What's up guys it's river and in this Video i'm gonna show you how to get the Most out of your sony a6400 whether You've had this camera for a while or You just got it in this video i'm gonna Show you every single thing that you Need to know to get the most out of this Camera so Let's get into it [Music] Also if you're new to the channel we Talk about anything and everything on How to use camera gear including Teaching you guys how to take better Photos and videos so if you like this Video and you know i hope you do please Leave a like helps the channel out helps Me keep making more of this content for You guys and we just hit a hundred Thousand subscribers that plaque back There is what youtube gives you for Hitting a hundred thousand so i promise You it is a very very worthwhile Subscription and i recommend being part Of the camera community that we have Here on this channel so with that being Said let's get into the tutorial alright So let's talk about where all the Physical buttons on this camera are what Everything does and you also may notice That there's a gigantic camera next to My head this camera is recording the A6400 so you guys can get a better view So the first button we're going to look
At is the on and off button and now most Of you guys don't know this but It turns the camera on and off i'm just Kidding but That's the on and off button and right Next to it is the c1 button now this is A custom button that you can pretty much Set to anything through the menus but The defaults for what it comes with is Your autofocus mode and i actually Recommend keeping it on that Because Honestly there's no quicker way to Change your autofocus so c1 for me on my Personal sony cameras is still autofocus And next to that is this dial right here Now this kind of has like a sticky feel To it it's called having a stepper dial And basically you can use this to change Your shutter speed or aperture depending On what you want to do with it Personally i use this to change my Aperture and it works the best for me And the next thing we're going to look At is this black anonymous knob now it Doesn't have a label because you can Change it to anything you like it comes Preset as your aperture and i actually Recommend leaving it as aperture for Most shooters video or photo because Your shutter speed generally stays Constant depending on how fast your Subject is moving but your aperture is Usually the thing that changes
And next to that is the mode dial with All these labels now most of these Labels you can totally ignore because These are modes that you will never use The ones that you'll probably use the Mode is first of all a this little auto Thing you know just basically does Everything for you next to that Is M now m basically means manual this is Only for photo mode manual photo mode Basically allows you a control over your Shutter speed aperture and iso Independently because these other modes Basically what happens is if you change Your shutter it'll change your aperture For you if you change your aperture Changes your shutter for you personally I think that is This they're just not good modes to use Because if you're gonna go with Automatic settings you may may as well Go with full auto so for that reason i Recommend most people skip a p a s Although all these modes and just go Straight to manual or stick with auto And after that you'll notice this weird Square icon that's actually a film strip Now if you're in your teens or in your Early 20s you're like what the heck is Film Well kids film was this thing that Dinosaurs like me used to shoot video Before there was digital i highly
Recommend doing the wikipedia search but That is a film strip and that is your Video mode now i will talk about How to use all these modes to the best Of your advantage but i want to show you Guys where everything was uh just as Like a beginner brief overall And after that let's go to the back of This camera so the things you need to Know on the back of this camera is first Of all your menu button this button Right here with the lightning bolt you Know harry potter vibes here uh that Menu button is your flash it will Basically if you have your camera off And you hit this your flash will pop up Tada Now something to note this button right Here at the top is what allows you to Take photos but this will not work in Video mode the way to record video is to Actually hit this button with the red Dot on it on the side and this is what's Going to help you record video or really It's the only way to record video but Later in this video i'm going to show You how to come up with a hack or a fix On how to use this shutter button to Actually record video and after that Let's look at the fn button right here Now this is going to bring up your Function menu or your quick menu and This is the best way to operate your Camera the menus and the sony cameras
Are really really cumbersome and this is The quickest way to change all of your Settings after that you'll have your Little square scroll wheel that you can Use to change all of your settings Depending on what kind of a menu you're In this is going to do different things But if you're not in the menu this is Also going to change your shutter speed If you go to the left it'll lower your Shutter speed go to the right it will Raise your shutter speed and also at the Same time if you hit right on it it'll Bring up your iso menu And if you hit Up it will bring it will change your Display and if you hit left it will Bring up your Different uh Drive modes now this now as you can see I'm getting an error message right here So for this i have to actually be in Manual mode And then when i hit this it will bring Up different drive modes now i'll talk More about this later But uh this is a pretty general overview Where everything on the camera is One last thing i want to talk about is If you hit this little button with the Triangle it will bring up whatever You've shot on your car like photos and Videos i don't have a card in this right Now but this is how you access what
