12 Sony Camera Settings You Need to Change
If you just picked up your first Sony camera or the vibe between you feels "off," you likely need to change one of these 12 settings. By the end of this post, your camera will be optimized and ready to shoot in any situation.
Basic Tweaks and Quiet Shots
First, make sure you update your Sony camera to firmware version 2.0. For the Sony A7C II and newer models, this unlocks key features like dynamic active stabilization and auto AI subject detection.
Next, let's silence that annoying focus beep. Go to the yellow settings menu, then sound options, and disable audio signals. This also turns off the start/stop recording sounds in video, which is a good thing!
If you want truly quiet shooting, you can assign silent shutter to a custom button for an easy toggle. Be careful, though: silent shutter can cause rolling shutter effects when shooting fast subjects or under artificial light.
Extra Zoom Without the Zoom Lens
This setting is one of the main reasons I stick with full-frame: creating an APS-C crop mode custom button. You can assign this to a button to crop in by an additional 1.5 times in both photo and video.
In photo mode, your resolution will drop (e.g. 33MP on the A7C II becomes 17MP), but that's still plenty! Critically, in video mode, you don't sacrifice any resolution for 4K recording. It's also great if you want to use older APS-C lenses on your full-frame body.
Building on that, this next setting is for video only: Clear Image Zoom. Assign this to a custom button to reach an additional 1.5x crop in 4K (or 2x in Full HD). This means you can stack the APS-C crop (1.5x) and Clear Image Zoom (1.5x) for maximum reach. You still get subject and eye detection autofocus with no noticeable loss in image quality.
Optimize Your Video Quality
If you shoot video, you need to maximize quality. For the A7C II and newer cameras, ensure you are shooting in 10-bit and not 8-bit. 10-bit recording gives you much more color information for grading later. Find this under the Red Camera Menu, Image Quality, Movie Settings, Record Setting.
What's 10-bit without Log? Enable Log Shooting mode. Go to Log Shooting Setting, switch to On, and set the color gamut to S-Gamut3.Cine. Leave Embed LUT file off for now.
If you use first-party Sony lenses for video, turn on Lens Breathing Compensation: Red Camera Menu, Image Quality, Lens Compensation. This minimizes focus breathing but adds a slight 1.1x to 1.2x crop. Leave it off if you need the absolute full frame of the sensor.
Hidden Stabilization Secret
One of the most underrated settings I only recently learned about is setting your stabilization to manual. Go to Image Stabilization, SteadyShot Adjust, Manual.
Then, make sure Steady Shot Focal Length is in your function menu. With this enabled, you can manually set the focal length to match your lens (prime or current zoom length). Your stabilization will then be optimized to that specific focal length, greatly improving performance in all modes (standard, active, or dynamic).
To take this further, firmware 2.0 unlocks the new Dynamic Active Stabilization (previously ZV cameras). I trust Active more for general movement, but Dynamic is great for longer focal lengths when you need to mimic a tripod.
If you change lenses often, protect your sensor by setting Shutter When Power Off to On Yellow Settings Menu, Setup Option, Anti-Dust Function. You'll hear the mechanical shutter close when you turn off the camera, keeping dust away during lens swaps.
Custom Buttons for the Win
The first custom button I set up is the AF/MF Toggle. I map this to the AF-ON button on my A7C II. This allows you to seamlessly switch between autofocus and manual focus. You can autofocus on a distant subject, then toggle to MF with one touch to let a foreground element pass smoothly, and then toggle back to AF. This creates nice, layered shots, mimicking professional manual focusing with just one button!
