Settings to change on your new Sony camera

Modern cameras are complex and they all benefit from some degree of setup and customization. We've already taken a look at some of the basic things you might want to do immediately, but here we're going to dig a little deeper and describe the settings we always change when we use Sony cameras.

Sony changed the menu system on most of its cameras starting with the a7S III in 2020. All our screengrabs represent the newer menu layout but we've also described where the comparable options live in the old menu structure if you're using a camera with the tabs arranged along the top of the menu screen, rather than down the left-hand side.

Engaging AF-C

Sony cameras are set to AF-A mode, when you first start them up. This is a mode that automatically switches between single AF acquisition and continuous attempts to refocus, if it detects subject motion. Which sounds clever but prevents you from using one of your camera's best features: its autofocus tracking.

Focus Mode is found at the beginning of the AF/MF section of the menu and often in the Fn Menu. Once you've selected AF-C, you'll find that, at the bottom of the list of AF area types and shapes, you now have one with an arrow pointing to a button, at the lower right of the icon. This is a subject tracking version of the AF area represented, and you'll find that you have a tracking version of each of the camera's AF areas. Now, when you half-press the shutter or press AF-On to initiate focus, the camera will continue to follow and focus on the subject under the AF target, even if it moves or you move the camera.

AF-C generally works very well on Sony cameras, so it'll be rare that you have to switch to AF-S. The tracking is useful both for following moving subject and for letting you choose a subject to focus on before recomposing your shot.

Limiting the number of AF areas

Sony's approach to tracking is to create a separate, tracking instance of each of the camera's AF area modes, meaning your choice of AF areas typically jumps from 12 to 24, as soon as you engage AF-C.

Sony cameras with the newer menu system have an option to let you limit which AF areas you can access, so that you don't have to scroll through lots, each time you want to switch. We'd suggest using the camera for a bit, getting a feel for which AF area sizes and shapes work for you and your shooting, then limiting the camera to only show the ones you use, it makes everything cleaner and quicker to use.

You can find this in the AF/MF tab, in an option called "Focus Area Limit."

Electronic first curtain shutter

By default, most Sony cameras use an electronic first curtain shutter, turning the sensor on one row at a time, to initiate the exposure, then using a mechanical shutter to end it. Some models, such as the a7C series, don't have a set of mechanical shutter blades for starting exposures, so always use this mode.

This is generally a sensible approach, and helps make the camera a little more responsive. However, if you shoot very short exposures when using a lens set to a very wide aperture, it can cause the out-of-focus highlights to become chopped off. If you find yourself shooting wide-aperture photos outdoors, it's worth knowing how to engage the mechanical first curtain, if you camera has one. This can be found in the Shutter/Silent section of the camera menu on newer models or the Camera Settings 2 tab on older ones.

Setting the Auto ISO Minimum Shutter speed

Auto ISO can be a very useful way of shooting, but key to getting the most out of it, particularly in P or A exposure modes, is telling the camera what the slowest shutter speed you can tolerate is, so that it doesn't bump up the ISO sooner than it needs to.

ISO AUTO Min. SS can be found either in the Exposure tab on newer cameras or the Camera Settings 1 section of older ones. If you frequently use auto ISO, we recommend assigning the setting to a button or putting it in the FN menu for easy access.

You have two options: you can either select a specific shutter speed, which can be useful if you're trying to maintain a fast enough shutter speed to prevent your subject's movement being blurred. Or you can set an 'Auto' value, which sets a shutter speed limit based on your focal length. This is the best choice if your primary concern is camera shake, but remember to reset it afterwards to avoid unnecessarily limiting your camera's exposure speed.

The 'Std' setting will increase the ISO to maintain a shutter speed of 1/equivalent focal length (ie: 1/50 seconds if you're using a 50mm equiv lens). For steady shooters, there are Slow and Slower options, which will reduce the shutter speed by one or two stops compared to the standard setting. The Fast and Faster options will raise ISO to maintain a shutter speed that's one or two stops faster than standard, which we typically wouldn't recommend, as the camera may end up choosing exposures that are too fast with telephoto lenses, or too slow with wide ones.

Turning on Raw shooting

We'd generally recommend shooting Raw, because it gives you more editing flexibility later, if you want it. Sony is the only major brand that doesn't let you process its Raw files in the camera, so we'd suggest shooting Raw + JPEG. This can be set using the File Format setting: in the Camera tab on new cameras and Camera Settings 1 on older models.

Once this is set, there's a separate menu setting [RAW File Type] directly below File Format to choose what type of Raw file your camera shoots.

On older models, you'll typically have the following choices:

• Uncompressed
• Compressed

The Compressed option is much smaller, but uses a lossy compression system. The limitations of this system only become apparent at high-contrast edges if you make quite significant tonal adjustments. For most types of shooting, this won't particularly matter, but it's worth being aware of: if your photography involves really exploiting the camera's full dynamic range, you may wish to consider using the Uncompressed mode for shots you expect to have to process heavily.

Newer models have a Lossless compression option, which we'd recommend. These files aren't quite as small as the Compressed ones, but you won't encounter any nasty surprises, even if you push your files extensively. The only benefit to the Compressed mode is that your camera may be able to shoot faster bursts in this mode.

The very newest models have a different set of options:

• Lossless
• Compressed HQ
• Compressed

We've not had time to test the new compression modes yet. As before, the Compressed option lets you shoot longer bursts, while the HQ version maintains greater quality. These two new compression options aren't widely supported by Raw conversion software yet, so we'd recommend using Lossless compression for now.

It's also worth noting that, while you can shoot Raw files alongside the newer HEIF format, if you want something with 10-bit color and more efficient than JPEG, you can't capture high dynamic range HEIFs and Raws simultaneously. The much more widespread support for JPEG means we'd stick with this.

Selecting which settings carry over from stills to video

Newer Sony cameras let you specify which settings carry over from stills to video shooting and which are configured independently. If you're using your camera to shoot both stills and video in the same sessions, we'd strongly consider adjusting these to make sure you don't accidentally shoot a load of stills at 1/50 sec shutter speeds or find yourself trying to color-correct clips in which Auto White Balance was constantly adjusting.

The option "Different Set for Still/Mv" can be found in the Setup / Operation Customize section of cameras with the newer, left-tabbed menus.

Customizing the camera to your needs

Sony is good at allowing lots of buttons to be customized and typically allows most of its menu options to be assigned to most buttons, rather than giving you a restricted option.

Older cameras let you customize the buttons using a menu option called "Custom Key" in the Camera Settings 2 section of the menu. You can set different settings for stills shooting, movie shooting and playback modes. In the new menu system, there are separate "Custom Key/Dial Set." menu items for stills, movie and playback modes. These live in the Setup / Operation Customize section.

The latest Sony cameras let you define different Fn menu layouts for stills and video shooting.

The Fn menu of the camera can be completely customized, with your choice of 12 functions that you use most often.

On older models this option [Function Menu Set.] can be found towards the end of the Camera Settings 2 section.

Newer cameras with the left-tabbed menus place it in Setup / Operation Customize. On these models it's called Fn Menu Settings and has the stills and movie icons next to it. On these cameras you can select define different Fn menus for stills and video shooting.