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This video was amazing Mark and no wonder I was struggling shooting some birds in flight. Thank you so much for this and all your videos - you are amazing for sharing this for free. Thank you again. All the best, Steve

Amazing video!! I do not own an A1 but I am still able to learn and understand the functions and the logic of choosing the appropriate settings for different situations as highlighted by your video. I wish to own an A1 someday and my current camera is A7RIV. I am currently a Patreon of you and have been reading and understanding the camera set up of A7RIV. You are such a great educator. I appreciate all your contents. Thank you Mr. Galer.

Truly insightful and clear explanation. I have to keep watching this multiple times.

Mark, thank you for this. The a1 can feel a bit overwhelming at first and this guide really helps. Thanks also for breaking the video into chapters referenced from the text above. This makes review easy and the video as a whole even more valuable. Splendid stuff.

What a great video, makes me want to rebuild my kit, I really like the A9ii, but I would love to “aggressively crop” too. Great job 👏🏼

Brilliant Mark Thanks.

Chock full of info as usual 👍. That you Mark!

Thanks a lot for this! Now I can go through the camera and set it up ;-)

Thanx sir. You did a brilliant job on this video

Wonderful video!

Thanks! These are always excellent

You're a treasure my friend. Always appreciate all the wisdom, time, and effort that goes into your videos. I speak for many people when I say THANK YOU for what you do!! I've learned so much.

fantastic video Mark, thanks!

Thank you so much for this video, Mark! I’m just starting with BIF photography and I just set up my first custom button on my lens with your help!

your videos are so useful, thank-you so much for taking the time to make such thorough and well thought out videos.

Thank you so much for this and all your videos .

What a useful video, thank you.

Great video, great explanation of your settings! Thanks Mark

Great video. Very helpful. Will try Zebra for sure. For some reason I always use it with my Portrait work but haven't even try to use it with BIF. Good point.

Very helpful instructional video (as always from you)! Any plans to do a version of this specific to the new a7 IV?

Even though it's for the A1, I keep watching as an A7iii user, because he always stresses workflows that are somewhat partially universal within the alpha cameras, plus I never know when I might upgrade. Besides, I'm always curious what the state of the art technology might be

The best and most complete I've seen so far on the A1, congratulations. Some problems with English (I am a Spanish speaker) but I will repeat to try to understand better. I'm going to see your ebook. Thanks for the video

I've been waiting for this one - thanks Mark. Yet to watch it all, but I know it will be very helpful - as are all your setup videos. Great stuff. Oh, and what a camera!!!

This is quite a treat to be shown all this in further detail. I find myself continuing to go back to your settings whenever I experiment with a variant style. Thanks Mark! I do have a few questions/comments. -What metering mode do you use? -Why ISO 320 on custom hold 1? -Wide Focus Area, you said algorithm is “front and center.” In video mode my A1 was focusing on the top of a chair which was in the very bottom left corner of the frame. I’ve since ditched it for Zone. -I wish min auto SS had more options. My 200-600 is already at a slight disadvantage in ISO. If I jump from 1/2000 to 1/4000 that ISO jumps up from what may have already been too high. -The 50 f/1.2 might be fast but for those who are also shooting video the GM lenses do focus breathe quite a bit. Have to use each lens for what it’s intended for I guess.

Very helpful and well done instructional video (as usual)! Are you planning a version of this geared specifically to the new a7 IV?

I am a Nikon Z 7 user preparing to upgrade to the Sony A1 with the 200-600 Sony lens. My passion is BIF and as I am retiring at the end of this month want to spend my time improving my skills and enjoying taking some hopefully descent shots. Your tutorial is incredibly helpful so thank you. I am relatively to new to photography (18 months) and it’s a complex subject to understand but even taking one or two nuggets away from professionals like yourself are invaluable. Keep up the excellent work. I am now going to have a look at your website and assume as UK a resident I can still download your settings and obtain your e-book in Pounds Sterling ?

Dear Mark, I just returned from a two-week shoot in Zambia and would like to share my experiences with the community by comments. I should preface my remarks by saying that I received my camera only a week before heading out (white-knuckle time!), had however studied your videos and e-book while waiting for camera. My capsule review: When I could get the camera to perform, it performed spectacularly. With mammals I had very little trouble, even with wild dogs chasing impalas. Curiously enough, the eye focus often had trouble finding an eye on an elephant. I asked another, more experienced, wildlife photographer. He concurred, adding that it may have to do with the nonstandard animal features of an elephant. Add to that the huge gray body and the tiny eye -- perhaps I was asking too much. By helping it along ( in the way you described) I was able to get it to find and then to track. I was less successful with fast-flying small birds which I will write about tomorrow

Hey(again) Mark! Do you care to explain the finder frame rate & resolution of each setting? Like what fps and resolution does the std,hi,and hi+ are? I tried looking up on the several webs and cant find them (only found about the drop in resolution when using the 240fps but it didnt say wether it hi or hi+).again,thank you!

