Tim, why shoot with a Mark III when you can use a d30--gosh (napolean-esque).
settings all day long.
-M (whenver my director of photography picks up my camera he tells me to fix this and put it to "P for professional--he's worked for nat geo, travelled the world, and he loves telling me that I'm using exposure technology that is 20 years old)
-spot meter
-auto wb in mixed light, manual wb when color temp known, preset when in fishy light for a long time
-jpg, compression 9
-autochimp-off ( I do it manually, hah! makes me feel cooler)
-cf #4 set to 1--the musts of all musts. turns AE lock button into your focus button. I think its even the exact same cf # on nikon.
-when I get really hardcore I cover my lcd with gaffer to ween myself off of chimp dependency. see
photograph. it's not me, but sometimes I feel like this when I get nervious!
-flash powered down, zoomed and aimed when on camera.
are there any other settings that matter?