How To Switch Between Custom Presets More Quickly On Your Fujifilm Camera

Did you know that there’s a faster way to switch between the C1-C7 Custom Presets on your Fujifilm camera?

The C1-C7 Custom Presets are a great place to store up to seven Film Simulation Recipes. Not all Fujifilm cameras have the ability to store Custom Presets, but most do, and they’re pretty easy to program, especially after you’ve done it a time or two. Once you have the Custom Presets programmed into the camera, for most models, you access them by selecting the Q-Button, which brings up the Q-Menu. In the Q-Menu you can scroll through the C1-C7 options using (usually) the Rear Command Dial. There’s some variance between models, so your camera might be different, and there’s more than one way to access Custom Presets, but this is likely how most of you do it.

If you have an X-Trans III or X-Trans IV camera, with a couple exceptions, there’s a faster way to switch between Custom Presets. This will work only if your model has the ability to assign “Select Custom Setting” to the Rear Command Dial. For those with a capable model, on you camera, select Menu and go to the Set-Up (Wrench) subset, select Button/Dial Setting, then Function (Fn) Setting, scroll down to R-Dial, and choose Select Custom Setting. That’s it! Now let’s try it out.

To switch between C1-C7 Custom Presets, simply push the Rear Command Dial to open a C1-C7 menu on your screen. Use the Rear Command Dial wheel, Joystick, or D-Pad to scroll through the options, and push the Rear Command Dial, Joystick, or the OK button to select the one you want. Because you can use the Rear Command Dial to open the menu, scroll through the options, and select the Custom Preset, you can do this very quickly with one finger while looking through the viewfinder. For some of you, this will noticeably improve your Fujifilm user experience!

Obviously if you use the Rear Command Dial for something else already, this might not be a good solution for you. And this won’t work on every Fujifilm camera. I have my X100V, X-T30, and X-H1 programmed this way, and I much prefer this method for switching between C1-C7 Custom Presets. I think some of you will, too.

If you do program your Fujifilm camera this way and find that it works better for you, let me know in the comments!

43 comments

  1. Tangi · January 4, 2022

    On my XE1 i set the little fn button to select custom setting, it’s realy easy to use and quite fast.

    • Ritchie Roesch · January 4, 2022

      That’s a good idea!

      • Tangi · January 4, 2022

        In xe1 there is no very much choice 😁
        There is only one other customisable button, i keep it for versatile use.

  2. Andre · January 4, 2022

    I wish the XS10 had access to all the 7 slots instead of relying only on the C1-C4. It’s a clear limitation that I’ve felt and haven’t seen anyone talking about it.

    • Ritchie Roesch · January 4, 2022

      Yeah, I don’t really understand why Fujifilm did that. Four is better than none (like the X-T200), but seven is definitely better.

      • royman0 · February 24, 2023

        I feel like they could easily do the 4 on the dial and then the other 3 through the Q menu. I think I will email them about this…maybe it can come via SW update.

      • Ritchie Roesch · February 27, 2023

        They should be able to do that without much trouble. Will they? Probably not. But maybe if you ask they will, so I definitely encourage it.

  3. Tobias · January 4, 2022

    I wish the xt-30 would store the whitebalance details in the preset, its a clear limitation a lot talked about 😀 😀 😀
    I always put the whitebalance information in the preset name, so “day b-3 r-4” or something like that, i see the full name in the Q men overview and adopt the withbalance accordingly.

  4. rederik75 · January 4, 2022

    I tried this setting, but there’s one big problem… The setup name is not shown fully, and in the last part of it (hidden by three dots) I’m used to store info about the WB shift. So, once that Fujifilm will gift my xt3 with a firmware able to store that shift I will get back to this option…

    • Ritchie Roesch · January 4, 2022

      My “best” solution is to use a different WB type for each preset, unless two use the same WB type and shift.
      https://fujixweekly.com/2021/11/26/fxw-app-filter-by-white-balance-how-to-use-this-new-feature/

      • rederik75 · January 4, 2022

        Yes, I know… But some of my favourites share the same 🙁
        there are at least a couple with auto and a couple with daylight, with different shifts

      • Ritchie Roesch · January 5, 2022

        Yeah, I can certainly understand that frustration. It wouldn’t take Fujifilm much to fix this with a firmware update, and maybe someday they will, but probably not.

    • Tobias · January 5, 2022

      try the following: I have the C1-C7 selector as one of the Q-Menu-points, it will tell you the full preset name at the top of the q-menue (at least with a xt30, i dont know about xt3) https://imgur.com/a/WaaRkjC

      • rederik75 · January 5, 2022

        Yes, I use that too… I keep it in the top left position, so that once I press Q it’s already active and I just have to rotate the rear wheel to select C*

  5. Marc Moreels · January 4, 2022

    I just tried this option and love it. It’s so much easier than the Q option and then scrolling. Thanks so much.

  6. Serge Tremblay · January 4, 2022

    …love this way to choose a film simulation…much faster to do….Thank you, and bravo for your work.

  7. Randy Kirk · January 5, 2022

    Great article, thanks Ritchie! I happen to be using this exact shortcut for my X-T3, but with a small change. Instead of the rear command dial, I assigned SELECT CUSTOM SETTING to the right button on the D-Pad. This works just as instantly — then I use the up/down D-pad buttons to select C1 thru C7.

