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This is the best setup roundup I've come accross to this day! I've been a Sony user for 6 years now and even though I know and use most of the tweaks, you brought some new light to them. The ability to use focus peaking and 5.9x zoom in AF-C is AWSOME! Can't find words to express my gratitude!

I've been using your setup of the A7R!V for several months now and love it. I recently purchased the A7RV and hoping you will do a setup video similar to the one you did for the A7RIV. Thanks so much for the work you do!

Hey Mark! I can not thank you enough. This has been night and day for me. After watching this video about 4 times through out the last 2 weeks. I upgraded from the a7r3 to the a7r4. I followed your settings exactly with some slight changes to the custom dial functions. I went back out to a local park that's notorious for having Eastern Bluebirds and Thrashers. I've been trying for weeks to try to photograph one as Bluebirds are fidgety and fast. With your help...I managed to photograph quite a few...and their TACK sharp! Focus Peaking, Crop sensor "spotting scope", back button focusing, registered AF area - they all played together seamlessly. I'm combing through the photos now and I'm really happy and, again, super thankful you made this video!!

Your quote that the A7RIV “is brutal in its honesty” in that it will reveal poor technique, poor glass and poor aperture and shutter choices .. is so true .. when I stepped up from the A7RIII, I had to force myself to become a better photographer as this camera will not hide your mistakes or protect you from yourself.. but I am happy the camera is challenging me to be better.. it’s a sniper rifle.. not a machine gun

I haven’t even finished the video yet but this may be one of the most informative and intuitive videos for all the things that I need. I’m super appreciative 🙏🏾

Thank you so much for the time and effort on this guide! You're not kidding when you say this camera has a whole lot of options and this really helps focus in on the main points important for wildlife. I've played around with a few variations based on your recommendations but have found myself settling on a nearly identical setup as in this video. The written guide is also excellent for quick reference. Fantastic work!

I’m only about halfway through, but this has been so helpful in setting up my week old A9. Your breakdown and step by step guide is so easy to follow. Thanks for all your wonderful videos!!

I went through this vid 2 years ago when I first bought the A7r IV. I havent used it much recently and needed your wisdom for a full reset and refresh, some settings were not what I thought they should be. This is still an outstanding and very useful piece of work. Thanks so much!

You are a gift from the universe. My camera was lost/stolen for the last few weeks. Opted to purchase the a7iv because I needed a machine to get me through the rest of my work. Through divine intervention and a lot of persistence my a7riv was recovered. The main reason I was frustrated with the a7riv was I never quite dialed in the af functions to be reliable while shooting otf. I ran across your video and out of respect for my darling camera making it back into my hands I decided to configure the settings... why? Well, I believe the thief realized how complex the camera was, performed a factory reset and quickly realized the learning curve was going to be a hurdle for giants. Chimp driving a Ferrari. Anyways, thank you so much. the camera feels better in my hands than it did before and I look forward to jumping back and forth between models to optimize the video and af for crowds and action with the a7iv and getting those magnificent print worthy shots while minimizing my shot loss count with the a7riv. For me, inadvertently, the thief put the dream team of cameras in my hand and then this video came along to add the cherry on top. You are great! Will most definitely support!

Thank you for your insight and sharing of your settings, the custom key setup is a lot more intuitive than the custom options I had used. First weekend out and it made shooting more pleasurable!

This was fantastic, great overview!! I've been on the fence about this camera for a bit and this was a wonderful overview.

Switched my gear from Nikon to Sony in the last month. A7Riv is my body and 200-600 Sony is my wildlife lens, with the Sony GM 70-200, Zeiss 16-35, and the Sigmas 24-70 f/2.8 & 20mm f/1.4. This video really helped me out getting started with the wildlife settings. Thanks!

Excellent video Mark! Watched it twice to pick up anything I may have missed. Also bought the guide and the setting file just in case I miss something while setting it up. This camera is definitely a challenge to my skillset, I've been a photographer for 55+ years, and still learning :), and this camera definitely can and will point out the personal deficiencies one may have. And that's good!

