The Friedman Archives Guide to Sony's A9 II

By Gary L. Friedman

Gary Friedman is renown for ebooks that combine technical insights, remarkable thoroughness, and an easy-to-read style. In this 726-page (!) book, every feature is described in remarkable detail. (Including one I'll bet you haven't read about anywhere else.)

Topics covered include:
* Gary's personal camera settings
* All of the hidden features that are NOT in the menus
* All the different ways to tether the camera, both wired and wireless
* All of the FTP options, including how you can caption, keyword, and upload everything while still in the field!
* His workflow for reducing high ISO noise using three different programs
* Untangling the alphabet soup that is video nomenclature
* How to communicate with your camera when it's off (!)

Join the legions of satisfied readers that have relied on Gary to get the most out of their digital cameras!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781794899117

Book preview

The Friedman Archives Guide to Sony’s A9 II

Professional insights for the experienced photographer

by Gary L. Friedman

Version 1.02

ISBN 978-1-79489-911-7

On The Cover

Blue Angels!  If your camera’s not fast, you’ll miss it.  1/2000th, f/4, Sony 70-200 f/4 G OSS lens. 

For Those of You Who Bought the Printed or E-Reader Edition

Let's face it, Kindles weren't designed for books with complex layouts (like with figures, tables, and graphs.)  Plus, there are a LOT of demonstrative illustrations in this book that kind of lose their effectiveness when converted to black-and-white.  And some are difficult to see on e-book reader screens like the original Kindle.

And so to offset these problems I’m offering a free, full-color, instantly-downloadable .pdf file of this ebook to all customers who bought printed books (be they color or black-and-white), or who purchased this work through the Amazon Kindle, Apple, Barnes and Noble, or any other e-reader store.  (The original .pdf file really does offer a superior user experience.  Think of it as the director’s cut regarding how the author intended the work to be seen.) 

To get your free .pdf file, just email me ([e-mail]) with a copy of your receipt and I’ll send you a download link.  Such a deal!

About the Photos

The photo pages preceding each chapter are images from the www.FriedmanArchives.com stock photo website, and were taken with a wide variety of different cameras over the past 30 years.

About the Author

Gary L. Friedman is a professional photographer who has traveled the world with both film and digital cameras.  He runs the stock image website www.FriedmanArchives.com, is associate editor of CameraCraft magazine (a thoughtful photography periodical in the UK which provides tremendous insights as well as showcasing inspirational images), and gives highly-acclaimed digital photography seminars worldwide for those who wish to improve their creative photography and learn the essentials in an intuitive manner.  Because he teaches seminars worldwide, Mr. Friedman stays in touch with the concerns and frustrations of serious shooters – the kinds of people who buy cameras like the A9 II.

Before graduating to photography he was a rocket scientist for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (you know, those guys who landed probes on Mars and sent robots like Pioneer, Voyager, Galileo, Pathfinder, Spirit, and Discovery to explore the outer solar system), where he patented the image authentication system used in high-end Canon and Nikon cameras. He has been published in books, newspapers and magazines worldwide, and was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records while in college (go ahead and search the FriedmanArchives.com website if you want to find out what he did to get included). 

Despite his mastery of the technical background, Mr. Friedman has an approachable and easy-going teaching style that makes his books a pleasure to read. You can read more about his background at http://friedmanarchives.com/bio.htm.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1      Wow!

1.1

      

Major Features

1.1.1      Near-Global Shutter

1.1.2      Voice Memo

1.1.1      Download Images While Your Camera’s Still In your Bag

1.1.2      Tethered Shooting in Multiple Ways

1.1.3      Improved Eye AF

1.1.4      Animal Eye AF

1.1.1      Time-Lapse Interval Function

1.1.2      Customization and Hidden Features

1.1.3       My Menu and My Dial

1.1.4      No more 29 Minute Videos!

1.1.5      Better TouchScreen Operation

1.1.6      Rate your Images, then Jump Around

1.1.7      USB 3.0

1.1.8      Expanded Metering Modes

1.1.9      RAW + XFINE JPEGS

1.1.10      S&Q (Slow and Quick) movie modes

1.1.11      Bluetooth-based GPS Alternative

1.1.12      Can shoot 2 Kinds of videos simultaneously

1.1.1      Locking Exposure Compensation Dial

1.1.2      Better Ergonomics

1.1.3      New Multi-Interface Shoe that supports Digital Audio Interface.

1.1.4      14-bit Uncompressed RAW

1.2

      

Software

Chapter 2      Essential Configuration

2.1

      

My Personal Camera Settings

2.2

      

Variations on a Theme

2.2.1      Suggested Configuration for shooting portraits

2.2.2      Suggested Configuration for Landscapes

2.2.3      Suggested Configuration for shooting Sports

2.2.4      Suggested Configuration for Shooting Kids and Pets

2.2.5      Suggested Configuration for Video

2.2.6      Suggested Configuration for Legacy Glass

2.3

      

My Button Assignments

2.4

      

Back Button Focus Suggestions

2.5

      

Just Pick Two

2.6

      

What's Incompatible with RAW?

