Recommended Sony A7R II Settings

Nasim Mansurov

Now that we have finished our review of the Sony A7R II mirrorless camera, we thought it would be a good idea to provide our recommended settings for this camera. 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 go through every camera setting on the A7R II, including how to set the entire menu optimally. Note that these are just our personal recommendations, but they are a good 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 II 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 A7 II, the Sony A7R II 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 II: 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 II 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 II 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.

I personally use the C1 and C2 function buttons on the top of the camera to control focus behavior. I keep my C2 to “Focus Mode”, which allows me to quickly change from one focus mode to another, say from Single-shot AF (AF-S) to Manual Focus (MF) and I set my C1 to “Focus Magnifier” (instead of the default “White Balance”), as I tend to zoom in and focus on my subjects quite a bit when shooting in manual focus mode. You can set these to anything you want from the menu system, as explained below.

2) Rear Buttons

The rear of the Sony A7R II 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 II is definitely “right-heavy” on the back, with almost all buttons located to the right of the camera LCD. The Menu button located to the left of the electronic viewfinder obviously opens up the camera menu – that’s where you make changes to the camera. Here is how the back of the camera looks:

At the top of the camera back, to the left of the rear dial, you will find the third custom function button C3. Just like the top C1 and C2 custom function buttons, this one is easily programmable through the menu system. I set mine to “Drive Mode”, so that I can quickly switch between the different drive modes like Single Shooting and Self-Timer (the two I use the most).

Lower down you will find the AF/MF and AEL switch, which has a button in the middle. I set mine to give me two functions – when the switch is at the “AEL” position, the button locks down my exposure (useful for capturing hand-held panoramas, etc), and when the switch is at the “AF/MF” position, the button is used for back-button focusing (useful when focusing and recomposing). Instructions on how to activate back-button focusing are provided further down below.

To the right of this switch, almost on the side of the camera, you will find the red video recording / movie button. I have mine engage only when the camera is in the movie mode, so that I do not accidentally start recording video.

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.
ISO: The “Auto” setting usually works pretty well. You can not only set Auto ISO Minimum and Maximum, but also the minimum shutter speed in relation to focal length (“ISO AUTO Min. SS” setting). I usually leave Minimum ISO at 100, while setting Maximum ISO to 3200 – anything above ISO 3200 is too noisy for my taste. I keep “ISO AUTO Min. SS” at “Standard”, which works for my hand-holding. If your hands are shaky, try “Fast”, which should double the minimum shutter speed in Auto ISO mode.
Flash Mode: Fill Flash. Doesn’t matter for most people, since the A7R II does not come with a built-in flash.
Metering Mode: Multi, but sometimes I change to Spot metering when a situation calls for it (see my article on metering modes)
Flash Comp: 0.0
White Balance: AWB (Auto White Balance)
Focus Mode: AF-A, which is a combination of AF-S and AF-C modes, works pretty well for most situations on the A7R II. I also heavily use MF when focusing manually.
DRO / Auto HDR: Off
Focus Area: Flexible Spot: M. This mode works great for selective focusing. Once you press the center button on the dial (configured below), you can easily move the focus points.
Creative Style: Standard. Don’t bother with creative styles, as they are irrelevant when shooting in RAW.
Exposure Compensation: 0.0, I prefer to use the top dial for adjusting exposure compensation instead.

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. While I prefer to use the C4 button as a “Focus Magnifier” I ended up setting the C4 button to “Metering Mode” (to toggle between the different metering modes). Unfortunately, Sony currently has a bug in its firmware – if you set “Focus Magnifier” to other buttons, you can press the buttons several times for zooming in during MF operation – the C4 / Trash button does nothing when pressing it several times.

3) Camera Menu

Unfortunately, Sony’s menu system is a big mess and it is far from being user-friendly or intuitive. Lots of menu options to go through, with different functions thrown under random menus. 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

3.2) Shooting Menu 2

3.3) Shooting Menu 3

3.4) Shooting Menu 4

I found “Normal” for AF Drive Speed and Track Duration to be optimal for most situations.

3.5) Shooting Menu 5

3.6) Shooting Menu 6

3.7) Shooting Menu 7

3.8) Shooting Menu 8

3.9) Shooting Menu 9

3.10) Wheel 1

3.11) Wheel 2

3.12) Wheel 3

3.13) Wheel 4

3.14) Wheel 5

3.15) Wheel 6

3.16) Wheel 7

3.17) Wheel 8

3.18) Connection 1 and 2

I rarely ever use these, but sometimes it is useful to send pictures to my phone – this is where it is done. If you don’t do any of that, it is best to keep “Airplane Mode: On” to save battery life.

3.19) Applications

I don’t usually use any applications, but you can use things like Smart Remote to remotely control the camera.

3.20) Playback 1 and 2

3.21) Setup 1

3.21) Setup 2

3.22) Setup 3

3.23) Setup 4

3.24) Setup 5

3.25) Setup 6

4) Back-Button Focusing / Focus and Recompose

If you would like to activate back-button focusing for the focus and recompose technique, there are two settings you will have to check. First, you want to pick one of the buttons to do the focusing. On my A7R II, I picked the AF/MF / AEL button for that, but you can use any other programmable button. Once you set your button of choice to “AF-On” in the “Custom Key Settings” sub-menu (found in Wheel 7), the next step is to remove focusing from the shutter release half-press. Open up the camera menu, navigate to Wheel 5, then set “AF w/ shutter” to “Off”. Once you do that, you will no longer be able to focus by half-pressing the shutter release – focus will only be possible to activate through your chosen custom function button. In my case, I would have to press and hold the AF/MF / AEL button when the switch is set to AF/MF.

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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