Sony a7 IV Custom Buttons: Fn Menu, C1 to C4 and Key Setup

To customize Sony a7 IV buttons, open MENU → Setup → Operation Customize. That is where Sony puts both the custom key settings for the C1 to C4 buttons and the Fn Menu Settings. Set up the still side and the movie side one at a time, because the camera keeps a separate button map and a separate 12-slot Fn menu for each.

Why custom buttons make the camera easier

A camera menu is like a big kitchen with a lot of drawers. Everything is in there somewhere, but you don't want to open twenty drawers just to find a spoon while the water boils.

In Digital Camera World's review of the newer Sony A7 V, the reviewer wrote that Sony's menus are well-designed but that newer users might find them slightly overwhelming because of the sheer number of options. That reviewer also wrote about having to search online to find where a specific setting lived. If that happens to you, you are in good company. It is not a sign you are bad at this.

Custom buttons fix the drawer problem. Sony's Help Guide explains that the custom key function lets you assign the functions you use most to easy-to-reach buttons and dials, so you skip the trip through MENU and recall them faster.

The places you can park a setting

Think of three spots, from closest to your thumb to farthest away.

Spot	What it does	How many
Custom keys (C1 to C4 and others)	One press calls up one function during shooting or playback	One function per button, set separately for stills, movies and playback
Fn menu	A row of functions at the bottom of the screen when you press Fn	12 for stills and 12 for movies
Main MENU	Changes settings for all camera operations, including shooting and playback	Everything else

A simple rule: put the thing you change every few minutes on a button. Put the thing you change every few shots or every scene in the Fn menu. Leave the rest in MENU.

Step 1: Set up the Fn menu

The Fn menu is a menu of 12 functions shown at the bottom of the screen when you press the Fn (Function) button while shooting. Out of the box it holds frequently used functions such as Drive Mode and Focus Mode. Drive Mode is how many pictures the camera takes per press, like one at a time or a fast burst.

The exact menu path

1. Press MENU, then go to Setup → Operation Customize → Fn Menu Settings.
2. Use the top, bottom, left and right sides of the control wheel to pick the slot you want to change, then press the center.
3. Choose the new function for that slot.

Sony's own example swaps Drive Mode out for Grid Line Display. After the change, Grid Line Display sits where Drive Mode used to be. To change the movie Fn menu instead, you pick a movie item in step 2.

Touch shortcuts

When Touch Operation is On and Shooting Screen under Touch Panel Settings is On, you can tap items in the Fn menu. With those same settings, holding down an icon in the Fn menu opens Fn Menu Settings directly. On firmware Ver.6.00 or later, setting Swipe Up under Shooting Screen to Open the Fn Menu lets you swipe up quickly on the screen to bring the menu up.

Firmware is the camera's own software, like the apps on a phone that get updates. If your camera has newer software available, a red badge appears over the Setup tab, Setup Option and Version on cameras running Ver.4.00 or later.

The viewfinder screen behaves a little differently

If the monitor display is set to For viewfinder, pressing Fn lets you change items right there. Items that are grayed out on that screen cannot be changed with the Fn button. Some settings, such as Creative Look and Picture Profile, need you to enter their own setting screen first. To do that, select the icon and press the center of the control wheel, and the dedicated setting screen appears.

Step 2: Set up custom keys and C1 to C4

A custom key is a button whose job you choose. Picture a light switch you can wire to any lamp in the house.

The exact menu path

Press MENU, then go to Setup → Operation Customize → Custom Key/Dial Set.. You will see separate entries: Custom Key/Dial Set. for still shooting, Custom Key/Dial Set. for movie shooting, and Custom Key Setting for playback. Sony's Help Guide says these are assigned separately. So a button can do one job when you take photos and a different job when you film.

The same dial and wheel settings are also reachable under MENU → Setup → Dial Customize.

Changing a button

1. Open the custom key screen for stills or movies.
2. Select the button you want to change.
3. Press the center of the control wheel. A list of the functions that button can take appears.
4. Pick your function.

On firmware Ver.6.00 or later there is a faster way: while you are on the custom key setting screen, press the physical button you want to change, and the camera jumps to that button's settings, except for some buttons.

Check the defaults first

Sony assigns recommended functions to the C buttons from the factory. Before you change anything, press C1, C2, C3 and C4 one at a time and watch what happens. You may like some of them as they are.

Two settings worth knowing

When you assign functions to the dials and wheel, a check mark on Separate M mode and other modes lets Manual Exposure use different functions than Intelligent Auto, Program Auto, Aperture Priority and Shutter Priority. That is handy while you are learning manual. Your dials can act one way in manual and another way in the easier modes.