Chapter 3      For DSLR Owners

3.1

      

Names of Parts

3.2

      

Ways to Navigate

3.3

      

If You’re Used to Shooting Nikon

3.4

      

If You’re Used to Shooting Canon

3.5

      

Exposure Mode Dial

3.6

      

The Fn Button

3.7

      

Focusing Essentials

3.7.1      Contrast AF vs. Phase Detect AF

3.7.2      Face Detection

3.7.3      Eye AF

3.7.4      The Easiest Method of All

3.7.5      Touch Screen Operation

3.7.6      Touch Focus with LCD

3.7.7      Touch Focusing using the EVF

3.7.8      Focus Mode Dial

3.7.9      Focus Area (including Tracking)

3.7.10        Quickly Switching between Wide Area AF and Spot AF

3.7.11      Focus Confirmation

3.8

      

Drive Mode Dial

3.8.1      Single-Shot Advance

3.8.2      Continuous Advance (3 Speeds)

3.8.3      Self-Timers

3.8.4      Bracketing

3.8.5      Self-Timer During Bracket

3.8.6      What exactly changes when you bracket?

3.8.7      White Balance Bracketing

3.8.8      DRO Bracketing

3.9

      

Metering Modes

3.10

      

Methods of Customizing

3.11

      

Configuring the DISPlay

3.12

      

Intelligent Auto

3.13

      

Flash

3.14

      

Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Playback Mode

3.15

      

Playing Back a burst

3.16

      

Quick Guide for Video

3.17

      

Shooting Tethered(ly)

3.18

      

Remote Triggering Methods

3.19

      

Sony Lens Nomenclature

3.20

      

Viewfinder Eyepiece Diopter Correction

3.21

      

Screen Icon Glossary

Chapter 4      Wi-Fi, NFC, and FTP

4.1

      

What is NFC?

4.2

      

Setting Things Up – Smartphone Functions

4.2.1      Install Imaging Edge Mobile

4.2.2      Transferring an Image To your Smartphone

4.2.3      Configuring NFC on your Smartphone

4.3

      

Now What?

4.3.1      Send (resized) images to your smartphone for social Media

4.3.2      Control With Smartphone

4.4

      

Connecting to an Access Point

4.5

      

Uploading Files Using PlayMemories Home

4.5.1      Configuring PlayMemories Home

4.5.2      Initiate your Download

4.6

      

Uploading Files via FTP

4.6.1      Using FTP via Cat5 Cable

4.6.2      Using FTP over Wi-Fi

4.6.3      FTP Data Throughput

4.6.4      Encrypting Your Uploads

4.7

      

Geotagging your images via your smartphone

4.8

      

Uploading to News Agencies

4.8.1      Transfer and Tagging Add-On

4.8.2      If you chose FTP Transfer Func. of the Camera

4.8.3      If you chose Import using a USB Cable

4.8.4      If you Chose Import using Imaging Edge Mobile

4.8.5      Next: Keyword / Caption, Crop and Upload your images

Chapter 5      The Camera Settings 1 Menus

5.1

      

File Format

5.2

      

RAW File Type

5.3

      

JPEG Quality

5.4

      

JPEG Image Size

5.5

      

Aspect Ratio

5.6

      

APS-C / Super 35mm

5.7

      

Long Exposure NR

5.8

      

Hi ISO NR

5.9

      

Color Space

5.10

      

Lens Comp.

5.10.1      Shading

5.10.2      Chromatic Aberration

5.10.3      Distortion

5.11

      

Self-Timer Type

5.12

      

Bracket Settings

5.13

      

Interval Shooting Function

5.13.1      Suggested Intervals for Various Subjects

5.13.2      How to Turn Your Interval Sequence into a Movie

5.14

      

Camera1 / Camera2 Recall

5.15

      

Camera1 / Camera2 Memory

5.16

      

(Memory Recall) Select Media

5.17

      

Reg Cust Shoot Set

5.18

      

Priority Set in AF-S / AF-C

5.19

      

Focus Area

5.19.1      Wide

5.19.2      Zone

5.19.3      Center

5.19.4      Flexible Spot (S, M, or L)

5.19.5      Expand Flexible Spot

5.19.6      Tracking

5.20

      

Focus Settings

5.21

      

Focus Area Limit

5.22

      

Switch V/H AF Area

5.23

      

AF Illuminator

5.24

      

Face / Eye AF Setting

5.25

      

AF Track sens (for Stills)

5.26

      

Aperture Drive in AF

5.27

      

AF w/ shutter

5.28

      

Pre-AF

5.29

      

Eye-start AF (A-mount only)

5.30

      

AF Area Registration

5.31

      

Delete Registered AF Area

5.32

      

Focus Frame Color

5.33

      

AF Area Auto Clear

5.34

      

Disp. Cont. AF area

5.35

      

Phase Detect. Area

5.36

      

Circ. Of Focus Point

5.37

      

AF Micro Adj. (A-mount Lenses Only)

5.38

      

Exposure Compensation

5.39

      

Reset EV Comp.

