Best settings for the Sony a6000
Hi!
In this post, I'm going to show you how I set my camera to suit my needs. Before that, know that most of these settings can be adjusted to personal preference, so I'm going to explain what each one does and why I chose that particular option. So, feel free to change the settings a bit to suit your needs better.
There are a lot of customizability in this little camera. In fact, it holds up pretty well against its bigger competitors like the Nikon D7000 series and the Canon 7D series. But unfortunately, what each setting does and how they affect photography is somewhat really confusing even for aficionados, let alone for novice photographers. I've been using this camera for more than 3 years for now and it took me a while to be confident enough to share what I know about this camera. So here, I'm going to try my best to explain what and how the settings are from the standpoint of a novice photographer.
Personally, I would use either the "A" or the "S" mode because I can clearly see what is being manually changed and what is being automatically changed. There is simply no reason to use both (which essentially is the "P" mode) as you will likely never change between the two in rapid successions. Using the P mode just adds to the confusion even more.
To load your settings, just turn the mode dial into "MR" and with the arrow buttons choose the particular setting. Personally, to change between modes I do it through "MR". I found out that changing, let's say from A to S requires additional changes that I need to do, namely the drive mode, the focus mode and the quality. It is much quicker to do it using the "MR" function as you don't have to individually change your settings.
I will describe this mode in more details later on the page.
Continous Shooting (Lo, Mid, Hi): Also called "Burst Mode". If the shutter is pressed, the camera will shoot up to 11 pictures per second and will continue at that rate until the memory buffer is full. Memory buffer depends on the speed of your memory card. Useful for fast-paced action.
Self Timer (2s, 10s): There will be a delay between the pressing of the shutter button and the actual shutter release. I use this to minimize shake when on a tripod, especially for long exposures without a remote shutter.
Self Timer (Cont., Many Options): This is a combination of the two modes above. The camera will shoot the number of images chosen by you continuously after a delay. This is useful for me when I shoot a couple of pictures on a tripod that I will later combine to a multiple-exposure blending photograph.
Continous Bracket (Many Options): Like the continuous mode, but does so with a particular number of pictures and each having different exposure (brightness) levels. I use this if I need high dynamic range pictures that I will manually process later.
AF-A: The camera decides to use either AF-S or AF-C. I left it here most of the time.
AF-C: Tries to focus continuously when the shutter button is continuously half-pressed. Used if I'm guaranteed to shoot moving objects.
DMF: Manual focusing right after the camera does AF-S. I use this mode instead of the MF mode if I really have to use MF (which is really rare).
You can select a particular ISO. However, I do not recommend this unless you want to lock it at 100. There are a few instances when I set it at 1600 and forgot to change it back to auto. My landscape shots the next day was on ISO 1600 before I noticed and changed it back. If you really want to set a particular ISO, it is better to just use the "A/S/M" mode and dial in the exposure compensation.
h. White Balance and Creative Style
I prefer to leave these as they are because they make no meaningful differences. But the creative style options can be handy if you prefer to shoot JPEG.
Long exposure NR: On. This is quite a very controversial matter. Some a6000 (not sure which kind exactly) owners found out that the picture quality they get is better with this setting turned off. That shouldn't happen, because this setting only activates when you are shooting long exposures. Personally, I found that (even though I never did any rigorous testing on this) it boils down to your firmware and the lens you are using. If you are using an older firmware and happen to use the kit lens, you might want to turn this off.
*Can be replaced as there is a more convenient way available to access
**Can be replaced as I never used these
Custom Key Settings
AEL Button: Lock-on AF (extremely handy)
C1: Focus Mode
C2: Zebra
Bottom: Grid Line
Leave the rest
Dial/Wheel Setup: Front dial F/no, Top dial SS
Dial/Wheel Ev Comp: Top Dial. Here I prefer to use the top dial as an exposure compensation dial as it is faster. In this way, I can change the bottom arrow button to change enable/disable the grid line.
Movie Button: Always
Dial/Wheel Lock: Unlock
In this post, I'm going to show you how I set my camera to suit my needs. Before that, know that most of these settings can be adjusted to personal preference, so I'm going to explain what each one does and why I chose that particular option. So, feel free to change the settings a bit to suit your needs better.
