10 Simple ideas to (massively) improve A7 Series user Experience

[Krikrok]

Hello everyone,

 

I have received my A7III about a month ago and went travel for 3 weeks with it.

 

I am globally very happy with it, especially with the AF tracking, which is wonderful!

 

However, have using it quite intensively for photos + videos, I realize there are quite a bunch of ergonomic designs flaws that could be easily fixed with a firmware update.

 

Before starting, I would like to say that I might have missed a few settings, so if some of the features I am talking about already exist, please bear with me

 

Let's start with the most important when you try to use this camera for stills and video!

 

1) Have stills and video settings separated: At the moment, when you have a picture profile setup for video, it's still there when you switch to still mode. Same for iso, aperture, AF modes etc...

 

And this is extremely annoying! As a result, you waste a lot of time in configuration whe, it shouldn't be necessary

 

Solution: have a menu to pickup the things you want to be shared between photo and video mode

 

2) Quickly change video format: at the moment, it's impossible to bind a key to switch from 4k30 to 1080p 120 fps for example. Should be settable as a toggle button and in the fn menu.

 

3) Quick switch to Auto iso: Being able to bind a toggle button to switch between current value (or lowest for Picture Profile) and auto iso

 

4) Set Zebra value per picture profile: quite self explanatory!

 

5) Set color temperature manually for custom whitebalance: no idea why this isn't possible

 

6) Custom auto white balance mode: This will allow to have a saved setting that correct your filter's color cast while using AWB. At the moment, you always need to setup the AWB correction (and forget it when you remove the filter).

 

7) Toggle switch mode on things such as "face af tracking". At the moment, it's needed to click once to enter the menu and use the wheel to change the setting. It's not very convenient. Something similar to toggle zebra on/off would make more sense (can be optional)

 

8)- Possibility to Set 2 values for Auto iso min shutter speed:

 

One "normal", as it is now and another one when in "face tracking on". That would allow to switch between landscape and portrait very easily, without messing up with the settings!

 

Very useful when the light is low.

 

9) AWB lock for video: Get white balance when starting to record and keep it the same for the whole video.

 

10) The "your card is too slow" blablabla message. I have a "slow" card on slot 1 but record video on my fast card on slot 2. However, this message keeps popping up every time I switch to video mode, which is extremely annoying.

 

And you guys, what do you think about these? Have some ideas to share too?

Edited May 29, 2019 by Krikrok