DiscussionSony menus. Five years in and I STILL can't find anything

Went to turn off the focus beep on my a6400 at my granddaughter's school concert. Ten minutes. TEN. In the end a dad two seats over did it for me and he had a Canon. Then I wanted the button that magnifies the picture so I could check focus and that's somewhere else again.

I've had this camera since 2021 (used from KEH) and I still feel like I'm filling in a tax form every time I open the menu. Is it just me or did Sony make it hard on purpose? Is the newer menu on the A7 IV type cameras any better or is it the same mess in different colors?

Steve

steve_m_1962 said:

Is the newer menu on the A7 IV type cameras any better or is it the same mess in different colors?

The newer menu (A7S III and later) is much better organised and you can use touch. The a6400 has the old system, which honestly is the worst one. My advice: put the ten things you change into My Menu and never open the main menu again.

this is literally why i sold my a7 iv. new menu or not i spent more time in it than looking through the viewfinder. fuji dials and i havent opened a menu in weeks

f8andbethere said:

fuji dials and i havent opened a menu in weeks

Give it time. Fuji's Q menu and the custom settings banks are their own little maze... it's a bit of a faff on every brand once you go past the basics. Sony's is just uglier.

My A7 III has the old menu too, same as Steve's a6400, and I'll admit it took me a year to stop swearing at it. What fixed it for me was the same thing dmitri said, plus taping a card inside the strap with which button does what. Old-fashioned, but it works on a cold morning when your brain's not awake yet.

ok fair the custom banks are confusing. still

My Menu. I did NOT know that was a thing. Found it, put the beep and the magnify in there. Also the silent shutter, which I didn't know the camera had either. Who knew.

Steve

steve_m_1962 said:

My Menu. I did NOT know that was a thing.

Everyone should do this on day one with any camera. I rebuild My Menu and the custom buttons on every new body before it goes near a client, and once they're set I open the full menu maybe twice a month.

The real problem with Sony isn't the menu, it's the defaults. Who ships a camera with the focus beep on? Every new body I've had has needed the same twenty minutes: beep off, auto review off, release without card off, then the buttons. I have a note on my phone with the list so I don't forget one before a job.

steve_m_1962 said:

Ten minutes. TEN.

Mine came with the beep on too and the first thing I did was hunt it down. Took me about as long as Steve tbh so dont feel bad. The a6700 has the newer menu and it's heaps better, but I still have no idea what half of it does and I've had it two years

If I may, as a Canon user, the problem is not confined to Sony. My 5D Mark IV has a perfectly logical menu and I still had to telephone a friend to set up the Wi-Fi, which I have since switched off for good. Cameras were simpler when they had a shutter speed dial and an aperture ring.

Kind regards

harrogate_h said:

Cameras were simpler when they had a shutter speed dial and an aperture ring.

And a meter needle. You're preaching to the converted

harrogate_h said:

I still had to telephone a friend to set up the Wi-Fi

lol same except my friend was youtube. honestly the menu is fine once you've used it every day for a year. problem is nobody uses every setting every day. I still have to look up how to turn on pixel shift on the R V every single time

the a7c menu made me cry the first week. now i just use the fn button for everything :)

The menu complaint is mostly about discoverability, which is fair, but there's a better fix than My Menu for part of it. Anything you change during a shoot (drive mode, focus area, ISO, white balance, magnify) belongs on the Fn menu or a custom button, not in a list. The main menu is for setup, not shooting. That's true on my Canon as well. If you're opening the full menu in the middle of a concert, the camera isn't set up yet.

imo Canon's menu is easier to learn and Sony's is easier to customise once you've learned it. Strange trade, but there it is.

One more thing for Steve specifically. The a6400 lets you save complete setups to the 1 and 2 positions on the mode dial (memory recall). Set one up for indoor events (silent shutter, beep off, auto ISO with a sensible minimum shutter speed) and one for the beach, then just turn the dial. You'll stop thinking about the menu at all, which is the point.

rawtherapist said:

Set one up for indoor events

Did that too. Rebuilt the Fn menu last night with my son-in-law watching and laughing at me. Beach birds on Saturday will be the test, the sanderlings don't wait for anybody. Thanks all.

Steve