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Segment 10 - Accessory Port Menu and Camera Operation

Lesson 10 from: Olympus E-M1 Fast Start

John Greengo

Segment 10 - Accessory Port Menu and Camera Operation

Lesson 10 from: Olympus E-M1 Fast Start

John Greengo

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Lesson Info

10. Segment 10 - Accessory Port Menu and Camera Operation

Lesson Info

Segment 10 - Accessory Port Menu and Camera Operation

The next tab is one that you probably do not see because you have to go into the last tab in order to turn this on which we haven't gotten to yet. And you probably don't want to do it because you're once you see what's in here, you probably are not going to need it. If you are working with the Olympus Pen Pal system, which was their old WiFi system built for cameras that don't have WiFi, you could go in and set up some of the parameters for that in here. One of the options in there is you can create an album in the camera and WiFi send it through the Pen PAL system to the Olympus website, and this is where you could set up some of the parameters about that particular feature. If you want to add on electronic viewfinder, why would you want to add on electronic viewfinder to a camera that already has an electronic viewfinder? I don't know, but it is possible because we have that access a report in the top and you could go in and adjust that e V f from here. And that is a very short usele...

ss menu system that we just went through right there. So down to the set up menu, which is our last one, the final general set up with the whole camera, obviously your time and date. Now, let me double check. I was estimating the time that I would hit this point. I was estimating 2 45 and it's to 16. Not bad for guessing about this four months ago when I made the slide language, of course. What language you speak there. The monitor, color and temperature, the temperature of brightness of the monitor. You probably are not going to need to change this, but if it seems to be wacky and color, you could fix it. The record view when you shoot a picture, how quickly does it go in? Or how long does it show you A picture in the playback mode on previous sl ours. I liked shooting a picture and holding it so I could see what I got. When I started working with the mirror list cameras, something fundamentally was different. And that was when you look through the viewfinder, that is a preview of what your final picture is gonna look like you don't need to look at the back of the camera anymore to see if the white balance came out right or the exposure came out right, Because you get to see that all ahead of time. And so I found as a faster operation with the mere list cameras just to turn off that setting at all. At first, you may want to leave it on kind of as a beginner user down 23 seconds. But once you get used to it, just leaving it turned off Next up eyes, the WiFi settings. And this is where you can go in and set up some of the controls on the WiFi, your past war password on connection settings as well. So you can kind of take a look through this if you're gonna be doing WiFi operation and that menu that we were at just before the set up men, you could be turned on in this next little area. And in fact, if you wanted to turn off the custom menu, you could. But you definitely want to leave the custom menu, which is the little years you want to leave. That one turned on because I think there's a lot of things in there that you're gonna want to be going in and out of on a regular basis. Finally, we get to firmware. And actually, the day that we recorded this, as I was driving to work, they updated the firmware. There is new firmware available. It's 1.4, and the camera came out. It was one point. Oh, and they've made subsequent adjustments and improvements to the camera. 1.3 added that zero second shock and this new 1.4 ads Better auto focus for people using the old 4/3 lenses. They've improved the stabilization in the continuous autofocus mode, and they've made some additions to what you can do with WiFi remote. Apparently, you can now use art filters and the custom self timer, and you can use the zoom operation if you have one of the Olympus power zoom lenses. And so everyone needs to go out and download the new firmware because it's brand new. And almost no matter when you watch this, it's gonna be something that you can get free from Olympus. Now, in order to get this free firmware upgrade, here's what you need to dio. There are probably several different Olympic sites around the world that you can go to, but here in the United States, I go to Olympus America dot com. I go to their support page, and I look for their software downloads, and I I need to download onto my computer this Olympus Digital camera update. Or it's a little bit of software that you need to keep on your computer, at which point you plug your camera into your computer and start this Olympus Digital camera update ER, and it will automatically go into your camera. Do you have to have your camera turned on? And you don't have to remove the memory card, which is always a little tricky, and I forget that one. And in the connect camera, we connect the camera to the computer and in the storage mode, you need to select storage in order for this to update. And then when you run this software, your software will be connected directly up to your camera. It'll look at what firmware is on there. It'll ask you about upgrading, and then you can go ahead and upgrade, and I will be upgrading my software tonight because I want to get the new stuff on there. It's always good to have. The latest software doesn't cost anything. It's free of charge. Just takes. I would allow about 5 to 15 minutes, depending on how fast your Internet connection is in order for that to be done. All right, so let's do the operation of the camera. And this is where we kind of gone through all the individual controls. Now, what do we need to pay attention to when we go out and shoot real picture? So first off, what's my checklist? When I go out and shoot with this camera, the first thing is, is I want to make sure the battery is charged. It is in the camera. I want to make sure