suggested settings for the Olympus OM-D E-M5 Micro Four Thirds camera
introduction
the default factory settings are NOT conducive to optimal photography, but are designed for people to play around with the camera for the 1st time.
if you want to use the camera to its strengths, you MUST change the default settings
many will find that the PLAY and Fn1 buttons are not easy to press with their thumb so they may wish to move the AEL/AFL functionality to the REC button and assign One Touch WB to Fn1 button as this requires finger to press shutter and thumb to hold the One touch WB button down.
you may wish to create custom setting modes using MySet for various styles of shooting such as:
my
MF/AF mode for a catalogue of Micro Four Thirds lenses and Four Thirds lenses which sets camera to MF and uses Fn1 to lock AF using the smallest AF region available or Face Detection, and allows rapid toggle to full S-AF via Fn2 button, as well as allocating rear arrow keys to ISO, drive mode instead of just moving AF area around
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my “HDR” mode which shoots 7 frames of AE bracketed exposures in Aperture Priority mode and autoISO at 9fps
my Movie mode which assigns REC btn to REC, Fn1 to OneTouchWB, Fn2 to 2x zoom, AF to S-AF for still images, down arrow to WB instead of Drive mode, right arrow to ISO
initial set up
charge battery for at least 3 hours for the 1st time
READ the electronic version of the instruction manual which is on the CD - the paper version has very little information on it!
set time, date and date format
format memory card
consider typing in your Copyright information which can optionally be added to all subsequent images in the EXIF data
consider editing filename for image files so they are different to your past camera image filenames (you don't want to accidentally over-write older images on your computer when you are backing up all your photos)
optimising access to important controls
the top dials are great for changing shutter speed, aperture and exposure compensation - so I would leave these as they are
you can activate the “Super Control Panel” during picture taking mode by pressing the “OK” button on the rear and this enables fairly quick access to a wide range of settings which you can view at the same time - very nice indeed!
when Super Control Panel is displayed, the selected item's value can be rapidly changed using the front top dial, while the rear top dial navigates from one item to the next (you can also use the rear arrow buttons to do this) - very handy indeed!
EVF vs LCD screen
clicking the EVF button will toggle between EVF vs LCD screen
holding down the EVF button allows you to turn off auto-sensing switching between EVF and LCD
pressing INFO will toggle between the display options set in Custom Menu, Builtin EVF, Info Settings such as live histogram, Level Gauge, Image Only
pressing OK will display the Super Control Panel so you can change most settings without taking your eye from the EVF
the touch screen
there is an icon on the touch screen in shooting mode which toggles touch screen ON/OFF
if touch screen is ON, then the ONLY things touching the screen will do in shooting mode are:
turn OFF the touch or swap touch modes if you hit that icon (note this icon has several modes which can confuse you!!)
if touch icon mode set to trigger shutter:
in S-AF mode, trigger S-AF and shutter release almost instantaneously with AF set to the area you touched (if this functionality is activated as it is by default)
in MF mode, trigger shutter release (if this functionality is activated as it is by default)
if touch icon mode set to AF area selection:
touching a spot on the screen gives that the AF selection (region can be changed in size according to touch enabled zoom control on screen)
when S-AF is activated, that AF region is used
when focus region grid is displayed, you can select the focus region on the grid
in iAUTO mode, you can click on the arrow on R side and use touch to adjust most of the camera settings in “dummies” mode ie. you want more blur or less, brighter or darker, etc
in playback mode, you can use touch to:
swipe to next or previous image
use zoom out swipe to activate zoom sliding scale, then move image around on the screen
touch icon to show grid of 20 images (as defined in menu)
NB. if your finger activates EVF sensor, you will be exited from playback mode and shooting mode will commence!
if the EVF auto-switching is ON:
you CANNOT view an image in playback mode in the EVF!! Please Olympus fix this up!
if the toggle is set for EVF mode:
in shooting mode the LCD is black and the EVF will turn off when you take your eye away and the LCD remains black
pressing OK displays the SuperControl Panel in the EVF if activated by having eye near it, otherwise it is displayed on the LCD screen - nicely done Olympus!
if the toggle is set to LCD screen mode:
in shooting mode, the image displays in EVF if eye is against it, and otherwise it displays on the LCD screen - nicely done again, works as expected!