There are a lot of customizability in this little camera. In fact, it holds up pretty well against its bigger competitors like the Nikon D7000 series and the Canon 7D series. But unfortunately, what each setting does and how they affect photography is somewhat really confusing even for aficionados, let alone for novice photographers. I've been using this camera for more than 3 years for now and it took me a while to be confident enough to share what I know about this camera. So here, I'm going to try my best to explain what and how the settings are from the standpoint of a novice photographer.
The mode dial
The mode dial consists of many different modes that you can choose. But in my opinion, most of them are geared towards beginners. The modes that you should rather not choose are:a. Superior Auto and Intelligent Auto
In these two modes, the camera decides what scene the camera is pointing at and then automatically adjust everything for you. There's a lot of "you can't" in these two modes. For instance, you can't change the ISO, the White Balance, control the focus point, change the aperture, and many more. Not to mention that it seems that all the settings are adjusted for the kit lens. This mode is better reserved just for your phones and your point and shoot cameras.b. Scene Modes
This is exactly the same as the other auto modes. The only difference here is that you decide what scene it actually is. The rest is exactly the same.c. Sweep Panorama
The Sweep Panorama on the a6000 does not work that well. It is unreliable and quite sluggish. For me, it is miles better to just take a couple of pictures manually and stitch it via a computer software later.d. The "P" mode
The P mode gives you much more freedom than the auto modes. It gives you the freedom of changing everything (including the ISO, focus mode, drive mode, etc). But it does not individually adjust the shutter speed and aperture. This, in my opinion, is a bit cumbersome to deal with because there isn't anything to "cling" to.Personally, I would use either the "A" or the "S" mode because I can clearly see what is being manually changed and what is being automatically changed. There is simply no reason to use both (which essentially is the "P" mode) as you will likely never change between the two in rapid successions. Using the P mode just adds to the confusion even more.
e. Movie Mode
Since I assume that you take both pictures and videos, I find it unnecessary to dedicate a mode just to "preview" the footage. All it does it just crop the image to the proper widescreen ratio. Though, if you only shoot videos this could be where you should stay all the time.What you should actually use instead
a. The "A" mode
Here the Aperture is dialed by you, and the shutter speed is automatically adjusted by the camera. Personally, I find this to be the best settings to use with every interchangeable lens camera. The aperture is very simple to adjust, and most of the time it's the only thing that needs changing to get the desired effect. But be aware that this depends on the type of shots you're doing often.
b. The "S" mode
Just like the "A" mode, but the shutter speed is dialed and the aperture is automatically adjusted instead. You can use this mode instead of the "A" mode when shutter speed counts more than the aperture. I use this when I'm trying to get either motion blur or pinpoint sharpness on a fast-moving object, where the aperture can be ignored.c. The "M" mode
Here, both the aperture and the shutter speed is manually dialed. This mode, in my opinion, is going to only be needed when you somehow can't get the right exposure dialed in. The only time that I ever used this mode was when I shoot bulb mode, where you use a remote shutter to get shutter speeds longer than 30 seconds (usually for night landscape photography). Aside from that, I found the A and the S mode adequate in terms of customizability.d. The "MR" mode
Literally the best of all the modes. Here, you can assign specific modes and settings that you can save. You can save up to 3 completely different settings. To save the modes and settings, set everything as you want to save it, and then go to the menu. In the menu, go to the seventh page of the first tab. Choose "Memory" and choose the space where you want to store the configuration.To load your settings, just turn the mode dial into "MR" and with the arrow buttons choose the particular setting. Personally, to change between modes I do it through "MR". I found out that changing, let's say from A to S requires additional changes that I need to do, namely the drive mode, the focus mode and the quality. It is much quicker to do it using the "MR" function as you don't have to individually change your settings.
I will describe this mode in more details later on the page.
The basic settings
There are a lot of modes for each setting, but I only use a few of them. I'll only describe the ones that I used. You can quickly access these by pressing the "Fn button"a. The Drive Modes
Single Shooting: Where my camera is most of the time, here the camera shoots one picture per shutter release just as you normally would.Continous Shooting (Lo, Mid, Hi): Also called "Burst Mode". If the shutter is pressed, the camera will shoot up to 11 pictures per second and will continue at that rate until the memory buffer is full. Memory buffer depends on the speed of your memory card. Useful for fast-paced action.