    Also, I like how SELECT CUSTOM SETTING always defaults to C1 — this acts as my “panic button” so I can return the camera to a familiar setup in the event I messed around with too many settings before previously shutting off the camera.

    The issue I have with the rear command dial on the XT3 (at least my copy) is it’s overly sensitive and often depresses when I’m trying to turn it — making it a bit unreliable for quick changes. I even had the original dial replaced shortly after I purchased my X-T3 because the issue was initially even worse! I have heard other models don’t suffer from this as much, however.

    • Ritchie Roesch · January 5, 2022

      Using the D-Pad is a great option, too. Thank you for sharing!

  8. Paul Hoppe Photography · January 5, 2022

    Buttons what buttons, my X-E4 has none 😉

  9. Pingback: Fujifilm X-H1 (X-Trans III + X-T3 & X-T30) Film Simulation Recipe: Analog Monochrome | FUJI X WEEKLY
  10. rpmik · January 7, 2022

    I love having focus check on that rear dial. But I love this idea too. Fortunately the X100V has touch functions so I’ve assigned swipe left to bring up custom setting. 👌

    • Ritchie Roesch · January 7, 2022

      That’s a nice solution! I actually have the touch functions disabled on my model.

  11. Marc Moreels · January 7, 2022

    Ritchie, I just thought of a potential new topic you might address. I follow all of your posts and I have learned a lot from your instruction. Like me, many of your followers have multiple Fujifilm cameras – I have the X-T4, X-Pro3 and X100V. I would love to create a simple way to mirror each of the film simulations in all 3 cameras. Is there a way to do this more easily? Keep up the good work – it’s very interesting and valuable.

    • Ritchie Roesch · January 10, 2022

      You should be able to (with only a couple exceptions) use the same recipes in all three cameras, but you’ll have to manually enter them into each camera. I appreciate your kind words and suggestion!

  12. Matthias Domes · January 9, 2022

    Since my x100 no longer has a display on the back, this is a very relaxed solution to get even closer to an “analog feel” without having to change the film in the tiny menu in the EVF.

    Thanks Ritchie 🙂

  13. Leo · March 21, 2022

    Hi, kinda unrelated to this specifically, but this bugs me a bit… Does anyone know if there’s any way to see what custom preset was used in hindsight? (Imo) would make perfect sense to include that info (C1–C7) to the image data but at least I can’t seem to find it… My preset settings change every now and then and many times differ from each other quite subtly, would be useful to see what preset was used. Cheers!

    • Ritchie Roesch · March 23, 2022

      There’s not, as fas as I know. You can view the information in the camera (Disp button when in playback) and that might give you clues.

      • Randy Kirk · October 6, 2022

        Yup, I’m pretty sure that has to be figured out by looking at the various settings during playback in-camera. And, that SOOC data is mostly impossible to recall once the jpeg has been uploaded to Capture One.

        The only verifiable SOOC info, ironically, is retained in the accompanying RAW file (assuming one saves RAW+JPEG). Here, the film simulation *selection* is preserved in the RAW file but must be deduced by scrolling through the various film sim options in Capture One and looking for the sim that *doesn’t* change the look of the RAW photo.. it’s an odd thing but it works.

  14. historicsurfaces · August 22, 2022

    Hi Ritchie,
    Do you know if you can save more than one custom setting on an XQ1?
    Thanks

    • Ritchie Roesch · August 23, 2022

      I don’t remember for certain, but I think you cannot.

  15. Mike · August 23, 2022

    Question: I programmed 7 different presets on my X-T4 and the first one (C1) replaced the first default Provia film simulation with the preset. Is that normal? I repeated the procedure several times always with the same result.

    • Ritchie Roesch · August 23, 2022

      Yeah, the default custom settings that come preprogrammed with your camera are nothing special. It’s literally everything set to 0, Off, or Auto. You can restore them easily (look for the word “Reset”) if you should for whatever reason ever want them back.

  16. pogle84 · October 6, 2022

    Thanks for this! I was hoping there was a better way than hitting the Q button all the time. Appreciate it!

  17. Randy Kirk · October 6, 2022

    On the X-T3 I happen to use the right button on the D-pad to load Custom Settings. Pressing it once instantly loads C1, (containing my favorite recipe based on Richie’s Kodachrome II). From there, pressing the upper and lower D-pad buttons will scroll through the various Custom presets AND allow me to view these in realtime.

    • Ritchie Roesch · October 7, 2022

      There’s definitely more than one way, especially on cameras with a d-pad (seems as though Fujifilm is moving away from it for most models, unfortunately).

  18. Matteo Fini · December 17

    One question: I can’t find a way to rapidly get back to default setting (rather than switching every single set to zero or auto).
    The only fast way I found out is saving one preset as zero preset, but doing so I’m missing one preset.
    Ai I missing something?

    • Ritchie Roesch · December 19

      You can easily Reset any of the C1-C7 presets to factory (but you lose whatever was stored in it). The way to do that is dependent on the model you have, as Fujifilm has changed it a bit over the years. Also, if you have a newer camera (I believe X-E4 and newer), there’s a way to have a “bonus” 8th Recipe by using the IQ menu subset, so that could potentially be an option for you. Otherwise, your workaround is probably the best that you can get.

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