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 is the baby I use right now.
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 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.
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.