that my memory card doesn't have any pictures from my last photo shoot. They've been downloaded and put on the hard drive and backed up, and I'm gonna go in. I'm gonna reform at that memory card. I've kind of maybe made a quick stroll through the menu settings to make sure that I didn't have it someplace crazy the last time I was shooting. And then if I'm gonna take, like a big trip Gonna go to Cuba or Morocco. I'm gonna make sure that my sensor is clean before I head off to the airport because I don't wanna have to deal with the dirty sensor in a far off location. It's much easier to deal with it at home, where I have all the right tools and accessories or access to repair shops for cleaning something. Now, when it comes into operating the camera on a day to day basis, there's about regular controls that you're gonna really want to know where they are and what they dio, and it's the 10 that you see listed up here. So let's go ahead and set the camera up for a number of different, very basic and very common operations. The 1st 1 I want to do is what I call super simple operation, and actually, this is more simple than I expect any of my students to use. This is the type of mode that you would put the camera in tow, hand it to somebody else to work with the P for program. It's going to set shutter speeds and apertures so you don't need to worry about those two. I normally don't much care for auto I s O But in a super simple operation, it automatically choose an I S O that will, as a result, choose a shutter speed fast enough so that you're not getting getting You're not gonna get blur from hand holding the camera, make sure your exposure compensation is at zero. So you're not getting overly bright or dark images. The metering have any set on the E. S. P and trivia question What is E. S P stand force and even remember, I'll let you know it's electro selective pattern. Some fancy word that I think Olympus probably came up with in the nineties on That's the most multi my matrix entering metering system that measures light in a multitude of different areas. Great overall system. As a default, I leave my camera on auto I S R auto white balance. Excuse me, and I will then change it as conditions change. So if I go in to a house and they have a lot of incandescent lamps, then I will switch it to that city. But for the most part, I'll just leave it an auto until I see a change, And one of the great things about these muralist cameras is that you get to see what it's gonna look like before you even take the picture. So you will know when the change by just looking at the image in screen, focusing in single autofocus. So the camera is gonna focus on a subject and stop and not move until I press down on the shutter release button again. Focusing area all 81 areas is gonna choose whatever is closest to the camera, which in a general sense, is a pretty safe way to go. You do have to be careful about subjects between the camera and the subject, cause it wants to focus on whatever is closest to the camera. But it's a good, quick way where the camera can look at a wide area to focus on. And for the drive mode, I would just leave it in the single mode so that you take one picture with each press of the shutter and as a reminder to everyone as I go through this in the handout pdf, I have all of this outlined and explained in there as well. So we're going too fast for you. You can check it, take it with you and read it out in the field. So for landscapes, you have a little bit more time. You want a lot of things in focus. I'm gonna choose manual exposure. The next thing I'm gonna look at changing is my eyes. So I want to set that to the lowest setting possible to get the highest quality images. Next in my mind is I want things in focus. I want depth of field, and I'm gonna have to set the camera to achieve lots of depth of field which might be anywhere from F eight F 32. Depending on the lens and the condition, the shutter speed will be the least important. Especially if I'm using a tripod, which you would hopefully be doing in your landscape work. In which case you will set whatever shutter speed is necessary according to your light meter. But you're likely to be in a fairly slow shutter speed, like 1/4 of a second. But that will depend on lighting conditions. I'm gonna go ahead and keep E s p metering and auto white balance unless needs change for focusing. I'm just gonna focus once and lock it in. So single autofocus will work just fine. And I don't want the camera to focus with all the areas. I want to choose a small little area and be very precise about what I'm choosing to focus on which walk Which rock which tree? What exactly do I want to be my focus point And for the drive mode, a couple of options. I would choose single if I was using the cable release. That way I can fire the camera when and where I want exactly on the timing that I need or had used the two second self timer. So I'm not moving the camera after I press the shutter release. It gives me two seconds delay so that the vibrations will settle out. There's no movement in the camera, so that is the landscape operation. Let's switch it over to a portrait scenario. In this case, you're not gonna be on a tripod. Most likely, you're going to be a little bit more concerned about your shutter speed. You need it fast enough to stop your hand holding of the camera as well as your subjects potential movement as well. We're also often going for a very shallow depth of field. In these cases. I do like working in manual exposure as well. And here kind of. My first setting is to go with shallow depth of field toe, let in a lot of light with the lands and go with that very shallow depth of field. Look, I'm gonna want to choose the shutter speed Probably 125th of a second or faster to make sure that it stops the movement of my subject or my movement of the camera. And finally, I prefer to have the lowest isso possible. But I will bump it up if the light conditions make it necessary to keep it in the E S P metering. I'm going to keep it in the auto white balance and for focusing. I'm going to keep it in single auto focus. I'm gonna focus on the subject in particular. I'm gonna focus on their face and on there. I