Mark, I have an A7Riii, not the best camera for bird photography, and I had been feeling really frustrated with it. After watching your video on A7RIV, I have made the changes in settings that you recommended, and I am feeling so hopeful again. You have a great ability to explain counterintuitive concepts really well, like why AF responsiveness set to 5 makes more sense, or shooting in Zone mode while trying to track something so small. Really appreciate you and it goes without saying that I am a new subscriber, and will recommend your channel to all my photography friends. Thank you 🙏🏼

Hey Mark! As a followup to yesterday’s comment regarding the Focus Hold Button (MF option) on the lens, it should be noted the magnification range for manual focus is 5.9X to 11.9X (toggling the Center Control Wheel button) when in full frame sensor mode and 3.9X to 7.8X when in crop mode.

Thanks Mark for this setup guide. Been hesitant to use the back button focus but I gave it another go on my A7iii. Set it all up last night and today managed to get so many keepers of a Rainbow bee eater tossing it's prey in the air. Plan to get A7R IV when the prices go down. Thanks again

I love the way you setup your camera and your two easy buttons to autofocus. I actually use the stick to have the third eye AF autofocus, so I have 3 ways to quickly autofocus with my thumb. Pretty useful, thanks for sharing !

I have a 7iii and 100-400mm. Watching this still, in the hope that the lessons generally apply.

Just got my Sony A7r iv and 200-600 lens today. I appreciate you putting this out and look forward to trying out your settings and tweaking anything (if at all) once I get used to the camera and lens. Thanks again! 👍🏽

Mark, excellent guide! I have the A7III and can apply a lot of your techniques to my camera. I loved this so much that I just bought the digital book on your website. Looking forward to learning more from you! This is the wildlife guide I have been looking for! Thanks so much!

Buy the e-book! Great way to thank the best of all the camera-lens reviewers on KZfaq.

Aloha Mark. Chuck Burke here....I"m 19:13 into your video and I think you have answered all of my questions LOL...between this and the previous video where B&H sent you the A7R4 to test...I am pretty convinced it is time for me to step away from my D850....Thank you for all the effort and work you put into your incredible videos...always entertaining and more importantly always extremely informative. Thank you.

Thank you.I did all your suggestions on my A7R4 which I bought today. I will start to use it with 200-600 tomorrow. I hope my A7R4 and 200-600 will love each other:)

I have the A7iii with the 200 to 600 and this video was very informative. I like the option of switching between focus area with one press of a button. I set mine to C1. Thanks good stuff.

Thank you. First help for my A9 and now my A7RIV. Nice🙏

Great setup and walk through tutorial Mark, thank you for sharing!

I am so grateful to have found this video. I have finally assigned custom buttons thanks to your wonderful video! I am super excited to start practicing capturing birds with all of these new settings. Hitting the function key to get back to the main tabs of the menu button is something I never knew! (much I did not know) I can't wait to share this feature with my Sony friends. Thanks for making this video.

Wish there’s a place to shoot BIF in my area but sadly there isnt.your videos really makes me want to be a wildlife photographer.the way you tell a story along with the shooting is really amazing and addicting! Keep up the good work Sir!

This one was hard to watch but so well done. I love the new setup. It looks great!!!

Hey Mark. Another great video. You're one of the best out here on the tube. Keep up the great work.

Mark, I am so glad to have found your videos. Grateful to find someone who can explain it so simply to this old guy. I am putting some of your suggestions to work already. Thank you

Great stuff Mark, thanks for taking all of the time to make this very informative video! With some of these short cuts and settings, I know my A9 will be easier to manage and set up quickly.

Thanks I came here after struggling with birds with my A7RIV, you're a great help thanks. A note on e-front curtain shutter if it's on it reduces the quality of background blur.

THANK YOU, Mark. I swiched from another camera to this a7r4 just a few days ago because I was overwhelmed with the idea of (61 mega p) but when I turned it on I paniced. But your above film is absolutely great you explained things in a calm and understandable way. I have set up my camera now and am going out for a few days to take some shots in my lake country. I will buy the manual and your book on bird photography. Thank you one more time. Great film.