5.40

      

ISO Setting

5.41

      

Metering Mode

5.41.1      Average, Center-weighted and Multi-Segment Metering

5.41.2      Spot Metering And AEL

5.41.3      Highlight

5.41.4      A Different Method of Handling Difficult Lighting

5.41.5      Summary of Metering Modes

5.42

      

Face Priority in Multi-Segment Metering

5.43

      

Spot Metering Point

5.44

      

Exposure Step

5.45

      

AEL w/ Shutter

5.46

      

Exposure Std. Adjust

5.47

      

Flash Mode

5.47.1      Flash Off

5.47.2      Auto Flash

5.47.3      Fill Flash

5.47.4      Slow Sync

5.47.5      Rear Sync

5.48

      

Flash Compensation

5.49

      

Exp.comp.set

5.50

      

Wireless Flash

5.51

      

Red Eye Reduction

5.52

      

White Balance

5.52.1      Auto White Balance and Pre-Set White Balance

5.52.2       Tweaking the Pre-Set White Balance

5.52.3      The Color Temperature setting

5.52.4      Custom White Balance

5.53

      

Priority Set in AWB

5.54

      

DRO / Auto HDR

5.55

      

Creative Style

5.55.1       Frequently Asked Questions

5.55.2      Combining Settings

5.55.3      B&W Mode

5.56

      

Picture Effect

5.56.1      Toy Camera

5.56.2      Pop Color and Posterization

5.56.3      Retro Photo

5.56.4      Partial Color and Soft High Key

5.56.5      High-Contrast Monochrome

5.56.6      Rich-Tone Monochrome

5.56.7      How do these effects differ from before?

5.57

      

Shutter AWB Lock

5.58

      

Focus Magnifier

5.58.1      AF with Focus Magnifier

5.59

      

Focus Magnification Time

5.60

      

Initial Focus Mag.

5.61

      

AF in Focus Magnification

5.62

      

MF Assist

5.63

      

Peaking Setting

5.64

      

Anti-flicker Shoot

5.65

      

Face Registration

5.66

      

Register Faces Priority

Chapter 6      The Camera Settings 2 Menus

6.1

      

Movie Exposure Mode

6.2

      

S&Q Exposure Mode

6.3

      

(Movie) File Format

6.4

      

Record Setting

6.5

      

Slow and Quick Settings

6.6

      

Proxy Recording

6.7

      

(Movie) AF Drive Speed

6.8

      

(Movie) AF Tracking Sensitivity

6.9

      

(Movie) Auto Slow Shutter

6.10

      

(Movie) Initial Focus Magnification

6.11

      

Audio Recording

6.12

      

Audio Rec Level

6.13

      

Audio Level Display

6.14

      

Audio Out Timing

6.15

      

Wind Noise Reduction

6.16

      

Marker Display / Marker Settings

6.17

      

Video Light Mode

6.18

      

Movie w/ Shutter

6.19

      

Shutter Type

6.20

      

e-Front Curtain Shut.

6.20.1      Banding

6.21

      

Release w/o Lens

6.22

      

Release w/o Card

6.23

      

SteadyShot

6.24

      

SteadyShot Settings

6.25

      

Zoom

6.26

      

Zoom Setting

6.26.1      Differences between CIZ and Digital Zoom

6.27

      

Zoom Ring Rotate

6.28

      

DISP Button

6.28.1      Graphic Display

6.28.2      Level

6.28.3      Histogram

6.28.4      For Viewfinder (Rear LCD only)

6.28.5      No Display

6.29

      

FINDER / MONITOR

6.30

      

Finder Frame Rate

6.31

      

Zebra Setting

6.32

      

Grid Line

6.33

      

Exposure Set. Guide

6.34

      

Live View Display

6.35

      

Shoot. Start Disp.

6.36

      

Shoot. Timing Disp.

6.37

      

Cont. Shoot Length

6.38

      

Auto Review

6.39

      

(Images) Custom Key

6.39.1      Bright Monitoring

6.39.2      Flash Exposure Lock / Hold

6.40

      

(Movie) Custom Key

(Movie) Custom Key – When Shooting Pictures

6.41

      

(Playback) Custom Key

6.42

      

Function Menu Set.

6.43

      

My Dial Settings

6.44

      

Dial Setup

6.45

      

Av/Tv Rotate

6.46

      

Dial Exposure Compensation

6.47

      

Function Ring (lens)

6.48

      

Func. Of Touch Operation

6.49

      

MOVIE Button

6.50

      

Lock Operation Parts

6.51

      

Audio Signals

Chapter 7      Network Menu

7.1

      

Send to Smartphone Function

7.1.1      (Px) Sending Target

7.1.2      Cnct. During Power OFF

7.2

      

Send to Computer

7.3

      

FTP Transfer Func.

7.4

      

View on TV

7.5

      

Ctrl w/ Smartphone

7.6

      

PC Remote Function

7.6.1      USB cable.

7.6.1      Wired LAN

7.6.2      Wi-Fi Access Point

7.6.3      Wi-Fi Direct

7.7

      

Airplane Mode

7.8

      

Wi-Fi Settings

7.8.1      WPS Push

7.8.2      Access Point Settings

7.8.3      Frequency Band

7.8.4      Display Wi-Fi Information

7.8.5      SSID/PW Reset

7.9

      

Bluetooth Settings

7.9.1      Setting up Bluetooth / Geo-Tag feature for the first time

7.9.2      How do I see the geo-tagged Coordinates?

7.10

      

Location Information Link Settings

7.11

      

Bluetooth Remote Control

7.12

      

Wired LAN Settings

7.13

      

Edit Device Name

7.14

      

Import Root Certificate

7.15

      

Security (IPsec)

7.16

      

Reset Network Set.