You've shot on your card next to that is The trash can item so if you want to Delete something But if you hit it when you're not in the Playback menu it'll bring up your white Balance and Honestly Leave your camera not a white balance Camera does a great job with white Balance now if you flip your camera over Down here is a little slot and that is Where your battery goes and next to it Is your sd card now be very very careful I do recommend taking the battery out Before you put the sd card in so you can Properly insert it because there's not Much wiggle room in here and i have seen People snap their sd cards in here so You have been warmed be careful and if You look to this side of the camera is a Little flap this is where your headphone Jack goes hdmi out and This little uh Usb port right here is where you plug in Your charger now this camera does not Come with a battery charger so the way You plug it in Or charge it sorry is that you plug in Your usb port through a wire and you Charge the battery directly in the Camera it's not the greatest i do Recommend buying a separate battery Charger but that is how you would do it Otherwise all right so now that you know
Where everything is on your camera let's Talk about how to set it up for photos And videos alright so the first thing You want to do is you want to jump into Your menus now the menus are laid out Pretty simply uh you'll actually see These tabs at the very top And this is going to give you your Overall like menu feed menu Categories and within each menu are Pages and pages and pages of menu and I'm not joking like each menu category Has about 14 pages of menus like it is a Lot all right so the first thing you Want to do is jump into your menu system Now you'll notice at the top there's Different menu tabs now all these menu Tabs Are have different categories like Quality and image settings movie network Playback Most of the stuff you will never touch You really don't need to know about so Let's go look at menu tab one page one And that is file format a lot of you Guys are probably going to want to shoot Raw plus jpeg and the difference between Raw is that raw is the way to get the Best photos out of your camera you're Going to get the most quality out of There you're really going to be able to Edit your photos jpeg is like if you're Shooting casual birthday party photos That never need to be edited or just
Like on vacation with your mom it's Whatever uh that's what jpeg is for i Recommend most of you guys shoot raw Plus jpeg just for like the most Flexibility of what you want to do and Below that you'll see jpeg quality now This is how you pick the quality of your Jpeg naturally if you're going to shoot Jpegs pick extra fine so you get the Most out of your jpegs underneath that You'll see jpeg size naturally you want To leave this at large 24 megapixels so You get the most quality out of it and Now this is important underneath that You'll see aspect ratio Aspect ratio is basically the kind of Letterboxing that your images have three By two is A very large letterboxing where you'll Probably notice on this screen This video fills from top to bottom and It's pretty wide now this is 16 by nine If i made this video slightly taller That would be three by two and that is What most photographers like to shoot in If for some reason you know you want it In this 16 by nine ratio go ahead and Pick 16 by nine but i really recommend Picking Uh three three to two aspect ratio one By one is square and honestly like I don't know anybody that shoots square So go with three by two And now if you switch over to the next
Page you'll see high iso and r Iso nr stands for high iso noise Reduction what i actually recommend Doing is leaving it off if you're Planning on doing any kind of Professional work with this and you want To edit your photos later you can easily Remove this Noise in lightroom in photoshop but if Noise reduction is done in camera Sometimes it leaves your photos looking A little mushy or a little soft so i Recommend leaving this off but if you're Shooting jpegs leave it at normal and You'll get great results and after that If you hit the fn button you'll actually Have your quick menu come up and now i'm Going to go over What all these settings do but only the Ones that you really need to know about So the first thing i want to look at is Drive mode now drive mode is basically How you pick how fast or how many times Your camera's shooting There's a bunch of modes in here but Most of you guys will only need to know The first two first is single shooting This is where you take one photo and Then your camera stops even if you have The shutter button pressed down but if You keep holding down the shutter button And you're in continuous shooting mode Your camera will basically keep taking Photos and depending on how many photos
