a7 IV Setup

Back-button focus · RAW + JPEGCompanion to the a7 IV card

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Work top to bottom. The order matters: file handling before focus, focus before buttons, buttons before MR modes. Assigning a custom button to a setting you have not configured yet means doing it twice.

Budget 60 to 90 minutes. Items marked ● are the ones that cause real problems if skipped.

Ticks are saved in this browser, so you can stop and come back. CLEAR resets them when you set up a second body or start over.

Before You Reset

Do not skip this. A reset is irreversible and takes your accumulated decisions with it.

Photograph your current custom key screen Setup › Operation Customize › Custom Key/Dial Set. A .DAT backup restores settings but you cannot read it to see what you had. Phone photos of the custom key, Fn menu, and My Menu screens are your only human-readable record. Photograph your Fn menu and My Menu Fn button, then MENU › My Menu Save current settings to card Setup › Reset/Save Settings › Save/Load Settings › Save Writes to PRIVATE / SONY / SETTING / 7M4 / CAMSET Copy the .DAT off the card to your computer Leaving it on the card means one accidental format destroys the backup. Note that network and access point settings are not included in the save. Confirm firmware Setup › General settings › Version Should read 6.02 — current as of May 2026 Nothing to do if it already does. 6.02 is a maintenance release: it fixed a Focus Bracket failure and an Expand Spot display bug, and left the menu layout alone. Reset Setup › Reset/Save Settings › Setting Reset › Initialize Choose Initialize, not Camera Settings Reset Camera Settings Reset leaves custom keys and My Menu behind, which is exactly the accumulated cruft you are trying to clear. Date, time, area Setup › Area/Date/Time Set this before shooting anything or your file timestamps are wrong and sorting a shoot gets painful.

Cards & Files

Get file handling right first. Everything else is reversible; a shoot recorded wrong is not.

Format both cards in camera Setup › Memory card settings › Format Formatting in camera rather than on the computer builds the correct folder structure. Recording Media Setup › Memory card settings › Rec. Media Settings Simult. Recording for client work Two cards holding the same frames is the only real protection against card failure on a paid architecture shoot. Sort/Split is tempting but leaves you with one copy of everything. File Format Shooting › Image Quality › File Format RAW & JPEG RAW File Type Shooting › Image Quality Lossless Compressed (L) Full quality at roughly half the size of uncompressed. Plain Compressed is lossy and there is no reason to accept that on a 33MP file. JPEG Quality and Size Shooting › Image Quality Extra Fine, size L, aspect 3:2 File Settings Setup › File settings › File Settings Three characters of your choosing Renaming the prefix per context beats sorting DSC_ files later. Worth one minute now. Copyright Info Setup › File settings › Copyright Info Write copyright On, set photographer and copyright name Embedded in every file's metadata. For licensed architectural work this is the difference between an image that carries your claim and one that does not. Location Info. Link Set. Network › Smartphone Connect On for travel, off at home. Pair with Creators' App first. Pulls GPS from the phone and writes it into every file. Worth it for Rainier, where "which viewpoint was this" is a real question six months later, and for scouting a location you want to shoot again at a different hour. It costs phone battery and keeps a Bluetooth link alive, so turn it off for paid interior work where you would rather not publish a client's address in the metadata. Release w/o Card Shooting › Shutter/Silent Disable Stops you shooting a whole sequence with no card in the camera. It happens to everyone once.

Focus — Back Button

The whole point of back-button focus is that one setup covers both static and tracking work. AF-C stays on permanently: hold the button for continuous, tap and release to lock like AF-S.

Exposure & Metering

Baselines here. The per-scenario overrides get saved into MR modes at the end.

