41 Steps to the Perfect Canon EOS 5D Mark IV DSLR Camera Setup

Ready for your out of the box experience? Like so many of you, I highly anticipated the arrival of the 5D Mark IV and as has long been my practice, I created a list of setup steps and once again share them with you here. Here are the 41 steps to my Canon EOS 5D Mark IV setup.

1. Open the box, find the battery and charger and plug it in. If you have another charged LP-E6/LP-E6N battery available, you can continue to the battery-required steps without a wait. Or, the supplied battery may have enough charge to take you through these steps if you can't wait.
2. While the battery is charging, unpack the other items you want from the box. For me, this is primarily the camera, the eye cup, the neck strap and the Canon Solution Disk.
3. Download and install the latest Canon EOS Solution Disk software on your computer to get support for the latest camera(s). Canon Digital Photo Pro (DPP), EOS Utility, Photostitch and Lens Registration Utility are the options I manually include in the install.
4. Attach the neck strap.
5. Insert a sufficiently charged battery.
6. Power the camera on.
7. The date and time setup screen will show at startup the first time. Use the Rear Control dial and the Set button to update this information.
8. Insert one (or two) memory card(s) (format them via the tools menu option before taking pictures).
9. Set the camera's mode to Av, Tv or M (some modes provide only a small subset of available menu options).
10. Scroll through all of the menu tabs to configure the cameras as follows:
11. Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Image quality: Use top dial to set RAW to "RAW" and Rear Control dial to set JPEG to "-"
12. Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Dual Pixel RAW: Enabled? (this feature awaits testing)
13. Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Image review: 4 sec.
14. Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Beep: Disable
15. Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Release without card: Disable/off (I highly recommend this setting)
16. Shooting Menu, Tab 1: Lens aberration correction: All disabled (though I suggest leaving CA correction enabled for most uses - all can be applied to a RAW file in DPP)
17. Shooting Menu, Tab 2: ISO Speed Settings: ISO Speed range: L(50)-H1(102400), Auto ISO Speed range: 100-32000
18. Shooting Menu, Tab 2: Auto Lighting Optimizer: Disabled
19. Shooting Menu, Tab 2: White balance: AWB-W (Auto: White priority)
20. Shooting Menu, Tab 3: Picture Style: Neutral with Sharpness Strength set to "1" (Note: the low contrast "Neutral" picture style provides a histogram on the back of the camera that most-accurately shows me blown highlights and blocked shadows on the camera LCD. I usually change the Picture Style to "Standard" in DPP after capture.)
21. Shooting Menu, Tab 3: Long exposure noise reduction: I usually have this option set to "Auto", but my choice varies for the situation.
22. Shooting Menu, Tab 3: High ISO speed noise reduction: Off (noise reduction is destructive to image details - I prefer to add NR sparingly in post)
23. AF Menu, Tab 2: AI Servo 1st image priority: Focus priority (I want the images in focus more than I want the time-priority capture)
24. AF Menu, Tab 2: AI Servo 2nd image priority: Focus priority +2 (same reason)
25. AF Menu, Tab 3: One-Shot AF release priority: Focus priority (same reason)
26. AF Menu, Tab 4: Orientation linked AF point: Separate AF pts: Area + pt
27. AF Menu, Tab 4: Auto AF point selection: EOS iTR AF: EOS iTR AF (face priority)
28. Playback Menu, Tab 3: Highlight alert: Enable (flash portions of images that are overexposed)
29. Playback Menu, Tab 3: Histogram disp: RGB (I want to monitor all three color channels for blown or blocked pixels)
30. Playback Menu, Tab 3: Magnification (apx): Actual size (from selected AF point)
31. Setup Menu, Tab 1: Auto rotate: On/Computer only (this provides the largest playback image size on the camera LCD)
32. Setup Menu, Tab 2: Viewfinder display: Viewfinder level: Show, VF grid display: Show
33. Setup Menu, Tab 3: Info button display options: Electronic level only
34. Setup Menu, Tab 3: Info button LV display options: Options 3 and 4 checked; Histogram disp: RGB
35. Setup Menu, Tab 5: Custom shooting mode (C1-C3): Auto update set: Enable (see also: Configuring Custom Shooting Modes)
36. Setup Menu, Tab 5: Copyright information: Type name as desired
37. Custom Functions, Tab 1: Bracketing auto cancel: [Off] selected
38. Custom Functions, Tab 3: Custom Controls: AF-ON: One shot AI Servo; Set: Playback; Multicontroller: Direct AF point selection; AF area selection button: ISO
39. Custom Functions, Tab 4: Default erase option: [Erase] selected
40. My Menu: Add the first tab; Register the following options for Tab 1: Long exposure noise reduction, Mirror lockup, Format card, Date/Time/Zone (great for monitoring what time it is), Sensor cleaning, Expo.comp./AEB
41. Mount a lens, focus on a subject and adjust the viewfinder diopter (if necessary)

To copy this configuration would mean that you intend to shoot similar to how I shoot – including shooting in RAW-only format. While my setup works great for me, your best use of this list may be for tweaking your own setup.

If you can't remember your own menu setup parameters, keeping an up-to-date list such as this one is a good idea. Anytime your camera goes in for a service visit, the camera will be returned in a reset-to-factory state (unless you request otherwise). Your list will ensure that you do not miss an important setting when putting the camera back into service.

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Canon EOS 5D Mark IV