Olympus OM-D E-M5 Review: Digital Photography Review

Camera Menus

The EM-5's menus carry on the trend begun with the E-P3 (which used the same OLED rear screen) with background images appearing behind the menus that drop out-of-focus when you engage any of the five tabs on the left of the screen. There's an option in the Setup menu to add a sixth tab to the menu, containing the options for anything attached to the accessory port.

The menus are about as logically laid-out as they can be, given how many options and settings they contain. To get the most out of the E-M5, it's well-worth scanning through the options in the Settings menu, on the next page of this review. There you'll find options to customize almost every aspect of the camera's behavior, including changing button functions, control interfaces and display options.

It's worth looking out for a couple of options, such as the choice to set the Fn1 button to conduct an AF acquisition in manual focus mode (Custom A3, set MF to Mode 3). There's also an option (Custom C6) that, by default, disables the image stabilization during continuous shooting, which is worth knowing about. A series of settings changes is also needed to engage IS when shooting with manual focus lenses. We'll be publishing a short article about how to get the best from the E-M5, at some point in the next week.

Shooting Menu 1


Option	Values / Actions	Notes
Card setup	• All Erase • Format
Reset/Myset	• Reset Basic Full • Myset1 Set Reset • Myset2 Set Reset • Myset3 Set Reset • Myset4 Set Reset	Enables you to reset the camera back to factory defaults, or to set up four user-defined 'Myset' settings.
Picture Mode	• 1 i-Enhance Contrast (-2 to +2) Sharpness (-2 to +2) Saturation (-2 to +2) Gradation Auto Normal High Key Low Key Effect (High, Standard, Low) • 2 Vivid Cont. / Sharp. / Sat. / Grad. • 3 Natural Cont. / Sharp. / Sat. / Grad. • 4 Muted Cont. / Sharp. / Sat. / Grad. • 5 Portrait Cont. / Sharp. / Sat. / Grad. • Monotone Contrast Sharpness B+W Filter Neutral Yellow Orange Red Green Pict Tone Neutral Sepia Blue Purple Green Gradation • Custom Mode /Cont / Sharp / Sat / Grad • ART1 Pop Art Filter Type (2 options) Effects (Off + 5 options) • ART2 Soft Focus Effects (Off + 2 options) • ART3 Pale&Light Color Filter Type (2 options) Effects (Off + 4 options) • ART4 Light Tone Effects (Off + 1 option) • ART5 Grainy Film Filter Type (2 options) Effects (Off + 3 options) • ART6 Pin Hole Filter Type (3 options) Effects (Off + 1 option) • ART7 Diorama Effects (Off + 1 option) • ART8 Cross Process Filter Type (2 options) Effects (Off + 3 options) • ART9 Gentle Sepia Effects (Off + 4 options) • ART10 Dramatic Tone Filter Type (2 options) Effects (Off + 4 options) • ART10 Dramatic Tone Filter Type (2 options) Effects (Off + 5 options)	Select the color / tone response from five pre-programmed settings. Each can then be further tuned by setting contrast / sharpness / saturation (in 5 steps), and gradation. Monotone mode also has options to simulate the effect of four colored filters and the ability to add four tints to the final image. There's also a Custom option that allows you to create your own preset. This custom option can be fine-tuned as much as any of the presets on which it's based. Art Filters are now available from the Picture Mode menu and can therefore be applied in all exposure modes. Many have a number of variants (or types), which can also be combined with a range of 'Effects' including frames and starburst.
Image size / quality	• Still Picture RAW Size/quality 1 JPEG Size/quality 2 JPEG Size/quality 3 JPEG Size/quality 4 JPEG RAW + Size/quality 1 JPEG RAW + Size/quality 2 JPEG RAW + Size/quality 3 JPEG RAW + Size/quality 4 JPEG • Movie MOV FullHD Fine MOV FullHD Normal MOV HD Fine MOV HD Normal M-JPEG HD M-JPEG SD	Selects the types of file written, including control over the image size and quality of JPEGs. In RAW+JPEG mode the writes one JPG and one ORF (RAW) file. The 4 JPEG Size/quality settings available for selection are also user-configurable in Custom menu section G.
Image aspect	• 4:3 • 16:9 • 3:2 • 1:1 • 3:4
Digital Tele-converter	• Off • On	Stills-only digital crop mode

Shooting Menu 2


Option	Values / Actions	Notes
Drive mode	• Single • Continuous High • Continuous low • 12 second self-timer • 2 second self-timer
Image Stabilizer	• IS 1 • IS 2 • IS 3 • IS OFF
Bracketing	• AE BKT 2F / 0.3 EV (0,+ or 0,–) 2F / 0.7 EV (0,+ or 0,–) 2F / 1.0 EV (0,+ or 0,–) 3F / 0.3 EV 3F / 0.7 EV 3F / 1.0 EV 5F / 0.3 EV 5F / 0.7 EV 5F / 1.0 EV 7F / 0.3 EV 7F / 0.7 EV • WB BKT A-B Off 3F / 2 Step 3F / 4 Step 3F / 6 Step G-M Off 3F / 2 Step 3F / 4 Step 3F / 6 Step • FL BKT 3F / 0.3 EV 3F / 0.7 EV 3F / 1.0 EV • ISO BKT 3F / 0.3 EV 3F / 0.7 EV 3F / 1.0 EV • ART BKT* Pop Art – On/Off Soft Focus – On/Off Pale & Light Color – On/Off Light Tone – On/Off Grainy Film – On/Off Pinhole – On/Off Diorama – On/Off Cross Process – On/Off Gentle Sepia – On/Off Dramatic Tone – On/Off Key Line – On/Off i-Enhance – On/Off Vivid – On/Off Natural – On/Off Muted – On/Off Portrait – On/Off Monotone – On/Off Custom – On/Off	Bracketing setup has moved from the custom menu, and now includes the option of bracketing across as many Art Filters and Picture Modes as you please. The 2 frame AE bracket option gives the choice of whether you want an under or overexposed image along with the correctly exposed one.
Multiple Exposure	• Frame Off 2 frames • Auto Gain Off On • Overlay Off On
Flash Exposure Compensation	• +/– 3 stops in 1/3 stop steps
Flash RC Mode	• Off • On	Remote Flash mode. A settings panel replaces the normal func. menu

Play menu


Option	Values / Actions	Notes
Slide show	• Start • BGM Melancholy Joy Cool Beat Off • Effect Fade Falling Photos Gallery Photo Line • Slide All Still Picture Movie • Slide Interval 2–10 sec in 1 sec intervals • Movie Interval Full Short	Choose one of the specially commissioned background music tracks.
Rotate enable	• Off • On	When enabled, camera rotates images when viewed in playback mode.
Edit	• Sel. Image RAW Data Edit Yes/No JPEG Edit Shadow Adjust Redeye Fix Crop Aspect Black & White Sepia Saturation Resize e-Portrait Voice annotation No Start Erase • Image overlay 2 Images Merge 3 Images Merge	Process the displayed image. Selecting a RAW image creates a JPEG using the current camera settings (White Balance, image size/quality etc.). If the image is a JPEG, one of eight post-processing effects can be applied. Image overlay allows multiple images to be combined. The images are selected then merged, with variable intensity (0.1x to 2.0x for each image)
DPOF Print Order	• Mark image • Mark ALL images
Reset Protect	• Yes • No	Removes 'protected' status from all images.