A.J.R. Loc: Devon, UK

I posted this a few years back but it might be of interest to you.
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.

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

Phil, Check out Steve Perry's "Backcountrygallery" website, he has some excellent information on this subject, and everything else too!! He takes you through the various things one can do, button by button, step by step, and explains all very well. Check it out, you will be glad you did. https://backcountrygallery.com/ His writing style and depth of knowledge are wonderful resources. Which camera you have would matter (I think) he is more Nikon centric, but a lot may transfer to any camera with multifunction buttons.
My $.02 mike

NCMtnMan Loc: N. Fork New River, Ashe Co., NC

Google Steve Perry photographer and go to hus website. He has some very good articles on back button focus as well as very good ebooks on Nikon. He's a member of UHH as well.

philklim Loc: Harrisonburg, Va.

Thank you for your reply
Phil

philklim Loc: Harrisonburg, Va.

Thank you
Phil

philklim Loc: Harrisonburg, Va.

Thank you
Phil

philklim Loc: Harrisonburg, Va.

Thank you
Phil

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Never fails..... Some one asks a question, and gets scolded.... That's what your reply looks like, even if you did not mean it that way......

Maybe the op has been shooting in auto mode, and is now comfortable enough to start expanding...... Yes, he could have searched the internet.

Noob...a person who is inexperienced in a particular sphere or activity, especially computing or the use of the Internet.

So, your choice of words is correct, that's why he asked.....

frankraney Loc: Clovis, Ca.

Phil, glad you are trying to expand your knowledge and skills......for me, I have found BBF (back button focus) to be the most useful if reassignment. I reassigned the AE-L to focus, and removed the shutter from focus....I did it because I have a hard time holding shutter half way......BBF has a lot of advantages.

Here is just one article on this. https://www.creativelive.com/blog/back-button-focus-use-and-setup/

philklim Loc: Harrisonburg, Va.

Frank, Thank you for your response. I felt that I was being judged and scolded. I like this forum very much and learn a lot from it.
I have learned “ mostly the hard way”
that often it is better to keep one’s mouth shut and let others think you are a fool than to open it and confirm it. ( not my original statement)
Thanks Phil

GrandmaG Loc: Flat Rock, MI

I have the same dilemma and I can tell you that I’ve changed the function of those buttons MANY times.

My current set up is this for stills:

C1: APS-C/full frame toggle
C2: Focus Area
C3: Live view settings on/off toggle
C4: Silent shooting
Control wheel: ISO
Right button: White Balance
Down button: Metering mode
Center control wheel: toggles alternate selected focus
AF ON: Eye AF
AEL: AEL Toggle
Multi function center: Focus standard (to center the focus point)

I mostly shoot Manual with single point focus-medium, auto WB, multi-meter, and auto ISO. This camera is used for family events and vacations. I really wanted to use BBF like on my Nikon, but I tried every button for it and didn’t feel comfortable with ANY of them. Also, once you unhook AF from the shutter, it remains that way even in the auto mode, making it harder for others to take an in-focus picture.

Decide what features you want quick access to and set your buttons accordingly. Put the rest in My Menu or in the Function Menu. Hope this helps.

philklim Loc: Harrisonburg, Va.

Thank you your help
Phil

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

My primary cameras have three "user customizable" options (C1, C2, C3). I don't use them. To me, they just over-complicate things and I like to keep it simple.

To me, those are similar to the "Scene Modes", such as "sports", "scenic", "portrait", etc. These automate far more than just exposure... limiting AF modes, only allowing certain file types to be saved, don't allow Exposure Compensation or Custom White Balance, and many more things that I want to choose for myself. In fact, two of the three cameras I use most of the time don't even have "Scene Modes". The third has them, but not on a dial.... "buried" down in the menu.

I shoot a lot of sports, followed by some wildlife, a few portraits and macro... very few landscapes.

The only button or dial assignments I use:

1. Much of the time I have "Back Button Focusing" set up. On my cameras, that means "unassigning" AF from the shutter release button, so that only the AF-On button on the rear of the camera starts and runs AF. This allows me to leave my camera in continuous focus mode all the time, ready to shoot the vast majority of both stationary and moving subjects without having to pause to reset anything.

For the occasional landscape or macro shot I might turn off AF and use manual focus or switch to Live View, instead. I also prefer manual focus for street photography. I did a lot of that in the past, but not much recently. (I usually used lens distance scales to pre-focus manually, for very fast shots.)

2. I also have my cameras' "Set" button assigned to "call up" the last image I shot. This way I can use either of my thumbs to recall an image for review, to check focus, composition and the histogram for exposure. (I don't let the camera auto review every image... the default setup. That isn't necessary, wastes a lot of battery power and can be distracting.)

3. Also, my cameras have a "joystick" that's used to select AF point(s). I've got that set up so that when it's "clicked" it returns to the center AF point(s).

Besides those three things, most of my other settings aren't reassigments. They're selections and fine tuning for various exposure, white balance, AF-related, frame rate, Exposure Compensation, etc. features... as needed for different shooting conditions.

If I were to be using a specialized technique such as Focus Stacking or HDR, or if I were shooting video with my DSLRs, I might be more inclined to set up one or more of those C1, C2, C3 options.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

I don't share your view on the value of the custom function buttons. Here's why - they save a lot of time in some situations, and help insure that the right settings are selected in others. For example, for birds in flight, C1 sets my Canon 7dII's shutter speed to 1/1600, sets camera to shutter priority, sets ISO to 400, sets AF operation to AI Servo, sets drive mode to high speed continuous. For HDR shooting, C2 sets camera to aperture priority, sets aperture to f/16, sets ISO to 100, sets bracketing to five shots, 1 stop intervals, sets self-timer to 2 seconds, sets AF to one shot. Now, under some situations, these settings might need to be changed, but they're a good starting point. Particularly for BIF, I can Click to C1 and start shooting. The bird might be disinclined to wait for me to fiddle with a lot of settings. Also, the custom function settings allow me to shoot in raw, which I can't do with scene modes.

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

In just trying to learn, don't start screwing around with button reassignments. You have enough to learn without doing all the custom stuff.

Learn about exposure, focusing, composition and the rest of the basics. Down the road you can experiment.