Chapter 8      The Playback Menu Settings

8.1

      

Protect

8.2

      

Rotate

8.3

      

Delete

8.4

      

Rating

8.4.1      The Menu Method

8.4.2      The Pre-Assigned Key Method

8.4.3      Recalling the Rated Images

8.5

      

Rating Setting (Custom Key)

8.6

      

Specify Printing

8.6.1      Printing the Date on the image

8.6.2      Canceling DPOF files

8.7

      

Voice Memo

8.8

      

Voice Memo Playback Volume

8.9

      

Copy

8.10

      

Photo Capture

8.11

      

Enlarge Image

8.12

      

Enlarge Init. Mag.

8.13

      

Enlarge Initial Pos.

8.14

      

Continuous Playback for Interval

8.15

      

Playback Speed for Interval

8.16

      

Slide Show

8.16.1      PhotoTV HD and Bravia Sync

8.17

      

Select PB media

8.18

      

View Mode

8.19

      

Image Index

8.20

      

Display as Group

8.21

      

Display Rotation

8.22

      

Image Jump Setting

Chapter 9      The Setup (Toolbox Icon) Menu Settings

9.1

      

Monitor Brightness

9.2

      

Viewfinder (EVF) Brightness

9.3

      

Finder Color temp.

9.4

      

Volume Settings

9.5

      

Delete Confirmation

9.6

      

Power Save Start Time

9.7

      

Auto Power OFF Temp.

9.8

      

NTSC/PAL Selector

9.9

      

Cleaning Mode

9.10

      

Touch Operation

9.11

      

Touch Panel / Pad

9.12

      

Touch Pad Settings

9.12.1      Operation in Vertical Orientation

9.12.2      Touch Position Mode

9.12.3      Operation Area

9.13

      

Demo Mode

9.14

      

TC/UB Settings

9.15

      

IR Remote Ctrl

9.16

      

HDMI Settings

9.16.1      HDMI Resolution

9.16.2      24p / 60p Output

9.16.3      HDMI Info. Display

9.16.4      TC Output

9.16.5      REC Control

9.16.6      CTRL FOR HDMI

9.17

      

4K Output Select

9.18

      

USB Connection

9.19

      

USB LUN Setting

9.20

      

USB Power Supply

9.21

      

Language

9.22

      

Date/Time Setup

9.23

      

Area Setting

9.24

      

IPTC Information

9.25

      

Copyright Info

9.26

      

Write Serial Number

9.27

      

Format

9.28

      

Recording Media Settings

9.29

      

Select REC Folder

9.30

      

New Folder

9.31

      

(Image) File/Folder Settings

9.31.1      File Number

9.31.2      Set File Name

9.31.3      Folder Name

9.32

      

(Movie) File Settings

9.32.1      File Number

9.32.2      Series Counter Reset

9.32.3      File Name Format

9.32.4      Title name Settings

9.33

      

Recover Image DB

9.34

      

Display Media Info.

9.35

      

Version

9.36

      

Save/Load Settings

9.37

      

Setting Reset

Chapter 10      My Menu Setting

Chapter 11      Movie Mode

11.1

      

Video Nomenclature Simplified

11.2

      

So How Do I Know What Video Format to Choose?

11.3

      

Choosing a Frame Rate and a Bit Rate

11.4

      

4K Shooting

11.5

      

Capturing a 4K Freeze Frame

11.6

      

Manual Control in Movie Mode

11.7

      

Slow-Motion Videos – 2 Ways

11.7.1      The in-camera way

11.7.2      The higher quality way (Slowdown only)

11.8

      

Shooting 2 Video Formats At Once

11.9

      

Playing back Videos

11.10

      

Cable Harness

11.11

      

External Microphones

11.12

      

Monitoring Video and Audio

11.13

      

Importing your Files to your Computer

Chapter 12      Wireless Flash and Advanced Flash Topics

12.1

      

Introduction

12.2

      

Flash Models

12.3

      

Bounce Flash

12.3.1      Diffusing your Light

12.4

      

Wireless Flash

12.5

      

As Simple As It Gets

12.6

      

The New Wireless Protocol

12.7

      

Groups and Channels

12.8

      

Will the Control Bursts Affect Exposure?

12.9

      

Manual Flash Mode

12.9.1      To Put the 60 Into Manual Slave Mode

12.9.2      To put the 43 into Manual Slave mode

12.10

      

A Portable Studio Setup

12.11

      

High Speed Sync (HSS) flash

12.11.1      How HSS works

12.11.2      How to Activate HSS

12.12

      

To Probe Further

Chapter 13      Digital Imaging Topics

13.1

      

An Introduction to RAW

13.2

      

The Bayer Filter and Demosaicing

13.3

      

How Your Camera Creates A JPG

13.4

      

RAW, TIF, and JPG Compared

13.5

      

JPG Compression Artifacts

13.6

      

Any Other Upsides to Shooting .JPG?