ISO AUTO range Exposure/Color › ISO Min 100, max 12800 12800 is genuinely usable on this sensor and it is what the rink needs. Cap lower and Auto ISO will hand you a slow shutter instead. ISO AUTO Min. SS Exposure/Color › ISO Standard as the baseline The single most useful exposure setting on the camera. Standard tracks focal length, which is the right default for whatever you are doing off-mode. Each MR mode then overrides it with a fixed number: 1/250 street, 1/60 interior handheld. Hockey sets shutter directly in M and ignores this. Metering Mode Exposure/Color › Metering Multi Face Priority in Multi Metering Exposure/Color › Metering On Zebra Display Exposure/Color › Zebra Display On, Custom 1 set to 100+ Live highlight-clipping warning in the finder. For interiors with windows this tells you instantly whether the window is recoverable, which the histogram only tells you after the fact. Exposure step Exposure/Color › Exposure Comp. 1/3 EV Live View Display Set. Shooting › Shooting Display Setting Effect On The finder shows your actual exposure. Turn it off only when shooting with strobes, where the ambient preview is misleading.

Stabilization & Shutter

SteadyShot Shooting › Image Stabilization On, adjustment Auto Gets focal length from the lens. Goes off on the tripod, which is why it earns a custom button. Shutter Type Shooting › Shutter/Silent Mechanical Not Auto. Auto will silently hand you the electronic shutter, which brings rolling-shutter skew on pans and banding under rink and gym lighting. Choose electronic deliberately or not at all. e-Front Curtain Shut. Shooting › Shutter/Silent On Reduces shutter shock at slow speeds. Turn off only if you shoot faster than 1/2000 with a fast lens wide open, where it can clip bokeh. Anti-flicker Set. › Anti-flicker Shoot. Shooting › Shutter/Silent Off as baseline, On in the hockey MR mode Costs a small amount of shutter responsiveness, so it is not worth leaving on everywhere. It is essential under rink lighting. Release w/o Lens Shooting › Shutter/Silent Enable Shutter When Pwr OFF Setup › Setup Option › Anti-Dust Function On Closes the shutter curtain over the sensor whenever the camera powers down, so a lens change on a dusty trail is not a lens change onto bare glass. Sensor dust shows up as spots at f/8 and above, which is exactly where you shoot buildings. The tradeoff is that the curtain is now the exposed surface, so never touch it and never blow compressed air at it.

Display

Grid Line Display + Grid Line Type Shooting › Shooting Display Display On, type Square Grid Square beats rule-of-thirds for architecture. You are checking verticals against a reference, not composing to thirds. Enable the level display Setup › Display Option › DISP (Screen Disp) Set Tick the Level screen so DISP cycles to it The digital level is off by default and it is the most useful overlay you have for buildings and interiors. Correcting a tilt in post costs resolution. Trim the DISP cycle Setup › Display Option › DISP (Screen Disp) Set Leave 3 screens: level, histogram, clean Ten screens in the cycle means never landing on the one you want. Auto Review Setup › Display Option Off Blocks the finder after every frame. You will chimp when you choose to. Finder Frame Rate Setup › Viewfinder/Monitor High Smoother finder for tracking skaters. Costs battery, so drop it back for a long architecture day if you are running low.

Custom Buttons

Every one of these maps to something the field card flags as a recurring problem. Nothing here is assigned because the slot existed.

AF-ONAF On The focus button. Everything else follows from this. C2 (top, by shutter/record)Focus Area Fastest reach on the camera — index finger, no grip change. It gets your most-changed setting: Spot for buildings, Zone for hockey, Wide for street. With the area list trimmed to five it is a couple of clicks. C1 (rear, by AF-ON)Face/Eye Subject Sits right beside the focus button, so a focus setting belongs here and your thumb is already there. Fixes the gotcha directly: on a button you check it without thinking, buried in the menu you discover it three frames into something. C3 (rear, by MENU)SteadyShot The awkward reach, which suits it. You toggle this between tripod setups, never mid-action. Two of the field card's warnings are about forgetting it. C4 (rear, by trash)APS-C S35 Shooting Your reach workaround at the rink, given 70mm is the longest you own. Doubles as Delete in playback. AELAEL Toggle Toggle rather than hold, so you can lock a reading off the ice and recompose without keeping a thumb down. Multi-selector centerFocus Standard Recenters the focus point instantly after you have pushed it into a corner. Sigma 24-70 AFL buttonEye AF The lens has its own assignable button and most people never map it. Under your left hand, which is already there.

