3. Setting Up Your Sony Alpha dSLR

The Sony Alpha DSLR-A380, A330, and A230 have a remarkable number of options and settings you can use to customize the way your camera operates. Not only can you change shooting settings used at the time the picture is taken, but you can adjust the way your camera behaves. This chapter will help you sort out the settings for all the Alpha’s menus. These include the Recording and Playback menus, which determine how the Alpha uses many of its shooting features to take a photo and how it displays images on review. I’ll also show you how to use the Setup menu to adjust power-saving timers, specify Live View options, control your built-in flash, and work with the Sony Alpha’s useful custom menu functions.

This book isn’t intended to replace the manual you received with your Alpha, nor have I any interest in rehashing its contents. You’ll still find the original manual useful as a standby reference that lists every possible option in exhaustive (if mind-numbing) detail—without really telling you how to use those options to take better pictures. There is, however, some unavoidable duplication between the Sony manual and this chapter, because I’m going to explain all the key menu choices and the options you may have in using them. You should find, though, that I will give you the information you need in a much more helpful format, with plenty of detail on why you should make some settings that are particularly cryptic.

I’m not going to waste a lot of space on some of the more obvious menu choices in these chapters. For example, you can probably figure out, even without my help, that the Audio Signals option deals with the solid-state beeper in your camera that sounds off during various activities (such as the self-timer countdown). You can certainly decipher the import of the two options available for the Audio Signals (On and Off). In this chapter, I’ll devote no more than a sentence or two to the blatantly obvious settings and concentrate on the more confusing aspects of Alpha setup, such as autofocus. I’ll start with an overview of using the Alpha’s menus themselves.