What I would like to know is when you go to a location to shoot what are the steps you go thru to set up your cam.

What is the first thing you do right on down the list.

What conditions cause you to make certain decisions about your setup.

I think this would help a lot of people learn about their cams especially me.

Thanks

One of the first things I do, after making contact with whoever is running the place, is to evaluate the best location for the tripod and find the nearest, safest way to run AC power to the camera, even though I try to stay on batteries all the time.

I do the same as Chris, meet with owner/mgr, find the best place to set up- A/C power is usually not used. If so, run cords and tape them down.

Put a battery and tape in, and check the cam, check cam view, adjust settings. Put extra batteries and tapes in my oversized pockets, just so that I won't have to dig and search through my bag in a hurry. Put lens cap in shirt pocket and shoot.

In addition to all these things, I carefully clean any dust or smudges off my filter (if used) and especially the wide adaptor lens. This is really important if I'm working outdoors (or if I was outdoors the last time the camera was used). I've found that a little mark on these can really mess up a nice shot sometimes, most notably if the camera is pointed towards the sun or other bright light source.

I've also learned to double check whether settings like white balance, steadyshot or custom preset have been left on or off from the last time I used the camera. I messed up what could have been good tripod-mounted shots by forgetting to turn off image stabilization.