Sony uses Silent Mode to change several features of the body using “Silent Mode” on or off. It is likely however that you may want most of the camera to be silent without turning off a few features that are critical yet make just a bit of noise occasionally.
On the Shooting tab for Shutter/Silent – Silent Mode Settings which Sony uses to batch several settings together to make the camera silent or not.
Sony states in their manual that “Not Target” – “Sets whether or not to simultaneously change the settings for other functions that emit sounds from the camera when the camera is set to the silent mode.” If you select [Not Target], the setting values for each function will be retained regardless of silent mode being ON or OFF.
In the Target Function Setting for the following three settings in red – setting “Not Target” would then ignore the setting for “Silent Mode”. This has several advantages so I set “Not Target: for the following 3 features:
Aperture Drive in AF – “Not Target
Shutter when Pwr Off – “Not Target
Auto Pixel Mapping- “Not Target
Since I set the above to “Not Target”, “Silent Mode” being ON or OFF has no impact on these three features. Therefore the settings for the above three features are set by going to those options individually in the menu system.
Aperture Drive in AF – Focus Tab, AF/MF. Change the camera to prioritize how it prioritizes focus. I set mine to “Focus Priority” to prioritize Auto-focusing performance.
Anti-Dust Function – set to ON
Auto Pixel Mapping – set to ON
Therefore the above 3 features will be active regardless of the value of the Silent Mode setting.