14:15, you may also switch directly the main categories (I stuck to your terminology, hope it’s OK for you 😉) always by the front dial, independent of the position of horizontal selector bar 🖖

Great Video/Tutorial Mark! When it comes to wildlife photography, Sony has the best "Ambassador" they could ever ask for. If anyone (like me) with a moderate amount of experience is willing to spend the time to learn from you, they will gain another level of appreciation for this amazing Sony Camera! Thanks for Sharing.

Your A7R4 setup tutorial is very useful so thanks for that. However, in your section about focus areas I was hoping you could go into the differences between the tracking and regular focus area types and why you only select the non-tracking ones? What are pro's and con's of the other ones for wildlife/bird photography?

I've just thought of this hobby, bought the old a7ii. It was pretty expensive for my budget even after all these years price is still high, Sony hold its price so well.

New to Sony menu’s and your video has helped enormously

Thank you so much, after changing all these settings on my a7iv I feel more confident over the controls that I can actually control. Thank you!

Great stuff, thanks Mark. Just downloaded the accompanying book and file too, will use all this to try to set up a 7R4 and a9 too so they have mostly identical settings and controls. Keep up the great work.

Best menu setup guide for this camera...EVER! Thank you sir.

Thank you so much for this detailed video and clear explanations. You've put a lot of work into this and I want you to know it is appreciated. I will buy your pdf to show my support.

I just discovered your channel, very very informative, I am subscribing.

Thank You! Thank You!! Thank You!!! I finally understand how to use this awesome new camera of mine. Your video was exactly what I needed to try to navigate the HUGE menu of this super intelligent camera that I love. You do it in a way that anyone can follow and understand. Thank You soooo much!

Nice job Mark. I read somewhere to leave AF illuminator off and have it set off on my camera. Thanks Mark

I have the a7r3, but I found this guide helpful, anyway. Bought it to support your work. Great job, Mark.

Wonderful stuff as usual Mark. Hopefully you will have an A1 to test on your Florida shoot in March. Cheers

Thank you for explaining everything. I haven’t been all that happy with the amount of sharp images that I’ve been getting using my current settings. I was wondering why you do not use any of the tracking modes when you’re primarily shooting wildlife?

Hey Mark. Absolutely fantastic video. I have watched it twice! Not sure I still need the digital guide but just bought it anyway. Haven't opened it yet but already got my money's worth from the video alone. Recently switched from my canon systems to the A7RIV and this video was tremendously helpful. My camera is set up similarly but not quite the same as yours. Definitely understand many of the features a lot better. I have been using the 100-400GM with or without the 1.4 tele. Unfortunately 400 or 600 are not realistic options for me. I had been considering the 200-600 G as it seems to zoom across its range much easier than the 100-400. I appreciate your comments non the 200-600 with he A7RIV but still am on the fence so please talk me out of it :). Looking forward to tracking some Eagles this weekend. Keep up the great work. Greatly appreciated. All the best.

Thanks for the great video, as always very informative. Barbara and I are both shooting Sony now and the learning curve has be a chore.

Thanks Mark for another great video. Just wanted to let you know with the Focus Hold Button (MF option) on the lens, whenever you depress the Lens Focus Hold Button to go into MF you can then press the Center Control Wheel button to toggle between 5.9X and 11.9X magnifications. Great for fine-tuning your focus on still objects and expanding your “spotting scope option”. Keep up the great work and your Osprey action images are awesome!

Mark purchased your A7RIV guide...well worth it. Thank you!

One of my favorite features of the riv is super35 and still having 26mp. Thats a whole a9. Turns a 400 2.8 into 600 but keeping the light from the fast aperture.

Thanks for such an informative and thoughtful tutorial. I have learned a lot.

Really learned something very helpful from this clip, like AEL button to quick change focus area. Thanks a lot!!!

just looked at your photos on your site. amazing bird photos.

Thanks heaps for this very informative video and all your practical tips - these are very much appreciated. I have the A7R4 and have just purchased the sony 200-600mm lens and have set my camera according to your settings and it's a great great improvement over how I previously had my camera set. Many many thanks!!!