This will be a follow-up on my earlier comment on using the alpha in Zambia, this time on birds. I apologize for the length of the comment but I really want to use the abilities of the camera to the full and whenever I could, the results are spectacular! I should preface my observations by saying that I did not attempt flying bird photography before buying this camera, and there is room for improvement on my panning skills! I was shooting with the 100-400 gmaster lens which ranges between f stops 4.5 and 5.6. These being wild birds, they are generally shy ( i.e., far) and they take off erratically -- they usually fly away from you. My better results came from focussing on a perched bird and track ( at the Hi+ setting and release) after they take off. I noticed that the tracking does require a frame or two to find and stick to the flying bird( using wide area). After a few tries, I turned off face/eye recognition because it was futile with such small subjects. Eagles were the slowest, requiring 1/1600 or faster ( slower when they are landing, btw). The tracking generally stayed on the bird but wandered from body to wingtips and sometimes to the sky. Very poor results for eagles landing in nest inside foliage (hardly surprising). The focus was often on the background. Lilac-breasted rollers ( the most photographed birds in Africa): Very challenging. At shutter speed 1/3200 the images were clear but it took the bird only 15 frames to get out of range (disappear in the foliage). That's less than a second at Hi+. Surprisingly, the tracking tried to keep up and the focus area was generally somewhere on the bird. Finally, bee-eaters and pygmy kingfishers are the fastest, requiring faster than 1/3200. Their excursions from their perch are usually over in fractions of a second). Most of the time, the tracking did not keep up although I did manage to keep the bird in the frame. I ended up with a few usable frames but I ascribe that to luck. I look forward to constructive comments!

Hello Mark. Enjoy all your videos, great work! I have a question about the A1 setting. If I set the file format to "lossless compressed raw" but park the drive mode at "H+", what do I get? lossless compressed raw at 20 FPS or lossy compressed raw at 30 FPS? Thank you in advance.

I’m trying to think why I would use A mode with auto min SS? I typically shoot man with auto iso and just set to 1/2000 or higher. I get my A1 tomorrow!!! I’ve been using a7r3 with 200-600

Hello Mark, Thank you for your videos and for sharing your settings. I have an A1 with this version of ILCE-1 1.31. I enjoyed the previous camset, including the PAL 1, 2,3 settings. I recently reset the camera and files to the factory settings. I want to install the new camset after update 1.31 but receive an error message when downloading the camset to camera slot 1 to the CF Express A card 160 GB 800/ 700 Tough Sony. I have a couple of questions. Do I have to remove the card from the camera before uploading the camset or connect directly to my Apple M1 Max Mac Pro? I received an error when I installed the Sony file and replaced the old one. Is the file order Sony file, Settings file, 1 file, Camset file? Or do I only need to replace the camset file? Finally, Do you have a way to install the PAL settings like the previous camset, or do I have to do it manually? Thank you for your time. RJ McIntosh

Mark what is your thought of Sony FE 24-240 3.5 6.3 lens on Sony A 1 ?

Mark thank you heaps for your Outstanding Video Tutorial ... I'm new to Aviation and Bird Photography but I'm more getting interested into Aviation Photography and i need your guidance concerning the " Focus Area " to choose for Taking Pictures of Airplanes and Helicopters in Flight . Which " Focus Area " and " Focus Area Limit " should i choose ? Please

Hi Mark, would you still recommend using back button focus on the A7iii?

Hi Mark - I am new to the Sony alpha universe - your videos are an absolute gold mine of information - so - thank you. Just wanted to clarify - despite deslecting some focus areas in the the focus area limit tab or subjects in the target subject recognition tab, I still have to scroll over all of them in the Fn menu to get to the one I want. Is there any way that deselecting some options from the menu tabs will also reflect in the Fn menu.... Hope my question makes sense... Thank you in advance and for all the effort you have put in your videos...Harsh

Hi Mark. Great fan of yours. I used your videos to set up my A99ii camera. Planning to move to Sony A1. I intend to use my Sony A mount 500 mm F4 G lens with a A-E adaptor. I was not able to understand the menu settings for AF Micro Adj in Sony A1. In A99 ii this option is under AF3 Menu. Looking forward to your revert. Thanks a lot

Really hoping they fix the 1.01 autofocus glitch, it's driving me crazy! You lock on to a moving subject on a bright background, it grabs then shortly after the green box disappears and AF stops working unless you re-press the AF button or take another image. Have you had this issue at all?

