Back-Button AF and Manual AF settings using a Sony Alpha A7 camera

[@mika66]

I was very confused at the beginning but I just needed to keep on watching to the end. Thank you very much!

[@leow8190]

Thanks for the tutorial. Hand my canon 5dmkiii set up with back bottom focusing and thought I’d be giving it up when I switched to Sony. Now I’m feeling like I have the best of both worlds. 3 days in and I’m discovering so many useful features on my Sony. Thanks again.

[@wenjie959]

A7 shooting another A7! Nice and helpful guide btw.

[@twoeager]

great video. i'm switching from Fuji to sony a7 at the end of this month

[@nagol5178]

A way to get extremely fast auto focus is to turn your preview off in settings. What this does, is what you see on the screen and EVF is always at 0.0. So, even when it's dark it will focus on it, say you using 100 ISO at a long shutter speed on a tripod in the dark. It will be underexposed so it can't see to focus, but with the preview off, it will show it as if it was exposed at 0.0 and it can focus. It's important to remember that's on though so you go by the meter to tell when you are exposed correctly because the way it'll look on the screen will always be exposed correctly. It's very useful for video too because sometimes in video I will let it go down to -0.1 in a pan shot, where it starts at 0.0 and goes down a stop due to lighting changes, I fix the exposure in post. But it stays at 0.0 on my screen so I can still see what I'm manually focusing on where as if I keep preview on, the screen will be too dark for me to tell.

[@missmacintox]

Exactly what I needed. Thank you

[@martintaylor5536]

THE BEST SETUP YET Thanks

[@jojj334Q]

Wow. Just tried this and it is soooo much better to work with. Thanks so much for making this video, it really shows I'm still a newb and no nothing about photography. Subbed ^_^

[@brantbady9540]

I definitely like the back button focus setup, but how do I put it into AF-continuous mode? using C2 to select AF-continuous doesn't seem to do anything? I have both and A7R and an A7S, and I would like both to be set up with back-button focus, but also be able to easily put it into continuous mode for following objects or people . Cheers and thanks for putting up the video in the first place.

[@2791dles]

I wonder if there is a way to set this as a memory preset (on the wheel 1 2) so that you can easily toggle between normal half press of shutter for AF, and Back-Button AF. Would love to be able to utilise both options without having to change 3 things in Menu?

[@2791dles]

Actually, if I leave AF w/shutter - On then as long as I hold the back button down the focus point is locked. If I take thumb away from back button AF I can then use normal half press shutter AF (I think). Seems to work well, best of both worlds. Thanks for the back button tip, will be using this a lot!

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

2791dles If you are holding the AF/MF Button then you are actually disabling the AF by temporarily activation MF. This is not the Back-Button AF setup used by the majority of Sports and Wildlife Photographers.

[@2791dles]

Alpha Creative Skills if the arrow is pointed to AEL, and AEL is set as focus button then when it is depressed surely it is acting as back button AF. If the leaver was switched upwards to AF/MF then I think you'd be correct. But I've got it pointed to AEL

[@MrStubbyd]

Do you have a similar video for A7ii or a blog post / article please?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

I don't but I would imagine the menus and camera body layout are very similar between the A7 & A7II cameras

[@leighpugin1398]

Hi. In the video at 1:40sec you are able to zoom in by pushing c1 up until x 14. Mine only goes up until x 4. I am using the Sony A7s 2. The C1 button is the rec button. I use the C3 button for the focus zoom displayed at 1:40 in the video which which is C2 on your camera. Any assistance would be great. Thanks.

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

You cannot zoom as much in Movie Mode and with the lower resolution A7S

[@lighterpacks]

This was a very good tutorial. Thanks!

[@tauqeerkhan3251]

Which option will you use if you are taking sports photos, setup AEL button as auto focus on, so use the lock on autofocus from the custom option which tracks the subject and then use shoot with shutter..which is better , please advise..

[@pracquet]

Another good, informative video! Just as an aside I wonder if you can tell me which lock on AF mode you have found to be the best on these cameras. There is a choice of wide, zone, center, flexible spot, and expand flexible spot, all with the lock-on AF feature, and I was wondering which one you have found to be the most accurate, and reliable. Thank you in advance.

