Sony A7RV - Dual back button focus.

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davetommo57

davetommo57

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Hi all, my first post from Barrow-in-Furness, UK. Hopefully this will drop into the correct area in the Forum.
Recently switched to Sony from Canon and I am trying to configure my A7Rv to enable dual bbf as I had on my Canon R5.
I have got the Af-on button to do as I want (AF, wide tracking, animal/bird etc.), however I also want the AEL button to enable centre spot that is moveable with the joystick.
I have searched YouTube to death, messed with menu changes etc., Custom Recall is mentioned but am at a loss to set it as I want.
Can anyone help please with a walkthrough or link to assist me to set this configuration.

Many thanks, Dave
 
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davetommo57 said:
Hi all, my first post from Barrow-in-Furness, UK. Hopefully this will drop into the correct area in the Forum.
Recently switched to Sony from Canon and I am trying to configure my A7Rv to enable dual bbf as I had on my Canon R5.
I have got the Af-on button to do as I want (AF, wide tracking, animal/bird etc.), however I also want the AEL button to enable centre spot that is moveable with the joystick.
I have searched YouTube to death, messed with menu changes etc., Custom Recall is mentioned but am at a loss to set it as I want.
Can anyone help please with a walkthrough or link to assist me to set this configuration.

Many thanks, Dave
Click to expand...

i understand that you want to replicate how your Canon was set-up but to get the most out of the Sony AF you actually need to tweak things a bit. One of the reasons is that eye AF, tracking in the viewfinder and AF area mode are completely independent from each other. Some combinations work well in some situations and not as well in others (tracking doesn’t like shimmering water, or likes it too much actually ). Learning what combo to activate, and how to get there fast will move you from getting 90% of the potential to 99%

‘’my advice is to get Steve’s ebook for the A1 - it’s the best advice you’ll find out there and 95% applies - especially everything on how to set up the buttons. His set-up is very intuitive (I find) and it didn’t take me long to adapt from Nikon (and canon before that). Actually that transition was a lot easier than from canon to Nikon. It’s really worth the effort to squeeze everything out of the A7R5.
 
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There are a couple different ways to do this. But first thing to note is that if you want to be able to move around the spot AF mode then you will need to make that your primary AF mode and program AEL to "AF-ON". Then use one of the following methods to program your AF-ON button to be Wide+Tracking. This is because when you are switching into the alternative AF mode you can't really move the AF point around. If you have Spot AF as your primary mode then you can move it around.

So two methods are:
1) Registered AF mode. See: https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2230/v1/en/contents/TP0002924532.html
With registered AF mode you switch into the AF mode you want to register (this would be your Wide+Tracking) and hold down the Fn key till it says it is registered. Then you set your AF-ON button to "Reg AF Area+AF-ON". You will set your AE-L button to "AF-ON" and set your main AF mode to Spot AF (whichever size you choose). Then if you press AE-L it will AF with the Spot AF. If you hold down AF-ON it will switch to Wide+Tracking and perform AF as long as you hold down the button.

2) Registered Custom Shoot Set which is recalled via "Recall Custom Hold": https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2230/v1/en/contents/TP0002924542.html
With this method you would again set your AE-L to "AF_ON" and set your main AF mode to the Spot AF size you want.
Then you would use one of the three Custom Shoot Sets...deselect everything except for the AF Mode (which you would change to Wide+Tracking) and AF-ON.
Then you customize the AF-ON button to be Recall Custom Hold (1,2 or 3)

The help guide links explain the setup fairly well.
Should be noted that among the AF modes there is Center, Large Flex Spot, Med Flex Spot, Small Flex Spot and Expand Flex Spot. Just note that Center is the same size as Large Flex Spot but Center can't be moved around so don't use that one.
Also note that with Sony all the AF modes can either be used with Real Time Tracking or without Real Time Tracking. This is independent of whether the camera is doing subject/face/eye detect as that can work in Tracking and non-Tracking versions of any AF mode. And you can always turn off subject detect but still use Tracking modes.
 
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When shooting video with the a7Rv, unlike any other Sony camera to date, you can use custom buttons to engage tracking (instead of having to touch the screen to track)
I'd highly recommend you watch this video by PMR
 
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