Hi Mark, excellent, thank you. Can I buy your settings on Patreon and expect them to work on a Sony a6600 with a 200-600mm lens

Hi Mark, can you please tell us how many fps is the sony a1 going to shoot when using a tracking focus area?

Hello Mark Great follower of your tutorials. Thanks do much What will be the max zoom I can get with Sony A1 -apsc -cropped mode with 1.4tc ?

Mark any idea if we will be getting a crop camera for BIF? Many of us would love a crop sensor A9, A6600 is ok but a body with a center mount evf would be ideal

A big advantage of back button auto focus is being able to set different rear buttons with 2 or more different focus modes....zone and spot for example, and being able to select either instantly.....That is essential in my bird photography.

hanks for your help just got the alpha 1 somewhat overwhelmed but that is expected... learning curved sharp upwards any suggestions on courses or videos to help

Hi Mark! Ciao from italy! Thank you for your great videos! Really useful.. i have a question..i am trying to take some blue tit or robin or small winter birds in fly but i am not able.. i try zone bird eye af and tracking but a1 loses the focus and doesn’t follow the fly.. i use also sensitivity to 1.. last summer i had no problema to follow the fly of the king fisher with my a92.. now it’s so difficult.. can you help me please?? Thank you so much

Thanks for this Mark. Any plans on making a dedicated video for Sony 600 mm f/4.. Not much of content available about it. Most are comparisons about 200-600 and 600 prime. I would love to see your review / guide on it. I guess common assumption is whoever is buying 600 f/4 already knows everything there is to know about it, and then there are a few like me. Thanks again !

For soccer...I have AF-C, Sensitivity set to Locked On; but Locked On still jumps unreliability from my subject to other players a lot using Tracking Zone. What focus area would you recommend for soccer? I use A7C and A6600.

Gidday Mark, being a Sony ambassador I was wondering if you knew for sure wether tha A1 has a low pass filter or not? Many on the net say it doesn't have one but if that were the case I would have thought it would have an "R" designation in its model name. Thanks Mark. Appreciate your thorough reviews and tutorials.

Dear Mark, can information on detail like focus area, tracking/no tracking be accessed, like one accesses f stop and shutter speed?

needs a timestamp for all those info! easier to revisit in the future

With SD cards I have always shot simultaneously when available, since like far too many, I have had SD card failures that cost me a lot of time and money over the years. Do you happen to know how much more robust the CF-A cards are than SD’s?

Can't find focus mode in video. Dial not working for sony a1 when it is video. What am I missing?

Hi. This is Mohammad and I live in Melbourne. I own Sony A1 and 600mm f4 GM . I do bird photography. I was wondering if you could assist me with autofocus settings for birds eye af. We can catch up at your convenience. Happy to drive to any place. Please let me know how much you will charge for the session. Thanks

he Mark great info...as always, i have a need for a Sony FE 24-200mm F/4 G lens : " ) would be great, Ha ha

Mark, I'm tracking the birds in flight but it never focuses on the face. It's always on a wing or tail or body. So the face is soft.. how to fix?

I found a bug in the A1 -- if you assign DMF as the focus mode within a registered custom hold setting, then use that setting assigned to a button, the camera won't show the peaking display after focusing in DMF. If you use DMF normally outside the custom hold, it shows the peaking. I know this function works on the A7RIV and A9II. I'm using the latest 1.1 firmware on the A1.

Mark, I need help setting up my A1 to achieve a specific set of focus performance objectives. The A1 can meet all of them but I don't know hot to get it to meet all of them at the same time. How can I get help from you for this particular consult? Can I use a $superchat?

My Sony A1 said on program mode does not support Iso min ss

It is nice tutorial not only for A1. For A7C is partially usable :-)

Male peacocks have eyes on the tail - wonder where bird eye priority will focus!

AF Tracking Sensetive Lock On -1 is not the best choice, in my opinion mode 3-4 give you much more sharper images in one series of shots.

Great camera and great sensor but Sony needs to improve usability, colours and features…

Action doesn't always occur in bright daylight. If only I could shoot at 1/2000!