[@Fauxleroid]

I have an A7ii and I don't think it can be set up I the way that I really wish it would. Can you tell me if this is possible on the A7iii or any of the more expensive models you might have. I want to have the camera in full time manual focus (you have to have MF selected or the focus ring does not work at all) but when I press the back button it activates AF-C. I can get it to work with manual focus and AF-S on the back button but not AF-C. If I set the focus mode to AF-C then I get the AF-C on the back button but the manual focus ring stops working. I wish the focus ring was always active but its not and I find it really annoying. If the A7iii can do this I think I'm going to upgrade.

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

It’s a several years since I owned the A7ll so I can’t test the workflow you are outlining here.

[@mukundkaduskar3872]

Very good tut. Pl. produce one for A7M2 as well

[@pilarperez6496]

how do you set your C1 to give you direct access to change your focus point to manual? thanks

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

Pilar Perez - I no longer own this model of camera but from memory I assigned C1 to Focus Settings (or some similar name) in the Custom Key menu.

[@horhocea9078]

eye AF is working on A7 mark 1 ?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

I can’t remember as it must have been 7 years ago since I last used an A7

[@carlmckie4663]

Hi Mark, just wondering if there was an easy way to get back button focus on the Alpha 99mkii ? and if so could this be stored as a setting in memory(as in your sports action settings video)

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

Carl Mckie - it is usually a two-step process for cameras without a dedicated AF-On button. First assign a button to AF-In and then remove AF from the shutter release. Unfortunately you cannot register the function of the custom buttons to the memory (only the menu items)

[@catherine1742]

Thanks for this helpful video. On Your A7riii do you have your AF-On button programmed for something other than back-button AF?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

I leave it set to the default AF On

[@asteele10]

Hi thanks for this. I'd like to go back and can't for the life of me figure it out. I want my half shutter to auto focus again. How can I reset the half shutter button so that auto focuses? Thanks!

[@asteele10]

+Austin Steele Scratch that! Found it. Had AF w/ shutter off. My question now is why is my auto focus not getting a focus. I have the A7sII with a canon 24-70 w/ metabones, and its struggling to autofocus. Its trying, but not finding focus. Even in well lit situations. Any ideas here?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

The A7SII has no fast Phase Detect AF but it is able to focus accurately in low light using native e-Mount lenses. Check your adapter firmware is up to date.

[@tengoAireEnLaCabeza]

I have a terrible doubts about whether I should buy the a7s or a7II I love night photography, but take pictures of all kinds. 12 megapixels of A7s seems to me little to normal work How the a7II works at high isos, how about the dynamic range?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

tengoAireEnLaCabeza If you mainly shoot subjects that are moving and you shoot video in low light choose the A7S. It only has 12 megapixels but this is enough to fill a 5K screen or double page spread in a magazine. The A7II is good in low light and had good dynamic range but it not as good as the A7S when the ISO climbs over 6,400. It is also good for video so long as you don't hope to shoot in the low light situations that the A7S can shoot in.

[@mikehydropneumatic2583]

Thanks, very nice video.

[@coporofrito]

Hi there, which button will activate the AEL if I disable the default function of that after this tutorial??

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

Coporo Frito You can set any custom button for AEL. A7 cameras are shipped with one unassigned Custom button. I don't use AEL (I either use manual or exposure compensation) so this is not a big thing for me. If you are an AEL user then you can vary the settings listed in the movie.

[@coporofrito]

Alpha Creative Skills thank you, I hope to watch new videos on the a7MarkII soon in this channel. :)

[@lawrencevaughan5373]

Is it possible to have the switch down (Ael) to enable autofocus (by pushing the middle button, but when switched up to AF/MF is just engages manual without me having to toggle off AF?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

There is no option in the Custom keys settings specifically for Manual Focus - just ones to toggle or hold AF/MF.