if possible, because the eyes of the most important thing that you want to keep in focus in. In order to do this, I'm gonna have to choose a very small area to focus on, and so that small box is going to be the most valuable and for the motor drive, leaving it on single and timing my shots with their best expressions and gestures. So that is the portrait set up that I like to use. Next up is the action set up, and I will mention right now that this camera is not the best camera in the world for shooting action. Of the mere list cameras on the market today, it's one of the best. But when compared to the SLRs, the SLR deals still do have an advantage over this. So if you're heavily into shooting sports, you're gonna have to learn the system and work this system to its very finest to get the good results. I was out last week shooting a track and field event with this, and I was getting some very nice results from it, so it can do sports quite well, but it's just not quite as consistent as some of the SL ours because of the focusing system that it uses in those cases. I like to be in manual exposure so that I can specifically choose a fast enough shutter speed. Usually 5/100 of a second or faster. I'm gonna wanna let in a lot of light because I am needing a very fast shutter speed. This is where having a faster F 2.8 lens really pays off. Of course, I like me and at the lowest isso. But the reality is, with those faster shutter speeds, you're probably going to need a higher I s O 400 is just the start. If you're gonna be shooting indoors, it's probably gonna be closer to 32 6400. The metering at E. S. P s fine and the white balance had auto is fine. This is where you have a couple of choices in focusing. My choice is C A F for continuous autofocus. For most things, I give a nod to the CF tracking mode. You can give that a try and see if it works. I have found it a little hard to control and direct, and it kind of wants to do its own thing. So it doesn't always do exactly what you expect it to do, and that could be really irritating when you're shooting sports and so give it a try. See if it works for what you're doing. It has the potential of even doing better if it can figure out exactly what's going on and for the focus area. This is where I would choose that group of nine. It's very hard to keep that one small box on the subject that is moving around in front of you, and having that group of nine will give it a little bit more area in which to grab onto for the drive mode. You could use it in the continuous high or the continuous low mode, whatever you see fit for what you're shooting and that is the action set up. All right, The final little set up for this class is going to be basic photography. This is how I would have the cameras set up a lot of times in travel photography, or how I might have the cameras set up just at home. When I'm heading out to take pictures and I don't know what the next picture I'm going to take ISS, I will use a little bit of automation here aperture priority and I will typically leave the aperture fairly wide open maybe around F four, which will give me a reasonably fast shutter speed if I need to pull the camera out and get a quick shot. I like to leave the I s so as lowest possible so that I am consciously aware of every time that I'm changing it, and I'm always kind of resetting it back down to 200. I hate having getting myself caught with the I S o a too high upsetting. If I go out and shoot night pictures and then get up the next morning, I'll shoot a few pictures and realize cheddar speed seem a little strange. That's because you're eso is still at 6400 from last night. So make sure you kind of keep that reset to 200 on a regular basis. And because we're an aperture priority, we need to pay attention to where our exposure compensation is again. We don't work with exposure compensation when we're in manual, but now we're back an aperture priority. I would by default keep that said it zero and change it on an as necessary basis. We'll stick with PSP on the media, Rinne and stick with auto on the white balance for focusing. The simple one is single autofocus and for the focusing area, I do like to keep a single or small box so that I could be very precise about what I am focusing on. And for the drive mode. I'll just leave it in single. If there's action that comes around, I will flip it over into the sequential mode. But for the most part, I just leave it in the single. So I think this is a good, simple, basic photography section set up that can get you ready for just about any type of thing very, very quickly. So if you have stuck with this class all the way till now, I can offer my congratulations. You are now in om d e m one expert, so congratulations, everybody.

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Ratings and Reviews

Hal
 

John does an excellent job of making the OMD E M1 understandable. His knowledge of the camera and relaxed style clearly and painlessly walk you through the maze of buttons, menus, and functions. He objectively points out the strengths of the camera as well as those things Olympus could of done better. His opinions of the camera are consistent with other knowledgable reviewers, and are consistent with my own (limited) experience. The manual tells you every little thing the camera CAN do. John helps you understand what is important to get the best use of the camera in most situations.

user e35335
 

Three simple words, " Thank you John " I have really enjoyed the course. The OMD EM1 is a wonderful camera, and with the clear guidance of this course I feel instantly at home with all its capabilities. Clear concise instructions delivered in a faultless manner. A joy to watch.

Gary Davies
 

Wow! The M-1 has a lot of options but John does a terrific job of making them understandable. His style is relaxed and endearing. It seems to me the goal in taking photographs is to be able to devote all one's effort into composing the photograph.... which means that setting the camera for the particular shot needs to be as effortless and instinctive as it can be. JG has set me on that road with my M-1 and for that, I thank him.

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