Now, the histogram shows you the brightness levels
throughout your photo.
And by default, it only does brightness
and not brightness of each color.
So if you want more data,
you can actually change the first setting here to RGB.
And then you can also change the display size to small.
By default, it's very large on the screen,
but changing it to small makes it a lot more manageable
while you're shooting.
Also, in shooting menu number nine,
you'll see Display performance.
By default, it's on Power saving.
But if you shoot a lot of fast-moving subjects,
you're probably gonna wanna change this to Smooth.
Now, basically what this does is it controls the FPS
of the screens.
By default, I think Power saving is good for most people,
so I like to keep it on that.
Now, also, on shooting menu number 10,
you can pick the movie recording settings.
So these are the settings that it's gonna default
to when you hit the record button.
So it's good to know where those are.
Of course, I like to shoot 4K.
You can pick 24 FPS or 30 FPS.
Those are pretty good settings for a lot of beginners.
So now we can dive into the autofocus menu.
You can see here the first option is autofocus operation.
And we have the options to do one shot,
AI focus, and servo.
On most Canon cameras before this,
there were only the options to do one shot or servo.
Basically, one shot is
while you're holding the button halfway down,
the field of focus stays static,
and you can hold that button down halfway and then move,
and the focal plane will stay the same.
So your focus won't move.
Servo is good for like a moving subject,
like somebody walking around or a pet,
because the focus is gonna need to change
with that subject as they move.
They've added a new mode here called AI focus,
which I think is pretty clever.
It kind of mixes both of these.
It seems to start on one shot,
and then if a subject moves,
for example, if it catches someone's eye
and the subject moves, then it switches to servo.
So it's kind of a good mix for a beginner
who doesn't really know what setting they wanna be on.
Also good to know in this setting is Subject to detect.
Now, there's an auto setting,
but if you're shooting a specific thing,
like cars, animals, people, you can select that here.
So it's just good to know where that is.
Now, also, in autofocus menu number three,
you can see we have AF-assist beam firing.
Now, what this is is it's a little light that turns on
from the front of the camera when there's not enough light.
Now, this is good for a lot of situations,
but I've just found personally it can be really annoying
to pop on a little light,
especially if you're in a low-light situation.
So I like to turn this off.
Also, another interesting setting here is the Preview AF.
And you can enable that if you want.
Basically, it'll show a little highlighted area
on subjects that will show you
where the camera can lock on, if you want.
It's kind of hard to explain,
but it kind of gives you guidance on what is available
as a subject.
And it has a little gray outline on a subject
so you can see, oh, I can lock onto that person.
On autofocus menu number four,
you'll find Touch & drag AF settings.
And as you know,
the Canon R8 doesn't actually have a joystick
on the back, which is one of its downsides.
But what this setting does,
it basically makes it so that your screen acts
as a joystick.
So when your eye is in the viewfinder,
you can actually drag your finger across the screen
and move your focus point.
It's definitely a cool option
and a good way to get around the limitation
of having no joystick on the back.
So we're gonna enable that here.
Also, in autofocus menu number four,
you'll see Limit AF areas.
By default, there are eight autofocus modes,
which can be a lot to cycle through.
So if you don't use a lot of them,
it's best just to turn them off.
I personally only like to have on spot AF and whole area AF.
Also, in autofocus menu number five,
you'll see MF peaking settings,
and we're gonna turn that on.
Basically, MF peaking means
when your camera is set to manual focus,
it'll show a little outline on what is in focus.
It makes manual focus a lot more fun and a lot more usable.
It just shows a little outline on everything
so you can quickly see what's in focus.
And the best thing about this setting
is it only turns on when you switch to manual focus.
Now we're gonna go over to playback menu number three.
And here, you can see Magnification.
And in the magnification setting, by default,
when you're reviewing your photos,
when you hit the little magnify button,
it goes in two times.
I like to change this to actual size.
Of course, this is up to your preference.
But using the actual size will make the image go all the way
into its full size so you can instantly tell
if something's in focus or not.
Just makes it easy to pop in
and not have to actually zoom in and out
or deal with a bunch of settings
when you're reviewing your images.
