First Sony for Me

[Willeys]

Following the birth of our first child, I started taking photographs using and then collecting Nikon cameras and lenses. That was over 55 years ago. Now approaching my 80th birthday, I have decided to add spark to my photographic interest with a new challenge, learning to use the Sony system. I purchased the A7R IVa and 24-105 F4.0 lens.

Upon opening the box of my new camera, from B&H Photo, I was surprised to not finding a user manual or quick start quide. It took me several minutes to insert the SD card before I realized I had to insert it with the label facing away from me. What is the deal with Sony that No quick start quire is supplied??

Well that is my introduction from southern Ohio. Hope to share some of my landscape images as soon as I figure out how to transfer files from the camera to my computer.

Willeys

 

[snegron]

Hi Willeys! Welcome to alphashhoters!

I feel your pain regarding no instruction manual included with your camera. I ended up having to buy a book for my Sony A7c. The ironic thing is that Sony lenses come with a bunch of unnecessary paper instructions; one for each popular language! I don't understand their reasoning.

I too shot Nikon for several decades! I still have my old Nikon S2 rangefinder, Nikon F, F Photomic, F2A, F3, F3HP, FM2n, F100 and F5 with Nikon AiS lenses! Nikon definitely was the king of film!

 

[Jeff A]

Hi Willeys! Welcome to alphashhoters!

I feel your pain regarding no instruction manual included with your camera. I ended up having to buy a book for my Sony A7c. The ironic thing is that Sony lenses come with a bunch of unnecessary paper instructions; one for each popular language! I don't understand their reasoning.

I too shot Nikon for several decades! I still have my old Nikon S2 rangefinder, Nikon F, F Photomic, F2A, F3, F3HP, FM2n, F100 and F5 with Nikon AiS lenses! Nikon definitely was the king of film!

One alternative to book purchases is to join Mark Galer's Patreon site for one month ($10.00 US) and download all of his eBooks and seminars and so forth. The eBook for my A7 IV is around 560 pages and is beautifully done in PowerPoint.

 

[AlphaWorld]

Following the birth of our first child, I started taking photographs using and then collecting Nikon cameras and lenses. That was over 55 years ago. Now approaching my 80th birthday, I have decided to add spark to my photographic interest with a new challenge, learning to use the Sony system. I purchased the A7R IVa and 24-105 F4.0 lens.

Upon opening the box of my new camera, from B&H Photo, I was surprised to not finding a user manual or quick start quide. It took me several minutes to insert the SD card before I realized I had to insert it with the label facing away from me. What is the deal with Sony that No quick start quire is supplied??

Well that is my introduction from southern Ohio. Hope to share some of my landscape images as soon as I figure out how to transfer files from the camera to my computer.

Willeys

The Sony Help Guide is online, and has a much better search capability than any paper manual. Here's the one for the A7RIVa:
https://helpguide.sony.net/ilc/2060/v1/en/index.html - it is quite comprehensive, and answers most of my questions.

I bought an A7RIV - the one that was upgraded to the A7RIVa (they changed the rear screen) - and it came with a small manual that included how to put the card in (which is NOT obvious, definitely). Surprised yours didn't come with that.

Interestingly, you can get a proper paper manual, but you have to buy it from a web site that the Sony Manuals page points you to. That irritated me a bit at first, but I guess it makes sense; few people seem to have the patience to read a manual, and printing a manual of hundreds of pages for every camera is a waste if no one is going to read it. I guess Sony decided that it was better for the environment not to waste paper and ink on something that would be ignored 90+% of the time.

 

[Tim Mayo]

Welcome William and thank you for joining up here. I can't remember the last camera that I bought that included a manual. Since it has already been linked above I won't link to it again. There are lots of resources out there, Jason Hermann has a very good beginners guide for the a7R IV that's worth a watch.