The BEST Autofocus Settings for Sony 

This was the video we all absolutely needed to better understand our camera's at their most basic level yet no one had made it so articulately and very well explained! You are the best Julia! ❤

GIRL - Your videos have given me confidence to step into my lifelong dream of photography. Thank you, beautiful soul!

This is the video I needed to help me understand the focus area and modes!! Thank you so much

Changing my AF sensitivity from 5 back to 3 now. Thank you for explaining that!

Thank you so much! This was so informative, and EASY to understand each function!

Love you Julia! ❤️

Great details Julia. Thanks

I have a A7II and your advice helped me as well. Thank much.

Hey! I've been shooting for 15 years and been on Sony for about 5 years and you shared something about focus hold that I totally forgot and took for granted but should totally help my wildlife photography. I'm putting this comment here to say THANK YOU. Also I want to say that your approach of going into action after explaining is amazing. I'm thoroughly grateful for your video. Thank you!

This is an awesome video! Thank you!

This video was really helpful and answered a few queries I had. Thanks!

ahhhhh just the video i was looking for since i bought my camera thanksssssssss

This is very helpful Julia, thank you.

You're so talented 🥰

SUPERBLY informative !

Great tip about the responsive settings. Im gonna try It out more.

Back in my DSLR days, I found BBF amazing. Instead of choosing between AF-S and AF-C, you could set your camera to AF-C, and by using BBF, you could use it either as AF-S or AF-C. If you focused on a static subject, you could take your thumb off the AF-ON button, essentially becoming AF-S, then recompose, depress the shutter, and make your exposure. When I switched from a Nikon D750 to a Sony a7iii I set the Sony up for BBF and used that for months. Eventually, I realized, at least for me, that with a modern mirrorless camera that has great AF, Eye-AF, and Tracking, I didn't see a reason to continue using BBF. I just had my thumb pressing the AF-ON button all day for no real reason. I was aware of this because the AF-ON button on the a7iii was tiny and a pain to press. On the a7iv and other newer bodies, the AF-ON is a larger and much better button. Nonetheless, perhaps because the a7iii AF-ON button was a pain, it made me realize that it wasn't doing anything for me anymore. Sony AF-C is great. Even if I nail a painting to the wall and put the camera on a tripod, I still don't bother switching to AF-S, I simply stay in AF-C. While I do use Wide and Zone focusing areas at times, I mostly use Tracking, Spot, Medium. I've been told that BBF is better for tracking a subject like a basketball player going behind a referee, but I don't understand why that would be. If I'm tracking the player, that is "AF-ON", I don't see how it matters if it's AF-ON by BBF, or AF-ON by Half-Press, it's still AF-ON and I'm tracking the player. As you noted, tracking sensitivity does matter here. Thank you for the great tips and all your photography enthusiasm!

Great video hija! Examples, graphics and fun moments. Autofocus for me, thanks.

Found this very informative. I have had my Sony for a while and still feel like I am learning about how the focus settings work in tandem. The Focus Responsiveness explanation was in particular helpful. Also, the examples of connecting the settings of when to use them; portraits vs weddings vs landscape. Back Button focus is what I use fyi.

I just bought a Sony a7ii and I’ve pretty much been exclusively been going to your channel for advice on using it :) thank you so much for all the help!

As Sony being one of the systems I use I was familiar with a lot of this. There was some new info that was super helpful. Thank you.

Great video. Bookmarked for reference now :)

I think it is a good topic julia, hope you do also tutorials on what aperture or shutterspeed to use on many different occasions when shooting portraits or travels, thanks :)

Your new look is great!

This is not only informative for a Sony user, but a camera user in general. Seen a few of those modes but never really understood how those modes effect shooting entirely. I'll try this when I get an Xperia in the future 😂.

thank you for this video! this was exactly what I was looking for! I have adjusted my settings and it really works much better now. 🙏🏼 I only have 1 question; If my images look exactly exposed on my camera, they look a lot darker on my computer, sometimes even underexposed. Can I adjust this somewhere in my settings?

Awesome video Julia I was wondering would you be able to do the canon version for auto focus

Amazing recommendations, really appreciate this video. Will try some tricks, that I think will work for me best. You are A-wesome!

Thanks. Very helpful for me.

Good video. Shortcuts are definitely the way to go.

great video, thank you so much 👍

Oh my gosh I didn’t know that about the tracking sensitivity!

Thank you very much

Interesting video, didn't know the focus tracking sensitivity setting 1 would hold focus on original focus. Will need to rewatch this with my camera in hand.

Useful Info, Thanks ;-)

Thanks! I wonder if you use the tracking modes when shooting a person while eye af is on ?

Think you forgot about AF assist. This allows you to use Manual focus on top of Autofocus during video. It’s a game changer for quick swap subjects!! Also, registering faces allows you to always Autofocus to an specific person, like a bride during a wedding

Great video will these setting work the same for video

Hi, Very helpful video indeed, thank you! Could you help with this though please; I have an older Sony A5100 which has 'Lock on AF' & something totally separate called 'Centre Lock on AF'... Do you know what the difference is, which is better for different situations & which you would use? Also with face detect on it seems to interfere with the tracking, should I turn it off & just rely on tracking?! Many thanks!