BUT be warned, if you start touching the screen, your hand may activate the auto-sensor and the EVF will become activated instead - not what you want!
using the EVF for almost everything including playback
there are some good reasons why you may want to avoid using the LCD screen and just use the EVF:
you forgot your reading glasses at home or don't want to be continually putting them on
you want to concentrate on photographing your subject and keep the camera to your eye to reduce camera shake
you don't want to annoy everyone around you by having the bright LCD screen activated (eg. conferences, concerts at night, etc)
you want to conserve your battery life
just deactivate the auto-switching by pressing and holding the EVF button until the option to turn off switching is displayed
this will mean the LCD screen will be black, even if pressing the INFO button, BUT will still be activated if you hit the MENU button or the PLAY button, but at least with the latter, if you click on the EVF button it will send the playback image to the EVF where Olympus should have programmed it to be in the first place!
when the EVF or LCD shows a very dark image
this is either because:
your have set the exposure controls such that it will give severe under-exposure, or,
the light levels are too low for the camera to deal with
in this latter case, you can turn Live Boost ON (maybe useful for MF on stars) but then you lose WYSISYG exposure, or for an even brighter image displayed, resort to iAUTO on the PASM dial.
if it is black, perhaps you left the filter cap on, did not turn the camera on, or have deactivated the LCD and your eye is away from the EVF.
optimising auto focus
whilst one can use the default settings and just half-press the shutter you will get variable results as the camera will select an almost random subject to AF upon although it will prioritise a face if Face Detection is enabled.
alternatively, you could just use the touch screen and touch a subject and the camera will almost instantaneously AF and take the shot - very impressive indeed and handy for SOME situations.
improve AF by reducing AF region to the small central region then move camera so that subject is in the centre, press S-AF to set focus, then recompose
how can YOU control what the camera will AF on?
optimising manual focus
autoISO plus exposure compensation
using autoISO is a very handy feature, particularly when you want to set the aperture and shutter speed but still want autoexposure capability within some limits
in aperture priority mode, the camera will assign the lowest ISO as long as the shutter speed is faster than a certain speed as determined by the camera and the lens focal length.
it even works in manual exposure mode albeit without any capability to set an exposure compensation
if you are using legacy lenses, then you can have a pseudo-manual mode with autoexposure and exposure compensation as by setting it to shutter priority you set the shutter speed, and the camera is unable to control the aperture, so you set that on the lens, then the camera will determine the ISO according to your exposure compensation setting - HOWEVER - your exposure range will of course be limited by the autoISO range.
gaining image stabilisation at 9fps burst rate
sensor-based IS is deactivated in 9fps burst rate HOWEVER, if you turn sensor IS OFF, and you have a lens with OIS, then the lens based OIS does still appear to function at 9fps - very handy when shooting with super telephoto lenses!
optimising image quality
use lowest ISO that will do the job
shoot in RAW mode
if you plan to do significant post-processing or adjust WB or contrast on your computer, then do yourself a big favour and ensure you shoot in RAW file format for your important photos.
set Menu item, Shooting Menu 1, 4th item represented by the traditional Oympus icon for file type, then select Still Picture then LF+RAW so you get a nice jpeg as well as your RAW file to play with.
if you shoot in RAW mode, you can get away without worrying about getting too fussed about WB, contrast, sharpness, noise level, saturation, ART mode, highlight/shadow control, jpeg quality, image aspect ratio, as all these can be addressed on your computer later with even more control over them
if shooting jpegs, pay attention!
underwater photography
infrared photography using infrared filters on the lens
"HDR mode"
there is no automatic HDR mode - this is available on the
Olympus OM-D E-M1 and later models
change ISO to auto ISO
you may want to also change the ISO limits, but unfortunately you cannot change the shutter speed limits
if you select autoISO for Aperture Priority, then AE bracketing will adjust ISO in preference to adjusting shutter speed.
if you have enabled autoISO for Manual mode then AE bracketing in Manual mode does not give different exposures as the bracketing will alter shutter speed and then alter ISO to compensate for the shutter speed - this is NOT what you want in HDR work!! THis is because you cannot set exposure compensation in Manual mode when autoISO is set.
