Sony ⍺1 Mirrorless Camera Set-up
How to set up the best camera for wildlife photography on the market
Sony ⍺1 camera body
I’ve just come back from a week in Arviat, Canada, for the polar bear migration.
I had a very good trip—apart from all the waiting around and BA losing my rucksack!—and I was particularly pleased with my new camera, the Sony ⍺1.
Here's a complete set-up guide.
The Sony ⍺1
I’d always been a Nikon man, but I’d been keeping my eye on mirrorless developments, and the evidence eventually became overwhelming, so I decided to take the plunge!
I ended up buying a Sony ⍺1 camera body, a Sony FE 400mm f/2.8 GM OSS lens (with drop-in Sony VF-DCPL1 polarising filter), a Sony FE 1.4x teleconverter and Sony VGC-4EM Vertical Grip with an extra NP-FZ100 battery and Sony 160GB Cfexpress Type A (800MB/s) Memory Card.
The autofocus was just as good as I hoped it would be, and I used my Sony for almost all of my shots of the bears, foxes and hares—although that was partly because the zoom froze on the 80-400mm lens that I had on my Nikon D850!
The only problems I had were down to two things: the cold and the 30fps frame rate.
The weather in Arviat got down to -16° C plus wind chill, so my Sony batteries did run out at one point, and I had to recharge them as quickly as I could.
Fortunately, they needed warm air rather than a full recharge, so they were soon good to go again.
The other issue was the lightning-fast frame rate.
That was supposed to be one of the big benefits of going mirrorless, but I just wasn’t used to taking 10 or 15 pictures every time I pressed the shutter!
Again, that cost me big time when my memory card filled up just as a couple of polar bears were sparring right in front of me, but I learned after that to be a bit gentler with my trigger finger and stick to bursts of five shots or so.
How do I set up the ⍺1?
I only received the camera body and lens a few days before I flew to Canada, so I didn’t have much time to familiarise myself with them or customise many of the settings and shortcuts.
However, I did come across a couple of very useful YouTube videos by Mike Lane FRPS and Mark Galer that pretty much told me exactly how to set up all the menu options!
Thanks, guys.
You can also have a look through the Sony ⍺1 camera manual, which shows the whole menu system starting on p43.
The MENU button is on the back of the camera just to the left of the eyepiece, and there are seven main sections:
My Menu tab
Shooting tab
Exposure/Color tab
Focus tab
Playback tab
Network tab
Setup tab
I’ll list every single one of the menu settings in a moment, but first let me focus on the most important changes I made to the defaults.
Focus
The autofocus system of the Sony ⍺1 can focus automatically on the eye of a human, animal or even bird, and that’s the main reason I bought the thing.
I was tired of going to Africa and missing shots of cheetah kills just because I wasn’t quick enough to focus on the action in time, so I look forward to going back next year with a little bit of electronic assistance!
In Arviat, it was very handy to have a camera with a focus system that automatically jumped to the eye of the animal I was photographing - but it didn’t always work!
I did my research beforehand, and I knew I might have to shift between and Wide, Zone and Spot modes, and that turned out to be true.
With no distractions in the background and a reasonably large and close subject, the Wide mode had no problems at all.
However, as the animal got smaller or further away and the background became more cluttered, I found I had to switch more and more to Zone or even Spot Medium .
The Zone mode narrows the focus search to about a quarter of the Electronic Viewfinder (EVF), and that usually gives the camera the ‘nudge’ it needs to acquire focus.
In extreme cases, I had to resort to the Spot Medium mode, which limits focusing to a small square similar to the one you get in the Nikon D850.
It wasn’t that easy navigating the menu system wearing gloves, so I set up a custom button (AEL) to toggle between focus modes and switched off the ones I didn’t need in the menu system.
To easiest way to do all that is to use the touch screen, but you can also turn the front and rear dials, turn or press the different sides of the Control wheel on the back of the camera and press the button in the middle to confirm.
To set up the custom button to toggle between focus areas:
Press MENU
Press the suitcase icon (for the Setup tab)
Press Operation Customize
Press Custom Key Setting
Press the area of the camera where your chosen button is (Rear1, Rear2, Top or Lens)
Press the chosen button (in the menu diagram)
Scroll through the options and press AF MF/Focus Area/Switch Focus Area
To switch off unused focus area modes:
Press MENU
Press the AF MF icon (for the Focus tab)
Press Focus Area
Press Focus Area Limit
Press the checkboxes of the focus areas you don’t want
Press OK
I also set Autofocus - Continuous (AF-C) by pressing the unlock button and turning the outer Focus mode dial on the top left of the camera body.
You can also change the point of focus by touching the rear screen, but I like to look through the EVF rather than at the rear screen, so that wasn’t very convenient!
Finally, I find it’s a good idea to increase the ‘stickiness’ of the AF system as much as possible. You can do that in the menu by going to AF/MF > AF Tracking Sensitivity and selecting 1 (Locked on). This means the camera is less likely to lose focus if your subject goes behind a foreground object like a tree or bush.