Self Timer (2s, 10s): There will be a delay between the pressing of the shutter button and the actual shutter release. I use this to minimize shake when on a tripod, especially for long exposures without a remote shutter.
Self Timer (Cont., Many Options): This is a combination of the two modes above. The camera will shoot the number of images chosen by you continuously after a delay. This is useful for me when I shoot a couple of pictures on a tripod that I will later combine to a multiple-exposure blending photograph.
Continous Bracket (Many Options): Like the continuous mode, but does so with a particular number of pictures and each having different exposure (brightness) levels. I use this if I need high dynamic range pictures that I will manually process later.
b. Flash and Flash Comp
I rarely use the small pop-off flash. So I leave these as it were when they came out of the box.c. Focus Mode
AF-S: Only focuses once after the shutter button is half-pressed. Used if I'm guaranteed to shoot static objects.AF-A: The camera decides to use either AF-S or AF-C. I left it here most of the time.
AF-C: Tries to focus continuously when the shutter button is continuously half-pressed. Used if I'm guaranteed to shoot moving objects.
DMF: Manual focusing right after the camera does AF-S. I use this mode instead of the MF mode if I really have to use MF (which is really rare).
d. Focus Area
Flexible Spot (M or L): You can assign where the camera should focus. This gives me a lot of freedom and lets me aim more precisely. The way you change the location is pretty simple. Just click on the middle front dial button and use the arrows to assign the focus point. When you're done, click the middle button again. The other modes do not work that well for me.e. Exposure compensation
This setting is handy if you feel like you need to "fine-tune" the exposure a bit. The camera will compensate either the shutter speed or the aperture (depends on whether you're using the "A" or the "S" mode) for that desired exposure. Change this using the bottom arrow button (by default) or the top dial if you need to change the exposure. I prefer using the top dial. More on this on the custom button customization part.f. ISO
Most of the time, I set this one on Auto. You can change the range of ISOs by pressing the right arrow while on the "Auto" selection. The minimum should always be 100. The maximum depends on personal preference. I set it on 3200 because above that, the amount of grain is unacceptable (for me). Reduce that if you think 3200 is too grainy, and increase if you think that higher settings are fine.
You can select a particular ISO. However, I do not recommend this unless you want to lock it at 100. There are a few instances when I set it at 1600 and forgot to change it back to auto. My landscape shots the next day was on ISO 1600 before I noticed and changed it back. If you really want to set a particular ISO, it is better to just use the "A/S/M" mode and dial in the exposure compensation.
g. Metering
The shots I took mostly had the metering mode set at "multi". There are a few instances where I used the "spot" mode, usually silhouette. I don't really use the "center" mode anymore.h. White Balance and Creative Style
I prefer to leave these as they are because they make no meaningful differences. But the creative style options can be handy if you prefer to shoot JPEG.
i. Quality
Almost all the time I set this on RAW. The reason being is that they're much better to post process, and I almost always post process my photo before sharing/publishing it. However, if I don't see the need for post-processing, then I would change it to JPEG Fine. But the problem with that is I often forgot to change it back to RAW.Other menu options:
a. First tab
Aspect ratio: Always set this to 3:2 unless you want your pictures to be cropped.
Video file format: XAVC S if compatible, if not then AVCHD.
Video Record Setting: The highest bitrate (50p 50M for XAVC, 28M for AVCHD)
Red Eye Reduction: On
AF Illuminator: I turn this one off. Personally, I never shot in an environment so dark that the camera struggles to focus. Also, it's annoying for my subjects (or other people) to have to see AF assist lights all the time. If I'm doing night landscape photography the illuminator is not so useful either.
Video AF drive speed: Normal. Slow is too slow and Fast is a tad unnatural to my liking.
AF Track duration: High. Does not make any meaningful difference in my experience.
Exposure Step: 0.3 EV. You want the increment to be as small as possible to allow finer tuning.
Long exposure NR: On. This is quite a very controversial matter. Some a6000 (not sure which kind exactly) owners found out that the picture quality they get is better with this setting turned off. That shouldn't happen, because this setting only activates when you are shooting long exposures. Personally, I found that (even though I never did any rigorous testing on this) it boils down to your firmware and the lens you are using. If you are using an older firmware and happen to use the kit lens, you might want to turn this off.