In playback menu number four,
we're gonna go to Playback information display.
And by default, when you're reviewing your photos,
there's a bunch of different menus
that you can cycle through.
A lot of useful information,
but a lot of these probably won't be relevant to you.
They're not really relevant to me,
so I recommend turning a lot of these off.
As you can see here,
there's a lot of extra menus that are unneeded.
Just makes it a lot easier to cycle through your settings
while you're reviewing your photos.
Also, in playback menu number four,
you'll see Highlight alert, and we're gonna enable that.
Now, what this does
is it'll add a flashing black and white area
when an area of your image is overexposed.
When you're shooting RAW,
it's a lot easier to pull your shadows up
than it is to pull detail from overexposed areas.
And basically, the highlight alert will show you areas
that you can retain no detail from.
So this is great if you're shooting a really dynamic scene
with like a bright area and a dark area,
and you see that flashing white area.
You'll know, I won't be able to pull any detail
from this area, so you can adjust your exposure.
Now, in the Network menu,
I really recommend spending time here
and setting it up to work with your phone
because the time that you're gonna want to need this,
you don't want to be fumbling in the field dealing
with the settings and things like that.
So it's best to set this up so you're ready to go.
Also, if you're not using the wifi setting,
I recommend going to the connectivity tab number two
and turning the airplane mode to on.
This will just save you battery life,
and you don't have to deal with wifi or anything like that.
But of course, you're gonna need to turn this back off
if you want to use the wifi on the camera
to get images off the camera wirelessly.
Also, this is a good thing to know,
is setup menu number one has the option to format card.
Now, basically what this does
is it deletes everything on your memory card.
This is just a good thing to know where it is
'cause every time you export your photos,
you'll probably want to go in
and delete all your photos off your SD card.
Also, in setup menu number one,
you'll see Auto rotate.
And I like to turn this just to on computer.
Now, basically what this does is the camera
by default will rotate your image
as you're looking at the back of it,
which can just be a little disorienting.
So definitely play around with that setting,
but it's good to know where it is.
And I like to turn it on to just on computer only.
You're also gonna want to turn on
the Add rotate information for video.
So we'll enable that there.
Basically, if you're shooting a vertical video,
it'll just add that information in
so the computer knows the video is vertical.
And in setup menu number two, you'll see Mode guide.
Now, this setting's good for beginners.
Basically, every time you switch a mode on the camera,
for example, from auto to program,
a little menu pops up and just describes the mode.
But anybody familiar with their camera
is not gonna want this on, so we'll disable that.
The same with feature guide.
Feature guide just shows you what each option is
in your quick control menu.
So while you're navigating through the quick controls,
it just shows you a little bit about each setting.
But if you know what they all are,
you definitely want to turn that off as well.
Also, in setup menu number two, you'll find beep.
Every time that the camera focuses, it has a little beep.
By default, it's on,
and you wanna just turn that off, I recommend.
And then in setup menu number five,
you'll find copyright information.
Here, you can set your name and other details
that will be written to the copyright information
of your photos' metadata,
which is useful for copyright and other things like that.
Also, in setup menu number five, you'll see firmware.
And here's where you update the firmware
that we talked about earlier in the video.
So after you load a file onto your SD card
and put it in the camera, you can just pop into this menu,
and it'll actually let you update your firmware.
Really simple.
Of course, I also recommend going to the favorites tab
and setting up your own favorites menu.
Here, you can select any setting in the camera
and add it to the favorites menu.
Personally, I like to add format card here,
Canon log settings, things like that,
things that I use all the time.
Of course, this is gonna be up to your preference,
but it definitely makes your workflow a lot easier
if you take a few minutes and sit here
and actually set up things that you're gonna use
in your camera.
So that's all the photography settings
that I recommend on the Canon R8.
Now that we've been over the photography settings,
we can head over to video settings.
And of course, you have to switch the camera
to video mode using the dedicated mode switch here.
And we're gonna switch it from photo to video,
and let's dive into video settings for the Canon R8.
Now, the video quality on the Canon R8 is stunning.
