topic Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

thangpt88 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 06:10:48 GMT

I just go a canon 5d mark II from ebay and a new 85 mm f/1.8 lens from adorama. However I can't control aperture in Manual (M) model even after turning the on/off knob to the highest level (marked by a white line). is there any thing wrong with the camera or with the lens? Thanks.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

Waddizzle — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 12:16:51 GMT

It could be either, but most llikely the camera. The lens is new. Try a different lens on the camera. Try the lens on a different camera.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

Waddizzle — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 10:09:47 GMT

Wait a second. Are you saying that the aperture works in other modes, but not when the camera is in Manual mode?

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 10:25:57 GMT

Describe exactly what you mean by "can't control". Do you mean the AV on the display doesn't change or that the aperture won't close if you take a photo or press the DOF preview button.

Set camera to "P" and take an exposure reading; note the Tv and Av.

Set the camera to "M" and dial in the Tv and Av. Take a photo. Is it exposed correctly?

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

RobertTheFat — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 12:28:45 GMT

@thangpt88 wrote:
I just go a canon 5d mark II from ebay and a new 85 mm f/1.8 lens from adorama. However I can't control aperture in Manual (M) model even after turning the on/off knob to the highest level (marked by a white line). is there any thing wrong with the camera or with the lens? Thanks.

If you're doing what I think you're doing, you're setting the aperture wheel to "lock", not "on". That's not an on/off switch; it's a switch that allows you to ensure that you won't accidentally turn the wheel.

Disclaimer: I don't own a 5D2, but that's how it works on a 5D3. If what I said above doesn't make sense, just ignore it.

P.S.: If you didn't get an instruction manual, you can download one from the Canon Web site.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 13:23:06 GMT

Its a different setup; like the 1D Mark IV.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

RobertTheFat — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 14:25:28 GMT

@jrhoffman75 wrote:
Its a different setup; like the 1D Mark IV.

And the 50D. I'm surprised; I'd have guessed that the 5D2 and the 1D4 were beyond that.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

diverhank — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 15:39:35 GMT

To eliminate the possibility that your control wheel doesn't work (broken) , try Av and see if you change the aperture. My guess would be that this camera has been customized to work differently from default (not sure how, though - does this have Magic Lantern?). I'd reset it back to factory settings and try again.

As other has mentioned, you need to make sure the On button is at the top, with the line (you mentioned that you did this). For what it's worth, here is the excerpt from the manual:

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

TCampbell — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 16:30:27 GMT

We need to establish whether your rear dial actually works.

I still have my 5D II.

In "Manual" mode, the front dial (near the shutter button) adjusts the shutter speed and the rear-dial will adjust the aperture but the rear dial will ONLY work to adjust aperture if the on/off switch is set to the position where the line connects it to the wheel (the notch above the "on" position). If in the "on" position (but not the line) the rear dial only works when using menus.

If the camera is in Manual mode, press teh "Q" button... this is done by pressing in the 8-way navigator stick (near the upper-right corner of the LCD screen). Using the navigator like a joystick... navigate to the aperture adjustment on the rear LCD screen. Now... ROTATE the rear dial (it should work regardless of whether it is in the "on" position vs. the line because you are using a menu.

Also... when you press the "menu" button, the front dial will move between the various category (tabs) at the top of the menu, while the rear-dial will move between selections (rows) within each category. Again... this will work regardless of which mode the power switch is in (on vs. the line... just so it's not "off" the rear dial will work this way on a 5D II).

If you find that either of these things does NOT work when you use the rear dial on your 5D II then the rear-dial is broken and you should contact Canon service (or the seller if you've only just received this camera.)

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

thangpt88 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 17:00:54 GMT

Hi all,

Thank you all for your comments and suggestions.

1) By "can't control the aperture in M mode" I meant even when I set the on/off switch to the third level (indicated by a white mark line some people here showed in their attached pictures) and dial the rear wheel (the big one with Set button on, and right next to the LCD screen) I can move f-stop up/down. I've read the manunal and spent hours searching on the internet but it still didn't work that way. That's why I put my question here.

2) Someone mentioned try to reset the camera to the factory mode. How could I do it? I went through every tabs in Menu and reset camera settings and functionality setting but it didn't help. Is there any "stronger" reset?