Julia, about that issue you mentioned at 10:09, that when you use shortcut, you have go to menu, to cancel it. You don't have to. Just press round button in the middle of the back dial and it will go back to auto. It's even written right there on your camera screen in the video. But if it's not, your priority should be set to AUTO in menu first. If you choose left or right, it won't give you an option to cancel it; it will change between L and R like you said in the video. I use back button AF with AF-C for pretty much everything. I don't even use AF-S at all (on Sony it's often slower than AF-C anyway). I just depress button if I need to hold focus in place. I even have two back button AF buttons 😋One (AF-ON) is to activate my typical AF, second one (AEL) does the same thing, but with tracking, so I don't have to go trough AF areas when I suddenly need focus to follow an object/person.

Great video! What's your AF-ON button set to?

Hi, cool video, please tell me, what kind of capture card do you use to record monitoring?

Hi Julia! Are you able to make a video on guides on what to say to your model, mainly for beginner photographers that may find giving directions difficult.

Regarding the back button, I used to do it all the time until recently. Nowadays it is mapped back to the shutter release but I use the touch screen functionality to select the focus point and my finger is then ready to press the shutter.

Hi, I’m trying to decide between the Sony A7RV or the Nikon Z8. On your other video you said that the Z8 had issues with eyelash focus. Which cameras would you say is best for weddings and portraits please?

I've tried back-button AF but honestly I haven't felt the need for it with A7 III, even when shooting sports or wildlife. But I should probably get more into it, I agree that there are some specific scenarios where it is useful and it's also totally okay to just always use it habitually. Steve Perry has a nice video about back-button AF with mirrorless specifically.

Could you please share your experience when focus area works in conjunction with face/eye detection? Face/eye detection is supposed to override focus area but in my experience they compete with each other. For example, when I have my focus area at center (or flexible spot) and a face on the side of the frame, lots of times, the camera shows face detection (grey square on face) but when I half press shutter to acquire focus the center point (the flexible point wherever it is) lit up (green). So I’m confused where exactly the camera is focusing on. And how to ensure it focuses on face/eye? Thank you

Hi Julia ! Do you prefer early morning 🌄 shoots or sunset 🌇 shoots & which is more harrowing in terms of time ? I always think I've taken a nice photo 📸 only to be disappointed by the lighting ! Have a great day 😊 & Thanks for the presentation 👍

What kind of AF tracking sensitivity would you recommend for shooting higher action sports?

Is there a way to make human subject recognition override the flex spot focus, i.e. if there's a human in the frame, it prioritizes them over the AF flex spot, which may be in another part of the frame?

Waiting for your x100vi review

We want to see your photoshoot as a model ❤❤

I’m 100% back button focus for portraits and sports

Best camera and lens review channel. No BS, very practical and objective. What a pleasant voice as well!! ❤

@JuliaTrotti, Sony should hire you. Your explanations of how things on their cameras work are *much* better than their explanations of how their cameras work. ;-) In answer to your question in the video, I always use back button focus. Sometimes, I think about going back to shutter focus when using Eye AF - but I'm shooting with lots of people in frame, or with dynamically changing types of subjects, often enough that it would throw me off if I had to think about or track which one I had the camera set for at any given moment. Do you have sets of settings saved as mode dial presets on yours?

Hi best dynamic range best low-light performance camera

Which settings are best, when the model is moving towards you? Would appreciate your opinion. 😊

You are so amazing and so beautiful

Julia, do you keep DRO on or off anytime you are using jpeg?

Great info

Hii what camara did you use normally???

thx. Juuuliaaaa:)

Dear Julia, I just upgraded my camera from alpha 7 iii to alpha 7rv, because of your videos! I love how you explain everything. I did my setup to my 7iii back then, based on your video "My Sony A7III Setup! Picture Profile, Shortcuts and more!"... Now I wonder how I can get my settings to my new camera or do you have another video describing how to set up the alpha 7 Rv? Thank you so much for answering my question! I cannot wait to start shooting... Best regards from Germany Isabelle

I am so used to back-button focusing for years now that I would find it hard to shoot any other way at this point.

Cheers so much 😊 Sorry just realised this is the video, I should of watched when I first came across it ❤ Sorry I'm such an idiot 😂😢🤔❤

What would you consider to be the best settings for moving self portraits?

Just received an A7CII and a good 80% of my pics are out of focus..😕 Right now my Canon putting this little sony down 😕

I like your all video. your video quality decent. love you sister. love from Bangladesh

So you ever use Sony's Pre-Focus setting? Why or Why Not?

I hate back button AF. I'm just discovering Focus Standard - seems to be a way to temporarily focus on the center, then keep holding it and reframe. Assuming you are not in Center Lock-on AF. Both my A7rV and 6700 support it. But it's really poorly explained IMO. Also, I wish there was a way to eliminate the evil AF-A selection!

Would love a Q&A video with you and Dan. Favourite foods, daily routine etc

Hello Julia can you help me please....?

❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤

1st half was great, 2nd half just made me more confused. What would be helpful is literally seeing you in action talking through what of the first half video options you’re using and why. You kind of skipped any practical in action uses.

Sorry, I could NOT take 23 mins of italian style conversing. Slow down un poquito.