Recommended Canon SL2 Settings

The Canon Rebel SL2 is one of the lightest and most versatile entry-level DSLRs on the market. However, if you’ve just bought this camera, you might have realized that its menu settings are less than optimal by default. In this article, I’ll go through every important menu setting and tell you my recommendations for setting it properly. Hopefully, this will make it easier and simpler to take great pictures with your new camera.

The SL2 is arranged with a few different types of menus: shooting, playback, setup, display, and a custom “My Menu.” It is important to set all the options correctly in each of these menus in order to use your camera optimally. So, I will cover them below, page by page. Keep in mind that these are the personal settings I use, and you are welcome to use something different, but this is a good place to start if you are not sure which menu options to leave at their defaults and which ones to change:

Shooting Menu 1

• Image Quality: RAW (though many photographers in the target audience of the SL2 will shoot JPEG; see RAW vs JPEG for more)
• Drive mode: Single Shot, but Continuous Shooting for fast action, and a self-timer if you need it
• Image Review: 4 seconds (personal preference)
• Release Shutter Without Card: Off
• AF operation: One Shot for stationary subjects, AI Servo for moving subjects. Don’t use AI Focus (which lets the camera decide between One Shot and AI Servo) if you can help it, since it tends not to do a great job.
• Lens Electronic MF: Enable after One-Shot AF (lets you override focus manually on some lenses even when autofocus is engaged, which is useful)

Shooting Menu 2

• Expo.Comp./AEB: Default (you can change exposure compensation via buttons instead. But this is the only place to adjust bracketing settings, so keep it in mind if those are something you expect to change)
• Lens Aberration Correction: Off for everything (assuming you are shooting RAW; if shooting JPEG, all On)
• Flash Control options
  • Flash Firing: Enable (so the flash actually fires when you pop it up)
  • E-TTL II Meter: Evaluative
  • Flash Sync Speed in Av Mode: Auto (don’t use Av mode if you need a more specific flash sync speed; use manual instead)
  • Built-in Flash Settings
    • Flash Mode: E-TTL II
    • Shutter Sync: Second Curtain (to capture motion prior to the flash properly)
    • Exposure Compensation: Varies, but leave at 0 by default
• Red-eye Reduc: Disable (enabling doesn’t help redeye much; post-processing correction is more effective)
• ISO Speed: Matches whatever ISO you’ve set already, via the ISO button on the top of the camera
• ISO Auto: ISO 1600, or ISO 3200 if you are willing to accept a bit more noise

Shooting Menu 3

• Metering Mode: Evaluative
• Auto Lighting Optimizer: Off
• White Balance: Auto, White Priority (accessed by pressing the “Info” button)
• WB Shift/Bkt: 0,0/+-0
• Color Space: sRGB if you’re a JPEG shooter; doesn’t affect the photo itself if you’re a RAW shooter, but AdobeRGB for slightly more accurate in-camera histogram

Shooting Menu 4

• Picture Style: Standard, default values, unless you have a specific reason to change it (doesn’t affect the photo itself if you’re a RAW shooter)
• Long Exp. Noise Reduction: Off, unless you are taking especially long exposures (20-30 seconds) and you don’t mind waiting twice as long to capture the photo. This one does affect RAW photos (see a list here of which settings do and do not affect RAW photos)
• High ISO Speed NR: Off (doesn’t affect RAW photos)
• Live View Shoot: Enabled

Playback Menu 1

• No settings here to worry about

Playback Menu 2

• Only “Image Jump w/ Main Dial” matters here, and it’s a personal choice for how you want the SL2’s main dial to work in playback mode. How many photos do you want to jump across when you scroll the wheel once? I leave it at “Jump 10 Images” so I can scroll through large volumes of photos quickly. I then click the left and right arrows on the direction pad when I want to go one-by-one.

Playback Menu 3

• AF Point Disp: Disable (though this is another case of personal preference)
• Histogram Disp: RGB (more data)
• Ctrl over HDMI: Enable when you plan to review photos directly from the SL2 on a TV screen or other HDMI medium

Set Up Menu 1

• Auto Rotate: On, Computer only (avoiding the “On, Camera and Computer” option, since it will make the photos too narrow on your camera and complicate taking vertical pictures on a tripod)
• Wireless communication settings: All disabled unless you’re actively using them due to potential battery life concerns

Set Up Menu 2

• Auto Power Off: 1 minute (another personal preference; how long do you want the monitor to wait without action before turning off?)
• LCD Brightness: Centered
• LCD Off/On Btn: Shutter/DISP (which lets you turn on the LCD info by pressing the “DISP” button, and turn it off via the DISP button or the shutter button. The other options make it harder to turn off the LCD more quickly, but this is also a personal preference.)

