Excellent explanations and demos, thank you Steve! Just picked up the book and can't wait to dive in. I'm sure you're thrilled that the Z9 is out, but hope you'll keep on shooting the Sony system and providing great material for it.

Sir. By far the best video I have watched explaining how to set up the Sony A-1. The menu on this camera is a monster with so many option, and Mr. Perry does a great helping to understand a lot of thise options. I learned a lot. Thank you RV

Just got my A7RV and overwhelmed with the button, custom keys and numerous focus area methods. Even though I don't shoot wildlife your video help simplify and a great starter guide.

thank you for the detailed explanations - it really helped to understand certain features / settings.

I mean it literally couldn't get any better than this. I bought your book cause i'm sure there's still lots to learn, but even if i felt like i didn't need it, i still would have bought it anyway out of respect to you sir!! Please keep up your amazing teaching!! Chapeau!!!

Excellent video thank you. I have bought your full guide - the video has some brilliant nuggets of information for A1 users so I am sure the book will prove invaluable too.

Good stuff Steve. I'm upgrading from an A9 and found this very useful. Will also get your ebook 👍

Great video. I have been looking for a video like this for a while. I own an A7III but I can use some of your settings on that. Going to try the AF regist area function. Thanks.

Excellent guide. Well worth the money.

You're a great teacher! 👍🏻⭐

Fabulous video. Loved it.

Thank You Steve! The Book is pure Awesome, as all your books I have are. Hope to make a Costa or some workshop with you someday.

Great instruction video.Thanks for this effort!

Thanks you somuch Steve, it was an amazing tutorial. So clear and articulate. Many thanks

Great work Mr Perry.

I don't have an A1. I have to stop watching A1 videos. Thank you, Steve for making these videos. I've learned a lot from you. Subscribed.

What a great video. Thank you Steve

New to Sony system and bought the A1 wildlife setup guide. Worth it's weight in gold. Extremely clear instructions, easy to follow and his setup sure works.

Seriously awesome!

Hope to see your Z9 settings soon!

Some great advice there, thanks Steve =)

Thank you for making this video, exactly what I needed to get my new A1 camera quickly set up for the weekend.

So helpful. well done

Steve is the best and most neutral reviewer of camera and lenses. Awaiting your Z9 review Steve. When can we expect?

Thanks Steve. I thought I was pretty dialed in with my a1 but some of your settings make more sense. I’m going to give them a try. I have your book as well.

Time stamps would be a game changer! thanks Steve.

Hi Steve, thanks for this really useful set up video. The best I have seen. I just bought your book.

Thank you very much Steve!!!

The button setups are especially powerful, combined with his focus area setups.

Very Nice video again. Thank you.

Thank you Steve, amazing video and very thoughtful advises ;-) As simple as - I’ve just bought your book right after finishing with this video )))

Can't wait until you do a similar video for the Z9

Awesome! Thanks!

Great review

Great as always Steve, But waiting patiently for your Z9 setup I just love that camera and tomorrow I also will have the 100-400 Z;)

Hi Steve, I love your advice and videos. I recently got a second hand a9, I mostly shot small birds. would you recommend similar settings?

Great video! And when can we expect the z9 review?

Thank you, invaluable.

Mom! Steve posted! John, you shoot Nikon. So?! 😂

This is awesome. Thank you! Will some of these settings work on a9/a9ii?

AWSOME STEVE

Really good video

Late to the game but THANK YOU!. I found it so clear and helpful that I bought the Set up Guide pdf

Hi Steve, I bought your Wildlife guide for the A1 before I went to Africa, and stupidly didn't set it up for BBF, resulting in quite a few slightly out of focus shots. Once I got home, I re-read your guide and set the A1 up for BBF. Much better, however, I have been exp and now believe I have stumbled on the absolutely ideal setup, which is a modification of what you have recommended. I have assigned to the AEL button, Recall Custom Hold 1, which I have programmed to include the following: Aperture Priority, Single Shooting, ISO Auto, Multi metering, DMF focus, Zone focus, AF On. For the AF-ON button, I have assigned Custom Hold 2, which I have programmed to include the following settings: Continuous shooting, ISO AUTO, Multi metering, Continuous AF, Tracking, AF sensitivity 1 Locked on, AF-ON. In practice, these button settings have given me far more predictable results, and the DMF option on the AEL button has transformed my slightly off focus stills to razor sharp images. With the AEL button I use this exclusively for still images. It would have been ideal for me to have been able to use it for lions embedded deep into the grasslands of Botswana (next time!). I am happy to use this exclusively in Aperture Priority mode. With the AF-ON button, I use this exclusively for wildlife, shooting multiple images, but have not activated Manual Mode or a Shutter Speed as when I did try this, even if I was in Aperture Priority Mode at, say 1/250th second at f4, it would automatically change it to 1/2000th second (or whatever I had previously set my SS in Manual mode) at f4. So, I have found it easier to change these settings manually. It makes things more precise and predictable,. I love the flexibility Sony have provided to allow users to set really advanced settings to Custom buttons. This, for me, works perfectly. Thanks again for all your fantastic support and advice.

