Lessons
Class Introduction
05:40 2Sony A7 Mark II: Overview
15:53 3Photography Basics
07:36 4Basic Controls
08:12 5Panorama Controls
04:44 6Mode Dial and Exposure Compensation
10:47 7Custom Key Settings
06:27 8Focus Area
08:45Multi Interface Shoe
02:31 10Back Side: Navigation
11:02 11Function Button: Modes
22:40 12Display Options
10:18 13Left and Right Side: Navigation
15:26 14Bottom and Front: Navigation
03:45 15Sony Lens Options
15:37 16Camera Menu: 1
09:29 17Camera Menu: 2
06:01 18Camera Menu: 3
02:42 19Camera Menu: 4
05:02 20Camera Menu: 5
08:31 21Camera Menu: 6
08:46 22Camera Menu: 7
11:32 23Camera Menu: 8
05:39 24Camera Menu: 9
07:16 25Custom Set-Up: 1
04:42 26Custom Set-Up: 2
05:33 27Custom Set-Up: 3
09:19 28Custom Set-Up: 4
04:24 29Custom Set-Up: 5
09:35 30Custom Set-Up: 6
03:53 31Custom Set-Up: 7
07:12 32Custom Set-Up: 8
02:41 33Wireless Options
03:44 34Application and Play Menus
17:42 35Set-Up Menu: 1-6
16:01 36Camera Operation
09:21Lesson Info
Display Options
On the top of this, something new, the display button and by hitting this and cycling through this, you can cycle through different types of display screens depending on how much information you want versus how clean and image you want to look at. And so when you're looking through the viewfinder on the top of the camera, this is just an information screen on the back of the camera uses I think a little bit less power than sending the signal all the way back for the video, just data about how you have your camera set and so you can choose which one of these options you see by going into the display button options. So the options that you can see in both the e e v f and the lcd is first off know, display information, and if I had to have a complaint and this is not directed towards sony, this is directed to all camera manufacturers. When I look at my image, I do not want any information over the image and so on this one it's still showing us the mode in the battery life, which is nice t...
o have, but I just don't want anything on top of my image, we have one that shows us our history, graham, which is a nice full, featured a half because I'll have to say that most cameras give u a visual exposure meter that's going to show you this level that goes back and forth between plus and minus I've always thought sony was a little cheap because they just have that plus and minus you can see it says minus zero point three down there and they don't have that nice big visual indicator but to be honest with you, that exposure indicator that we've had in cameras for the last well since they became digital back in the eighties is very simplistic and I think the history graham is what's going to eventually replace it and so I'ma be big fan of having that little history ram I just wish they could just shrink it a little bit and get it out of the frame a bix I don't like stuff cluttering up my composition we have another one which helps me out quite a bit from time to time I'm always getting cricket horizons just by a little bit so they have a level system that tells you if you are tilting the camera left or right on the back of the camera the lcd there is one that gives you even more information about the settings of the camera and then you have one called four viewfinder which is all information no image at all and so let's take a close look at this one and just kind of take a quick look at our major camera settings along the bottom the mm. In this case stands for metered manual. You can also have exposure compensation down there. Ah, lot of some general settings about how the camera is set up along the top. A lot of your mohr important mode functions, control functions are going to be set up on either side of the camera. And so I like the information, but I like being able to look at my image to compose for focusing and composition reasons. So I usually leave this stuff turned off unless I'm in the process of changing features quite quickly on the camera. So that is the display. And just remember that you just keep pressing that and it cycles through the different modes on the camera. All right, custom number four right now, on this camera, this is programmed to do nothing. When you do get in the playback mode, it is a garbage one. But this is one that you can go in. There is currently no programming in sea foreign. So when you get into the button programming that's probably one of the first ones that you could go put a program in, we do have our playback. So let's talk about the playback, because when you put this cameron to playback, it does change the controls on the back of the camera and what they do. So if you want to look at the next image, you could turn any one of the many different dials on the camera to go forward and back through the images you can of course hit the garbage can button to delete your images if you want to zoom in I mean your images you can use the zoom in button and zooming back you can use the thumbnails now let me turn my camera on and let's go ahead and play back an image and this one seems like it's a decent exposure and so I can of course hit the display but in and change the size another little minor gripe you know I'm not beaten down on this camera I just want to point out things that no there's, nothing wrong with your camera what the complaints I have is when I hit the magnify button it doesn't instantly happen and I'm sorry I do like instant gratification from time to time and so when I press this plus button it is normal for it to take a moment for it to zoom in. And so now I can zoom around on this image and I can zoom in even closer to see is this image sharp and I'm using the little control buttons on the back of the camera to scan around now to go minus there's a thumbnail button up here and I can start zooming back so that I can see a larger area and I could just keep coming all the way back. I could hit menu to exit out of this, but I'm just gonna keep coming back to see how far back I can go and you can get back to the full image and then you could hit the button again and you can go to thumbnails, which might make it easier for scrolling around and looking for different images that you've shot and so realized that you can screw, call the way out or go back in, and you can even go all the way back to a calendar. So, for instance, if you were traveling for several days, you could go back to a previous day or a previous week without trying to go through your images one at a time. And so that's, what the zoom out and zoom in button and then you can change buttons here. Yes, what question, from online we have m folks who's wondering, does the seven are two seem fast to you and shooting? Reviewing your images, et cetera. You mentioned just now that the magnification is slow to see any other issues with speed navigating the yeah, speed is a little bit of it issue, and I'm think I'm gonna maybe. Put that on the