Set Up Menu 3

• Video System: For NTSC
• Touch Control: Personally, I prefer “Disable” because I don’t like using camera touchscreens, but most photographers will prefer “Standard”
• Switch “AF Point Selection/AE Lock” buttons: Also a personal preference, but I always prefer doing back button autofocus (more on that later), which I find more comfortable when this option is set to “Enable”
• Beep: Disable

Set Up Menu 4

• Custom Functions(C.Fn)
  • Exposure Level Increments: 1/3 stop
  • ISO Expansion: Off (no need for it, since the image quality is so bad)
  • Exposure Comp. Auto Cancel: Enable (this resets your exposure compensation when you turn off the camera, which is generally useful to avoid shooting sunrise at last night’s settings. Still, it’s a personal preference if you frequently turn on and off the camera and prefer your exposure compensation information to be saved)
  • Highlight tone priority: Disable
  • AF-Assist Beam Firing: Disable (personal preference, it can be obtrusive)
  • Mirror Lockup: Disable, although enabled if I’m shooting on a tripod with a 2 second self timer
  • Warnings in Viewfinder: None selected
  • Shutter/AE Lock Button: AE/AF, no AE lock – This one is crucial. It decouples focusing from your shutter button and puts it on the * button instead (or, alternatively, the button right above it, if you did the swap I mentioned above in Set Up Menu 3). This make take a moment to get used to, but decoupling autofocus from the shutter button – also known as back button focusing – is extremely useful, and once you try it, you won’t go back.
  • Assign SET Button: Flash exposure compensation, since this is the only quick way to set it if you use a flash (I sometimes do for macro work)
  • LCD Display When Power ON: Display On
  • Retract Lens on Power Off: Enable (though irrelevant for a majority of lenses)

Display Level Menu

• Shooting Screen: Standard (personal preference)
• Menu Display: Standard (personal preference)
• Mode Guide: Disable (but can help if you’re trying to learn how to use the SL2 initially)
• Feature Guide: Disable (same – can help you learn the menu settings if you’re just starting with the SL2)

My Menu

• A good place to group together all the menu settings you plan to change frequently, such as Auto Exposure Bracketing (AEB), Long Exposure Noise Reduction, Custom Functions, etc.

Movie Mode Settings (Same Menu Categories, but New Options)

The SL2 is set up so that you see a different menu depending upon whether you are shooting photos or videos, which you change by flipping the MOVIE/ON/OFF switch on top of the camera.  Below, I will cover the menu settings that are most important while shooting video.

Shooting Menu 1, Movie Settings

• Movie Rec. Size: FHD 29.97P, unless your output requirements specify 23.98 FPS. Use FHD 59.94P if you need slow motion.
• Digital Zoom: Disable
• Sound Recording: Auto (this only controls the in-camera microphone regardless)
  • Wind Filter: Auto
  • Attenuator: Disable
• Lens aberration correction
  • Peripheral illum corr: On
  • Chromatic aberr correction: On
• Lens electronic MF: On

Shooting Menu 2, Movie Settings

• Exposure compensation: Matches what you’ve already set
• ISO Speed: Matches whatever ISO you’ve set already, via the ISO button on the top of the camera in Manual movie mode
• ISO Auto: Max 6400
• Auto Lighting Optimizer: Off

Shooting Menu 3, Movie Settings

• Picture Style: Being video, this decision is hard to undo in post-processing, especially if you choose a more vibrant and contrasty Picture Style. When in doubt, opt for something subtle like Faithful, Neutral, Portrait, or Standard
• White Balance: Auto, White Priority (accessed by pressing the INFO button)
• WB correction: 0,0

Shooting Menu 4, Movie Settings

• Movie Servo AF: Disable (unless filming a subject with unpredictable movement requiring faster focus than you can keep up with manually)
• AF method: Live 1-point AF, or Face + Tracking if you’re filming a person’s face
• Metering timer: 1 minute (personal preference)
• Grid Display: Off
• Shutter Button Function: Personal preference, but I like the last option: Half-Press for Metering Only, Fully-Press for Start/Stop Mov Rec (which starts filming when I press the shutter button in movie mode)

Shooting Menu 5, Movie Settings

• All Disabled

Conclusion

I hope that these recommendations are useful, and feel free to ask below if you have any questions! Keep in mind that many of these suggestions are up to you, and this is just a starting point – there’s a reason why the SL2’s menus have so many different options.