notes-camera-ep1TipsTricks

Olympus E-P1 Tips and tricks

• With the kit zoom, there aren't distance markings on the lens, or provided by the camera in the display (although there should be). If you want to focus at infinity, though, there is a menu option (enabled by default) called "RESET LENS" that refocuses the lens at infinity each time you turn off the camera; so just turn the camera off and then on again.
• If you want to more quickly switch to autofocus from manual mode, but you want to use the Fn button for My Mode rather than for switching the focus mode, you can do this: create a My Mode with AF mode in one of the autofocus modes. Now, when you hold down the Fn button, the Camera goes into your My Mode, and then when you press the shutter halfway, it focuses. Now release the shutter to get out of My Mode.
• If you are in exposure bracketing mode, and you have taken some of the bracket but not all of it, then usually it will automatically setup the exposure to take the rest of the bracket; even if you turn the camera off and then back on, it will remember that it's in the middle of a bracket (in one of the info displays, in the bottom left, there is a little filled in square with the letters BKT which is there when you are in bracket mode; it is white usually, but turns green when you are in the middle of a bracket). But if you want to abort rather than take the rest of the bracket, then switch into i-Auto mode, and then switch back, and the bracket will be forgotten.
• My Mode sets the shutter speed and fstop (both are relevant in manual mode; the shutter is relevant in shutter priority mode; the fstop is relevant in aperture priority mode; neither are relevant elsewhere (i think)), but you can press the Fn button, and then press the shutter halfway down, and then adjust the shutter and fstop while holding the shutter button halfway down.

shutter speeds and what they're good for (with the kit zoom)

clouds at night, handheld or resting on surface but rotated: up to about 2500 ISO, up to about 1.3" shutter time. expose at +2.3 exposure is ideal. aperture as large as possible. autofocus doesn't work on dim objects, but you can do much better with manual. 1.3" will blur a bit, esp. handheld (you'll have to have a really small image) so you have to choose if you want +2.3 exposure, or a shorter shutter time.

you'll be able to see the general shape of things pretty well, about as good as with the eyes, but it will be so grainy that it won't look very awe inspiring.

anytime: handheld, 1/320 sec is distinguishably better than 1/100. 1/620 isn't much better than 1/320 tho. 1/160 is in the middle, still not as good as 1/320. 1/200 is close to 1/320, not quite there but almost. well worth it on a typical shot to go from f8 to f6.3 to get from 1/100 to 1/320. diff b/t f5 and f6.3, at same shutter speed, is not large.

My E-P1 configuration settings

Most of the lists of items to be set are taken from the table on page 141 of the English manual. However, I have also discovered some items that are not listed in the table in the manual, but nevertheless are saved by Custom Resets.

Blanks indicate items left at system default, or things not important enough to me to write down.

What to use when

Custom reset 1: default; landscapes. shots at low ISO with bracketing for HDR, manual focus. (ISO 200 by default, but auto goes to 800) Custom reset 2: indoor action. burst of shots at high ISO, no bracketing, autofocus.

Custom Reset 1 + My Mode 1: good light with bracketing but less fiddling (auto focus, auto ISO, noise filter) (also use for autofocus) Custom Reset 2 + My Mode 1: poor light with bracketing

Custom Reset 1 + My Mode 2: good light, 2 second timer, auto-ISO. Custom Reset 2 + My Mode 2: indoor posing. poor light, 2-second timer (if you need to autofocus, do that before pressing the My Mode button)

(all of these are for handheld; if I have time to mount a tripod, I'll have time to fiddle with settings and turn off image stabilizer (IS))

Custom Reset 1

My default configuration. For shooting clouds and landscapes. Exposure bracketing is on, for HDR (high dynamic range; you can postprocess together a bunch of exposure bracketed shots into one HDR picture). Manual focus (usually I take these pictures at infinity focus).

The following items are not listed in the table in the manual, but nevertheless are saved by Custom Resets.

Here are the items from the manual:

And the following are held constant and hence will be omitted from the second custom reset table:

Custom Reset 2

For indoor pics with moving objects when I don't have much time to fiddle around setting up the camera, rather automated. Autofocus, no exposure bracketing, sequential shooting. ISO default is 320, not 200, and Auto ISO is enabled, ISO limit is 4000. Noise filter is set to low.

Things that differ from Custom Reset 1 are starred (the starring might be out of date).