change PASM to A so that AE bracketing does not change your DOF
unfortunately, you cannot select auto ISO in manual exposure mode, so use Aperture Priority mode as a compromise
also, using ISO bracketing where shutter speed and aperture remain constant is limited to 3 frames giving +/- 1EV
change drive mode to 9fps
change AE bracketing to what you like for HDR eg. 5 frames at 1EV difference or 7 frames at 0.7EV difference (ie +/- 2EV in total)
save this to a MySettings setting
then you can just activate this whenever you want via Camera1, Reset/Myset on menu (or via Fn1 button or a HLD-6 button if you have allocate one of these to MySettings)
then press your shutter and and your series of shots will be completed under 1 second assuming shutter speed is short enough
one shot jpeg "HDR"
if you need to get things in one shot, the
E-M5's Auto Gradation mode (see under
Picture Mode settings) gives you an option of getting a
large dynamic range into your jpeg in-camera which is more than is possible with most other cameras (of course I would always shoot RAW as well so you can tweak it properly in post-processing)
Comparison jpeg results of dynamic range from dpreview.com
"intervalometer mode"
long exposures
"Movie mode"
just in case you have assigned REC btn to something other than record like I do, it is handy to have a MySet which optimises the controls for movies and reassigns REC to the REC btn and sets a few more:
REC btn to REC
Fn1 to AEL/AFL (as if you assign it to OneTouchWB, if you move PASM dial to movie, it will revert it back to AEL/AFL)
Fn2 to 2x zoom
AF to S-AF for still images
down arrow to WB instead of my usual Drive mode
right arrow to ISO
now you can be in Shutter Priority, set shutter to a nice film like 1/50th of a second, activate your MySet for movie mode and the important functions you need are at your fingertips
if you change the PASM dial to the camera's movie mode, then even with the above set, some will be over-ridden and reallocated while the dial is on that mode such as:
arrow buttons have special on screen functions to change screen parameters
Fn1 becomes AEL/AFL again
you still get the Fn2 for digital zoom which is very handy in movie mode
OK button displays the Live Control instead of Super Control Panel
NOTE: when PASM dial is in Movie mode, you use full shutter button release to START and then STOP the movie
MySet customised settings
my usual settings for dedicated lenses or legacy lenses
I generally save these to MySet2 in case I need to get them back
AF mode = MF
use Fn1 or REC button to lock AF
if giving the camera to another user, change AF to S-AF so that half-press shutter locks AF
if you wish to AF on a slender subject, set to S-AF + MF and see AF technique 5 above
Fn 1 = AEL/AFL (or One Touch WB, or, for those who like focus peaking and have set focus peaking to MySet1, choose MySet1)
Fn 2 = Magnify
REC = MF (or DOF Preview) if Fn 1 is AEL/AFL
so I can quickly toggle between SAF and MF modes
unfortunately you cannot assign this button to MySet1, as ideally I would have AFL assigned to Fn 1
remember when PASM dial is set to movie mode, REC button becomes movie RECORD again
Right arrow button = ISO
Down arrow button = WB mode
set AF region to smallest square in the centre
Shooting Menu 1:
Shooting Menu 2:
AF/MF:
AF Mode = MF or S-AF depending on which you prefer (if novice users will be playing with it, it is more intuitive for them to leave it as S-AF)
Full-time AF = OFF
AEL/AFL = S1/C2/M3
MF Assist = OFF (if you keep accidentally touching the lens manual focus ring and this is annoying, turn it OFF, you can always activate by pressing Fn2)
AF Illuminator = OFF (you dont really need this distracting functionality)
Face detection = nearest eye
Release:
Disp:
Exp/ISO:
ISO-Auto Set upper limit = 800 (I may change this to 1600 sometimes)
ISO-AUTO = ALL (may be handy in Manual exposure mode when I want to keep shutter and aperture constant but still have auto exposure)
Anti-Shock = OFF (this is only needed for intervalometer use or at 0 sec to avoid shutter shake)
Custom Flash:
Quality/Color/WB:
Noise Reduction = Auto
Noise Filter = LOW
MYSet 1 = focus peaking
My Set 2
My Set 4 = "movie mode"
optimising for sports
first a warning - the E-M5 will NOT autofocus on fast moving subjects!!!
to focus, use AF-lock and lock onto a spot where the subject will be, or when the subject is not moving, or use manual focus as outlined above
to save battery life for an all day event, turn the rear LCD screen off as outlined above
bring at least 1 spare battery, preferably 2.
don't be afraid to shoot at up to ISO 6400 - a noisy image is usually better than a blurred image
if you use the burst rate of 9fps remember AF will occur only on the 1st frame, and
image stabiliser will not work at all at these speeds, plus buy the fastest SD card you can get.
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