Fn Menu

Twelve slots for things you change often but not constantly. Anything you touch every few minutes belongs on a button instead.

Assign twelve slots Setup › Operation Customize › Fn Menu Settings Drive Mode · Focus Mode · Metering Mode · White Balance · Creative Look · ISO AUTO Min. SS · Shutter Type · Anti-flicker Set. · Bracket Settings · DRO · Zebra · File Format

My Menu

The deep settings you need a few times a year and can never find. Set My Menu as the default menu tab so it opens here.

Add items MENU › My Menu › Add Item Format · Save/Load Settings · Rec. Media Settings · Copyright Info · Focus Area Limit · Face/Eye Subject · Bracket Settings · APS-C S35 · Version Display From My Menu MENU › My Menu › Display From My Menu On

MR Modes

The payoff. Set the camera up fully for a scenario, then save it to a dial position. Three on the dial, four more on the card via M1–M4.

How to save one

Configure the camera exactly as you want it, then MENU › Shooting › Shooting Mode › Camera Set. Memory and pick a slot. Anything you change while sitting in an MR mode reverts when you leave it.

MR 1 — Street A · f/5.6 · Auto ISO 100–6400 · min SS 1/250 · AF-C · Wide · Human recognition · Multi metering Set the ISO range to 6400 before you save the slot, not the global 12800. MR modes store the ISO range, so this is the one place the cap can differ per scenario, and on the street a slower shutter is a better trade than ISO 12800. MR 2 — Hockey M + Auto ISO · 1/1000 · f/2.8 · ISO cap 12800 · AF-C · Zone · +0.7 EV · Cont. Hi · Anti-flicker Shoot. on · mechanical · fixed Kelvin WB MR 3 — Architecture A · f/8 · ISO 100 · AF-S · Spot S · Multi metering · −0.3 EV · 2-sec timer · SteadyShot off Saved in AF-S, not DMF. Acquire once with AF-ON, then flip the lens to MF so nothing can move it. The lens switch is the manual override on this body, and it is what the field card recipes assume. M1 on card — Interior bracketed M · f/8 · ISO 100 · Cont. Bracket 5 frames 2.0 EV · self-timer during bracket · AF-S then MF · SteadyShot off · fixed WB M2 on card — Focus stack, detail work M · f/5.6 · ISO 100 · Focus Bracket · AF-S · Spot S · Exposure Smoothing on · SteadyShot off · 2-sec timer For millwork, trim, and product detail where you need front-to-back sharpness without stopping down into diffraction. The field card's aperture rule says stack rather than go past f/11, and 6.02 is the firmware that made this dependable. Step and frame count live in the field card recipe, since they change with distance. M3 on card — Interior available light A · f/5.6 · Auto ISO 100–6400 · min SS 1/60 · AF-S · Spot S · Multi metering · SteadyShot on · fixed Kelvin WB The handheld walkthrough. It is the one interior mode that wants SteadyShot on, which is easy to get wrong coming straight off a tripod job, so bank it in a slot rather than rebuilding it under time pressure. M4 stays free.

Verify & Bank It

Test each MR mode Turn to each position, shoot a frame, confirm the settings actually stuck. Saving an MR slot before you finished configuring is the classic mistake. Confirm back-button focus Half-press the shutter and check nothing focuses. If it does, AF w/ shutter is still on. Shoot a frame and check metadata Confirm copyright fields, filename prefix, and that both cards received the file. Save the new configuration to card Setup › Reset/Save Settings › Save/Load Settings › Save This is now your restore point. Copy it to your computer alongside the old one and label both clearly. Fill in the button map on the field card The card has a blank grid for exactly this, with eight rows to match the eight assignments in section 06: C1 to C4, AF-ON, AEL, the multi-selector center, and the Sigma's AFL button.