Recommended Sony A7R III Settings

Nasim Mansurov

Sony’s third generation mirrorless camera, the A7R III, has been quite a popular choice ever since it came out among photographers who use the Sony camera system. The Sony A7-series cameras have a myriad of different settings and buttons, which can be confusing to understand, especially for first-time Sony users. So, in this article, we will explain the complex menu system on the A7R III and provide our recommendations for every camera setting. Although these are just our personal recommendations – and, yes, there are other good ways to set the Sony A7R III – the settings below are a great place to start if you are trying to get a hang of this camera.

Before going into the camera menu, let’s first get started with the exterior controls. The Sony A7R III has a lot of menu options, but there are some things that you can only control with the external controls.

1) Camera Mode Dial, C1 and C2

Similar to the Sony A7R II, the Sony A7R III has a rather simple layout on the top plate. Aside from the hot shoe, there are only two dials and two function buttons you will be dealing with.

The first dial close to the flash unit is the camera mode dial. This is where you set the main camera operating mode, whether it is Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual or one of the Auto or Scene modes. As explained in my understanding camera modes article, I usually shoot in Aperture Priority mode, since it gives me control over the most important camera setting – aperture. The camera does the rest of the exposure calculation work quite well.

This leaves three modes that I find to be the most useful on the A7R III: Aperture Priority, Manual and Memory Recall. Although the Memory Recall (MR) mode is targeted at more advanced photographers that want to store settings for different situations, I would encourage every A7R III owner to explore this mode, since it can be very useful when changing from one shooting scenario to another. All you have to do is access “Shooting Menu 7” in the camera menu, then save your settings in one of the three memory banks.

If you don’t want to go that route yet, I would encourage you to try using the Aperture Priority mode instead of the Program Mode, Auto or Scene modes.

The second dial is the exposure compensation dial. This one is used in situations when the camera does not yield a proper exposure in modes like Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority or Program and you want to adjust the exposure manually by dialing either a negative (darken) or a positive (brighten) value. You can go from -3 to +3 on the dial. Since this dial does not have a lock feature like the camera mode dial, you might sometimes end up with overexposed or underexposed shots, so don’t forget to take a look at the dial every once in a while, particularly when you take the camera out of your camera bag.

Similar to Nikon DSLRs, the Sony A7R III is equipped with two function dials on the front and the rear of the camera. While these two dials are primarily used for adjusting the exposure during shooting, their functionality can change depending on what you are doing. For example, when you are in either Manual modes, the rear dial will adjust the shutter speed, while the front dial will adjust the aperture (default behavior, which you can flip through the menu). In Aperture Priority mode, both dials will adjust the aperture, whereas in Shutter Priority mode the functionality of both will shift to adjusting the shutter speed. When playing back images, both dials can be used for moving between images – you get the idea.

The C1 and C2 function buttons next to the camera mode dial by default are used for setting White Balance (C1) and Focus Area (C2). Personally, I like keeping C2 for changing the focus area, but I change C1 to “Focus Magnifier”, so that I can instantly zoom in to the scene and verify focus accuracy. This way, I also subconsciously know that the two custom buttons on the camera are used for focus-related operations. Further down in this article, I will walk you through the process of customizing the different custom buttons.

2) Rear Buttons

The rear of the Sony A7R III is a lot more functional compared to other parts of the camera, thanks to a number of different navigation and function buttons. Just like other Sony mirrorless cameras, the A7R III is definitely “right-heavy” on the back, with most of the buttons located to the right of the camera LCD. The C3 button located to the left of the electronic viewfinder is programmable just like the other custom buttons and by default is set to change camera’s focus mode (AF-S, AF-A, AF-C, DMF and MF). I keep it at its default value and program the three main custom buttons to focus-related tasks. The Menu button right next to the C3 button is obviously used for accessing the camera menu – that’s where you make changes to the camera. Here is how the back of the camera looks:

Sony moved the video recording button from the side of the camera right next to the viewfinder, which is a welcome change, as it makes it easier to access the button when hand-holding the camera. But the biggest, and the most welcome two additions on the A7R III that weren’t there on previous generation Sony A7-series cameras are the dedicated AF-ON and AEL buttons that are used for back-button focusing (useful when using the focus and recompose technique) and for locking the exposure. It is so much nicer to have these buttons instead of the AF/MF and AEL switch that Sony has been previously using! Anyway, I personally always set my cameras for back-button focusing and I will walk you through the process below.

Another excellent addition is a dedicated joystick that can be used for quickly moving the camera’s focus point. This has been one of my biggest frustrations with Sony mirrorless cameras, since there was no quick way to move focus points before. This one button solves the problem!