13.7

      

Reducing Noise via RAW processing

13.7.1      RAW Processing using Sony's Imaging Edge software

13.7.2      RAW Processing using catpure One Express

13.7.3      RAW Processing using Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW

13.7.4      So which process won?

13.8

      

Image Size and Resolution

13.9

      

Hot Pixels

Chapter 14      Additional Resources

14.1

      

Memory Cards

14.1.1      Memory Card Corruption Issues

14.2

      

Vertical Grip

14.3

      

3rd Party Batteries

14.4

      

This Charges All Sony Batteries

14.5

      

In-camera quick charge

14.6

      

External USB Battery

14.7

      

External Microphones

14.8

      

And more…

14.9

      

Upsells

14.9.1      Books on Other Cameras

14.9.2      An Introduction to Sony’s Wireless Flash (video)

14.9.3      Ways to ‘Wow!’ with Wireless Flash

14.9.4      Cameracraft Magazine

14.9.5      The Friedman Archives Blog

14.9.6      Consulting – One-on-One Camera Help

14.9.7      The Road to China

14.9.8      The Maui Xaphoon

14.10

      

Epilogue

Appendix A      A Condensed Guide to the Basics

A.1

      

Shutter Speeds

A.2

      

F/Stops

A.3

      

ISO

A.4

      

Focal Length

A.5

      

Tradeoffs

A.6

      

Program Shift

A.7

      

The Histogram Display

Brightness range, sensors, and the human eye

Using the Histogram for a finer degree of control

A.8

      

The Secrets of Light and Composition

A.9

      

Writing with Light

A.10

      

Composition – The Rule of Thirds

Out of place shot

Texture

Classical Portrait

Environmental Portrait

Hey, Look at Me!

Appendix B      A Cookbook for Special Shooting Situations

B.1

      

Introduction

B.2

      

Street Photography

B.3

      

Fireworks

B.4

      

Artistic Waterfalls

B.5

      

Stage Performances / Rock Concerts

B.6

      

Nighttime Time Exposures

B.7

      

Shooting in Snow

B.8

      

Outdoor Group Portraits

B.9

      

Sunsets and Silhouettes

B.10

      

Nighttime Sports

B.11

      

Christmas Lights

B.12

      

Product Shots

B.13

      

Candlelight Shots

B.14

      

Star Trails

Appendix C      Using Legacy Glass

C.1

      

For Manual Focus Lenses

C.2

      

For Autofocus Lenses

C.3

      

A Short List of the Most Popular Adapters

C.3.1      Sony A-mount Lenses

C.3.2      M42 / Pentax Screw Mount

C.3.3      Leica M / Zeiss ZM

C.3.4      Leica R

C.3.5      Canon EF (EOS)

C.3.6      Canon FD

C.3.7      Nikon

Adapters that work with Any Nikon F lens

C.3.8      Pentax

C.3.9      Minolta MC/MD

C.3.10      Olympus OM

C.3.11      Contax

C.3.12      Sony E-mount lenses

Appendix D      Tip Cards for your Smartphone

Chapter 1      Wow!

Back in 2017, The U.S.’ Professional Golf Association had a problem.  Every time a golfer took a swing, a cacophony of shutter sounds filled the golf course, causing what can conservitably be called a distraction. (Not unlike the kinds of sounds you still hear at press conferences to this day.)  The PGA addressed this problem by forcing photographers to remain a certain distance away, mandating shooting with telephotos.

To get closer, some photographers used soundproof blimps to attenuate the sound, but those can get heavy in a hurry, and just try changing lenses or memory cards in the field with those.  Some photographers tried switching their cameras to silent shooting mode, which resulted in disasterous distortion in the moving subject (Figure 1-1).

Then the original Sony Alpha 9 came along, which changed everything.

The A9 introduced a new sensor architecture which pulled the data off the sensor nearly instantaneiously, providing the world something extremely close to the holy grail of a global shutter.  No other camera (except maybe Sony’s RX100 VII, which uses the same sensor technology) can combine silent shooting with distortion-free imagery.  As many bloggers around the world have proclaimed, this camera is a game changer. It is now the camera of choice for sports, wedding, and theatrical photographers worldwide.  And the PGA has officially proclaimed Only the Sony A9 is allowed to stand close to our golfers in official tournaments.

So congratulations; you own one of the most technologically advanced cameras in the world!

So let me give you a quick walkthrough of the A9 II’s major features.  (Well, just the highlights.  There are actually so many noteworthy features that it would take a whole book to list them all.)  (Oh, wait…)

1.1      Major Features

1.1.1      Near-Global Shutter

This one takes a little time to explain, but it warrants your attention not because nobody else has been able to do it, but because there are both benefits and limitations that come with a global electronic shutter.

First, the problem: Most sensors can't read out their pixels while being exposed to light.  (The problem used to be worse – most sensors couldn't zero out their pixels while being exposed to light.  That's why the Sony A7R, which used a sensor originally designed for the Nikon D800, had to close the shutter first then open it again before each picture.)

Progress has been made.  The first close-then-open shutter action just described is now completely optional (but you can restore that behavior via the combination of MENU --> 2 --> 5 --> e-front curtain shutter --> Off and MENU --> 2 --> 5 --> Shutter Type --> Mechanical Shut.)

But once an image has been captured, it still needs to be read out from the sensor, one row at a time, starting from the top and ending at the bottom.  This is why the 2nd shutter curtain is still there – to block out the light while that happens.  But shutters are noisy, generate internal vibrations, and slow down your shot-to-shot time.