Thanks Mark for this detailed video. This has been very helpful since I just received the new Sony A7 IV this week. The menus are different on the A7 IV but I could follow your setup just fine. I have been a lifelong Nikon user (selling all my gear now). I was comfortable with the Nikon D500 & 200-500mm lens for wildlife. Great camera, but I wanted to do more with video and the D500 was not great for video (especially auto-focus). I had previously watched your D500 System Setup and finally got the nerve to watch your “Why I moved from Nikon to Sony” video. The Sony A7 IV seems to be a perfect hybrid. This is certainly going to be a transition, but very impressed thus far. I purchased a Sony kit lens for now (28-60mm) along with the 200-600mm lens. Again, as always thanks for your videos. Long time follower.

Good job Mark, excellent video. Highley appreciated.

Thank you so much! You are amazing...I’m learning photography thanks to these videos!!!

A7iii here - the method to toggle focus modes/register is slightly different in my camera. "Switch focus area" is not listed in my menu as an option when choosing a custom key setup on my A7iii. It's called "Regist AF Area tggl" and you need to turn ON "AF Area Regist." on page 7/14 in MENU 1 to be able to hold down the Fn button to register the mode. Took me a bit to figure out what what going on differently. Thanks for this tip, Mark!

Great video, Mark! Definitely worth the wait. Quick question, will you consider an A9II in the near future? I’m just curious if your a9 is collecting dust at this point. Thanks for all you do!

coming from Hong Kong, your set up guide is very useful to me

Very nice explanation, thank you. Is there a reason you have selected zone as the main AF area? I use the thumbstick for continues shooting but when I do that I move the focus zone area around the screen. So what's the benefit to use Zone instead Wide focus area? Thx, take care.

This was very helpful and well explained, Mark - thanks. I have a suggestion for you, which you might find useful. For the lens's Focus Hold Button you have assigned AF/MF Control Toggle, which is good, but perhaps slightly more useful (because it's a tiny bit quicker) would be to set up a Recall Custom hold function with the following settings - Focus Mode = DMF, Focus Area = Flexible Spot M, AF On = On - and assign that to the Focus Hold Button instead. With your setup, when the Focus Hold Button is pressed it just switches to MF (with an out-of-focus image, possibly) and waits for you to focus manually. With my setup, when the Focus Hold Button is pressed, it _auto-focuses first_ which then gives you something to punch into and fine tune with MF. Hope this makes sense.

Excellent video!. Thank you very much for the effort, for the patience to explain things in detail, always with clear explanations... ...and for sharing it! Regards from Spain.

Don´t even own a Sony, still I watched the whole thing! Great work Mark of putting together a really great setup guide, the way you explain things are superb!

Your photos are just breathtaking! Your videos inspire me to work more at becoming a better photographer. I have a Sony A7Riii and I'm wondering how different the IV settings are from the Riii? I am really happy with the still bird photos I've been able to take but seem to be clueless on getting moving birds in focus. So I'm hopeful that your tutorial on the IV will provide me the guidance I need to get me to the next level. Thanks for sharing your knowledge and spectacular pictures!

Mark don’t know if you realise that setting the display quality to high increases the resolution from 60fps to 120fps but also lowers the resolution of the screen so in effect setting it to high quality actually reduces the quality and it also increase battery consumption. It can be handy to have it set to high when shooting fast action as it reduces the tiny lag when displaying images in continuous burst mode, for viewing the maximum resolution of an image the display quality needs to be set to standard.

Superb! I watched every second, stopped many times, back again ... So cool with huge thanks for sharing, Mark.

Thank you... First real in depth - helpful tutorial...

not everyone would take the time and/or would be willing to make such video and share settings. Thank you for that. I think I'll order an A7RIV pretty soon.

Great video!! I setup my camera very similar before I stumbled upon your video. I learned quite a few useful tips and have since tricked my setting. One question: what tripod and mount/gimbal is that? would it work well for Astrophotography and longer exposures?

This is a great video, just what I needed. But I’m confused about 1 thing: You didn’t register any focus modes w/tracking but your lens is tracking the bird. So what are the tracking modes for? (I use mostly center-tracking for portraits). Thanks!

Serious gear. Your totos are amazing.

