A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

Hope this might be of some interest to anyone setting up a Sony A6300. With a few exceptions the set up will also apply to the A6000. These are, of course personal preferences for the type of photographic work I do, mainly candid/street, landscape, a few portraits (mainly of Grandchildren), a few shots of an active Border Collie and very occasionally copying artwork. Most photographs are taken in Aperture or Shutter priority mode. Rarely do I use Manual. The lens on my A6300 for 95% of the time is the Sony Zeiss 16 – 70mm f4, but I also have the 50mm f1.8, and the 55 – 210mm f4.5 – 6.3 (all Sony APS-C, E mount lenses). Most of my photographs I aim to print. Personal work usually to A3. I never use the built in flash or the camera for video.

The menu index name/number is given after each setting (with the equivalent A6000 bracketed if different from the A6300). The notes give some thoughts on the reasons for my choices.

Quality - set to Raw & jpeg. Camera 1.
Can sort and print jpegs quickly, but if I wish to get more out of a shot can (and most times do) use the RAW file.

Exposure Compensation – -0.3. Camera 4 (3)
As I use RAW, exposure can be changed slightly at the conversion stage without loss of quality. The reduction of exposure at the taking stage, by one third of a stop can help reduce potentially burnt out highlights.

Auto Review – Off. Custom 2 (1)
Easy to miss the next shot during the time it takes for the image just taken to appear and disappear from the screen.

Audio signals – Off Set up 1
Don’t want the bleeps to bring attention when taking the photograph.

AF Illuminator – Off. Camera 3
This sends out a beam of light to aid focus in poor lighting conditions, again bringing attention to the fact that photographs are being taken. Unless photographing black cats in coal cellars the camera seems to do a pretty good job without resorting to the Illuminator.

Monitor Brightness - +1. Set up 1
I use the camera mostly at eye level but when using the screen (usually for its tilting facility), this helps a little on a bright day.

ISO Auto – 100 to 6400. Camera 4
6400 ISO might seem rather high but the camera handles noise quite well and the atmosphere of photographs taken in poor lighting conditions is sometimes not adversely affected by some noise (as with grain in the days of film).

ISO Auto Min SS – 1/125 Camera 4 (Not available on the A6000)
1/125 sec. is OK for my 16 to 70mm and 50mm lenses, but care must be taken when using the 55 to 210mm.

Custom Key settings
C1 Silent shooting (not available on A6000)
I would have liked to have Silent shooting turned on all the time but under certain artificial lighting conditions striping can occur on the image so I have set it to this custom key to have the choice, on or off.

I have a RMT-DSLR Wireless remote so I would also like to keep the Remote Control menu function on all the time but this runs the battery down. Unfortunately the camera will not allow this option to be assigned to a Custom Key or the Function Menu, so have to resort to the main (147 item) menu.

C2 Monitor Brightness
The Monitor Brightness can be turned up even more than my preferred +1 setting (above) to a Sunny Weather setting. Not good for evaluating the tonal range but at least I can get a better idea of the composition.

AEL Eye AF
Eye Auto Focus can only be used when assigned to a custom button as this must be held down whilst the shutter release is pressed. The AEL button has been chosen because the thumb natural rests around that area when taking a photograph.

Function Menu
Upper 1 Drive Mode (This is the default setting)
Upper 2 Focus Mode
Upper 3 Focus Area
I have grouped these three together as they are sometimes changed at the same time. For most things I do they are set on default, i.e. Drive mode – Single Shooting, Focus Mode – Automatic AF and Focus Area – Wide. If, when occasionally I photograph a fast moving subject they are changed to Continuous Shooting and Continuous AF respectively and the Focus Area usually left on Wide but occasionally set on Flexible Spot.

All the rest of the settings are left on default. I have found it impossible to find a list of default settings for the A6300 or A6000. If you want to set your camera to default go to Set up – 7, (6 for A6000) ‘Setting Reset’ then ‘Initialize’. ‘Camera Settings Reset’ will only reset the Camera Menu. Having chosen Initialize you will however be back to factory condition and have to reset time and date.

