Custom button map
Which functions belong on the Sony a7R V's custom buttons?
Two maps: stills and movie
Sony gives stills, movies and playback separate assignment sets in the same menu. Build the stills and movie maps both. The assignable controls: Custom Buttons 1–4, AF-ON, AEL, the MOVIE button, Fn, the control wheel and its direction buttons, the multi-selector's center button, and the front and rear dials. And one gift from the factory: Focus Area already sits on the C2 button in the default settings.
Keep C2 — Focus Area
The area change is the most common mid-shoot move there is: portrait to action, Spot to Tracking. Sony already put it on C2 — keep it there and spend your own assignments on what is missing.
AEL — Subject Recognition AF
The assignment Sony itself demonstrates in the guide. Hold AEL and the camera focuses on the recognized subject — eye, head, or body — anywhere on the screen, regardless of your focus area. Recognition becomes a tool you fire on purpose, while the half-press keeps working inside your chosen area.
Button 1 — Recog. Target Select
There is no Auto target on this body, so switching targets is a real mid-shoot move. Recog. Target Select on Custom Button 1 cycles the target; Recog Trgt Select Set trims the cycle to the subjects you actually shoot.
The map lives in Memory 1
Button assignments are part of a registered setup. Save the finished map to slot 1, and the mode dial restores your settings and your keys together. This body goes further: Save/Load Settings (Setup tab) writes the whole configuration to a card file — a backup against resets, and a clone for a second body.
Assign AEL → Subject Recognition AF, then shoot for a day before adding the rest. Muscle memory is built one key at a time.