Recommended Sony A6000 Settings

AUGUST 5, 2014 BY NASIM MANSUROV85 COMMENTS

We are continuing our series of recommended settings for cameras and this time w
e have the Sony A6000, an advanced interchangeable lens camera designed for enth
usiasts and professionals. In this article, I want to provide some information o
n what settings I use and shortly explain what some of the important settings do
. Please do keep in mind that while these work for me, it does not mean that eve
ryone else should be shooting with exactly the same settings. The Sony A6000 has
a myriad of settings that can be confusing to understand, so the below informat
ion is provided as a guide for those that struggle and just want to get started
with a basic understanding of these settings.
Sony A6000
Before going into the camera menu, let s first get started on the exterior control
s. The A6000 has a lot of menu options, but there are some things that you can o
nly control with the external controls.
1) Camera Mode Dial and C1
The Sony A6000 has a rather simple and uncluttered top plate. Aside from the hot
shoe and camera s built-in flash, there are only two dials and a single function
button you will be dealing with. The first dial close to the flash unit is the c
amera mode dial. This is where you set the main camera operating mode, whether i
t 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 sh
oot in Aperture Priority mode, since it gives me control over lens aperture and
the camera does the rest of the exposure calculation work, which works really we
ll in most cameras, including the Sony A6000. There are other modes that are spe
cifically used for things like panoramas and movies, but you will rarely ever us
e those. This leaves three modes that I find to be the most useful on the A6000:
Aperture Priority, Manual and Memory Recall. Although the Memory Recall (MR) mo
de is targeted at more advanced photographers that want to store settings for di
fferent situations, I would encourage every A6000 owner to explore this mode, si
nce it can be very useful when changing from one shooting scenario to another. A
ll you have to do is access the camera menu, as shown in the camera menu below,
save your settings in one of the three memory banks and you will be good to go.
If you don t want to go that route yet, I would encourage you to try using the Ape
rture Priority mode instead of the Program Mode, Auto or Scene modes.
Sony A6000 Top
The right dial is a function dial that can be used for different purposes depend
ing on what mode you are in. In Aperture Priority and Manual modes, for example,
the dial is used to adjust lens aperture, while in Shutter Priority mode, it ch
anges the camera shutter speed. Once you set your camera to Aperture Priority mo
de, you just use this right dial to tweak the lens aperture (for shallow or larg
e depth of field).
The C1 function button next to the camera on/off switch / shutter release by def
ault is used for changing the Focus Mode. I personally prefer to keep that funct
ion in the C1 button, but you can change it to one of many other available funct
ions through the camera menu, as explained below.
2) Rear Buttons
The rear of the Sony A6000 is a lot more functional compared to other parts of t
he camera, thanks to a number of different navigation and function buttons. The
A6000 is definitely right-heavy on the back, with almost all buttons located to th

e right of the camera LCD. The Flash button is a physical button that opens up t
he pop-up flash
it is not programmable like other buttons. The Menu button locat
ed right next to it obviously opens up the camera menu that s where you make chang
es to the camera. Here is how the back of the camera looks:
Sony A6000 Back
At the top right side of the camera you will find the AEL button (Auto Exposure
Lock), which is conveniently located where your right thumb would normally be. S
ince I rarely lock my exposure, this is the first button I modified to make it m
ore usable. For normal situations, I use the AEL button for back-button focusing
, which imitates the AF-ON button on DSLR cameras for focusing and recomposing.
To the right of the AEL button, almost on the side of the camera, you will find
a red button that is used for recording videos.
2.1) Fn / Function Button
The Fn (Function) button is a very useful button that you will be using a lot to
make quick changes to the most important camera settings such as ISO, White Bal
ance, Drive and Focus modes, etc. Although you can modify and customize the func
tion menu when the button is pressed, I personally find the default values to wo
rk quite well. Let s go through these real quick:
Drive Mode: I mostly keep it at Single Shooting , but sometimes switch to Self-Time
r when photographing on a tripod to avoid camera vibrations.
ISO: The Auto setting usually works pretty well, but it is not as flexible as the
Auto ISO feature on Nikon and Canon DSLRs. You can set Auto ISO Minimum and Maxi
mum, but there is no place to set a minimum shutter speed or override the defaul
t formula of shutter speed = focal length. I usually leave Minimum ISO at 100, w
hile setting Maximum ISO to 3200 anything above ISO 3200 is too noisy for my tas
te.
Flash Mode: Auto. Don t like using that small pop-up flash!
Metering Mode: Multi, but sometimes I change to Spot metering when a situation c
alls 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 we
ll on the A6000.
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, you can easily move the focus points.
Creative Style: Standard. Don t bother with creative styles, as they are irrelevan
t when shooting in RAW.
Exposure Compensation: 0.0, I prefer to use the rear bottom dial for accessing e
xposure compensation instead.
2.2) Navigation and Other Rear Buttons
The multi-functional navigation dial on the back of the camera is very useful an
d 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 sw
itches 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 is for
making exposure compensation adjustments.
There are two extra buttons beneath the multi-functional navigation dial Playbac
k and C2 / Trash. Playback is obviously to play back images on the LCD and the C
2 / Trash button can be used to delete unwanted images during playback. When the
camera is not in Playback mode, the C2 serves as another programmable function
key. By default, the A6000 opens up the In-Camera Guide. While it could be usefu

