When taking photos, different situations call for different settings of the camera. Of course, you can slap your camera on the automatic setting and fire away, but doing so won’t allow you to capture each scene to the best of your ability.
One of the most useful and underrated settings on the Sony a6500 camera while traveling is the silent shutter mode of the Sony a6500. This is especially useful if you’re shooting in a quiet environment, shooting wildlife, doing some street photography, or just don’t want to bring attention to yourself in general.
Most cameras also have a silent shutter setting, but I’m going to cover the Sony a6500 exclusively because that was the baby I was using for travel when I wrote this.
In this post today, I’m going to go over how to set up silent shutter on the Sony a6500, the restrictions, and limitations when using silent shutter, situations when you might use it, and when not to use it.
How to Set Up Silent Shutter Mode on Your Sony a6500
Setting up silent shutter on your a6500 is very simple to do.
The only part that might be a little confusing is navigating the camera’s menu system.
If you’ve been using Sony cameras for any length of time, you know how clunky it can get.
There is a simple switch to turn on the silent shooting mode and you’ll find it under the purple tab with the camera icon and the number 2.
It’s located in subpage 4/9 under the Silent Shooting option.
To make it easier, here are some pictures.
1.) Make sure your camera is set to one of the M/S/A/P settings. Silent shutter only works when you’re in one of these settings.
2.) Hit the menu button on the camera.
3.) Navigate to the Camera 2 tab. It looks like a camera icon with the number 2 to the right of it and the background is purple. Looking at this picture might be easier.
4.) Navigate to menu 4 within this tab. Your menu title should read “Shutter/SteadyShot – 4/9”.
5.) Change Silent Shooting to “on”.
6.) That’s it! Your camera is now as silent as a cat walking in the night.
Silent Shooting Limitations on the Sony a6500
Silent Shooting (Sony’s electronic shutter) is handy, but it is not unlimited. Per Sony’s ILCE-6500 Help Guide, these are the main restrictions to know about when Silent Shooting is On:
- Flash shooting and BULB are unavailable.
- These functions are also unavailable: Auto HDR, Picture Effect, Picture Profile, Long Exposure NR, e-Front Curtain Shutter, and Multi Frame NR.
- Continuous shooting is limited to Lo only on the a6500.
- It is not completely silent — aperture and focus can still make sound.
- Subject or camera motion can distort the image (rolling readout).
- Flickering or momentary light (fluorescent lighting, another camera’s flash, and similar) can create banding or striping on the image.
- After you power the camera on, the time until you can start shooting is about 0.5 seconds longer.
Silent Shooting also only works when the mode dial is on P, A, S, or M — which matches the menu walkthrough above.
When Silent Shutter Is Useful
This is the setting I reach for when the shutter click would be the wrong sound in the room.
Quiet indoor spaces, ceremonies, museums, wildlife that startles easily, street scenes where you’d rather stay low-key, and travel days when you do not want every frame to announce itself are all good fits. It is also a way to cut mechanical shutter wear on long stills sequences outdoors in steady light — just keep the banding note below in mind if the light is artificial.
If you are building out an a6500 travel kit around the same body, I also shared notes on Sony a6500 battery life and the best lenses for the Sony a6500.
When Not to Use Silent Shutter
Skip Silent Shooting when you need flash, BULB, or any of the Sony features that turn off with it (Auto HDR, Picture Effect, Picture Profile, Long Exposure NR, e-Front Curtain Shutter, Multi Frame NR), or when you need continuous shooting faster than Lo.
Avoid it under artificial or flickering light when banding would ruin the frame — including silent-shutter timelapse under artificial lighting, which is a risk I already call out in the comments on this page. Fast subject or camera motion is another miss, because the electronic readout can distort moving edges.
And if absolute silence is the goal, remember aperture and focus can still click a little even with Silent Shooting On.
For more a6500 basics while you are here, I also covered whether the Sony a6500 is a full-frame camera.
Hi Tom,
I am a beginner to photography and really don’t know too much about the different functions of my Sony a6500. After reading a few reviews online I decided to buy this camera, as I am traveling around. I also bought the Sigma 30mm 1.4 and a Sony 18-135mm. I still don’t understand which settings my camera should be set on and even still, I’m not quite sure which lens I should use whilst traveling. I’d like to shoot more portrait/people/ lifestyle photos but don’t know where to start. Is there any advice you can give me?
Thanks.
Hi Charlie!
Thanks for the question and I’m excited for you that you got the Sony a6500! As you might have saw, I’ve used it for a few years now and absolutely love it! If you would like to shoot more portrait/people/lifestyle photos, I would probably have the Sigma 30mm 1.4 on my camera at all times and carry around the 18-135 in case you need the extra length. The reason why I say that is because the Sigma 30mm 1.4 is at a good focal length for most portrait/people/lifestyle shots and you have the much wider F stop so you would be able to throw out the background. The auto function on the camera is pretty good and when you do want to throw out the background at a wider F stop like at F2.0 you can use the aperture priority, which is the A on the top dial. When you use this setting, the camera will automatically adjust the shutter speed based on the aperture you pick. When you get more comfortable, you might also want to think about a 6 stop ND filter for the Sigma for when you want to shoot at a wide aperture during brighter light conditions.
I hope this helps! If you have any other questions just let me know. My personal email is also tomshu13@gmail if you would rather reach out to me there.
Best,
Tom
thanks , i am wanting to take many macro shots and like the idea that there is one more check box to minimize any movement.
You’re welcome and thanks for reading the article! That is a great idea to minimize movement from the camera.
One more situation where the silent shutter is a must is timelapse, otherwise you will wear the poor thing out in no time at all.
Hi! Yes, that’s a very good point. Although, I would avoid doing a silent shutter timelapse under any artificial lighting to avoid any risk of banding.