Lessons
Class Overview
13:49 2Photo Basics
03:58 3Top Deck: Basic Controls
03:35 4Top Deck: Mode Dial and Exposure Compensation
24:50 5Custom Key Settings
08:43 6Focus Area
08:22 7Multi Interface Shoe, Audio, Focal Plane
02:15 8Back Side Controls: Focus Mode
06:14Back Side Controls: Viewfinder
08:27 10Additional Back Side Controls
07:55 11Back Side Controls: Function Button
19:31 12Back Side Controls: Control Wheel, Display, ISO, Drive Mode
03:22 13Back Side Controls: Playback Mode
04:54 14Left Side Controls
03:02 15Right Side Controls
05:15 16Bottom Controls
03:20 17Front Controls
03:12 18Sony Lenses
11:43 19Menu Functions: Camera Settings 1
31:10 20Menu Functions: Camera Settings 1 Continued
33:15 21Menu Functions: Camera Settings 2 - Video
27:43 22Menu Functions: Network
13:10 23Menu Functions: Playback
06:42 24Menu Functions: Set Up
26:04 25My Menu
11:55 26Camera Operation
10:16Lesson Info
Additional Back Side Controls
We do have a Movie Record button which will start recording movies in any mode, and if you want, one of the things that you can do is you can hit the Movie Record button when you're in Program, or in Manual, and it will just switch over and start recording movies at any time if you're the type of person who needs to instantly start recording movies. But if you're the type of person who doesn't like to shoot movies, and you hate hitting that button accidentally and recording movies, you can turn that button so that it's only on when you're in the Movie mode, so it's only active when you're shooting movies. And that is a button that I, when I first got the camera I didn't really get full control of where all the buttons were, I was hitting that button thinking it was the AF-ON button, and then I was recording a video, and I found that a little bit frustrating. I've now learned where those buttons are, but if it's something that you find yourself hitting, you can go in and turn that off, ...
so you don't accidentally record those movies, because they do take up a lot of space, relatively speaking. The AF-ON button, we've talked a little bit about this, this allows you to focus the camera with your thumb button on the back of the camera. So this is something that you can go in, and you can customize as well to do something else. If you're the type of person who doesn't like back button focusing, and it's a dumb button to you, then reprogram it, make it a smart button for what you want to do. For those of you who do want to do back button focusing, back button focusing is kind of all set up on this camera, with the exception, you've gotta turn off the focusing of the shutter release, because if you back button focus, and then refocus with the shutter release, it makes no difference that you were back buttoning to begin with, so double focusing doesn't help. If you want to turn off the shutter release, auto focus system, you need to go into camera settings one, page six of 13 and turn off auto focus with shutter option. And then you will be in back button focusing, so you'll need to press the button on the back of the camera, the AF-ON button to focus, and then press the shutter release to take a photo, so it's a two-finger affair to take that photo. But it's a very good system, and if you can get through the learning curves of doing that, it's something a lot of people really like using in photography. We've talked about our rear dial. We're using it for shutter speeds, apertures and menu playback, a lot of other features as well. The Auto Exposure Lock button allows us to lock exposure in. We saw earlier that I was able to lock the manual exposure, but you can do that with auto exposures as well. So let's do a little demo here on that. I've got my camera in Aperture Priority for this, and we'll stay all the way zoomed in. In this particular mode let's change our aperture down here to, let's call it 5.6 right here. Right now we're at 1/100 of a second, and if we move this around, you can see that we get different shutter speeds depending on what's in the frame. If we figured out, we really do want a hundredth of a second, what we would do is press in on the AEL button, we get the little lock symbol down here, and it stays at 1/25th of a second. And so then we can shoot our photo (shutter clicking) and it stays locked in wherever we lock it in right there. So there is 1/100th, (shutter clicking) and so if you wanna lock that in, and so that's gonna be very handy in shutter priority, aperture priority, and the program modes, but we can also use it in the manual mode for a manual shift. And so it is kind of an exposure lock, but a manual exposure lock, which is a fun option. But if you don't like it for any of these, it's one of those custom key buttons that you can completely reprogram to do something else. Some people don't use auto exposure lock very often, like myself, and if you do shoot a lot of action, one of the more common, popular ones I've seen people using is they've been using this