Very informative video Mark, thanks for putting the time in to make it 👍

Well Mark, As i mentioned before that is a great video and your setup guide for the A7RIV is fantastic i got instant and great results using your recommended settings. All i can say that is the best 12 bucks i have spent and i think it is a steal. AAA thanks again😍😍👍👍 highly recomendable....

I am looking forward to a set up video like this wonderful in depth video for the Sony a1 when it is really available and which I intend to purchase as soon as I can. I love your excellent teaching style.

The AF tracking options you disabled (lower row) is Tracking, or Lock-On on older cameras. You mentioned when tracking birds and a wave gets in front that the camera might focus on the wave. If you set Tracking: Zone or Flexible Spot, AF Sensitivity to 1 (Lock ON), this won't happen. But I'm not a bird shooter, I was just interested in the camera settings :-) You seem to have AF Tracking Sensitivity set to 5 which means it will change subject as soon as focus is lost. This setting doesn't matter when focus is acquired and locked in. But if a bird get behind some trees for a second or so, 1 would still try to find and hold focus on the bird/subject, while 5 would try to find a new subject to lock on to. Thank Filip Bloom for that info! One interesting thing, Tracking on my A7RV is quite a lot better than the similar Lock-On function on my A7iii, so this is a completely new function, not just a new camera/function name. I tend to use Flexible Spot to hold focus on my older camera, generally Flexible M / S and expand flexible spot. On my newer camera the Tracking just seem to hold to whatever I locked on to, even if situation changes completely. I always default back to Flexible Spot if I'm in doubt. Why do you choose such a small flexible spot as S? Isn't this making things more difficult especially when bird is in flight? I hope to go bird shooting when the season is on again, just got my Sigma 150-600 DG DN Sport! 🙂 Best regards, Aleksander

Thank you for your posts always informative and so nice to have met you recently, thank you👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Great video. I wonder if the custom key menu is different from A7III and A7R4. I can not find switch focus area to set C2 to begin with.

Thanks Mark for your very informational video. Just trying to get familiar with the Sony system. I don't own a Sony camera at this point, but I may be moving from my D500/200-500 to the A1/200-600 in the near future.

Thanks Mark I have the A7III but still found the information fantastic. 👍🏿

Great video, thank you for the time spent!

Incredibly useful video Mark, as a long time Nikon shooter I have decided to pick up one of these A7RivA bodies as discounted at the moment. Thought I would give Sony a try as heard good things about Sony .🙏🙏🙏

Loved this, liked and subbed. Switched from Canon a few months ago but still be struggling to the point I was going to go back to Canon but watched a lot of Mark Galer's which helped and you have given some great tips in your tutorial. I'm going to give back button focus another go, I'm am only using the A7iii so I couldn't set a few custom functions as you have.

Thanks Mark, i just received my a7 iii and you helped me a lot .

Thanks for sharing , Mark. Good shooting with you last week.

I saw you use AF tracking sen on setting 5 for the a7rv. Would you recommend the same for A9?

So very helpful. I've adopted all your recommendations bar one - I prefer white rather than red for the focus guide! I particularly like the alternate focus style using the two rear buttons. However I occasionally find the the flexible spot (called by the AEL button) is no longer centre frame. I don't know why it has moved, nor can I find a way to re-centre it except by re-registering it. Is there an easier way to re-centre it? Mike.

Excellent work, thank you for the time and sharing!!!👌👌👌

Thanks for the tips! Do you prefer the A7r IV or A9? I have the a9 and been thinking of swapping it for the R IV because I miss the resolution of R series. I love A9, but it lacks the ability to crop and when you zoom in, the photos look soft compared to R series.

Excellent! I just bought this camera about 2 months ago. This was extremely helpful. Thx U

A great video I purchased the E-Book as well I must say you are a champion greetings from western Australia

Used this settings for my a7iii. Thank you works great so far

Very good. Just got my A7R iv for bird photography and this has been a great help. Thanks.

very good video mark, thanks for taking the time to make this.. quick question, do you use UV filter on the 200-600? or no filter at all works best ?

I have watched many of your videos, and you sir are an impressive photographer. And to date you are the only persons video I have subscribed to. Thank you for your Awesome photos.