It does mean you can’t switch so easily to a different subject, but you can always briefly take your finger off the shutter (or your thumb off the AF-ON button) and focus again.
Shooting Mode
The other big advantage of the Sony ⍺1 (and mirrorless cameras in general) is the fast frame rate.
The ⍺1 can manage 30fps, which is astounding considering that my D850 can only do 7fps (or 9fps even with the MB-D18 battery grip).
And the best part is that you can see the action the whole time through the EVF!
Given that I love taking slow pan shots, blackout-free shooting is a huge benefit, and I look forward to trying it out on the plains of the Masai Mara…!
To take advantage of 30fps shooting, you need to do a few things beforehand.
Turn the Drive mode dial to H+ on the top left of the camera body
Set shutter priority to Release (rather than Focus)
Press MENU
Press the AF MF icon (for the Focus tab)
Press AF-MF
Press Priority Set in AF-C
Press Release
Set file quality to compressed RAW (or JPEG)
Press MENU
Press the camera icon (for the Shooting tab)
Press Image Quality
Press Image Quality Settings
Press the RAW box next to RAW File Type
Press Compressed
Press OK
Don’t use any of the tracking AF modes
Make sure your lens is compatible with 30fps
EVF
The Electronic Viewfinder on the Sony ⍺1 is exceptional, with a 0.9x magnification, 9.44 million-dot OLED display giving a maximum resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels.
The maximum refresh rate is 240fps, which means the image will be refreshed eight times in between shots even if you’re shooting at the maximum 30fps!
The only problem with the highest refresh rate is that the finder drops to using a 1600 x 1200 pixel region and the magnification drops to around 0.7x, so I set mine on High (120fps) to get the best of both worlds:
Press MENU
Press the suitcase icon (for the Setup tab)
Press Finder/Monitor
Press Finder Frame Rate
Press High
Custom Buttons
The Sony ⍺1 comes with an awful lot of custom buttons that can have almost any function assigned to them.
All you need to do is go to the relevant menu setting (MENU/Setup/Operation Customize/Custom Key Setting), choose each button in turn and allocate a menu function.
A few of them are set up by default, but here are my custom button assignments:
Rear1
ISO
AF On
For back button focusing, you also need to go to MENU/Focus/AF/MF/AF w/ Shutter and switch it off
Tracking On + AF On
Movie Shooting
White Balance
Touch Operation Select
Rear2
Focus Standard
Focus Standard
Face/Eye Prio. Off Tggle (ie Face/Eye Priority Off Toggle)
AF Tracking Sensitivity (to make the tracking more or less ‘sticky’)
Zebra Display Select (to show zebra stripes when whites are being clipped)
Top
Aperture/Shutter Speed
Aperture/Shutter Speed
Switch Focus Area
Face/Eye Subject Select
Lens
AF/MF Selector Hold
Menus
When it comes to the rest of the menus, I’ve left them all set to the defaults.
Here’s a list of all the menu sections:
My Menu tab
My Menu Setting
Add Item
Sort Item
Delete Item
Delete Page
Delete All
Display From My Menu
Shooting tab
Image Quality
JPEG/HEIF Switch
Image Quality Settings
Aspect Ratio
File Format
Movie Settings
S&Q Settings
Proxy Settings
APS-C S35 Shooting
Long Exposure NR
High ISO NR
HLG Still Image
Color Space
Lens Compensation
Media
Format
Rec. Media Settings
Recover Image DB
Display Media Info.
File
File/Folder Settings
Select REC Folder
Create New Folder
IPTC Information
Copyright Info
Write Serial Number
File Settings
Shooting Mode
Exposure Mode
S&Q Exposure Mode
Exposure Ctrl Type
MR Recall Camera Setting
MR Camera Set. Memory
MR Memory/Recall Media
Reg. Custom Shoot Set
Drive Mode
Cont. Shooting Speed
Self-timer Type
Bracket Settings
Interval Shoot Func.
Pixel Shift Multi Shoot
Shutter/Silent
Silent Mode Settings
Shutter Type
Release w/o Lens
Release w/o Card
Anti-flicker Set.
Audio Recording
Audio Recording
Audio Rec Level
Audio Out Timing
Wind Noise Reduct.
Shoe Audio Set
Audio Level Display
TC/UB
Time Code Preset
User Bit Preset
Time Code Format
Time Code Run
Time Code Make
User Bit Time Rec
Image Stabilization
SteadyShot [Still]
SteadyShot [Video]
SteadyShot Adjust.
Focal Length
Zoom
Zoom
Zoom Range
Zoom Speed [Custom Key]
Zoom Speed [Remote]
Shooting Display
Grid Line Display
Grid Line Type
Live View Display Set.
Emphasized REC Display
Marker Display
Marker Display
Center Marker
Aspect Marker
Safety Zone
Guideframe
Exposure/Color tab
Exposure
Auto Slow Shutter
ISO
ISO Range Limit
ISO AUTO Range Limit
ISO AUTO Min. SS
Auto/Manual Swt. Set.
