Advanced Settings for Fujifilm Cameras

Custom settings banks (labelled C1 through C7 on most current bodies, fewer on older models) are the most important advanced feature for recipe shooters. Each bank stores a complete snapshot of your camera settings: film simulation, tone curve, white balance, grain, colour, sharpness, noise reduction, dynamic range, autofocus mode, drive mode, and more. Switching to a custom bank loads all of these settings instantly, which means changing from one recipe to another takes a single dial turn rather than minutes of menu navigation.

How to Save a Custom Bank

Set up the camera exactly as you want it: choose your film simulation, adjust all the image quality settings, set your preferred AF mode and area, configure Auto ISO, and choose your drive mode. Then navigate to the custom settings menu (usually under the IQ/Image Quality menu or the Setup menu, depending on your camera model) and save to the bank of your choice. The camera captures everything, not just the image quality settings but the full camera configuration.

Organising Your Banks

The most practical approach is to organise banks by shooting situation rather than by simulation name. A bank called "everyday colour" (Classic Neg., Daylight WB, DR200, AF-C with Zone) is more useful than a bank called "Classic Neg." because it includes the complete shooting configuration, not just the simulation. Some photographers organise by light condition: one bank for daylight, one for indoor, one for low light. Others organise by genre: street, portrait, landscape.

A practical starting setup for three banks: C1 as your main everyday colour recipe with your preferred settings for general shooting. C2 as a black and white recipe (ACROS with your preferred filter and grain). C3 as either a high-contrast/vivid alternative (Velvia or Bleach Bypass) or a portrait-specific recipe (REALA ACE or Astia with face detection enabled). Three banks cover most situations without overwhelming you with options.

Updating Banks

When you refine a recipe, remember to re-save the custom bank. A common frustration is tweaking settings during a shoot, getting the look you want, and then losing those changes when you switch banks and switch back, because the bank still holds the old settings. Get into the habit of saving to the bank whenever you make a change you want to keep.

The Q (Quick) menu is a customisable overlay that appears when you press the Q button. It shows a grid of settings that you can change with a few taps or dial turns, without entering the full menu system. On most Fujifilm bodies, the Q menu holds 16 settings arranged in a 4x4 grid, and you choose which settings appear in each position.

What to Include

Populate the Q menu with settings you change during active shooting but that do not have dedicated physical controls. For recipe shooters, the most useful Q menu items are: Film Simulation (for quick switching when you do not want to use custom banks), White Balance, Grain Effect, Dynamic Range, Color Chrome Effect, and Highlight/Shadow Tone. These are the settings you might adjust between shots or between scenes without wanting to enter the main menu.

AF-related settings (focus mode, focus area, face detection) are also strong candidates if you do not have them assigned to function buttons. Some photographers include Self-Timer for tripod work and Image Size for occasional format changes.

What to Leave Out

Settings that you rarely change during a session do not belong in the Q menu. Sharpness, Noise Reduction, Colour (saturation), and Clarity are typically set once as part of a recipe and left alone. Including them clutters the Q menu with items you scroll past every time. The same applies to settings that already have physical controls: aperture, shutter speed, and exposure compensation have their own dials and do not need Q menu space.

The goal is a Q menu where every item is something you actually use in the field. Twelve useful items are better than sixteen where four are dead weight.

Fujifilm cameras have between four and eight customisable function buttons (depending on the model) plus touch-screen function areas on many bodies. Each button can be assigned to any of dozens of camera functions. The challenge is not the options; it is deciding what deserves a dedicated button.

The Decision Framework

A function button should be assigned to something you need to access instantly, without even the brief delay of opening the Q menu. The test is: "do I need to change this setting while looking through the viewfinder, without lowering the camera?" If yes, it deserves a function button. If you can afford to lower the camera for a second, the Q menu is sufficient.

Common Assignments for Recipe Shooters

AF mode or area switching is the most common function button assignment. Being able to toggle between Single Point and Zone (or enable/disable Face Detection) without leaving the viewfinder is valuable for any photographer who shoots a mix of static and moving subjects. The focus modes article covers this in detail.

Film Simulation switching is useful if you frequently change simulations rather than using custom banks. A single button press brings up the simulation list, letting you switch between colour and black and white in a second.

AE-Lock is worth assigning if your camera does not have a dedicated AE-L button, or if you want to reassign the existing AE-L button to something else (like AF-ON for back-button focus). Exposure lock is particularly useful with spot metering, where you meter on a specific area, lock the exposure, and recompose.

Playback zoom or rating on a rear button gives you quick access to check focus sharpness during review without navigating the playback controls.

Do Not Over-Customise

It is tempting to assign every button to something, but buttons you cannot remember defeat the purpose. Start with two or three assignments for functions you genuinely use, and add more only when you find yourself repeatedly wishing for faster access to a specific setting. An unused function button is better than a misremembered one that changes a setting you did not intend to change.

