Do you Nuetral your Camera ?

a few weeks ago while on vacation,i had the pleasure to shot alongside a professional photographer,second generation,even though he will not admit to it,but i learned not only how to handle my camera in different situations,he did teach me a valuable lesson,and that was to nuetral my camera before putting it away after every shoot,if you are strickly a night time shooter or a day time shooter,to adjust all your settings to the most average setting your accustomed to on a regular level,that way when you approach those once in a life time chance for a special shot,i quick grab out of the bag and snap your done,.for i have in the past many times in different situations just put the camera away,and stop for a quick unforgetable moment ,then spents minutes re-adjusting my aperature,and fstop,or even my white balance,for me i strickly use manual mode all the time,if i wanted auto,i would of bought a cheaper point and shoot camera,.
to nuetral your camera,it must be a setting you know from heart to be the same before even reaching for the camera,in your mind you know what iso its sits at and what fstop your at along with the aperature speed,so when your ready to click you are really only a few adjustments away for a quick presice shot,i'm greatful for his advise,and it has saved me from losing a moment in life that you can't just repeat, so i am curious on how many other people out there do this as well ?,thanks for allowing me to put my two cents out there.

I sort of do it. I usually do it when I'm getting my gear ready to go out and shoot. I'll make as many presets as I can for my expected shooting situation.

I normally set mine to Aperture priority, aperture set wide open. Not ideal for all situations, but it gives me the fastest shutter speed possible for the conditions- and it maintains both Raw mode and burst rate capabilities.

- Joe U.

I do this without fail and it will always be useful for getting ready for grab shots. Luckily since I went to 5D's they have a custom function where you set the camera to your typical settings then save them and when you switch the dial on the camera to C it resets everything to these settings.

Yes, always.

I think it is an integral part of using good camera technique. I can't think of a reason not to.

For me and my type of photos, I can tell you that the camera goes into and comes out of the camera bag always at ISO 400, 1/500s, f/11, manual mode, manual focus (my version of "sunny 16"). If it is a hazy sunny day, then I know that just one click counter-clockwise on the shutter dial to 1/350s will do. If it is an open overcast day, then one more click to 1/250s will do. All before the camera reaches my eye.

What did it for me was when I spent a great deal of time one day stalking though the woods, finding a subject, waiting for the right pose, then "click" - everything went black. Forgot to set the mirror lockup to disable from the previous day's macro shooting. Might have well just thrown a black pillow case over my head.

yes i know what you mean,my camera on manual mode will remember its last setting when you turn it off,the day before,i did not reset it,while walking a trail a nice buck with a big rack came out of no-where,when i grabbed the camera out,i spent a good minute resetting the camera,needless to say,the trophy buck was no-where to be seen,but sometimes we still forget even when we know better,thats why i have a hired friend with me to kick my butt everytime it happens,(imaginary of course).

Do I..no. Should I...absolutely. Neutraling your camera is essential as you can then adjust to your needs from there. Having the night settings from the day before can be annoying. I'll do it eventually.

Even with my advanced point and shoot I put it away in neutral. When I pull my camera from my bag, it is set to P for program mode and ISO 200. Just a quick toggle of the joy stick will change the settings to a more desirable combination. Then, if I still have time, I can play around with other settings.

Yes I do, but bear in mind that with the D200 you have 4+4 personal presets that you can set up and name with things like ISO, white balance, sharpness, saturation, autofocus preference etc. I have 4 pairs of settings:

- Walkabout
- NoAuto (meaning Landscape basically)
- Studio
- Flash

Most of the time I switch from one pair of presets to another according to the situation. Most of the time I don't need to make adjustments (auto-ISO is a very useful feature in the walkabout preset). If I do change the settings then I change them back when I've finished.

I guess I don't really but it is a good idea. I'm more like Canuk and set it before getting to whatever I plan to shoot. That's no help for those unexpected opportunities though.