First of all, congratulations for your excellent A1 Setup Guide for Wildlife. Very clear and though is a very complicated matter (the A1 is a little monster), you did a great job. I already have my camera with your setup and now I am trying to get used to it. So far so good. Now I want to ask you how to store all this setup in one of the camera’s memories. I did a backup of this Camset and stored it in my Mac.

So good! I'm a Sony shooter and feel comfortable with the Sony AF system but now I'm really excited to experiment with Regist. AF Area modes and change the way I use it for sports photography. I've been using the Recall Custom Hold functions to setup my back buttons but going to experiment with your setup next time in the field!

thank you soooo much !

Hii Steve, GREAT video bought the book good reading....lots of tips.... Look forward to seeing you & your wife on your next trip to Florida... Circle B

What about set up for Canon R5 I really love watch your explain everything thank you.

Great video, thanks! I just wanted to add; for shutter release shooters using "Tracking Off Toggle" instead of "Tracking On" will give the toggle mode instead of hold.

You know what this made me realize? I have watched so many of your videos that I am actually reading the book in your voice. This is crazy :-)

Great video!. I have a question, AF-C Traking still available in Movie mode (or S&Q)?

Greatings from Ballito in South Africa Steve. (*We met you at the Pangolin hotel / Chobe in August last year...) I hope this finds you guys all well... I first watched this video when you first brought it out in February, and a few weeks ago we quickly shot down to the Kgalagadi ( North Western Cape in SA) after having heard that the desert had received a lot of unusual rain, and needed to check it out for ourselves... That rain transformed the usual desert into something resembling a Savannah Grassland, and very different from what I remembered from our last trip there. This trip ended up with us shooting more raptors than animals for a bunch of reasons. There were lots of different raptors , all actively feeding on varying food sources, while we saw only two sets of cheetahs, one taking out a Springbok, and then a coalition of four brothers having a full go at a Springbok which was quicker than them, but providing some interesting photographic opportunities...Two set of lions which feated, and as usual were just sleeping things off with huge bellies! For the rest the grass made viewing sparse... While I had reasonable success with the raptors, I found myself needing to speed up my usual work rate, so I have come back to this video, and am absolutely delighted to advise that you had covered all the "speed up" points which I needed to address, and I have just tweaked both my A1's, and this has really made a big difference in my life....Thank you... BTW: One can never fool oneself into believing that we have sufficient knowledge, so I have also ordered your eBook on the Sony A1 settings etc, and look forward to devourering it's contents.. Hopefully we will meet up again, one day when you head back down here, to the bottom end of Mamma Africa, and until then, take care, be safe out there, and keep up the great work timdrimanphotography.co.za/

Fabulous Instructional Video, Steve 👍 I purchased the book too, cause I decided on purchase of the a1 while I wait for Nikon to workout the wrinkles on the Z9 😅

For all us plebs slumming around with an a7 iv, these are still helpful tips. Same menu system, same settings.

waiting for the "Ultimate Nikon Z9 AF set-up Guide". ;)

Hi Steve! Wrote you a few weeks ago, hope you don't mind a few more questions. You are a inspiration to me- new to photography and just purchased the Sony A1 (got your setup pdf yesterday)...I ordered the Sony 600mmf4(back ordered)...what tripod do you recommend? Wimberly Gimbel? Do you ever have workshops near Grand Tetons? I want to go if the 600 lens comes in...looking forward to studying your setup guide... you're super great!!!

Hi Steve, are you doing a Z9 review at all?

Good evening Steve and thank you very much for the content of your videos. I allow myself to ask you a question: it seems to me that I could translate the video into French on youtube, which is no longer the case now. My english is quite rudimentary :) Do you know the reason? Thanks again and have a nice WE

Hi , I've learned so much from you, you are the best teacher ever. have 1 question. I've been setting the tracking ON + AF ON ON THE A7IV , could you explain how to do it on a a9II? I only find tracking on only and it does not work the same way. thanks in advance

Thanks!

