Lessons
Class Overview
10:11 2Photo Basics
07:01 3Top Deck: Mode Dial
27:20 4Top Deck: Custom Settings and Focus Mode
16:55 5Backside:Camera Controls
09:01 6Backside: Function Button Part 1
18:28 7Backside: Function Button Part 2
13:05 8Backside: Control Wheel &
10:53Left & Right Sides
06:19 10Bottom & Front
28:50 11Camera Settings: Pages 1-3
13:02 12Camera Settings: Pages 4-6
24:31 13Camera Settings: Pages 7-9
07:38 14Custom Settings: Pages 1-4
23:12 15Custom Settings: Pages 5-8
24:11 16Wireless Settings, Applications & Playback Menu
10:21 17Setup Menu
20:21 18Camera Operation
15:04Lesson Info
Left & Right Sides
Alright, time to move around to the left side of the camera. And over here, with this particular lens, it's kind of an unusual lens because you have one main ring that does both zooming and focusing. It'll focus only after you've pressed down on the shutter release to, in that DNF mode. So you'd let the camera focus and then you would turn that ring for manual focusing. There is a power zoom lever on the side when you are in the video mode, so you would use that to zoom very smoothly because it's a motorized power zoom. There is a little speaker on the side of the camera so that when you are playing back your movies, that's where the sound is coming from. And then we have a panel where we can connect to other devices on the side of the camera. So the first little connection in here is your micro USB cable, and this is how you could transfer images directly from the camera to your computer. This is also how you charge your camera with the AC battery charging units. So you can charge the...
battery directly while it's in the camera without any extra device to charge the battery with. And this is also where you can get the Sony's wired remote, the RM- VPR and if you want to do photography from a tripod without touching the camera, that's the device that you would probably want to have. There is a little charge lamp here to let you know the charging status of the camera. And so it will be orange when it's charging, it'll turn off when it's done and if there's a problem, you know, for instance the battery's no good for instance, it would blink at you letting you know there's an issue. We then have our connection for HDTVs, which is the DHMI micro jack and then down at the bottom if you wanna add on a better quality microphone, you'll be plugging it in down here and it's got the 3.5 millimeter stereo jack on that. Over on the right hand side of the camera for those of you that have NFC smart devices, you can wirelessly control the camera and transfer images back and forth with it by activating this by going into the wireless section in the menu system and then holding that device near that symbol on that side of the camera. You usually need to be within four inches, I think, to make that work right, so sometimes you need to kind of rub it up next to it to make sure that you're good and close for that. Next up is our Movie Record button, so obviously you'll be pressing this to record movies. I would recommend putting the camera in the movie mode first so that you get the correct composition and the camera's controls are all flipped over to working in the movie mode, but you can hit it any time you want. Now if you're the type of still photographer who doesn't really care about shooting movies, you can change this around so that it does something else. Now, when you are recording movies, for those of you who do want to shoot movies, one of the options is, well, how do you want to shoot movies? In manual mode? In shutter priority? In program? Aperture priority? Well, in the Menu system is something called Movie Button, and you can go in here, actually, I'm sorry, let me get this correct, the Movie Button controls whether it does movies or does nothing. And so, if you don't want this to work, if you don't want to accidentally record movies when you're shooting still photos you can kind of turn this button off. It'll only record movies when you are in the movie mode. The next one, which is right here, the movie one, what this does is allows you when you are in the movie mode to choose whether you're in program, shutter priority, aperture priority or manual. 'Cause there's some people who just want to shoot basic, simple videos and they put it in program. And there's other cinema buffs that want to shoot in manual, they wanna choose a very specific shutter speed and a specific aperture, and they can put that in manual by going to the Menu Systems. And once again, when we get to the Menu section of this class, we'll be coming by and getting the camera set up for this at that time. Now talk a little bit about some of the movie options here in the camera so in the Camera Settings under File Format, this camera does shoot 4K which is hot right now, that's, that's the new hot thing that cameras need to do. And it does shoot 4K. You will wanna have one of the faster cards for that. If you wanna shoot basic video, you're probably gonna be shooting one of the HD options in video. Now that's just the File Format, or the, it's called the File Format, but it's kind of the size of the frame that you're shooting. There are other recording settings which has to do with the compression of your image, your video, and so there are various settings that you can choose, depending on how much data you want to work with. Now there is a 29 minute time limit for HD video, and so that is kind of an arbitrary limit, it's more for tax reasons than anything else that the cameras have a little lower tariff rate because they're not considered camcorders because they shoot less than 30 minutes. Now the 4K time limit is 20 minutes in length, and that's kind of because there's a lot more going on on the camera and that's more of a technical problem and limit, limitation on the camera. And so when you do shoot with 4K, you are not getting the full width of the sensor, so this may be a challenge for anyone who is shooting wide-angle 4K, because your lenses are not gonna be as wide angled. That's one of the limitations with 4K in the current state of the cameras. And there is a 4 gigabyte file limit as well, so what's gonna happen is if you record a long period of time, the camera may have one file and then it fills it up four gigs and then it'll automatically, the next frame, start another one and you'll need to put those two together when you get into the editing process. And finally, as far as focusing goes, there is the choice of manual focus or continuous focusing when you're the movie mode, where it will constantly adjust focus, trying to always pick up what is closest to the camera in focus. And so the more serious photographers are gonna probably want to go to manual focus, and if you're just casually shooting, you're probably gonna be fine in AFC.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Cassandra Mcd
This was so much better than having to read a manual that often times is not helpful in terms of pointing out tips on when would be the best time times to use a particular function. Love the graphics, the recommendations provided for both new and advanced users and mostly I love the fact that I can go back and watch different segments as I get more use to shooting with this camera. Great Course and I'm really glad I bought it! Thanks John!
Priscilla Read
I'm still working my way through the lessons, trying out everything as I go. I like how John shows everything with great visuals and demos. Also like that he explains when to use the various options available on the camera. Really great! Thanks!
a Creativelive Student
I wanted to learn more about using my SONY. I was not disappointed in this fast-start class on how to use this camera. Jon is a great teacher. He answered my question about photo problems. He also had some great graphics that reinforced what he was teaching. TY! Rosa
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