3) While the camera is in the Av mode, I can control the aperture, with the front wheel (close to the shutter stop button). The rear wheel didn't work in this case. With the Q button (multifunction joystick) when I move to Aperture in the main Display screen, I can change the aperture with the rear dial, but at the same time I can't see it in the viewfinder. I believe for 5D2, if everything works properly, in M mode and the on/off switch changed to the third level I can independently control shutter speed (by using front wheel) and aperture (by using rear wheel) while looking throught the viewfinder. Please correct me if I am wrong. My problem is I can only do that for shutter speed, and everytime in order to change aperture I need to look at the big LCD screen and using the Q joystick.

4) I will bring my lens and mount it on a new camera today. Thanks for the suggestion.

Do you have any further comments/suggestion?

Many thanks,

Berkeley, CA.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 17:04:03 GMT

Check the manual for a clear custom settings feature and a reset camera settings.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

thangpt88 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 17:16:59 GMT

I did all of the camera settings reset like wrritten in the manual last night. Didn't help. I just searched online and someone mentioned about "hard reset" (link: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1205511) (in the manual, it is date/time reset). Don't know if it helps but I'll give it a shot anyway.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

diverhank — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 17:40:48 GMT

@thangpt88 wrote:

1) By "can't control the aperture in M mode" I meant even when I set the on/off switch to the third level (indicated by a white mark line some people here showed in their attached pictures) and dial the rear wheel (the big one with Set button on, and right next to the LCD screen) I can move f-stop up/down.

2) Someone mentioned try to reset the camera to the factory mode. How could I do it? I went through every tabs in Menu and reset camera settings and functionality setting but it didn't help. Is there any "stronger" reset?

3)when I move to Aperture in the main Display screen, I can change the aperture with the rear dial, but at the same time I can't see it in the viewfinder. I believe for 5D2, if everything works properly, in M mode and the on/off switch changed to the third level I can independently control shutter speed (by using front wheel) and aperture (by using rear wheel) while looking throught the viewfinder.

1. Try toggle the switch a few times and make sure it goes all the way up...as you described in # 3, the big dial is still working so physically it's OK. I suspect that the camera thinks that you still have it on locked (the ON position) so in M mode you can't control it. So physically there might be something wrong with the switch.

2. You can do a reset by removing the camera battery as well as the date and time battery (round battery within the battery chamber) for a few minutes (try to focus or press shutter button to deplete the residual capacitance charge) then re-install.

By the way...in the off chance that you are using the M mode but via one of the Custom buttons (C1, C2, C3)...don't do that, go out to M...the custom mode might remember everything you set at the time you registered it, including the power switch.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

TCampbell — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 18:04:45 GMT

@thangpt88 wrote:

3) While the camera is in the Av mode, I can control the aperture, with the front wheel (close to the shutter stop button). The rear wheel didn't work in this case. With the Q button (multifunction joystick) when I move to Aperture in the main Display screen, I can change the aperture with the rear dial, but at the same time I can't see it in the viewfinder. I believe for 5D2, if everything works properly, in M mode and the on/off switch changed to the third level I can independently control shutter speed (by using front wheel) and aperture (by using rear wheel) while looking throught the viewfinder. Please correct me if I am wrong. My problem is I can only do that for shutter speed, and everytime in order to change aperture I need to look at the big LCD screen and using the Q joystick.

Ahh... so this is telling.

First... when you use the Q button to change the settings (e.g. press the Q button, navigate to apeture on the rear LCD, and then use the dial to change it) you're not supposed to be see anything through the viewfinder (the LEDs inside the viewfinder will remain dark when you use it this way -- that's not a defect.)

Second... it tells us that your rear dial actually does work (the dial isn't broken because the camera can detect that you are rotating the dial and responds correctly).

So this begs a new question..

When you look through the viewfinder and want to change the aperture using the rear dial... do you first WAKE UP the camera by half-pressing the shutter button?

Nothing will be displayed on the internal display (nor will it respond to changing the aperture via the rear-dial) unless you wake-up the metering & focus system ... typically just a half-press of the shutter button will do this but it IS possible to map it to a back-button.

If the previous owner has disabled front button metering & focus, then the default back-button is the "AF-ON" button located on the back of the camera body -- near the upper right corner. But even this can be switched... the button with teh asterisk '*' is normally the exposure lock (AE lock button) but there's a custom function which allows you to swap the AF-ON & * buttons (so the * does the AF & metering and the "AF-ON" does the AE lock when the functions are swapped.)

Press "Menu" then navigate to the custom functions screen (it's the tab just left of the green star). Scroll down (using the rear dial) to "C.Fn IV: Operations/Others" and press the center button on the dial to select that sub-menu. (Important note: Camera must not be in the green box mode on the mode dial (that's the full auto mode) since these menus are hidden in that mode.)

