Awesome! (as long as you put in a note that the slow focus option SHOULD have more responses:))

yea, what he said! :)

edited....

edited ....

Anyone else get the feeling of being at a horse race? :D

*edit* a slowwwwwwww one?

That sounds promising, thank you, Chris.

I find myself using -3db gain when outside all the time, makes for a great picture, but sometimes I will use 6db or 12db in low light, but still need the 0db! It's a pain to go through the menus and change these options all the time.

Since the gain switch has 3 settings, why not make a custom key mappable to a particular gain setting? Or maybe the photo button, or exp. lock button?

Geez, this is a great one, could've used something like it this week.

Hey Chris, want to add this and give everyone one more vote? :)

Guess it'll have to wait for next time 'round. Or Maybe the A2 should be covered in custom buttons, dozens of 'em.

Something I just thought of, & I realize it's too late poll wise... but the idea of at least having a "shift" function for 2 additional Custom Keys would be nice to have. Such as pushing the 'set on the selection wheel' while selecting a CK button would enable CK's 1 & 2 to act as CK's 3 & 4. This can easily be done with one hand.

Seriously... 2 is NOT enough (Z1 has 6 I believe... right?) & this method makes much more sense than trying to "map" other buttons (photo, etc.) which would be more confusing.

Just my thought of the day.

Bill

Bill, you're absolutely right that 2 custom keys isn't enough - but we're talking firmawere upgrade here:). Besides, without any changes in hardware, I believe those 2 buttons could be getting much better use of, should more important functions be assigneable to them.

Also, unless I'm missing something, there is a button that could easily become the 3rd custom one: the custom preset on/off button. Really, using the custom preset select button would be enough, cycling through all presets INCLUDING the "off" position; whatever is selected with it could simply be activated, without the need for the on/off button!

Well, dreaming is nice - but for all this, we'll probably need to pay for a compeletely new model!

I have voted for:
- Move AE Shift function from menu to iris ring: I use auto modes quite a lot, and going through the menu to adjust this is a pain. I guess the iris ring is the right place for Auto and Tv modes, but it would have to be the shutter dial in Av mode.

- Display active C. Preset name (record and playback): I only have two CPs set up at the moment, so I can remember what they are, but if I ever go beyond 4, or start tinkering with them, it will be a bit of a lottery. Also, at the moment I'm "back announcing" the settings I've used at the end of the shot - when I remember. But I don't always...

- Soft clipping / limiter in Manual Audio mode: you never really know how loud a steam engine is going to be, so I normally make do with auto-level. If I knew I could trust a limiter when the saftey valves lift or the whistle is blown, I could manual levels.

- OIS On / Off mappable to Custom Key. This won over "Allow Peaking and Zebra together" and "Preset maximum Gain value for AGC", but only just.

Looking forward to the XH-A2 or XM3-HD...

I spent Saturday before last at the Great Central Railway in Leicestershire. Most of the day, I shot at 0db, and swapped between ND settings, just to see what happened. However, for the last few shots of the day, as dusk was falling, I really needed a dial so that I could pick any gain setting, rather than delving into the menu to reprogram the switch. I was deliberately underexposing, to exagerate the effect of the station lights, but even so...

Piotr, my suggestion would give us TWO more Custom Keys (and mapped to where it makes more logical sense) as opposed to your mere ONE extra :) Think about it. Put your thumb on the menu wheel... press inward, like you would to select something... while holding that in, press Custom Key 1 (in this scenario that would "shift" Custom Key 1 to being a Custom Key 3. Do the same for Custom Key 2... which would shift to become a Custom Key 4.

I would think this would be very easy to implement in firmware, but this idea of mine didn't make the cut, due to my brain not thinking of it from the getgo.

Unless... ummm... Chris wants to ummm... ahemmm... add it to the poll results he hands off to Canon :D

Bill

Bill, I do understand your brilliant idea - but with additional custom key (and the silly cp on/off button could easily become one, with the activating/deactivating a chosen preset moved to the cp select button), it would make 3x2=6 custom keys!

But again, the number of assignable functions would also have to be increased to actually benefit from that many custom keys (OIS on/off, XLR on/off being the most important to include).

And the beauty of this idea is that it could be done in firmware - no additional hardware needed. I bet some brilliant Russian hackers are already working on this:)

I agree with the CP on/off button. It's a silly design being to get rid of the flashing indicator you still have to scroll through presets to the CP OFF icon.

I was never too hip with the XLR on/off suggestion for the poll. I mean, how long does it actually take to dig into the Audio Setup menu & make that change? 10 secs? Also the possibility of accidentally touching the Key button & not knowing it could spell disaster.

Currently I have my 2 CK buttons setup as Key 1=VCR STOP (being in a predominantly run & gun biz, there's a lot of waiting & waiting) & Key2=CP BKWD KEY. OIS if implemented would be my 3rd selection. Not sure what my 4th would be yet.

It's all relative anyway. None of us know if anything will come of this :-\

Bill

Bill, I must tell you that after a couple of iterations, I've also settled with those 2 functions assigned (the CP BKWD KEY I adopted after downloading all 18 presets from Chris). And also like yours, my third favourite would most certainly be the OIS on/off. With the XLR on/off - well I don't quite agree it's not needed, but of course it can depend on the microphone setup you're using, and the specifics of a recorded project. Sometimes you need to catch the ambient sound with on-board stereo, and when suddenly your talent starts speaking again, you'd like to quickly switch to the XLR shotgun or wireless.