Most of my personal settings have little or no relationship to the quality of the image, as the camera does an excellent job sorting out exposure, white balance etc. and using RAW gives room for adjustment with little or no loss of quality.

I would be very interested to know how your settings on the A6300/6000 differ from mine and why you prefer them.

tinplater Loc: Scottsdale, AZ

For what it is worth (since this is a very personal, subjective topic), I find the use of memory recall of real use, essentially allowing programming for three different cameras available at a moments notice. I set up for 1. routine use aperture priority 2. sports, active subjects, birds and 3. portrait.
Also I find back button focus very convenient, once you get used to it.

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

I've had an A6000 for roughly a year now and I find your comments very interesting.

When I first learned about the memory feature I thought it would be very useful - as apparently you have found it to be. But in practice I find that it does not save and restore all of the options but only a select few of them - and I can't seem to remember which are managed and which are not. So when I set up one of the memory registers, say for when I have the camera set on a tripod, I discover that only some of the settings that are important to me are saved in that register - I still have to remember which are not and make sure I manage them individually. As a practical matter, because of this I just don't use the registers.

tinplater Loc: Scottsdale, AZ

I still use the camera primarily in aperture priority mode with selected focus parameters, iso, etc. But when I want to quickly switch to something moving for example, I just dial to MR and fire away. Works for me. All of the parameters are displayed when MR is selected, and many, of course, can be viewed with the FN button in case you want to check what you are actually using.

Algernon Loc: Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Thanks for posting. I am upgrading soon from my NEX-6 to an A6300. I am looking forward to not only the improved performance, but also the increased functionality and flexibility.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

In your informed opinion, what do you regard as the principal strengths of the 6300 over the 6000. Aside from the enhanced number of phase detection and contrast detection points for focusing.

MontanaTrace

Just bought the A6000. I will study your report of experience. It's generous of you to take the time to share.

Reinaldokool Loc: San Rafael, CA

Pretty similar on mine, except that I use the center button to do face recognition options. I also use BBF. I put that on the AEL. It is pretty easy to set up.

Another comment: I bought the David Busch book on the a6300 and have found it mostly useless. He spends half the book, far too much attention, on the scene modes in jpeg. There are very few hints for other options. I would have liked to read more hints about combinations of setting that would enhance my use of RAW.

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

I started in the profession of photography in 1957 and can count the number of personal (film) cameras I have had, from that date, on one hand, so I thought long and hard before deciding to upgrade from A6000 to A6300, and to be honest maybe it was a matter of paying quite a bit more for not much advantage. But for quite a lot of my working life I used medium format TLR Rollei’s where there was no delay between pressing the button and the shutter being activated. This I found a problem when changing to digital, and although the A6000 was good the A6300 is even better. Also Rollei TLR’s made little noise when the shutter was released (helping in the type of personal work I used them for). The A6300 can be used completely silent. Other improvements are better build quality, and I believe that the few prints I have made from its files are slightly better quality, probably with the help of the updated sensor design.

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

Ive never tried BBF Might give it a go.
The David Busch book is not yet available in this country. Thanks for the warning.

A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

Thanks. It also helped me to clarify my reasons for the settings and as said they are for my personal type of photography, but hope they might be of use. Also I could get some ideas to try out from responses.

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

I stumbled on Colby Brown Photography who is thinking about mini video tutorials about Sonys. Check out:

http://www.colbybrownphotography.com/

One of the problems with both the Busch and Friedman books is there is too much Busch and Friedman personal stuff in them. When I got the Friedman 6000 book I thought it was much too big to lug around. Also the index is not all that helpful for quick look up. The iBook version was free, thankfully. The Busch 6000 was only iBook which was fine as the iPad is physically smaller than a printed version would be.

BTW, Sony offered a FREE eBook manual version but scrolling forward and backward is a pain. There are internal forward links but no 'back to where you were' option, that I found anyway.

CooledgeR Loc: Sunny (Hot) Arizona

John_F Loc: Minneapolis, MN

Once, way back when; I wrote little 'cheats' on 3 by 5 note cards and stuffed them the camera tote bag. Low tech, but no batteries needed.