When you shoot a 4K video,
it uses the entire width of the 6K sensor
and downscales it to make that video look extra crisp.
So I highly recommend going here
and selecting one of the 4K modes.
I typically shoot in 4K 24 FPS, but you can do 24, 30 FPS.
Of course, this is gonna be up to your preference,
but I really recommend changing this to 4K.
Also, if you're planning
on using an external microphone on this camera,
you're definitely gonna want to go over to Sound recording.
And you can see by default it's set to auto.
Basically, on auto, when you're speaking very low,
the camera tries to increase its amp levels
so it can pick up that audio.
But when you have an external microphone plugged in,
this basically just adds a lot of hiss
and doesn't make the audio sound correct.
So you want to go over here
and change sound recording to Manual.
And then recording level,
you're likely gonna have to go,
it's gonna be probably one or two notches from the bottom.
This is gonna depend on what microphone you have.
You're gonna have to test a little bit.
But if you're not getting good results
with an external microphone, this is probably why,
and you're gonna wanna play with these settings here.
Also, in movie shooting menu number two,
we're gonna head over to ISO speed settings.
And you can see here Max for Auto time lapse.
So that's what the little symbol is.
It's kind of confusing
'cause you can't really tell what that is.
But I'm gonna change this to 400.
Basically, this is setting the highest ISO
that the camera is gonna go to during the time-lapse mode.
By default, it's a very high ISO.
I find it very strange that it's not,
by default, like, 800 'cause you're gonna be using a tripod,
and your camera is able to use longer shutter speeds.
So it's definitely best to change this to 800 or 400
to get really crisp time lapse from the camera.
Now, in shooting menu number four,
you'll see Canon Log settings.
I like to turn this on Canon Log 3,
and I like to use the Cinema Gamut.
And I also like to change the characteristics
for more sharpness.
Now, if you start shooting in CLOG3,
you're definitely gonna have
to learn a couple things in your workflow,
but you're gonna get a lot better images out of this camera.
If you're really into video
and getting the best out of this camera,
I really recommend spending some time
and learning how CLOG3 works.
And this is where you turn that setting on.
And in shooting menu number seven,
you'll see zebras.
And I'm gonna turn those on.
And I'm gonna turn zebra pattern number two on,
and I'm gonna turn zebra pattern two level to 95.
Basically, what this does is it adds a little zebra effect
on any area of your video that you're shooting
that is about to be overexposed.
This is a really important setting
for when you're shooting CLOG3 because during CLOG,
you're gonna want to overexpose your footage.
And if it's too overexposed,
you're not gonna be able to bring that detail down.
So the zebra thing is basically an essential thing
if you're shooting in CLOG.
But it's just overall good to know what areas
of your frame are gonna be overexposed while you're filming.
Also, if you plan on using this camera as a webcam,
you're gonna want to go over to the setup menu.
So let's go dive over there right now.
And you can see in setup menu number four
Choose USS connection activity.
By default, this is photo import,
but if you want to use the USB-C port on here
and use the camera as a webcam with no other hardware,
you're gonna want to go to Video calls/streaming.
Basically, what this does
is when you put a USB-C wire in here
and plug it into a computer,
it'll recognize it as a webcam with no software.
Very cool feature.
Of course, if you want to have the highest quality possible,
you're gonna want to use HDMI option.
So this might not be relevant to you,
but this option for most people
is gonna give you great results.
And that's it.
We've been over all the best settings
for the Cannon EOS R8.
I really think that this is a great camera,
especially if you're trying to get
into full-frame photography.
It's just like, such an affordable package
and a lot of features.
And I hope you really enjoy the camera.
I also wanted to give a quick shout-out
to B&H Photo for loaning me this camera.
I buy all my camera gear through BNH Photo.
And overall, they're just such a great service.
They provide quick shipping,
and you know that you're not gonna get a counterfeit battery
or something like that.
So I recommend them highly if you're looking for somewhere
to buy a camera or camera gear.
And thanks again for watching.
If you enjoyed this video, remember to like and subscribe.
And I'll see you around.