What if you wanted to offload your data without closing a shutter first, like it's done with video?  This is the electronic shutter concept, and in the past it's had a major drawback: with earlier sensors, it could take as long as ¼ second for the entire sensor to be read out.  In the meantime, new light is coming in, and so the rows at the bottom of the sensor get updated while the top rows don't.  What's the problem with that scenario?  Figure 1-1 provides two good examples.  With an electronic shutter, where new light is not removed from the sensor as the data is read out, you could often see artifacts from moving objects – specifically, straight lines would be bent, or more likely tilted. 

So when Sony went about designing the sensor for the A9 II, they put an emphasis on getting the data off the sensor as quickly as possible.  It's not absolutely perfect, but for the first time sports shooters can now enjoy the benefits of electronic shutters while shooting in machine-gun mode.

Like all cutting-edge features, there's always a tradeoff.  When the electronic shutter feature is actuated, your highest selectable ISO value drops from 204,800 to 25,600. You also can't use flash with the electronic shutter because the flash duration is often 1/10,000th of a second and it still takes 1/160th of a second (or so; I haven’t been able to formally measure it) to read the sensor.  And while in theory objects that are moving EXTREMELY fast during the 1/160th readout time might still exhibit some distortion, I've been unable to actually take pictures demonstrating this.

The sensor in the A9 II is actually the same one used in the original A9; it just has a lot more computational power behind it.  This means faster autofocusing, a larger buffer, and faster FTP speed (employing a gigabit Ethernet connector).

1.1.2      Voice Memo

In the old days, when I wanted to take notes in the field I’d just record a video and speak into the camera.  Then I’d have to play each movie and figure out which image it applied to.

Now you can assign Voice Record to a button, and make verbal notes up to one minute long about pictures as you’re playing them back.  The notes are saved as a .wav file with the same filename as the picture you’re commenting on.

Wait, it gets better!  The .wav file can automatically be transcribed via Sony’s Transfer and Tagging app, which is also used for adding captions and keywords to images as they’re transferred to your smartphone or tablet.  Sony is certainly targeting working pros who work under deadline with this feature.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is that none of the import programs I tried (Lightroom, PlayMemories Home) would pull over the wav file from the memory card – you have to manualy go in and copy it over yourself.

More info about Voice Memo can be found in Section 8.7.

1.1.1      Download Images While Your Camera’s Still In your Bag

Here’s another brand new cool feature nobody’s talking about.  Let’s say you’re on your way back from another full shooting day.  Your camera’s packed away in your bag while you’re in the Jeep heading home.  You want to post an image to Instagram showing off the kind of day you’ve had, but it’s too inconvenient to dig out your camera, open your laptop, and upload everything to Lightroom just to pick one out.  You’ll have to wait a few hours until you get home, and by that time you’ll be too tired to pour through your images.

But picture this – with your camera still off and packed away, you can whip out your smartphone, wake up the camera’s CPU, download thumbnails of what you’ve shot today, specify which ones you want, download just those in high-res, post those to Instagram, and then shut off the camera – all while it’s still packed away!  Best of all it doesn’t drain the camera’s battery much because you’re just turning on its CPU, data pipeline, and wifi / Bluetooth connections; not the sensor, LCD or EVF.  It’s pretty cool, and the entire process is described in Section 7.1.2.

1.1.2      Tethered Shooting in Multiple Ways

Tethered Shooting refers to the ability to hook up your camera to your computer via a USB cable (the tether) and have the computer act as a full remote experience for your camera: You can see the live view on the computer screen, you can adjust several shooting parameters, and you can have the image automatically download to your computer after each shot. 

The A9 II offers multiple ways to do this, both via a USB cable, a CAT5 Ethernet cable, and also wirelessly (with or without an access point).  The options available to you are:

1)      PC Remote Function specifies most of your image transfer parameters – wired vs. wireless, access point vs. direct, store on computer vs. on camera (or both).  Use in conjunction with the Imaging Edge – Remote software on your computer.  (Section 7.6)

2)      Send to Computer lets you upload to a computer on your local network running Play Memories Home.  (Section 4.5)

3)      FTP Transfer Func.  You can wirelessly (or wired-ly) send one or many images to a remote FTP server anywhere in the world.  This feature has been improved to allow sending of FTP through your smartphone while out in the field without need of an access point.  You can also use special desktop software to control several A9 II cameras via physical Cat5 Ethernet cables.  (Section 4.6)

4)      Ctrl w/ Smartphone lets you shoot tethered-without-wires, and have the final image uploaded to your phone or tablet automatically.  (Section 7.5)

5)      Send to Smartphone Function, you can upload images to your smartphone, caption and keyword them with your voice, and then upload them to your favorite news agency while you’re driving home.  A great feature for photojournalists!  (Section 4.8)

Your starting point for all of the different methods begins in Section 3.17.

1.1.3      Improved Eye AF

The Eye AF feature has been improved to the point where it happens completely automatically; you need do nothing to invoke it.  (This addresses one of my long-time criticisms of earlier implementations).  The feature is so good that I have permanently abandoned my previous technique of Spot Focus – Focus Lock – Recompose --> Shoot when shooting portraits. Now I just concentrate on getting the right expression and leave the automatedness (that’s a word!!) to the camera.