My Menu (available on most current Fujifilm bodies) is a custom menu page that you populate with whatever settings you want. It appears as a tab in the main menu system, giving you a single page of your most-used settings without scrolling through the full menu hierarchy.

What Belongs in My Menu

My Menu is for settings that you change occasionally but not frequently enough to justify a function button or Q menu slot. Good candidates include: Custom Settings save/load (for managing your recipe banks), AF-C Custom Settings (for adjusting tracking behaviour between sessions), Electronic Shutter settings, Image Size, Long Exposure NR on/off, Intervalometer settings, and any setting you find yourself digging through menus to find more than once a month.

Organisation

My Menu items appear in the order you add them. Think about your workflow and add items in the order you are likely to need them. Put the items you access most at the top. Most bodies allow you to reorder items after adding them. Keep the list manageable: 10 to 15 items is a useful page. More than that and you are back to scrolling, which defeats the purpose.

Setting the Menu to Start on My Menu

Some Fujifilm bodies let you configure the menu button to open directly to My Menu rather than the last-used menu page. This is worth enabling because it means the menu button always takes you to your curated settings page rather than wherever you happened to be in the menu last time.

These are the settings that most photographers leave at their defaults but that can noticeably improve the shooting experience once adjusted. They control how the camera behaves rather than how the image looks.

EVF Frame Rate

Most Fujifilm bodies offer a choice between normal and high frame rate for the electronic viewfinder (sometimes called "boost" mode). High frame rate makes the EVF noticeably smoother when tracking moving subjects or panning, at the cost of slightly higher battery consumption. If you shoot any moving subjects, the improvement is worth the battery trade-off. If you primarily shoot static subjects (landscape, architecture, still life), normal frame rate is fine and saves battery.

Pre-AF

Pre-AF continuously adjusts focus even before you half-press the shutter button. This means the camera is already close to the correct focus distance when you start the AF process, which speeds up the initial focus acquisition. The trade-off is battery life (the AF motor is always running) and occasional audible lens noise. For street photography and any situation where you need to react quickly, Pre-AF is worth enabling. For deliberate, tripod-based work, it wastes battery for no benefit.

AF Illuminator

The AF illuminator is a small light on the front of the camera that fires in low light to help the autofocus system find the subject. It is effective at close range but annoying to subjects (it is essentially a bright light shining in their face) and useless beyond a few metres. Disable it for any work involving people, wildlife, or events where a flashing light is inappropriate. Enable it only for close-range still life or macro work in dim conditions where the subject will not be disturbed.

Shutter Type

You can set the camera to use the mechanical shutter, the electronic shutter, or a combination (electronic front curtain with mechanical rear, often called "ES + MS" or "Auto"). The electronic front curtain shutter reduces shutter shock (vibration from the mechanical shutter that can cause slight blur at certain shutter speeds) while avoiding the rolling shutter artefacts that a fully electronic shutter can produce with fast-moving subjects. For most shooting, the auto/combination mode is the best default. Switch to fully electronic only when you need silent operation.

Image Review

The image review setting controls whether and how long the camera shows you the image after you take it. Options range from off (no review, the camera stays live) through 0.5 seconds (a brief flash) to several seconds (a detailed review). For fast-paced shooting, 0.5 seconds or off keeps you in the moment. For deliberate shooting where you want to check each image, 1.5 seconds gives you enough time to glance without feeling slow.

The temptation with advanced settings is to copy someone else's setup. "Best function button layout for Fujifilm" videos and articles abound. But customisation is personal by definition. What works for a wedding photographer with two bodies and fast zooms is different from what works for a street photographer with a single prime, which is different from what works for a landscape photographer with a tripod.

Start from Your Pain Points

The best approach to customisation is not to configure everything at once but to notice what slows you down. If you keep going into the menu to change Dynamic Range, put it in the Q menu. If you find yourself fumbling to switch between Single Point and Zone AF, assign it to a function button. If you always save to the same custom bank, put the save function in My Menu. Let your actual shooting experience drive your customisation rather than trying to anticipate every need upfront.

Customisation Is Iterative

Your first function button layout will not be your final one. As your shooting style evolves and as you discover new features, your customisation should evolve too. Revisit your setup every few months and ask: am I still using all of these assignments? Is there a function I keep wishing I had quicker access to? Remove assignments you never use and add ones you need. A customisation that was perfect six months ago may not suit how you shoot today.

Keep It Simple

The most effective camera setups are often the simplest. Three well-chosen custom banks, a clean Q menu with eight or ten items, and two or three function button assignments cover the needs of most recipe shooters. The goal of customisation is not to use every available option; it is to make your specific workflow faster and more intuitive. If you can pick up your camera after a week away and use it without thinking about where the controls are, your customisation is working.