2.1) Fn / Function Button

The Fn (Function) button is a very useful button that you will be using to make quick changes to the most important camera settings such as ISO, White Balance, Drive and Focus modes, etc. Although you can modify and customize the function menu when the button is pressed, I rarely touch the default values. Let’s go through these real quick:

Drive Mode: I mostly keep it at “Single Shooting”, but sometimes switch to Self-Timer when photographing on a tripod to avoid camera vibrations.
Focus Mode: The default “AF-A” (Automatic AF, which is a combination of AF-S and AF-C modes) should work well for most scenarios, but if you need to switch to continuous or manual focus, this is where you do it from.
Focus Area: Flexible Spot: M. This mode works great for selective focusing. Unfortunately, by default, there is no quick way to change the focus point. But don’t worry, there is a way to set the center button of the rear rotary dial (the one below the “Fn” button), so that when you press the button, you will be able to easily move the focus points. We will set this up later on in the camera menu
Exposure Compensation: 0.0, I prefer to use the rear bottom button on the rotary dial for accessing exposure compensation instead.
ISO: Set this one to “ISO Auto”, so that the camera chooses ISO automatically for you. The “ISO Auto” feature works really well and has all the features of modern Auto ISO implementations found on Nikon and Canon DSLRs. I usually leave Minimum ISO at 100, while setting Maximum ISO to 3200 – anything above ISO 3200 is too noisy for my taste. While you can only see the minimum and maximum ISO options within this setting, you can also navigate to the camera menu and set the minimum shutter speed in ISO Auto mode (ISO AUTO Min. SS option in Exposure1 sub-menu). By default, the camera will set the shutter speed using the reciprocal rule, but you can change values from “Slower” all the way to “Faster”, as well as being able to set a particular shutter speed you want to stick to.
Metering Mode: Multi, but sometimes I change to Spot metering when a situation calls for it (see my article on metering modes)
Flash Mode: Auto
Flash Comp: 0.0
White Balance: AWB (Auto White Balance)
Creative Style: Standard. Don’t bother with creative styles, as they are irrelevant when shooting in RAW.
Prioritize Rec. Media: Slot 1. Since the A7R III is equipped with two SD card slots, you can choose which SD card to write to by default.
Shoot Mode: Aperture Priority (changes depending on your shooting mode)

2.2) Navigation and Other Rear Buttons

The multi-functional navigation dial on the back of the camera is very useful and can be used to navigate through the camera menu, make quick exposure changes, as well as access specific functions by pressing each of the four corners. “DISP” switches between different views on the camera LCD; “ISO” allows changing camera ISO; the left side is used to access camera drive mode, while the bottom side can be configured for accessing other functions.

There are two extra buttons beneath the multi-functional navigation dial – Playback and C4 / Trash. Playback is obviously to play back images on the LCD and the C4 / Trash button can be used to delete unwanted images during playback. When the camera is not in Playback mode, the C4 serves as another programmable function button. I ended up setting my C4 button to “ISO AUTO Min. SS” to quickly switch between different shutter speeds when using Auto ISO.

3) Camera Menu

Unfortunately, Sony’s menu system is a big mess and it is far from being user-friendly or intuitive, even in the third iteration. Sony tried to organize the menu and it made it even worse in my opinion, with an awfully high number of menus and sub-menus to access. As you will see below, there are lots of menu options to go through! Even the menu system of Olympus cameras, which I find to be rather complex to navigate through, is more organized in comparison. Let’s go through each menu setting.

3.1) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 1, Quality/Image Size1)

3.2) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 2, Quality/Image Size2)

3.3) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 3, Shoot Mode/Drive1)

3.4) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 4, Shoot Mode/Drive2)

3.5) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 5, AF1)

3.6) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 6, AF2)

3.7) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 7, AF3)

3.8) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 8, AF4)

3.9) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 9, Exposure1)

3.10) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 10, Exposure2)

3.11) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 11, Flash)

3.12) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 12, Color/WB/Img.Processing1)

3.13) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 13, Focus Assist)

3.14) Shooting Menu 1 (Page 14, Shooting Assist)

3.15) Shooting Menu 2 (Page 1, Movie1)

3.16) Shooting Menu 2 (Page 2, Movie2)

3.17) Shooting Menu 2 (Page 3, Movie3)

3.18) Shooting Menu 2 (Page 4, Shutter/SteadyShot)

3.19) Shooting Menu 2 (Page 5, Zoom)

3.20) Shooting Menu 2 (Page 6, Display/Auto Review1)

3.21) Shooting Menu 2 (Page 7, Display/Auto Review2)

3.22) Shooting Menu 2 (Page 8, Custom Operation1)

3.23) Shooting Menu 2 (Page 9, Custom Operation2)

3.24) Network1 and 2

I don’t care for or use these, but if you are planning to transfer images to your smartphone from the camera, this is where you would do it all from. If you are not planning to do that, it might be best to keep “Airplane Mode: On” to save battery life.

3.25) Playback1, 2 and 3

3.26) Setup1

3.27) Setup2

3.28) Setup3

3.29) Setup4

3.30) Setup5

3.31) Setup6

3.32) Setup7

3.33) My Menu Setting

If you have certain menu options that you access often, this is where you can add those from.

I hope you found this article useful. Please note that the above settings work for me and they might not necessarily suit your needs. It is best that you explore your camera and learn about each setting as much as you can in order to take advantage of all the available features and customizations!

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