I've done that. I can't seem to get it to save the settings when I put them in. I go through the whole menu, return at the end, save, the whole bit, but they're not there.

what seemed to make a difference for me was saving to the card -- and then reading (loading) from the card

(I still cannot make the custom description stuff dissapear though ...)

Menu > Display Setup > Next Page > Guide Info > Off.

Hope this helps,

you made my night !!!

I can see that some of you guys are having a hard time activating your custom display settings. Here's a step-by-step guide describing exactly how to display zoom and focus info permanently.

1. Go to the Custom Functions menu. Under option 12 (zoom indicator), choose setting 01 (number). Then choose "apply this set," and "active." Close this menu.

2. Go to the Custom Display menu. Under option 03 (zoom), choose setting 02 (on always). Under option 04 (focus), choose setting 02 (on always). Close this menu.

3. Activate the custom display by pressing the Disp. button on the camcorder (found above the Peaking button). The first push brings up your settings (in this case, the zoom number and focus distance are "now always on" in the viewfinder). A second push of the Disp. button removes everything but the aspect ratio and centering guides. A third push clears everything out of the display entirely. A fourth push returns to default -- not your custom settings, but the camera default.

Press the Display button numerous times in succession so that you can get the hang of how it works. It cycles through four different settings:

Default > Custom > Guides > Off > Default > Custom > Guides > Off > Default > Custom > Guides > Off, etc.

See attached pics for examples.

If for some reason this isn't working for you, it's because you've missed a step somewhere. Go through this post carefully and it *will* work. It is not necessary to save anything to the memory card! You don't have to do that to get the custom display settings to work. All you have to do, is *activate* the settings using the Display button as explained above. Hope this helps,

Thanks for this Chris. Will try it out at later today.

Richard

thanks again Chris -- but I've some more display questions...

I now have focus distance shown -- but if I zoom it disappears. Can this be altered so that always means ALWAYS ???

is there a way to have gain only be displayed when it is something other than zero ?? From what I've seen, it is either always displayed or never displayed -- I don't want it to be displayed when condiitions are normal -- but do when gain is not flat

It's true, if you zoom it disappears, and then reappears when you stop zooming. Beats me why it does that. Obviously it's a limitation of the camera. However, the focus distance doesn't change when you zoom (focus distance is displayed only in Manual Focus mode, not Auto Focus), so it's still the same number before and after the zoom.

Nope -- it is either always displayed, or never displayed. A limitation of the camera.

Maybe you already know this, Barry, but you can also turn the zoom graphic into a number. It STILL has the unpleasant side-effect of having the focus distance # disappear whilst zooming... but like Chris said, you can't zoom and focus at the same time anyway.

But the number readout makes it more repeatable for zooms. Plus, I can know where the lens starts stopping down at each number range that can affect my exposure when I'm shooting close to a wide open iris.

HTH,
Brian Brown
BrownCow Productions

Presumably Canon never thought that you'd ever shift focus during a zoom. Lame really. Focus info is something that I always want to know -- if I'm doing a zoom or even if I'm in AF.

Ironically, many of the other items should be treated as news items -- only "published" when not normal, or when they are changed.

I also don't like the 4 click dsp cycle -- I want the option of 2 cycles -- for me that would be everything, and my custom display.

I've just begun to use the digital zoom display -- as you say, it is more useful than the conventional bar -- and it has the added advantage of occupying less of the screen too.

I suspect it's more of a limitation of the single servo in the lens. This does impact the filmmaker, and action sports shooters. No Hitchcockian dolly zooms or follow-focus zooms with the A1 or G1. Sigh.

But I guess there's only so much to expect at this price point. Just a year ago the features we now take for granted on a sub-$4k HDV camera were "unobtainium"!

I've done everything numerous times trying to change the display, but only got it to work by saving to the memory card and then activating that, which worked fine.

To display zoom info *always* you can't have the custom display "exposure" setting "on." camera limitation, but that might help some of you guys who are having trouble.