l for beginners that want to see some tips, I personally don t use it and change t
he button behavior to a more useful function to zoom in when shooting in manual
focus mode. This way, I can easily and quickly switch to manual focus using the
C1 button on the top of the camera, then use the C2 button for changing zoom lev
els, which greatly increases manual focus accuracy.
3) Camera Menu
In all honesty, I do not find Sony s menu system particularly user-friendly. Altho
ugh the Sony A6000 adopts the newer menu system from the Sony A7 / A7R / A7S cam
eras, it is still a rather cluttered and out of place menu system in my opinion.
Lots of menu options to go through, with different functions thrown under rando
m menus. Even the menu system of Olympus cameras, which I find to be rather comp
lex to navigate through, is more organized in comparison. Let s go through each me
nu setting.
3.1) Shooting Menu 1
Image Size: Default (24M), grayed out on RAW
Aspect Ratio: 3:2
Panorama: Size -> Standard (only visible in Panorama mode)
Panorama: Direction -> Right (from Left to Right, visible in Panorama mode)
Movie File Format: AVCHD (Default)
3.2) Shooting Menu 2
Movie Record Setting: 24p 17M (FH). I rarely ever shoot video, but when I do, I
use the setting that consumes least amount of memory
Drive Mode: Single Shooting
Flash Mode: Auto
Flash Comp: 0.0
Red Eye Reduction: Off
Focus Mode: Automatic AF (AF-A)
3.3) Shooting Menu 3
Focus Area: Flexible Spot
AF Illuminator: Auto
AF Drive Speed: Normal
AF Track Duration: Normal
Exposure Comp: 0.0
Exposure Step: 0.3EV
I found Normal for AF Drive Speed and Track Duration to be optimal for most situat
ions.
3.4) Shooting Menu 4
ISO: ISO AUTO
Metering Mode: Multi
White Balance: Auto
DRO / Auto HDR: Off
Creative Style: Standard
Picture Effect: Off (grayed out in RAW mode)
3.5) Shooting Menu 5
Zoom: Grayed out in RAW
Focus Magnifier: Used for zooming in while focusing manually. Grayed out in AF m
ode, must be in MF to work. I usually have this on the back button AEL, as expla
ined above.
Long Exposure NR: Off
High ISO NR: Off (grayed out in RAW mode)
Lock-on AF: Off, but can be a good option when something needs to be actively tr

acked
Smile / Face Detect.: On (Regist. Faces)
racking faces
3.6) Shooting Menu 6

works pretty well for registering and t

Soft Skin Effect: Off (disabled in RAW)

Auto Obj. Framing: Off (disabled in RAW)
Scene Selection: grayed out in Aperture Priority, but will show a bunch of scene
s when in Scene mode
Movie: Grayed out in Aperture Priority mode. When in movie mode, I usually pick
Aperture Priority as well
SteadyShot: On keep this turned on. It is for image stabilization, but only work
s with lenses that have it
Color Space: Although color space does not matter for RAW files, I use AdobeRGB
because it gives a slightly more accurate histogram to determine the correct exp
osure (since the camera shows histogram based on camera-rendered JPEG image, eve
n if you shoot exclusively in RAW).
3.7) Shooting Menu 7
Auto Slow Shut.: On
Audio Recording: On
Wind Noise Reduct.: Off
Shooting Tip List: has some good info for beginners
Memory recall: only available when when MR mode is selected on the top of the ca
mera. Allows picking one of the three presets.
Memory: going here will save all the current settings in one of the selected pre
sets. I usually toggle between two presets
for Landscapes and People. For landsc
apes, I set camera mode to Aperture Priority, Manual Focus, ISO to 100, turn Aut
o ISO off and turn off other irrelevant settings such as face registration. For
portraits, I set the camera to AF-A focus mode, ISO to Auto, and tweak other rel
evant settings.
3.8) Wheel 1
Zebra: Off
MF Assist: On
a great feature that automatically zooms in when you move the focu
s ring in manual focus mode.
Focus Magnif. Time: 5 Sec, I like to keep it a bit longer
Grid Line: Rule of 3rds Grid
Auto Review: 2 Sec
DISP Button:
Monitor: No Disp Info and For viewfinder checked. Display All Info is too clutte
red and Graphic Display occupies too much of the screen.
Finder: No Disp. Info, Histogram
3.9) Wheel 2
Peaking Level: Mid focus peaking only works in MF mode.
Peaking Color: Red
Exposure Set. Guide: On
Live View Display: Setting Effect ON
Disp. cont. AF area: On
3.10) Wheel 3
Pre-AF: Off
Zoom Setting: Optical zoom only (grayed out in RAW)
Eye-Start AF: Off
do not enable this, as it could drain the battery. This settin
g will automatically detect if you are using the viewfinder and try to focus. An
d if you put it against your body, the camera will indefinitely try to acquire f
ocus.
FINDER/MONITOR: Auto will automatically switch between viewfinder and LCD.
Release w/o Lens: Disable
do not allow firing the camera without a lens.

