The Joshua Tree Tour 2017 in Vancouver

Ever been caught in a situation where you were making creative pictures at a slow shutter speed or wrong white balance and something amazing just happens and you need to make a number of camera settings in a hurry?

In the sports and photojournalism world, we encounter this situation on occasion and usually program a button or a preset we call the “Oh Shit Button”.

We were talking about this button on a recent trip with Carlo from Reuters News Pictures and couldn’t find it anywhere on a Sony a9. Well, San Diego based Sony engineer Hosomi took it on as a challenge and dug it out of the menus!

The “Oh Shit Button”’ button can automatically shift to pre-set exposure/shutter/iso (ideally on either body or lens). This can provide known ‘safety’ solution to ensure not to miss the key moment when conditions change.

In Custom Key setting, choose “Recall Custom hold 1/2/3”

There are 3 presets you can assign.

Not only the exposure but also AF setting and drive mode (single/continuous)

And also AF-on can be assigned as well.

If you don’t check out the box, that setting will be changed from the original setting.

I sometimes assign and use AF-S which is better in a low light situation than AF-C.

After setting all items, hit “Register”.

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