Setup Guide Sony a7R III ?

Can anyone recommend a good setup guide for the Sony a7R III?
Setup should concentrate on photo if possible not interested in video.
Thanks. 

signgrap wrote:Can anyone recommend a good setup guide for the Sony a7R III?
Setup should concentrate on photo if possible not interested in video.
Thanks. 

I found the Gary Friedman A7Rii guide to be quite good. I’m sure he’ll be bringing out an A7Riii guide very soon. 

While you’re waiting for a written guide you might want to check out the video’s from Mark Galer

signgrap wrote:Can anyone recommend a good setup guide for the Sony a7R III?
Setup should concentrate on photo if possible not interested in video.
Thanks. 

See PM

another vote for Mark Galer. He has a website but also a youtube channel with all the different setups. They are short and easy to follow along.
Mike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQkS5fc ... oIkbfS31vl

My detailed review of the a7R III for Nature Photographers including setup will be ready in about 3 weeks. I've already answered some of signgrap's questions offline

E.J. Peiker wrote:My detailed review of the a7R III for Nature Photographers  including setup will be ready in about 3 weeks.  I've already answered some of signgrap's questions offline

E.J. Thanks it was a big help   
I look forward to the full review as the Sony a7R III has twice as many ways to be customized than the a7R II.
I'd like to thank everyone who provide resources as I did check them all out. Each one provided some unique insights and ways to set up the camera giving a better understanding of how to set the camera up in different environments.

Note that the Luminous Landscape just published an 80 minute video on the Sony menu system.  I have not yet watched it so this is just an FYI at this point.

E.J. Peiker wrote:Note that the Luminous Landscape just published an 85 minute video on the Sony menu system.  I have not yet watched it so this is just an FYI at this point.

Had time yesterday and today to watch this video from start to finish. It is reasonable good, not so much as to how to customize your own camera (I don't shoot like Kevin does), but as to what the various settings do and what some of the more obscure Sony Menu Speak means. This is my forth Sony alpha camera but I was mystified by some of the new menu items on the Sony a7R III, and boy are there ever a lot of them. I in general hate menus on cameras (grew up in the days of film where cameras had dials you set and could see, not menus you couldn't see) and all my prior Sony cameras had horrible menus so once I got my cameras setup the way I wanted them I never spent any time learning about what additional the cameras had to offer - in hindsight a mistake on my part. 
BTW the menus on the a7R III are much improved over older Sony alpha cameras.
There are 36 pages of menus with additional sub-menus on a number of pages. When I started viewing the video I did it from the perspective of "You don't know what you don't know" and there was enough new information I didn't already know to make me feel I hadn't wasted my time. There is a running timeline below the video which indicates what's being discussed at the moment so you can easily find what you're looking for.

There are some things that Kevin says are movie functions and then glosses over that are definitely not only movie functions and can be very useful for still photography.  I'm covering some of that in my review of the a7R III for nature photographers - stay tuned.  I will be finishing after my two DuckShops happening over the next two weeks.  Yes, I will actually shoot at the DuckShop with an a7R III...

There are also a number of errors where he mis-describes menu settings, one example is his description of AF Micro Adj which he says is for non Sony lenses on third party adapters.  That's absolutely wrong.  It is for Sony A-mount lenses when using the Sony LA-EA4 adapter which has it's own internal AF system in the adapter.  His description of Reset Ev comp is also wrong as are a number of others - what that setting does is let you decide if the exposure compensation returns to zero between every shot or if it maintains the last exposure comp value used between shots.

He ignores Exposure Standard Adjust altogether which is a function that allows you to calibrate your exposure meter - also a very useful function, especially if using multiple cameras that give you different meter readings.  In general, functions he is not familiar with he skips over and sometimes says,"I don't know what that is" rather than looking it up...

He calls Digital Zoom by the name Optical Zoom - two very different things!

Overall, even though Kevin is a friend, he kind of mailed this in without doing the proper research or editing clear mistakes, despite it being 85 minutes long.

The number of possible settings coupled with a haphazard menu makes learning challenging at times. I wish we could hook up our cameras to a computer and rearrange the lists and the names of the functions to our liking.
I picked up the 100-400 and 1.4x to go with the A7R3 and tested it out at my favorite flying duck location. To say I was impressed is an understatement. I didn't expect it to perform as superbly as it did. Basically, if I could put the sensor on the subject, the entire sequence would be sharp. I tried the lock on modes, which I am not a fan of in general, and came away impressed.
I can see why people are impressed with the 100-400 too.

Scott Fairbairn wrote:The number of possible settings coupled with a haphazard menu makes learning challenging at times. I wish we could hook up our cameras to a computer and rearrange the lists and the names of the functions to our liking.
I picked up the 100-400 and 1.4x to go with the A7R3 and tested it out at my favorite flying duck location. To say I was impressed is an understatement. I didn't expect it to perform as superbly as it did. Basically, if I could put the sensor on the subject, the entire sequence would be sharp. I tried the lock on modes, which I am not a fan of in general, and came away impressed.
I can see why people are impressed with the 100-400 too.

Scott, as always, Sony Menus (and pretty much everybody else's suck) but you actually can now arrange it to your liking, sort of.  The My Menu pages can be arranged and customized any way you want.  I don't know how many My menu pages it will allow you to have but I know it is at least 5 which should be enough for most, especially when coupled with the Functions button and the 12 items you can program there.

Where will we be able to find this review E.J. ?

Looking forward to it.

I'll post a link when it's done.

Can't wait, EJ. Thanks in advance. Sony has come a long way

Pradeep

I’m beginning to think there are too many ways to customize the A7RIII. You have the Custom Buttons, each with 3 variations, Photo, Video and Playback. You have the Function button which is fully customizable to add your 12 chosen options. You have the Dial to customize, the Joystick Button. On top of all those you have the 1, 2 and 3 selections on the Top Dial to choose a group of Presets for Landscape Settings, or BIF or Portraits or whatever you decide to set up . It’s all so confusing trying to remember which is which.

Edit. I forgot to add that you can assign 3 groups of settings in addition to all the rest and assign a button to recall them. If you Lens has a button that too can be customized to change a setting or recall a group of settings.   

E.J. We really need your review and settings advice.

MND wrote:I’m beginning to think there are too many ways to customize the A7RIII. You have the Custom Buttons, each with 3 variations, Photo, Video and Playback. You have the Function button which is fully customizable to add your 12 chosen options. You have the Dial to customize, the Joystick Button. On top of all those you have the 1, 2 and 3 selections on the Top Dial to choose a group of Presets for Landscape Settings, or BIF or Portraits or whatever you decide to set up . It’s all so confusing trying to remember which is which.

Edit. I forgot to add that you can assign 3 groups of settings in addition to all the rest and assign a button to recall them. If you Lens has a button that too can be customized to change a setting or recall a group of settings.   

E.J. We really need your review and settings advice.

ah...the pleasures of growing old, I know exactly where you are coming from

The only thing that's holding it up is the two back to back DuckShops that I am running. After I get through those, I'll make it a high priority to finish up the review.

Mike in O wrote:
ah...the pleasures of growing old, I know exactly where you are coming from

You certainly got that right 

My complete a7R III unbiased review is now available - it includes a ton of set-up related stuff:
http://www.ejphoto.com/Quack%20PDF/Sony%20a7R%20III.pdf