Let me show you how to use your Sony a6000

Let me show you how to use your Sony a6000

Firstly, learn how to set up your Sony a6000 to suit your photography style. Familiarise yourself with one of the most powerful cameras available today.

With these photography tips we will take you though the basics so you can find the settings you want. Learn these easy steps to get the shots you want.

Getting Started

Get to know the dials. Experiment. Take all the time you need to explore the settings and dials to find out exactly what they do, and what works best for you.

The Top Buttons

The Sony a6000 camera is uncluttered and simple to use. There are only two dials and a single function button.

The first dial close to the flash unit, is the camera mode dial.

The second dial on top, to the right will function differently depending on the camera mode you select.

It’s important to know …

  • In Aperture Priority and Manual modes the dial is used to adjust lens aperture changing the depth of field.
  • In Shutter Priority mode, this dial alters the shutter speed.

Choose the right Shooting Mode

Discover what each function does by following our simple guide of the mode settings and discover what each function does.

  • Superior Auto – (gold) Enables high quality photos with auto-adjusted settings reducing blurring and noise.
  • Intelligent Auto – (green) Shoot images with auto-adjusted settings.
  • SCN – Scene Selection – Select an auto-mode from the pre-selects for landscapes, night photography, portraits and other modes.
  • Sweep Panorama – Create a panoramic image while you move the camera left/right or up/down at a fixed speed. Its simple to use.
  • Movie Options – A simple mode for shooting movies.
  • MR – Memory Recall – Allows you to save a favourite setting into the memory and recall when desired.
  • M – Manual Exposure – Select your aperture and shutter speed manually.
  • S – Shutter Priority – Shoot moving subjects by manually adjusting the shutter speed.
  • A – Aperture Priority – Adjust the aperture when you want to blur the background.
  • P – Program Auto – Shoot with the exposure adjusted automatically.

TIP:  I usually shoot in Aperture Priority mode, since it gives me control over lens aperture and the camera does the rest of the exposure automatically and simplifies my settings.

I can then tweak the depth of field by using the dial on the right.

Get your head around the Back Buttons

You will find a number of other useful function buttons on the rear of the camera.

  • The Menu button opens up the main camera menu. (I will feature this in another post)
  • AEL button (Auto Exposure Lock) is for locking exposure.

The Fn Button

The Fn Button is one of the most useful buttons to change key settings quickly. Here’s a some of the options I use most:

  • Drive Mode – This is where you can change the shooting functions. Single Shooting or Continuous Shooting (Lo, Mid and High) and you will find the Self-Timer option here too.

Focus Mode

  • AF-S – Single-shot AF Locks the focus when focus adjustment is achieved. Use Single-shot AF when the subject is stationary.
  • AF-A – Automatic AF Switches between Single-shot AF and Continuous AF according to the subject movement. When the shutter is pressed halfway down, the camera locks focus when it determines the subject is stationary, or continues to focus while subject is in motion.
  • AF-C-Continuous AF – Continues to focus while the shutter button is held halfway down. Use this when subject is in motion.
  • DMF – DMF allows you to use a combination of manual focus and autofocus.
  • MF – Manual Focus allows focus to be adjusted manually.

Focus Area

  • Wide – The camera focuses over a wide area allowing instant AF response to a subject, even off centre.
  • Zone – Select from nine zones on the monitor on which to focus. The camera focuses on a subject in the chosen zone.
  • Centre – Focuses automatically on a subject in the centre of the image.
  • Flexible Spot (S/M/L) – This enables you to move the AF range frame to a desired point on the screen and focus on a very small target within a narrow area.

The Fn Button

  • White Balance – AWB (Auto White Balance) contains a range of Auto preference settings.
  • Smile/Face Detect – Opt to have this auto detect for Faces and Smiles.
  • ISO – I generally leave this setting on Auto mode with the minimum set to 100 and maximum to 3000.
  • Flash Compensation – I leave this set to Auto.
  • Exposure Compensation – Leave at 0 and use the Navigation wheel.
  • Metering Mode – I leave this set to Multi unless specific conditions require change.
  • Focus Mode – AF-S with the opportunity to change the setting to AF-C as required.
  • DRO / Auto HDR – I leave this off
  • Zebra – I set this to 100%. I find this function useful to give me a guide to exposure although it does take some getting used to.

The Navigation Wheel

The navigation dial on the back of the camera can be used to make quick exposure changes as well as access specific functions by pressing each of the four corners.

  • DISP switches between different views on the camera LCD screen
  • ISO allows changing camera ISO
  • The Left side is used to access camera drive mode
  • The Bottom side can adjust exposure compensation
  • Playback plays back the images on the LCD screen
  • C2 can be used as the Trash button to delete unwanted images during playback or assigned as a programmable option when not in playback mode.

Lock-on AF

This super-cool AF function tracks the subject, and maintains focus on it.

Simply position the target frame over the subject to be tracked, and press the central button of the control wheel to start tracking your target. There’s also a convenient Lock-on AF activation setting when camera is in AF-C mode which starts tracking by pressing the shutter button halfway down.

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