today I'm going to show you the top five things you need to know if you've just
come across from a DSLR to the A7iii
I used to shoot with a Canon 5d Mark 3 and a 6d with l-series lenses but about
two years ago I transitioned across to Sony cameras it was a little bit clunky
at times but I slowly learned the new systems now with the advent of the a7iii
the a7riii in the a9 it's much better and easier to transition across to
mirrorless there are some settings that you don't get in dslr's that'll make
your photography experience better if you've used DSLRs for a long time and
you know the system back to front you'll have come across the Blinky's this is
known as high light warning or high light alert when you have this setting
switched on in your DSLR when you preview the images you've already taken
the overexposed bits will start to blink hence the term blink ease with the sony
a7iii and probably most other mirrorless cameras you can have a function like
this on all the time and it's called zebras what it'll normally do is
highlight parts of the image that are overexposed by having these zebra
stripes on them to turn this on go to menu 2 page 6 and select zebra turn the
zebra display on and set the zebra level to 100+ now very quickly you'll be able
to see what is overexposed in your image so it's like having Blinky's before
you've even taken the shot you can look at your display or look through your EVF
and it'll show you the overexposed parts and this is great when you're protecting
the highlights I'm in aperture priority mode I can see what is overexposed and
with the exposure compensation dial I can bring the exposure down until the
highlights aren't clipped sometimes this doesn't matter
especially when the subject is exposed properly but it's always good to protect
your highlights whenever possible when shooting with a DSLR what you see
through the viewfinder and what the camera sometimes produces
can be very different this is because the viewfinder is optical so you're
actually just looking through the lens I've just set my camera up to simulate
this it looks okay but when you take the photo it might come out too dark or too
bright with the live view display and this camera either through the EVF on
the back display you'll see what the camera is about to take so you'll
basically see the image before it's taken so if you're about to overexpose
the image you'll see this in your display or viewfinder and vice versa if
you under expose you'll see this before you take the shot so this is a really
great way of shooting and it's very different to a DSLR this is set as
standard so you don't have to turn it on but if you don't like it you can turn it
off and make the camera seem a bit more like a DSLR if you do want to turn it
off go to menu 2 page 6 and click on live
view display there you can turn it on or off
I found when I was learning with a DSLR I'd take a photo and I'd have to have a
look at it to see what I've got I wasn't paying attention some of the times on
the settings so sometimes it would be overexposed and sometimes it'll be
underexposed I actually wish I'd had a mirrorless to learn on because this live
view display would have changed this I'd have looked at the image and thought yet
a bit underexposed I need to change my settings so it's almost kind of a
reminder telling you that your settings are out this is one of my favourite
settings basically when you have a person in the frame you can assign one
of the buttons this function what it will do is locate one of the eyes and
focus to this point if the subject moves at all it may change from one eye to the
other but as long as you see that green square you know it's got focus I'll use
back button focusing and I've assigned it to when I press the joystick this is
personal preference and you can put it wherever you want because I've put the
focusing on the joystick it makes sense to put the I ought Oh focus on the
button above this that's the AF on button if you're not sure what back
button focusing is but want to learn more click on the eye in the corner this
will take you to a video explaining what it is here's how I set up I auto focus
it is a bit hidden in the camera so this is how you get to it the eye autofocus
does work in all focus area points but I find it seems to work better in
why'd set your focus mode to AF constant which is AFC this is in menu one page
five now set the custom key this is in menu to page eight click on the custom
key stills go to custom key page three using your directional pad on the back
change AF on - I am now when you have someone in frame when you press this
button as long as you can see the eyes you'll see the green square appear and
you know it's focused to the eye with the DSLR as I've already said the
viewfinder is optical so with the prism and the mirror you're actually looking
through the lens with a mirrorless camera it's a digital display so
basically it's a mini version of the display on the back of your camera when
shooting video and bright lights you won't have to have that eyepiece that
you used to have to click on the back of the camera
one other great thing about the electronic viewfinder is that the camera
can display more information in the eyepiece to change what you see go to
menu to page six and click on display button click on finder there you will
have different display options for your viewfinder choose or disable whichever
ones you want if you're using a manual focus lens or you've switched over to
the manual mode you can use focus peaking to show you what is in focus I
have a set of manual focus lenses that I use for video I also have some old
vintage lenses that I sometimes use when I want a certain look when I use these
lenses I switch on focus peaking and this helps me work out what's in focus
it basically shows you the hard edges that are in focus with the highlighted
color this is a function that's come across from video cameras but when you
using a manual focus lens it's really useful for photography as well to turn
it on go to menu one page 13 click on peaking setting turn peaking display on
I have my peaking levels set to mid if you have the peaking color set to white
and your shooting high key images or high key video you
be able to see it that's why I choose either yellow or red now you can see
when I focus through the range the yellow highlighted areas pulled through
the shot as you pull the focusing plane through the shot and that's about it
there are many other advantages in coming across to the mirrorless system
but these are the ones that really stand out and the settings that you don't have
on a DSLR if there are any other settings that you know of that I haven't
spoken about leave a comment below it will be great to hear what you like and
dislike about the mirrorless system I've come across to the mirrorless system
from the dslr's it took me a while to get used to it now I've fully converted
to the system I don't think I'd want to go back as always if you like what you
see give me a thumbs up if you didn't give me a thumbs down and for weekly
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