You want to shoot uh you have different Types of continuous shooting now if you Press left or right On continuous shooting you you'll notice That it goes from can you continue Shooting low which is five frames per Second Then continue shooting mid which i Believe is seven or eight then you have High and then you know high plus is like Lightning speed I don't actually know exactly how many Photos it's taking but depending on what You want if you're just shooting your Kid's birthday party vacation low should Be fine if you're shooting something With a lot of action you might as well Shoot as fast as your camera can go Which is high plus there's really no Uh quality fall off and there's like no Downside to shooting more except for Having way too many photos underneath That you'll see self timer now self Timer is pretty self explanatory Basically it'll take a couple seconds Before it takes a photo and if you hit Left or right it can either be 2 seconds 10 seconds 5 seconds depending on what You need Next to drive mode you'll see focus mode And you might be thinking wow focus is Going to be complicated honestly no If you're shooting a subject that's not Really moving around a lot
I would use singles photo mode or a Single shot autofocus and if you're Shooting someone that's moving around a Lot Uh use automatic autofocus the thing is Sony autofocus is insanely good like Insanely good and if it just it's it Honestly is set it and forget it i Personally i have this theory where Uh people that make these sony cameras Are aliens And this is technology from the future It is like stupid good but if you're Someone that's a control freak such as Me i actually recommend using Dmf now what this is going to do is it's Going to allow you to use autofocus but If it doesn't nail the focus mark you Can simply put your hands on the lens Focusing wheel and change focus yourself Basically you've got auto focus and Manual focus happening for you at the Same time and if you want to completely Turn off your autofocus simply go to Manual focus autofocus is off and you Control the lens after that you have Focus area now this actually really does Matter so depending on what you're Shooting you're going to want to pick Different areas of your sensor for the Autofocus to work on if you're shooting Wide scenes pick wide if you're shooting Something that's pretty much sticking Around in one specific part of your
Sensor pick zone and it's going to allow You to pick different zones On your sensor you'll see like a bunch Of boxes come up and it's going to allow You to pick different chunks of your Sensor to have autofocus active in in Any other place autofocus will not be Active underneath that you have center And basically it's going to pick the Very center of your lens and it's going To have autofocus there but you can also Change the spot so what i mean by that Is if you go down below that you'll see Flexible spot and this will allow you to Pick a specific spot on your lens it Kind of works like center auto focusing But allow you pick a specific spot on Your lens And it will allow you to just pick up Here down here wherever and it will just Be catching autofocus in that specific Spot and basically if you understand What i just talked about in terms of Photo mode you are going to get the most Out of your camera and get the highest Quality possible but if you're someone That's shooting video it's honestly not That much harder to set up simply flip Your cameras to the top and go to the Little square icon we talked about Earlier it's a film strip from way back In the day and next up you want to go Back into your menu a lot of your Settings will be grayed out or will
Change but that's okay you're in video Mode it's a whole new world In menu tab 2 page 1 you'll see file Format Once you click file format you'll see a Bunch of things come up the main things That we care about it is xavc 4k and Xavc-shd This is sony's proprietary file format They use for their cameras if you want To shoot in 4k pick xavc 4k and after That you want to go down to record Setting now Within 4k you'll have 30p or 24p Available to you now this might get a Little bit confusing 30p or 24p is referring to your frame Rate and 100m or 60m is actually Referring to the mega bit rate For us we want to always pick the Highest megabit rate unless we don't Have enough card space so you want to Pick 100 megabits always 30p is usually What you use for youtube or tv and 24p Is what you use for cinematic filming or Like short films and stuff if you want Something more cinematic go 24p for Youtube go with 30p and underneath that You actually have snq settings now Something that i didn't show you guys Earlier is that this camera has a Dedicated slow motion mode specifically If you want to shoot slow motion and you Want it to play back a slow motion in
Your camera now i don't recommend most People do this because snq mode does not Have the same quality as regular video Mode but in case anybody wants to know Snq mode you go in and it will allow you To pick your record setting and frame Rate now the lower your frame rate that It plays back at is the slower your Video looks so i'd recommend picking 24p And then depending on what frame rate You want or how slow you want it to be Pick 120 frames per second it will Actually tell you at the bottom if You're getting five times slow motion if I go to 30p you'll notice that now it Says four times slow motion so snq is a Useful mode in case you're trying to do Something slow motion and you want the Timing to be precise and if you want to Be in snq mode which is slow in quick Mode you want to flip your camera to the Top and you want to go down to the thing That actually says snq once you're in That mode that's when it'll do the slow And quick recording otherwise it will do Regular recording but if you want to Shoot hd instead you want to go back to File format pick Xavc-shd that's a whole mouthful and You'll notice that within that you'll Get different frame rates from 120 all The way to 24 frames per second this is Again just going to depend on what You're shooting but you always want to
