Guy Parsons wrote:
alexisgreat wrote:
First of all I am shocked by the small size of the camera and its buttons. I wanted something small to be able to easily mount to my telescope, so it's not an unpleasant shock- I am just having to get used to pressing buttons with my finger nails rather than using more of my fingers. I do have a concern though, how fragile/brittle are the small buttons and dials on this camera?
I used a pair of very similar E-PL5 for quite a while with no problems whatsoever.
I went through the whole Olympus menu thing (coming from the E-520 it's nothing new to me), but there are a few options I cant easily find. One would be to turn down the sharpening a tad- is that in the advanced menu?
Easiest to find in the SCP, where you set the jpeg type top right there is also the Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation controls there. Even at -2 settings there is still a bit of sharpening happening. Best results come from raw files and not using Oly Viewer 3 which also sharpens when you don't want it to, use something like DxO for best raw conversions.
Thanks, I how do you enable the SCP? It's always on in my E-520
Another is the level gauge which is supposed to be a new feature on the E-PL6.
The Level should be in Custom Menu D - Info Settings - choose which display you want, then in live view you select the display by using the Info button.
I think I must have missed it, I just saw an on/off option, I set it to on but didn't see the lines
edit: Okay I see what happened, I was in the Utility Menu and saw "Level Adjust" (reset) or (adjust) and Touch Screen Settings (ON/OFF). That's what confused me.
Third thing and something I dont know if its a feature on this camera or not but I heard its on the EM-5 so I would guess I should be able to do is the "direct histogram" or "zebra stripes" where you can see the over and underexposed areas in live view before you take the shot- is this a liveview feature on this camera and how is it enabled if so?
That's the blinkies, more correctly called Highlight & Shadow, see Custom Menu D - Info Settings again to get that activated and displayed.
So far I've only been able to enable it in playback mode. Also if this is a playback mode only feature is there a way to briefly see this in playback mode without pressing any buttons just after the shot is taken?
Yes, it actually blinks in playback but in Live View it is static red/blue indication, Again that's in Custom Menu D - Info Settings - Playback.
Thank you. So the playback setting controls it in Liveview as well as Playback?
edit: Thanks I was in the right place but went to "Histogram Settings" instead where it lets you set the upper and lower bounds for the shading.
That is a feature my E-520 has. One other thing is the touch screen, how does one set it to only control the focus point and not to trip the shutter also? Thanks!
On the left of the screen you change the setting, it cycles through no touch/touch AF/touch AF & shoot.
Oh thanks I was looking for this in the menu.
Are there any settings to control the SSWF Olympus uses to fling dust off the sensor?
No, it always works when turning on, hence the manual's instruction to hold the camera level at turn on to help drop the dust onto the sticky strip. It also cycles if you do a Custom Menu J - Pixel Mapping.
Thanks, is this sticky strip something that needs to be replaced?
In my E-520 a button used to light up when it was running (briefly when I turned my camera off), I dont see any such light on the E-PL6 and I'm trying to make sure it is working since my E-520 used to make an audible noise when the SSWF was doing its thing and I dont hear any such noise from the E-PL6.
No, it is very brief at turn on.
At any rate, when changing lenses, there is an IR blocker in front of the sensor that protects the sensor from dust and moisture, isn't there?
The sensor is behind the usual few millimetres of dust shaker, IR filter, maybe AA filter so the sensor itself is well protected. Sticky dust on the front surface can be seen (if any) at f/16 or f/22, but usually disappears in the normal M4/3 working range of f/8 and more open. Olympus say not to try and clean it yourself, as it needs reinstatement of an anti-static layer.
Yes, I never use anything smaller than f/8 on any of my cameras and I know the SSWF has a great reputation.
One other thing that's perhaps minor- does anyone use one of those cut-out LCD protectors to protect the screen from scratches?
Never bothered, never had problems, but then I am careful with photo gear.
I bought a set of three that can be custom cut to match the screen (which is a good thing because the camera screen has a nonstandard aspect ratio). But I found that the camera comes with a protective nylon cover on the LCD and am considering leaving that on and not attaching one of the sheets I bought unless the nylon cover falls off. I'm hoping the LCD protectors I bought are sensitive to the camera's touch screen and dont themselves fall off with time if I need to use them.
Do others use the grip that comes with the camera?
The little grip helps a bit when carrying, I only use wrist straps and never dangle around the neck or off shoulders. I did buy the bigger E-P3 optional grip, but it does not make a real difference.
So far I haven't and just left it in my camera bag. The camera gets rather warm to the touch after some usage (I suspect that it's the metal body efficiently conducting heat) and I thought that it might get warmer with a grip attached; the metal in the body should help in dissipating the heat-
Never had problems with heat, even on hot days in Australia.
so far I dont see any noise problems, I set it to AUTO ISO 200-3200, Noise Reduction ON
Noise reduction Auto makes more sense, then the dark frame subtraction only cuts in at 4 second and longer.
Okay going to change that now, I am encouraged at the low levels of noise, my old E-520 had lots of bright pixels even at 1 sec shutter speed.
and Noise Filter Standard.
Noise Filter always Off for me to reduce smearing of the joegs, that combined with Sharpen -2 or -1 helps reduce noise but maintain some detail.
I lowered the NF now going to lower the sharpening. Looks like this camera has more levels of controls than my E-520, which is a good thing.
The E-PL6 is a slightly updated E-PL5 so my E-PL5 notes should help a bit http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/50-epl5-comments.html and in particular see the "Menus" section. The E-PL6 will just have a couple more items added, the rest will be the same.
The USA advertising states that the E-PL6 has "3 axis IBIS" and that is a total lie, it only has the old 2 axis IBIS as per the E-PL5 and earlier.
Regards...... Guy
Thank you so much Guy, I am going to read your guide now. The IS ceases to function at anything slower than 2 seconds shutter speed. I found this out when going through the specs. I assume the E-PL5 is the same. BTW how can one set the focus to infinity for doing pictures of constellations? Stars are coming out a bit blurry in my pictures.
I am not sure I'm seeing all the menu options, I'm wondering if I have the latest firmware. It says 1.1 for both the body and the lens?