[@STRphotography]

you speaking about about not the related settings but forget to show how to set c1 :~( I already know where to change c1 but what is that function called that you can move around the focus area

[@STRphotography]

I get so far to adjust the focus option but the the wheel above AF/MF does not work

[@nazimcontreras5125]

Hi Mark, first of all, thanks for the video! There's no much information about to set the Back button AF an manual AF on Sony Alpha cameras on the Web. I have an A7II and was wondering if you could help me solve a problem I'm having with this topic. I did what you say in the video but I´m having an issue whit this I would like to know if is a camera problem 'cause it's very new though. Let me explain it to you. I'm on AF/MF focusing Manual with peaking activated an everything is fine but once I switcht to AEL I can't move the focus point anymore through my display! Any Idea how could that happen? I'll really appreciate any help here!

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

This will be difficult to solve (being remote) but I could start by asking what Focus Area do you have selected in AF.

[@nazimcontreras5125]

Thanks for your quick answer! Shooting Mode=Single Shot. Focus Area=Flexible Spot. I don't know if that helps but I'm shooting with the standard 50 mm 1.8 from Sony. I also have Face recognition on.

[@ajaj598]

Hi. i have a question about my sony a7 camera. i really like your videos, i hope you can help or direct me to the information. so the a7 is a 24 megapixel camera. is there any way to reduce that in camera, and still shoot in raw? i will being assisting shooting an event and the photographer ask that i shoot in raw around 12 megapixels to make it easier/faster to upload and edit the images.

[@personperson9591]

Not sure if you're still wondering, but RAW will be the full-size image, no idea why a photographer would want less megapixels to work with on the RAW side, that's the entire point of compression, but you could always downsize them via image software (such as a batch process for photoshop), compress them before sending over, or otherwise the camera does have an APS-C crop mode where the files will be smaller (~10mb each I think), but the trade-off is it will act like an APS-C sensor (only using part of the sensor) and thus you might as well just go with a cheaper APS-C camera (unless its a one-time thing, in which case that might work out).

[@ajaj598]

thank you for the help.

[@IanWilkinson]

You could try importing into Lightroom as DNG, then export as a lossy compressed DNG with the image size altered to 4240 px for the Long side.

[@stevesurfaro]

Thank you! So, just to confirm, focus peaking and magnification can be used simultaneously on the original Sony A7?, right?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

Correct

[@VMHOfficiel]

So this is only working for still photography not for filming, right?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

Back-Button AF could be used for either but it is more of a 'stills thing' to find focus prior to the shot. For movies we shoot with either AF-M (Manual) or AF-C (Continuous) so the custom button would not be held down for the duration of the filming.

[@HilleCine]

Very helpful thanks

[@Cycleone11]

How did you get the c1 button to show focus point so.you could scroll the focus?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

Menu > Custom Key (shoot) change C1

[@thejaysehansen]

@@AlphaCreativeSkills yeah, but set to WHAT. I've changed it so many times. Sony's naming is not exactly the clearest. Nothing seems to give the ability to easily move the flexible spot area.

[@WalkingNice]

yes

[@prashantk3287]

What is the job of AF/MF/AEL button of Sony camera before we customised it..? And.. For switching Auto focus to manual focus in this video you didn't changed it in menu button (auto focus to manual). How is that possible.

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

Auto Focus / Manual Focus and Auto Exposure Lock. You can change AF to MF on many lenses.

[@prashantk3287]

@@AlphaCreativeSkills yes but Autofocous to manual focus we will change it in settings menu or on lense button right..? Then why they have given af/mf/AEL button extra

[@EnnTomi1]

used to use BF on all my nikon gear.... and now i am sony with normal focuing...cant find anything wrong...BECAUSE the god damn AEL button is too small i dont even bother to use it.....come on sony...

[@markgaler]

Small cameras sometimes means small buttons. I personally have no problem finding the AEL button.

[@EnnTomi1]

Mark Galer even sony give me a dedicated BF button, i dont think i want to use it anymore. the mirrorless camera body is just different feeling to DSLRs.. I even got used to use mirrorless first day switch to DSLR that i had been using for so long.....weird.

[@ruimorao4911]

Why is a 7 year old camera video still on KZbin ?

[@AlphaCreativeSkills]

For people who own 7 year old cameras - Sony only stopped production of the A7ll and A7Rll recently.