High ISO NR: Low. The "normal" setting makes the pictures too soft in my opinion.
Lock On AF: On.
Smile/Face Detection: Off.
SteadyShot: On. In my experience, you don't ever have to turn this off, even when on a tripod this makes no difference.
Colour Space: AdobeRGB. I don't think using sRGB would help anything at all.
Auto Slow Shutter Speed: On. Having a good exposure is more important than achieving 50fps (or 60fps on NTSC)
Audio Recording: On, even though you're using an external sound recorder this is needed to sync your audio.
Wind noise reduction: Doesn't matter really, leave it on.
b. Second Tab
Zebra: 100+. Shows you certain exposure (brightness) level on the live view. I set this one on 100+. In my experience, the other zebra settings do not provide a lot of information, whereas the 100+ setting can help me detect clipped highlights easily (and if exposure compensation is necessary or not).
MF Assist: On.
Focus Magnification Time: 2 Sec.
Grid Line: Off by default. I can place objects on the frame without the help of the grid line for most of the time. I assigned the bottom arrow button for this function (more on custom button customization). For beginners, leaving this on by default is a good option as it builds the habit of placing objects correctly.
Auto Review: 2 Sec
DISP button
Monitor: Display All Info, For Viewfinder, No Disp Info
Finder: Histogram, No Disp Info
Peaking Level: Mid works best for me.
Peaking Colour: Red works best for me.
Exposure set guide: Off. I find the moving banner thing ugly and unnecessary.
Live view: Setting effect On to see the exposures better.
Display continuous AF Area: On, you still want to see where the point actually is when shooting.
Pre-AF: On.
Zoom setting: Optical Zoom only. I think digital zooming is just plain silly.
Finder/Monitor: Auto. Why would you want to disable one of them?
Release w/o Lens: Disable. You likely won't need this.
AF w/ shutter: On.
AEL w/ shutter: Auto.
e-Front Curtain Shutter: On
Exposure Compensation Setting: Ambient and Flash
Bracket Order: Minus, Neutral, Plus
Face Registration, AF Micro Adjustment: Never actually touched these
Lens Compensation: Auto on all of them.
Function Button Menu Set:
1. Drive Mode*
2. Flash**
3. Flash Compensation**
4. Focus Mode*
5. Focus Area
6. Exposure Compensation*
7. ISO*
8. Metering
9. White Balance
10. Memory Recall
11. Creative Style**
12. Quality
3. Flash Compensation**
4. Focus Mode*
5. Focus Area
6. Exposure Compensation*
7. ISO*
8. Metering
9. White Balance
10. Memory Recall
11. Creative Style**
12. Quality
*Can be replaced as there is a more convenient way available to access
**Can be replaced as I never used these
Custom Key Settings
AEL Button: Lock-on AF (extremely handy)
C1: Focus Mode
C2: Zebra
Bottom: Grid Line
Leave the rest
Dial/Wheel Setup: Front dial F/no, Top dial SS
Dial/Wheel Ev Comp: Top Dial. Here I prefer to use the top dial as an exposure compensation dial as it is faster. In this way, I can change the bottom arrow button to change enable/disable the grid line.
Movie Button: Always
Dial/Wheel Lock: Unlock
My Memory Recall Settings
Note that if a particular setting is left out here, it means that it is the same throughout all the MR settings.
MR1: Default mode
Drive Mode: Single Shot
Metering Mode: Multi, or Spot when shooting silhouette
ISO: Auto, 100 Minimum, 3200 Maximum
Focus Mode: AF-A
Quality: RAW
Camera Mode: A
MR2: Shooting fast action
Drive Mode: Continous Shooting, Hi
Metering Mode: Multi
ISO: Auto, 100 Minimum, 1600 Maximum
Focus Mode: AF-C
Quality: RAW/JPEG Fine
Camera Mode: S
Use that AEL button for tracking!
Use that AEL button for tracking!
MR3: In a tripod
Drive Mode: Self-timer: 10 Sec
Metering Mode: Doesn't matter, I leave it on Multi
ISO: Manual (100)
Focus Mode: AF-S
Quality: RAW
Camera Mode: M
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