Make sure you pick the highest frame Rate Now one more thing that i quickly want To show you guys Is before we get into the quick menu is That if you go back into tab one and you Keep pressing right You'll actually get to something known As picture profile and this is to be Precise tab one Page 11. wow these menus are so long but Once you're in picture profile you'll Actually be able to go into a bunch of Different Uh picture profiles here And all these picture profiles are Identical they're naturally preset at Something else but you can pretty much Choose and put them to anything So it doesn't matter which one you pick But here you'll see different things Like saturation color mode all this Stuff now this is really complicated and I go in depth on this in my sony a600 Tutorial but just in case someone is Curious i showed the exact settings There but what i do recommend doing is Playing around and figuring out what Gamma And color mode looks the best the one That i like to use for videos is Actually I like to use cinema 1 2 3 or 4 And then for the color mode depending on
What i'm shooting i often go with pro Or I'll go with s gamut this will give me The most dynamic range and stuff again This is a very long this is a very long Conversation i have but if you guys are Interested in the exact color mode i Recommend checking out my sony a6600 Tutorial because that's more of a Professional camera and that's where i Put all this information but at the same Time it's nice to know that all these Picture profiles are available in a Beginner camera like this which would Normally be in a professional camera and Finally let's look at the quick menu in Video mode so once you're in video mode You kind of have more or less the same Settings uh what i do recommend doing When you're in video mode is switching Your video to continuous autofocus and Just leaving it there in video you're Always moving your subjects are moving And that focus mode is going to give you The best results but one thing that a Lot of people miss is you want to go Down to the bottom right corner and go To exposure mode now this camera most Cameras are naturally set to like Aperture priority program and you guys Might notice that even though you're in Manual Even though you're in video mode you Can't really properly change your
Settings so you want to make sure you're In exposure mode Manual exposure and this way you're Going to get independent control over Your aperture shutter Iso all that good stuff all right so Earlier i told you guys i would show you A way around not using that small little Button on the side to record video Basically if you go to menu page sorry Menu tab to Page three you'll see movie with shutter If you turn that on now you can use your Shutter button to actually start Recording your video and it's going to Make your life and the life of those People around you and all of your loved Ones a lot better because that button on The side sucks So something you've probably realized is That the sony a6400 is not the easiest Camera in the world to figure out and Most cameras take a lot of time to learn And if you really want to get Outstanding photos and videos learning a Menu is not going to help with that what You really need to learn are the Principles of photography and video like Composition Lighting camera settings so if you want To learn how to take your work to the Next level or you're simply someone That's really passionate about Photography and video i highly recommend
Checking out the camera boost course in The link down below in this course i'm Going to show you everything you need to Know to go from being a beginner to Taking photos and videos that are Actually impressive and instagram worthy So if you want to learn more and you Want to get started make sure to check Out the camera boost course in the link Down below that being said let's get Back into the quick menus alright so Something you probably noticed is that i Complain about sony menus constantly not Only in this video but like all of my Videos Um It's a lot of menus man unless some Unless you're a professional there's Really no point in like dealing with This menu but if you're a professional i Think these menus are totally worth Dealing with the last thing i want to Show you guys is if you go to the very Last tab in your menus with the star Because honestly this menu is the start Of the menus Um you'll see something called my menu Settings and within this menu you can Basically add whatever settings you want To this one menu page and basically make A custom menu so basically you want to Go down to add add item and then you can Pick anything Out of here there's 32 pages of things
To pick but For the sake of just simplicity and fun Let's say i pick Autofocus drive speed Now that's just going to be added And Let's pick another one audio recording And it's at it so now when i go back Into my menu You'll notice now that the same menu my Menu now has two pages one page which is The second page is going to be for Adding items sorting item deleting Uh page all that stuff and now i have Both of those settings In my menu one you can also Go here uh sort items like if you want Something Higher up or lower on the menu you can Do all that have fun make your own menu But this is going to make your life a Whole lot easier well guys that's pretty Much it for this tutorial if you enjoyed This video please leave a like and Subscribe if you want to see more of This content and make sure to check out The camera boost course in the link down Below if you want to get the most out of Your camera and with that being said I'll either see you in the course or in The next video peace You