forty two megapixels so let's just do a little experiment let's just shoot a burst of pictures and so I haven't an aperture priority I have it in high speed motor drive and I'm just going to shoot a little bit okay have chosen a very slow shutter speed but you'll notice all right let's crank up the s o we're at one hundred let's just crank this up and have some faster shutter speeds here okay? So one of the things to watch on the back of the camera is this red light down in the bottom right of the corner and I'm just gonna hold it there so I don't know what we should about twelve shots there may be and so it actually well, let's double check how does john have his camera set up? Ah he's got it set on fine j pick let's put it on raw. All right. So now let's give this another try all right? And so you can see that red light down here that is processing the images. Now if I want to go into the menu system it's kind of locked out if I want to play back the image well, it did get me there nice and quickly and if I want to zoom in took me a little moment there and I'm not used to that slight delay like I think a lot of people are and it's, you know, it's a minor little gripe all I had to wait two seconds to see my image, but we are just used to a little bit faster standard on the other cameras, you know, I haven't tried it on the s, but you know what? We got the camera here, let's just give us a try, let me just set this one up properly will go ahead and set this too raw, and I'm going to put it in aperture priority, you know, it's nice having multiple cameras because everything is just set exactly the same, and so I'll just set this up high right here and let it focus. We have ah adaptor on here so it's not focusing quite as quickly and john forgot to put it in the motor dive mode, so let's put it in the motor drive mode and we I don't have the high speed here, but we're going to put that off, okay, here we go test ready to begin doesn't have the high speed, so it's firing slower will stop there and that light went out very quickly, so those twelve megapixel files are definitely much easier to process and the zoom in function is a little bit faster here but it's still a little bit on the slow side, so when I press this one thousand one okay, so it's it's about one second in there, so its about twice as fast assuming. And so there is a different performance level between the cameras and it's, partly to do just with that massive forty two megapixel file on that which is quite large. All right, so these are features in the playback. What else do we have in here? So we can also send to our smartphone? We're going to talk about wifi more in the second half of this class, but you can take any image and you consented to your smartphone. Now be aware that the image that it is sending to your smartphone is a reduced file size image appropriate for email type purposes. And so it's not the full forty two megapixel image and that little access lamp we talked about that turning on and so there's certain functions that you will not be able to get to while that camera is processing information quick, before you move on, jean do pre and two other people were wondering what about back button focus? I don't recall you mentioning it or did you? I mentioned it briefly. I alluded to it. The problem with this class, the frustrating part for people watching at home is that I'm going to allude to something that I will talk about later on in the class. And so you kind of have to stick with me now. I did mention it when we talked about the shutter release that you can turn off the auto focus on the shutter release. You can go into the custom buttons, and the one that I would probably go into is the f m f button on the back of the camera, and I would re program that button to be a f on. I will mention that. Maurine specifics. When I get into the custom functions on how to re program that, so it definitely can't be done. And you can choose a variety of buttons to press. And so that's. A nice feature to have.
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Ratings and Reviews
a Creativelive Student
INCREDIBLE Class! I couldn't find anything on the internet that truly explained this camera, explained what it can and can't do and what accessories would work with it. I have had my Sony A7II for awhile now, but was so overwhelmed by it, I rarely even took it out of its case. It was just easier to use my Canon 5D III. After this class, I am so excited to finally practice with and use my Sony. John is an incredible teacher. He is thorough, professional, fun and knowledgeable! Buying this class was the best investment!!! I feel like I just got the gift of a new camera because I can finally use my Sony!!! Thanks John and Thanks Creative Live!!!
Enrique Vega es
I stored my Sony A7II for more than a year since I've been Canon's user for 7 years and I felt unsure of taking this new camera which implied a different menu system, different functions, a little bit intimidating. Finally, I took a bit of valor, put my camera next to the computer monitor for then start watching this guide and I spent a great time actually. I'm amazed at how helpful and clear is the sequence of the chapters. It was enough to get to chapter ten to know all the basic controls and start taking pictures with an equivalent confidence of my good old Canon, or even better since in the chapter 8th I learned how accurate and easy to use is the focusing system, either, manual or auto (For stills I've always used manual focusing). Very informative, enjoyable and now I became a new fan of the mirrorless cameras, at the point that I'm considering to buy another two :D
VeraInAlbania
John is an excellent teacher! In fact his Fundamentals of Digital Photography 2014 was the first ever class I watched on CreativeLive, and since then I'm in love with his teaching style as well as with CreativeLive! I bought my Sony A7II in March 2015 and when I found out that John is giving a class on it I was very excited! As I expected I learnt many secrets about my camera which I had been using for 9 months already. For example about the option of focusing on the eyes, setting the buttons, making panoramas etc. The camera is still smarter than me I must admit. I am enjoying my Sony even more now since after the class I feel much more confident. Thank you John and CreativeLive for such an opportunity! I would recommend to everyone who has a Sony a7II camera and the other cameras in this line to watch this class. It's a concentrate of useful information, very detailed and to the point. I spent two days just watching the class and practicing new knowledge with my camera straight away. I had to postpone all the other life chores. And I would be ready to watch the class again after some time as it's a professional camera which needs a lot of practice!
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