My Mode 1

I plan to use this mode when I want more automation; it has Auto Focus, Auto ISO and Low Noise Filter. AE Bracketing is still on. I can also use it just to quickly autofocus when in manual focus mode, and then I exit the My Mode by releasing the shutter button (as in the bullet point in the Tips section above).

Things that differ from Custom Reset 1 are starred (the starring might be out of date).

The following items are not listed in the table in the manual, but nevertheless are saved by My Mode:

Here are the items from the manual:

And the following are held constant and hence will be omitted from the second My Mode table:

My Mode 2

When I want a steadier picture and no exposure bracketing; turn off AE bracket and set the 2-second timer. Auto ISO. (hopefully) Good for pictures of people who are posing.

Some config items not in Custom Reset or My Mode

some items from the table in the manual which can't be registered with either My Mode or Custom Reset:

Note: default Auto ISO shutter speed cutoff seems to be 60 in P mode

Scene Modes

Sport

C-AF. Like Dis Mode with shutter speed cutoff around 500, and ISO max at 800.

Children

C-AF. Like Dis Mode with shutter speed cutoff around 60, and ISO max at 800. Aperture 4.0.

Dis Mode

S-AF. ISO Auto. Seems to set ISO at 1600 unless it is really bright (if the shutter would go over 250?). If the ISO gets down to 200, it adjusts the aperture. I wish it was MF, ISO up to 1000, shutter speed up to 160, with the Fn button refocusing.

Settings that work in video mode

• Exposure compensation
• Aperture priority
• others (todo)

Firmware suggestions for olympus

Suggestions that could (should!) conceivably be accomplished with a firmware update (these all seem pretty easy to add; I expect the development team could get through this entire list in a reasonable amount of time (weeks?). If the UI code was open source, I could write them myself):

Important features which are lacking:

• Allow an option to hold exposure constant during video.
• Hyperfocal and infinity focus options
• Display the distance that the lens is focused at in the viewfinder

Wishlist:

• Allow the user to set the trash button to do other things when not in playback mode (like a second Fn button)
• Expand the list of things that the Fn button can be set to do (it should be able to set any setting that My Modes can set)
• More than 2 Custom Resets and more than 2 My Modes
• My Mode as custom reset option via menu; custom reset to a My Mode
• Heck, why not just combine the Custom Resets and My Modes? I.e. have (at least, but hopefully more than) 4 of them, and any of them can be used as a My Mode at any time, or reset to at any time
• My Mode selection in Live Control or Super Control (i.e. a "menu" in these control modes that lets you pick a My Mode; when the My Mode is selected in this way, it stays on even when the shutter button is not pressed; the My Mode can be escaped from by going back to this menu and setting it back to Off -- but even when this menu says it's Off, if the Fn button is set to My Mode, then the selected My Mode can be initiated in the usual way through the Fn button, and held in the usual way by holding the shutting halfway while holding the Fn button)
• My Mode masks: i.e. My Modes that set some subset of settings, but that leave the rest alone
• Auto-ISO settings could be registered in My Modes (maybe)
• One-click burst bracketing with 2-second timer: it would be nice if you could shoot a bracket of shots by clicking the shutter once; there would be a 2-second timer, during which you could release the shutter and steady your hand, and then the whole bracket would be shot in a burst
• option to change timer time: i'd prefer a 1-second timer -- best to just let the user set it in the custom menu. not that imoprtant, but more important than changing the direction of various dials from clockwise to counterclockwise, which is provided.
• Open source the UI part of the firmware so that in the future, people like me could just add this stuff myself, and then send Olympus a patch submission so that others could use it too

Suggestions for new lenses and camera models for Olympus

• Very compact ultra-wide-angle (more compact than the 14-42mm kit zoom; I want the camera with this attached to fit in my pocket). If possible to do compact, a zoom (in which case, it should go to at least 10mm at the widest); otherwise, a prime (10-12mm please). I don't really care about the range of the zoom as long as it is at least 10mm at the widest and 16mm at tele (would much prefer at least 9mm to 18mm though, and if there's more room, than more tele) -- compact size is more important than zoom range. Compact size is more important than very low distortion (but distortion must be lower than, say, LX3 at 24mm), but very low distortion is more important than zoom range
• Smaller camera. Included flash. I don't need a viewfinder. Smaller LCD is fine (but bright, high-res).