AF w/ shutter: On
if you want to focus and recompose, set it to Off and use the
AEL button on the back for AF On as explained earlier
3.11) Wheel 4
AEL w/ shutter: Auto
e-Front Curtain Shutter: On
S. Auto Img. Extract.: grayed out in Aperture Priorty. Only works in Superior Au
to mode
Exp.comp.set: Ambient&flash
Bracket order: 0-+
3.12) Wheel 5
Face Registration: used for registering faces.
AF Micro Adj: Off, don t do this unless you want to calibrate a lens
Lens Comp.:
Shading Comp.: Off
Chro. Aber. Comp.: Off
Distortion Comp.: Off
3.13) Wheel 6
Function Menu Set.: Function Upper and Lower leave these at default
Custom Key Settings:
AEL Button: AF On, for focusing and recomposing
Custom Button 1: Focus Mode
Custom Button 2: Focus Magnifier. Once you do this, you will be able to use the
C2 button in MF mode to zoom in during MF. Pressing the center button on the dia
l will allow to zoom in up to 11.7x (pixel level). The button won t do anything in
AF mode.
Center Button: Standard
Left Button: Drive Mode
Right Button: ISO
Down Button: Exposure Comp.
Dial/Wheel Setup: SS, F/no.
Dial/Wheel Ev Comp: Wheel
since the lens aperture is controlled with the dial, I
like to use the rear dial for exposure compensation.
MOVIE Button: Always will record movie any time without going into Movie Mode
Dial / Wheel Lock: Unlock
3.14) Connection 1 and 2
I don t care for or use these. Might be best to keep
ry life.

Airplane Mode: On

to save batte

3.15) Applications
I don t usually use any applications, but you can use things like Smart Remote to
remotely control the camera.
3.16) Playback 1 and 2
Display Rotation: Off
I don t like it when the camera flips verticals
Other settings are used for accessing specific playback functions
3.17) Setup 1
Monitor Brightness: Manual
Viewfinder Brightness: Auto works pretty well
Finder Color Temp.: 0
Volume Settings: 7
Audio signals: Off I always turn these off
3.18) Setup 2

Tile Menu: Off

you don t want extra icons to access the menu
Mode Dial Guide: Off won t display the guide when changing camera modes
Delete confirm: Delete first
don t want to scroll when I need to delete something
Pwr Save Start Time: 1 Min usually works pretty well
3.19) Setup 3
Cleaning Mode: used for cleaning the camera sensor
Demo Mode: grayed out
Remote Ctrl: On (for remote control)
HDMI Resolution: Auto
CTRL FOR HDMI: On
HDMI Info. Display: On
3.20) Setup 4
USB Connection: Auto
USB LUN Setting: Multi
Language: English
Date/Time Setup: usually turn Daylight Savings On
Area Setting: For setting the timezone
3.21) Setup 5
Format: for formatting SD cards
File Number: Series
Select REC Folder: skip this
New Folder: Skip this
Folder Name: Standard Form
Recover Image DB: Skip this
3.22) Setup 6
Display Media Info.: Shows what s on the card
Version: Display firmware version
Setting reset: will reset the camera settings or reinitialize the camera
I hope you found this article useful. Once again, these are settings that work f
or me and they might not necessarily suit your needs. It is best that you explor
e your camera and learn about each setting as much as you can in order to take a
dvantage of all the available features and customizations!