More about Face Detection and Eye AF can be found in Section 5.24

1.1.4      Animal Eye AF

This is a much-heralded feature which works extraordinarily well.  Sony has trained learning algorithms by showing them thousands of pictures of cats and dogs with many different eye types; and when you set the camera to Animal Eye AF mode (MENU --> 1 --> 6 --> Face/Eye AF Set. --> Subject Detection --> Animal), it zeros in on the eyes of animals instead of those of humans.  Sony says more eye types of a greater variety of animals will be added in the future via firmware updates.  (Figure 1-5)

If you don’t have a pet around to try this out on, find a picture of an animal and try focusing on that. 

1.1.1      Time-Lapse Interval Function

Time lapse photography is where you put your camera on a tripod and have it automatically take a picture every few seconds.  If you play this sequence back quickly (or convert it into a video and play it back) it will look like time has speeded up.  Here's a quick youtube video I shot using this function, with the camera taking a picture every 10 seconds: https://youtu.be/ufpENC1oSLo .  And here’s another one animating the Northern Lights from the back of a moving ship: https://bit.ly/2N4qgI6

Your camera can perform this function natively, and details on how to do it appear in Section 5.13.

1.1.2      Customization and Hidden Features

Coming from a different camera brand?  Want to configure your new camera to work like your old camera did?  There are a lot of different ways to customize this camera:

•      You can assign functions to buttons – Up to 12 buttons plus some other controls can be re-assigned to your favorite features.  In fact, some of the more interesting features of this camera are not available in the menus – they can be accessed ONLY if you assign them to a button first! A comprehensive list of what’s assignable and what they all do can be found in Section 6.39.

•      You can assign an autofocus area and position to a button, so you can instantly switch to it should your default AF mode not do the job.  The feature is called AF Area Registration and you can read more about how to use it in Section 5.30.

•      Wait!  You can assign an autofocus area and position PLUS 10 OTHER COMMON SHOOTING SETTINGS to one button too.  That feature is called Recall Custom Hold / Register Custom Shoot Set and you can learn more about that in Section 5.17

•      Wait Wait!  You can recall nearly every setting in the 1 / 2 menues by using the three built-in memory slots, as described in Sections 5.14 and 5.15.  (And Sony has increased the number of variables that these memory slots will remember.)

•      Like Back-button focus?  You can assign focusing to one button, exposure lock to another, decoupling everything from the shutter release button except taking the picture.  I provide suggestions in Section 2.4.

1.1.3       My Menu and My Dial

After using the camera for awhile you’ll find that there are only a handful of menu items you access on a regular basis.  You can assign those items to My Menu (the rightmost menu) and create your own customized menu for fast access.  Chapter 10 goes into how to configure and use it.

There's also a new feature called My Dial which allows you to temporarily reassign both dials /wheels at the push of a button.  (Section 6.43)

1.1.4      No more 29 Minute Videos!

Once upon a time, the European Union decreed that any camera that is not classified as a camcorder must limit their video clip lengths to 29 minutes or face a tax.  That was probably meant to protect the camcorder industry from encroaching competition, but all it did is anger consumers, all the while doing nothing to keep the camcorder market from shrinking.

Anyway, that tax expired in early 2019 and so the only things keeping you from recording infinitely long videos are your battery, your memory card, and thermal shutdown.  Sony promises about 60 minutes’ worth of video recording at room temperature. 

1.1.10      S&Q (Slow and Quick) movie modes

The A9 II’s Slow and Quick Movie feature makes it easy to shoot video that plays back in slow or fast motion organically, without the need to re-encode the video footage later on (which is what you would have to do if you shot with Video File Format set to XAVC S HD and a Record Setting of 100p or 120p.).  Now you can shoot your own Benny Hill chase scene without having to learn Final Cut Pro :-) (http://bit.ly/2liUtoq ).  You can also use it for serious things, like analyzing a golf swing.

You can read more about S&Q Movie in Section 6.5.

1.1.11      Bluetooth-based GPS Alternative

For a brief period of time Sony had built GPS receivers into their older cameras, and then suddenly stopped doing so.  The most likely reason was that it was too difficult to make certain versions for different markets to comply with local laws, and probably also that smartphones can improve upon GPS’ speed and accuracy by triangulating with local cell towers, something a camera without a phone connection can’t do. 

And so your camera has been graced with a Bluetooth link so it can communicate with your smartphone’s GPS.  It works reasonably well, although the camera has to be on for 10-15 seconds before the position can be established (which, ironically, was often the case with cameras that had GPS receivers built-in).  If you shoot before the Bluetooth link is established, no positioning info gets recorded.

More details and how to set it up with your smartphone can be found in Sections 7.9 and 7.10.

1.1.12      Can shoot 2 Kinds of videos simultaneously

This is a feature made especially for videographers who are also social media moguls.  It is designed to address this very scenario: You’ve just shot some cool high-res video and you want to share it on Facebook while still in the field.  So you bump your phone to the Camera (using NFC) and transfer the video footage to the phone so that you may then upload it to Facebook.  The problem is that the 4K video footage is LARGE, it takes up a lot of space on your phone and it eats up your data plan in the process.  There’s GOT to be a better way!

Leveraging the fact that Facebook just crappifies (that’s a word!) video anyway, Sony has now given you the option of storing video in two different formats each time you shoot a video clip: The high-quality format (XAVC S 4K, XAVC S HD, or AVCHD), along with a [much] lower-quality .MP4 version which is the perfect size for uploading to social media in the field. 

