7 Hidden Features on the SONY A7IV You May Not Have Heard About
Disclosure: This website may contain affiliate links meaning that I make a small commission form qualifying purchases if you decide to make a purchase through one of my links. This is at no extra cost to you.
Are you a Sony A7IV user or currently own one? If your answer is yes, then this post is for you because here you will know some very valuable but hidden features that you would not have any idea about. This camera has a ton of features and these features may prove very beneficial to you or maybe not but you must know what your camera is capable of.
Creative Looks
To access this feature:
Go to the menu
Open Exposure/Color
Open Color/Tone
Activate Creative Looks
This feature is applicable to both video and photo mode but to access this feature your Picture Profile has to be turned off.
With the help of this feature, you can finish the looks of your videos or photos directly through the camera without any need of editing them afterward.
There are many looks available in the camera that you can use according to your requirement or edit the looks according to your need of the color combinations. This feature is really useful when you are short of time and do not want to edit the photo or video after the recording.
2. Soft Skin Effect
To access this feature:
Go to the menu
Open Exposure/Color
Open Color/Tone
Activate Soft Skin Effect
This feature is also applicable to both photo and video modes. There is an availability of three levels of adjustments i.e., Low, Medium, and High. This feature is only available if you are shooting in JPEG only otherwise it could not be used in RAW or even in both RAW and JPEG.
3. Silent Mode
To access silent mode:
Go to the menu
Open Shooting
Open Shutter/Silent
Open Silent Mode Settings
Activate Silent mode
This mode is useful when you do not want people to know that you are shooting something like while shooting in a library or shooting secretively because it disables the shutter or electronic shutter sound.
This feature is only available with an electronic shutter and not a mechanical shutter.
4. New Types of Eye Auto Focus
To access this feature:
Go to the menu
Open Focus
Open Face/Eye AF
Open Face/ Subject
Select whether Animal, Bird or human
5. Left or Right Eye Auto Focus
To access this feature:
Go to the menu
Open Focus
Open Face/Eye AF
Open Right/Left Eye Select
Select any eye or Auto
This feature allows you to tell your camera whether the focus should be on the right eye or the left eye of someone’s face or let the camera decide which eye is best to focus.
The Eye will be selected from the perspective of the photographer, not the subject. This feature is helpful in certain scenarios like when you are filming the side profile of a person.
6. Custom File Names
With the help of this feature, you can better organize your pictures and videos by assigning them custom file names.
To access this feature:
Go to the menu
Open Shooting
Open File
Open File Settings
Go to title name setting
This feature is especially useful if you shoot a lot of videos on daily basis. You can easily adjust the file name and can also add the date if you like in different formats.
7. Close the Shutter
To access this feature:
Go to the menu
Open Setup
Open Setup Options
Open Anti-dust Function
Turn it on
If you turn this function on then the shutter is going to close whenever your camera is off and this will prevent the dust to get into your sensors.
Word of Caution: I personally keep my shutter open because it is easier to clean a sensor than fixing a shutter if you accidentally touch or damage it while it is closed.
BONUS: Customize the Exposure Compensation Dial
This is the last feature or the bonus feature of today’s post. This is the ability to customize the Exposure Compensation Dial on the Sony a7iv.
If you rarely use your exposure compensation dial, you can customize it to whatever you like. I adjust mine to control ISO.