button for eye auto focus. So they an auto focus button, a kind of standard one to the left, and then they have their eye auto focus. So if you shoot a lot of portraits it's just you move your thumb over, and boom, it's eye focus or standard focus. And it's a really good system that you can program this camera to work in a multitude of ways like that. Multi-selector on the back of the camera is mainly used for moving our focusing point around, so if you have this small, medium or large point, or you have a group of focusing points, you can just use that joystick for moving things around. But be aware that that's also a button that you're gonna be able to reprogram as we dig in to the menu systems later on in the class. So, Kenna, I think that's enough for this first section, and I'll check in with you for what's next. Well, first we have some questions that I think we have some time to get to. So let's start with those, and let me know if you guys have any questions in the studio. So you were just holding down that AEL, the auto exposure lock button, do you actually have to hold that down? Yes, you do, unless you listen to an earlier part of the class where I talked about the toggle switch. And so you can reprogram that to work as a toggle, which means (clicking) it's on. (clicking) It's off. So in that case you would just press it once. You'd be locked in. You'd move it around. Take your photo. And that way you don't have to keep your finger pressed in on the button. Cool, but you have to make that switch? Yeah you have to go in and customize that switch just a little bit. Great. Okay, we had a couple of questions about the eye auto focus, people are excited about that. One question was what happens if you have a group of people? Well, I haven't tried it with a group of people. And so it's probably going to look for whatever is closest. Yeah. And somebody else asked about can you register faces? Yes you can, and we'll talk about that as we get into the menu system so that you can have faces, and you can prioritize the faces, and so parents of a lot of kids, you get to prioritize your kids however you want the focus to be more dominant as to which place it goes. Now it works perfectly if you've got your one kid up on stage, and there's all the other kids up there, and you want your kid in focus. It will actually find that face among a group of them. Cool, look forward to that. Similar question with regard to the C one button. I guess the different custom buttons as well. Do you have to actually hold that down when you're taking the picture, or do you press it once and that's good for the next picture? On that one you're having to hold it down, and so you may need to figure out which button you can most easily hold down while you are shooting. Great. And final question for this segment, Steve had asked, "Can all the different custom buttons be configured differently for photo and video functions?" And so there are C one through four. There's the dial on the back of the camera, which has up, down, left, right, and then there's also the AF-ON, AEL and the other buttons, and there are slightly different parameters that are available for different buttons. So not everything is available on every button. But, when you get in, with all the buttons that are available, and I'm trying to remember if there's 10 or 12. It's around 10 different buttons on the camera that are programmable. There's a whole set of things that you can do in stills, and you can take those same 10 to buttons and completely reprogram them for video, and then you can reprogram about four of them for playback functions. And so it's not completely unlimited, but it's one of the most customizable cameras I've ever seen.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Angela Sanchez
Super great clearly explained guide for the Sony a7r III. John is always a fantastic knowledgeable instructor who knows how to teach all about cameras in a super clear organized way. I love John Geengo classes!
Craig Markham
As always, John shines as a teacher extraordinaire! His visuals, pacing of presentation, clarity, and and adherence to the class objectives are all spot-on. As a devoted A7r II user for the past 2 years, this was a great review of the shared features, and gave me the best information for evaluating the cost/benefit of an upgrade to the A7r III now.
ufmystic
John Greengo is the man. I've been watching CreativeLive classes for years and there is no better instructor than him. I recently upgraded from the A7r II to the III and had been waiting for this course to be offered. John is incredibly knowledgeable and, with great dedication, provides all pertinent information related to operating and knowing your new camera. If it weren't for John, I wouldn't know the ins and outs of my new camera and would struggle with optimal settings which would decrease the best output possible. You rock, John. Thanks again!
Student Work
Related Classes
Camera Guides