At the bottom of the screen on this sub-menu you will see a row of numbers... numbered 1 through 6. Just below each of these numbers you'll see another row of numbers... most of which are probably zeros, but the top row of numbers indicates the 6 possible sub-functions and the bottom row indicates which setting was selected for each sub-option. Also note that in that bottom row (the row that probably has most choices set to "0") ... if the number is drawn in white then that option is using the factory default. If it's blue then it means the camera is using a setting other than the factory default (so this makes it easy to recognize which settings have been altered.)

You want the first sub-option (1) labeled "Shutter button/AF-ON button" (that will be the subtitle under the "C.FN IV: Operation/Others").

Canon uses a notation here... choice 0 says "0:Metering + AF start" and this is the factory default choice. But notice that choices 1, 2, 3, and 4 all have a slash (/) in the description. Everything LEFT of the "/" is what the shutter button will do... everything RIGHT of the "/" is what the back button will do (and usually teh back button is mapped to "AF-ON" but, again, you can change that.

This means that if your prior owner selected choice 3 then your shutter button will NOT wake-up the metering system on your camera. Set it to "0" if you just want the factory default behavior.

You'll notice that on that custom functions main menu (before you descend into any sub-category) there's a choice to "Clear all Custom Func. (C.Fn)" -- you can use that to clear anything that the previous owner may have set back to the factory default choices.

You'll probably want to spend time learning about all these choices... in the category of a 5D II camera (a somewhat advanced camera), the camera has a lot of capability that you can access in these menus.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

thangpt88 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 19:53:05 GMT

Ahh... so this is telling.

Second... it tells us that your rear dial actually does work (the dial isn't broken because the camera can detect that you are rotating the dial and responds correctly).

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I think so too. I think the physical condition of the dial is okay. But as someone here suggested earlier today, there might be something wrong with the on/off switch. I'll reset the camera to see if that helps at all.

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So this begs a new question..

When you look through the viewfinder and want to change the aperture using the rear dial... do you first WAKE UP the camera by half-pressing the shutter button?

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Yeah, I understand this. I always do half-press to wake up the camera in order to see every parameters in the viewfinder.

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You want the first sub-option (1) labeled "Shutter button/AF-ON button" (that will be the subtitle under the "C.FN IV: Operation/Others").

This means that if your prior owner selected choice 3 then your shutter button will NOT wake-up the metering system on your camera. Set it to "0" if you just want the factory default behavior.

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Thank for the detalied explanation and information. I saw them in the manual and on dpreview. I've already done that. It still doesn't help.

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I have a quick question for 5D2 experienced users: How can you control the aperture in M mode in a 5Dii camera? Many thanks!!!

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

diverhank — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 20:13:42 GMT

@thangpt88 wrote:

I have a quick question for 5D2 experienced users: How can you control the aperture in M mode in a 5Dii camera? Many thanks!!!

Haven't we already told you this several times? With the large dial...which yours happen to not work. Time to return that to the ebay seller by filing a claim with ebay...

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

thangpt88 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 20:20:26 GMT

Yay. Sorry. I just want to make sure I am not crazy (and my camera is crazy instead). I still can control the aperture using the Q stick but of course it is very inconvenient. Should I live with it?

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

Waddizzle — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 20:25:35 GMT

@thangpt88 wrote:
Yay. Sorry. I just want to make sure I am not crazy (and my camera is crazy instead). I still can control the aperture using the Q stick but of course it is very inconvenient. Should I live with it?

No, return it. Get a refund, if it is malfunctioning. Malfunctions have a way of spreading, just like cancer.

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

jrhoffman75 — Tue, 28 Jun 2016 20:46:13 GMT

If you do what the attached image says does anything happen - i.e.do you dial in Exposure Compensation?

If so, then the switch is working and the dial is sending signals to the camera.

Do this:

And this:

Re: Canon 5d mark ii: Control aperture in M mode

thangpt88 — Wed, 29 Jun 2016 02:07:32 GMT

@jrhoffman75 wrote:
If you do what the attached image says does anything happen - i.e.do you dial in Exposure Compensation?

Nothing happens when I follow the steps in the above image.

If so, then the switch is working and the dial is sending signals to the camera.

Do this:

And this:

I did all of the steps above last night (several times) but it didn't work.

I'm going to return it to the seller (ebay) and try to get a new one. Thanks everybody for help!!!!!

TP