You can enable this secondary proxy video file via MENU --> 2 --> 1 --> Proxy Recording --> On.  See Section 6.6 for which Record Settings allow its use, and how you can access the extra file (it’s not obvious!).

1.1.1      Locking Exposure Compensation Dial

Many users of previous A7 series cameras had their exposure compensation dial turn accidentally with normal use (especially inserting and removing from their camera bags), and so now that dial comes with a lock/unlock button on top. 

I never use it for the same reason I don’t use lens caps or cases – it would slow me down in the field, especially if I’m trying to make the image brighter / darker while looking through the electronic viewfinder.  I just take care to check if it’s been inadvertently changed periodically – a habit I’ve developed over the years using the previous generations.

1.1.2      Better Ergonomics

Bigger grip.  More tactile buttons.  Slightly better weathersealing (as long as you don’t remove your lens).  These are small things, but they mean you can better use the camera in the cold with gloves on.

1.1.3      New Multi-Interface Shoe that supports Digital Audio Interface.

This won’t mean much to most of you.  That flash hot shoe on top of the camera now accepts a digital audio feed from Sony’s newest hot-shoe microphone.  See section 14.7 for details.

1.1.4      14-bit Uncompressed RAW

Unlike most earlier cameras, the A9 II will shoot in 14-bit RAW all the time.  The only exceptions are:

•      When Long Exposure Noise Reduction is ON and the exposure is longer than 1 second.

•      When the exposure mode is set to Manaul and the shutter speed is set to BULB

•      When you’re in Continuous Shooting Mode and the RAW file type is set to Compressed

Is 14-bit RAW a big deal?  The truth is you may not notice any difference in normal shooting.  (And when I say Normal shooting I mean if you have good light and your exposure is right for that light, which is much more important to good photography than noise performance at high ISOs). 

When Nikon first introduced this 14-bit feature back in 2008, many of their customers started looking for visible differences in the 14-bit mode, but visible differences proved elusive.  The extra bits only matter if your exposure is off by a lot and you’re trying to perform extreme manipulation in order to recover detail from the shadows.  If you want to see some tests showing what little difference there actually is, here are two articles written by a Nikon owner in 2008: http://tinyurl.com/2e4nss and http://tinyurl.com/4enno8.

1.2      Software

Sony provides access to free software packages which can help with various stages of post-processing: 

1)      I find the PlayMemories Home program handy because it can import both movies of all formats and pictures in one fell swoop (they’re actually stored in different directories on the memory card, and different movie types are stored in different places).  It will also pull in videos and images from BOTH memory card slots when tethered to your PC (assuming MENU --> --> 3 --> USB Connection is set to Mass Storage, and MENU --> --> 4 --> USB Lun Setting is set to Multi.  It can show me some of the more esoteric aspects of the camera’s settings in the EXIF information (such as which focusing point was used). This information is indeed embedded in the .jpg and RAW files but programs like Photoshop or Lightroom won't always show them to you. Finally, it provides a way to transfer images to your desktop via WiFi.  You can download it from www.Sony.net/pm . (Important note: I discovered that it won’t pull over the .wav files used in the new Voice Memo feature, described in Section 8.7.)

2)      FREE image editing software called Imaging Edge - Desktop is also available from Sony.  It supports image culling, basic RAW photo editing, tethered shooting, and it’s responsible for merging several PixelShift images into one.  It’s is available by download from Sony’s Japan website.  For Windows and Mac: https://imagingedge.sony.net/en-us/ie-desktop.html

3)      Another image editing software package is Capture One Express for Sony offered by Phase One, a high-end, insanely capable image editing program that has a great reputation and normally sells for USD $200, but Sony is providing for FREE!  The Lite [sic] version can be downloaded at https://www.captureone.com/en/products/express/sony .  A full upgrade can be had for between $100 - $250, or $8 / month as a subscription.  This software has a steeper learning curve but many who have made the investment say they prefer it to Photoshop.  The pro version can be bought at https://www.captureone.com/en/store/pro-sony .

Chapter 2      Essential Configuration

New owners of recent Sony cameras often experience option shock – so many menu items and customizations are available that it literally flummoxes them.  Where to start?  This chapter is designed to address that very problem right away, so you can configure your camera in a way I’ve found to be useful.  Short descriptions are followed by hyperlinks to Section numbers where you can delve deeper into a function’s settings and learn more about the options available.

I’ll be the first to admit that it’s inappropriate to jump into this much detail so early in the book.  But I know from experience that you’ve likely gone through the menus on your own before buying this book, and have a lot of immediate questions which this section can easily answer.  Plus it gives a nice overview of some of the camera’s more nuanced capabilities beyond what you’ve read in the headlines.  Chapter 3 provides a more traditional introduction to the camera’s controls and where to find the most essential controls and features.

2.1      My Personal Camera Settings

I know from history that the most often-referenced part of my previous books has been My Personal Camera Settings, and so I’m including them up front here just to give you a jump-start and help walk you through some of the features at the same time.  Of course I change these settings a lot depending on what I’m shooting, the light level, and the effect I want to achieve.  But these represent my standard configuration.

Camera Settings 1 --> 1

Camera Settings 1 --> 2

Camera Settings 1 --> 3