You can also give a shooting function to the focus hold button on the lens, though some lenses do not have one.

In the Help Guide for the a7R IV, Sony notes that you can assign Not set to a key to stop accidental presses. If you keep bumping a button with your palm, look for that option in the a7 IV's list for that button.

Step 3: Tidy up the main MENU

Pressing MENU opens the full menu screen. Tabs are sorted by use, such as shooting, playback and network settings. Inside each tab, items are grouped by function, and each group has a number that tells you where it sits in the tab. Those numbers work like page numbers in a book.

The items you see in the Shooting, Exposure/Color and Focus tabs change with the Still/Movie/S&Q dial position. Movie mode and slow-motion/quick-motion mode show the same items. Because the MOVIE button records even in still mode, some basic movie items also show up when you are set to stills. If a setting seems to vanish, check that dial first.

You can also put the MENU function itself on a custom key. That helps if you use a cage or grip that makes the MENU button hard to reach.

Sony cameras also have a personal menu tab where you collect your own short list of menu items. In the a7R IV Help Guide, Sony describes a setting that makes this personal tab appear first when you press MENU. If you leave that option off, the most recently viewed menu appears instead. Confirm the same option on your a7 IV, since the passages here come from the a7R IV guide.

A starting layout for photos

This is a starting point, not a rule. If a function is missing from a button's list, that button cannot hold it, so pick the next slot.

Where	Suggested function	Why
AEL button	Eye AF	Hold to focus on eyes for portraits
C1	Focus Mode	Switch between still subjects and moving ones
C2	Drive Mode	Switch between single shots and bursts
C3 and C4	Keep the factory picks at first	Learn what they do before replacing them
Fn menu	ISO, white balance, Focus Mode, Drive Mode, Grid Line Display, Creative Look	Settings you change per scene, not per second

The AEL idea comes straight from Sony. The Help Guide describes pressing the AEL button while shooting so that, when eyes are detected, Eye AF activates and the camera focuses on the eyes, then taking pictures while you hold the button. Think of it as telling the camera, "look here," the way you point at a friend in a crowd.

Grid Line Display draws a tic-tac-toe board over the screen. It helps you keep horizons straight and place your subject on a line instead of dead center.

A starting layout for video

Remember to switch the dial to movie and use the movie version of Custom Key/Dial Set. and the movie Fn menu. Otherwise you will change your photo buttons by mistake.

Where	Suggested function	Why
C1	Focus Mode	Move between locked focus and following focus
C2	Grid Line Display	Keep frames level between takes
Fn menu	Picture Profile, Creative Look, ISO, white balance, Focus Mode, Grid Line Display	The look and exposure settings you set once per scene

A Picture Profile is like a recipe card for color. Keep in mind that Picture Profile and Creative Look need their own setting screen when you use the For viewfinder display.

For frame rates, shutter speed and the rest of the movie side, the Sony a7 IV video settings guide for beginners walks through it. For a first full pass through the camera, start with the a7 IV first-time setup guide.

Small mistakes that teach you something

• You set a button and it does nothing in video. That is the still and movie maps being separate. Now you know where to look.
• A setting you want is grayed out. On the For viewfinder screen, grayed-out items cannot be changed with Fn. Try the menu instead.
• You forgot what a button does. Open the custom key screen and press it. On firmware Ver.6.00 or later it jumps right to that button's settings.
• You filled every slot on day one. That is fine. After a week, clear out anything you never touched. Fewer choices make faster hands.

Cages and the newer a7 V

If you put the camera in a cage, check that your thumb can still reach C1 through C4 and the AEL button before you rely on them. If a cage blocks a button, move that function to the Fn menu or another key.

If you are still deciding between bodies, the a7 V is the fifth generation of the line, released four years after the a7 IV. Here is how the two compare on a few published specs.

Spec	a7 IV	a7 V
Sensor	33MP full-frame Exmor R CMOS BSI	33MP partially stacked Exmor RS
4K 60p	Super 35mm mode; full frame up to 4K 30p with 7K oversampling	Full frame, 10-bit 4:2:2, oversampled from 7K
Stabilization	5-axis, up to 5.5 stops	5-axis, up to 7.5 stops
Viewfinder	Newsshooter reports the a7 V's 3.68m-dot, 120 fps EVF looks to be the same one used in the a7 IV

Digital Camera World's reviewer called the A7 V faster and smarter than the A7 IV and a worthy upgrade. Whichever body you have, the button setup ideas in this guide still apply: put the settings you change most where your thumb already rests.