Exposure Comp.
Exposure Comp.
Reset EV Comp.
Exposure Step
Exposure Std. Adjust
Metering
Metering Mode
Face Priority in Multi Metering
Spot Metering Point
AEL w/ Shutter
Flash
Flash Mode
Flash Comp.
Exp. Comp. Set
Wireless Flash
Flash Sync Spd. Prty.
Red Eye Reduction
External Flash Set.
White Balance
White Balance
Priority Set in AWB
Shutter AWB Lock
Shockless WB
Color/Tone
D-Range Optimizer
Creative Look
Picture Profile
Zebra Display
Zebra Display
Zebra Level
Focus tab
AF/MF
Priority Set in AF-S
Priority Set in AF-C
AF Tracking Sensitivity
AF Illuminator
Aperture Drive in AF
AF w/ Shutter
Pre-AF Off
AF Transition Speed
AF Subj. Shift Sensitivity
Focus Area
Focus Area
Focus Area Limit
Switch V/H AF Area
Focus Area Color
AF Area Registration
Del. Regist. AF Area
AF Area Auto Clear
Area Disp. dur Tracking
AF-C Area Display
Phase Detect. Area
Circ. of Focus Point
AF Frame Move Amt
Face/Eye AF
Face/Eye Prior. in AF
Face/Eye Subject
Subject Sel. Setting
Right/Left Eye Select
Face/Eye Frame Disp.
Face Memory
Regist. Faces Priority
Focus Assistant
Auto Magnifier in MF
Focus Magnifier
Focus Magnif. Time
Initial Focus Mag.
AF in Focus Mag.
Initial Focus Mag.
Peaking Display
Peaking Display
Peaking Level
Peaking Color
Playback tab
Playback Target
Select Playback Media
View Mode
Magnification
Enlarge Image
Enlarge Initial Mag.
Enlarge Initial Position
Selection/Memo
Protect
Rating
Rating Set (Custom Key)
Voice Memo
Voice Memo Play Vol.
Delete
Delete
Delete pressing twice
Delete confirm.
Edit
Crop
Rotate
Copy
Photo Capture
JPEG/HEIF Switch
Viewing
Cont. Play for Interval
Play Speed for Interval
Slide Show
Playback Option
Image Index
Display as Group
Display Rotation
Focus Frame Display
Select Image Jump Dial
Image Jump Method
Network tab
Smartphone Connect
Smartphone Connection
Connection
Select on Cam & Send
Cnct. while Power OFF
Remote Shoot Setting
Always Connected
Transfer/Remote
FTP Transfer Func.
PC Remote Function
Bluetooth Rmt Ctrl
Location Information
Location Info Link
Auto Time Correction
Auto Area Adjustment
Wi-Fi
WPS Push
Access Point Set.
Wi-Fi Frequency Band [WW411329 only]
Display Wi-Fi Info.
SSID/PW Reset
Bluetooth
Bluetooth Function
Pairing
Disp Device Address
Wired LAN
LAN IP Address Setting
Display Wired LAN Info.
Network Option
Airplane Mode
Edit Device Name
Import Root Certificate
Security (IPsec)
Reset Network Set.
Setup tab
Area/Date
Language
Area/Date/Time Setting
NTSC/PAL Selector
Reset/Save Settings
Setting Reset
Save/Load Settings
Operation Customize
Custom Key Setting [Stills]
Custom Key Setting [Video]
Custom Key Setting [Playback]
Fn Menu Settings
Different Set for Still/Mv
DISP (Screen Disp) Set
REC w/ Shutter
Zoom Ring Rotate
Dial Customize
My Dial Settings
Av/Tv Assign in M
Av/Tv Rotate
Dial Ev Comp
Function Ring (Lens)
Lock Operation Parts
Touch Operation
Touch Operation
Touch Sensitivity
Touch Panel/Pad
Touch Pad Settings
Touch Func. in Shooting
Finder/Monitor
Select Finder/Monitor
Monitor Brightness
Viewfinder Bright.
Finder Color Temp.
Viewfinder Magnifi.
Display Quality
Finder Frame Rate
Display Option
Take care./UB Disp. Setting
Gamma Display Assist
Gamma Disp. Assist Typ.
Shoot. Start Display
Shoot. Timing Display
Remain Shoot Display
Auto Review
Power Setting Option
Auto Monitor OFF
Power Save Start Time
Auto Power OFF Temp.
Sound Option
Volume Settings
4ch Audio Monitoring
Audio signals
USB
USB Connection
USB LUN Setting
USB Power Supply
External Output
HDMI Resolution
HDMI Output Settings
HDMI Info. Display
CTRL FOR HDMI
Setup Option
Video Light Mode
IR Remote Ctrl
Anti-dust Function
Auto Pixel Mapping
Pixel Mapping
Version
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