I followed you when I was shooting aD850 and all your videos are always awesome. Glad you are doing the A1 book now. I’ll make sure to get your new book. Sold all my Nikon gear and I’m all in with Sony products now and love the A1. Thanks so much for the content.

most of this works on the a9 ver 1 as well we just dont have afon and tracking we can assign to 1 button so we have to use the non back button focus mode

Hi sir I bought your Sony a1 setup Guide For Wildlife, and found it very helpful, but why didn’t you provide us with a camset, which should allowed us to install your specific settings described inside the ebook, directly to the camera itself?

Nice guide Steve! Very comprehensive. One trick for wildlife photogs that I found is to set the AEL button as a custom recall for stationary subjects. For example, mine is set to 1/500th, single point etc... So if a bird or mammal stops, I slide my thumb to the AEL button and it's ready for a lower ISO, creamier bokeh background with a single point (which also helps pick subjects in messy backgrounds). If the subject is ready to fly, run, swim, I simply release that thumb and just use the front shutter which I usually have set for action. It's an absolute game changer for me. Well worth the time to set it up. Good luck everyone!

You're setting up to quickly change to Tracking mode with a custom button. Can you give some examples of when you would swith into Tracking mode when doing birds?

Hi Steve, congrats for your super useful guide! I used for a while your setup, but in some occasions the additional button you need to push to change focus area takes too long and you may miss some shots when the bird move from perch to flight. I would like to to assign the two only focus areas I'm using (spot and zone) to AF-On and AEL buttons respectively (without needing a Switch Focus Area button as per your guide). But I do not know how to toogle on/off the tracking mode. It looks like the tracking is a "hold" function only and not a toogle/switch. If we could achieve this we would have a two backbutton focus that also istantaneously switch focus area and an optional third button that activates/deactivates tracking when needed. What do you think?

Thank you so much for this! It has been a struggle trying to understand how to set tracking on the camera. My only question is regarding tracking. For the tracking to be engaged with this set up you have to keep the button AF+Tracking On pressed, correct?

Is there a menu option to 'reset' the aperture/shutter speed/iso to some default (like P mode) at the touch of a button while in M mode? Pentax users know about the green button.

Hopefully you will stay with the a1 (after your z9 review) for awhile providing more interesting vids. Can’t we change the lens switch to m to get past tree limbs in manual? Mark smith and his friend showed us manual iso with zebras display on the the control wheel.

I have the AEL button set up for perched birds as others have mentioned here - I have it on spot focus - not center fixed - but the joystick does not move the spot, it stays in a fixed position, although the larger box does move. The spot formerly moved, so it's something I've done to lock it. The Spot moves find if I access spot focus via the fn button. Any ideas on what I may have done to freeze it? Some suggest pressing the joystick would release it but that has not worked. Much thanks for any help!

Steve I think your coffee cup is alive .... Great video

Great video thanks, I just dont understand why would you assign switch focus area to C1 when it is already assign to C2 as per default?

Very good explanation of the Release setting. Without it, you're going to miss a lot of perfectly in focus shots.

in case of attaching A1 on tripod upside-down for ground level shots. how can I turn the view on its monitor?

I am using A1 with 200-600 lens. I am loving the setup. This beast eye af through the branches and give me excellentimages. The only problem i am facing is when my lens af far and i have to picture of some bird sitting i. A closer perch. I have to bring my focus to a closer contrasting subject and then focus on my bird. By that time bird is gone. Do i need to make any changes in my setting?

Do you have a video on how to setup the A1 for shooting video?

Thanks

Hi Steve, would the setup guide customisations for A1 work the same for A9 ii ?

Good settings. It would be even better if I could figure out how to order the guide- and figure out how to personalize the custom settings from the menu. I see no order form.

What button do you press to get Nikon colors? Lol. Looking forward to more Z9 videos!

hello, i have all your courses for nikon d750 and z6ii but switched to sony a74 for a better AF. I am in mode A, AF-C, half shutter press (not BBF), auto iso min 1/1250, and have difficulties to switch from wide focus area with bird eye detection to a expanded spot with tracking when i loose the eye and AF, without going to the menu and without using tactile (orange cross in EVF or finger on lcd), just remaining in EVF. any suggestion for a74 ? i heard about recalling a custom hold with a different spot tracking focus area in that mode. Does it make sense or should we try to be in tracking spot whatever the case ?

Unfortunately, on the A7S3 we have no option for tracking and AF On. Tracking cane be toggled on and off but no AF option.

Steve have you found FW 1.31 degraded AF, many said FW 1.2 worked much better.

I find that my A1 keeps focusing for birds wings and tails but not eye or face.. any suggestions?

Next up, Z9?!

Wow! Photographer, Sci-fi author, and Singer. What don't you do?