Holding the E-PL6

Guy Parsons wrote:

alexisgreat wrote:

Good point, I had forgotten about that, one of the drawbacks of a higher MP sensor! Was the E-PL1 grip detachable and if so can it be used on the E-PL5/6?

No, the E-PL1 has a nice shaped end, part of the body.

Guy, where do you get the wrist strap?

Made it, just a custom adjusted length of 1/2 inch cotton tape sewn into a loop. Non- removable. It keeps the camera relatively tight to the right hand

Thanks, I just did this and it keeps the camera well balanced!

Do you attach it to the little loop things on the side of the camera?

I use the right little rattly loop thing for the tape and remove the left one.

I'm trying to picture how you hold the camera, basically you have the left hand under the body and lens (near the base of the camera where the tripod socket is). This is good as your hand is probably dampening some of the image shake!

The left hand grips the lens mostly and also supports the left side of the camera, the exact grip varies with lens size and weight, to the point where a very long lens may only have one finger (or is it the thumb?) doing the support.

I have gotten a *few* good ones down to 2 seconds, but it's really difficult....basically I have the entire length of my arms braced against a flat surface- to keep movement as low as possible.

I just use a higher ISO and keep away from 2 seconds or so unless on a tripod.

I'm using shutter priority mode to try and stay out of the 1/80 sec - 1/320 sec shutter speed zone I was told to avoid (because of shutter shock.)

Don't be neurotic about that, just be careful and check the results. Usually only some lenses are likely to be a real problem. I never avoided those shutter speeds and sure I had the odd shock at odd times but it never wrecked my use of the camera.

I haven't seen shutter shock yet so it must be an issue that isn't all that common.

I would use full manual but full manual has no exposure compensation that I'm aware of.

Old argument, manual is manual and you make the settings for the result that you want. Sure exp comp would be nice in some cases, but it's hardly essential for manual mode. Olympus thought that anyway, and they have been in the camera game for quite a while.

So basically, if you use AUTO ISO in full manual mode you lose the ability to "push" or "pull" the exposure since the camera sets the ISO to balance out whatever shutter speed and aperture settings you choose (as long as it's within its range) to 0.0 But I want to do a +1.3 stop EC for my night time shots.

Just use an appropriate set ISO is the answer.

In shutter priority, as long as maximum aperture is being used, applying EC will push the ISO (which is what I want it to do- it functions as an easy way to control the ISO without having to delve into menus.)

Then why not use shutter priority instead of manual mode?

I'd like to be able to control aperture too- so I'm toggling between SP and M now.

BTW Guy, I'm really glad you told me about the Mode 2 settings, my out of focus starfield shots are no longer out of focus because I shutter half press and focus on a distance street lamp then move and recompose on the starfield and the stars look in focus now.

Glad that helped.

But, with Mode 1, with the shutter half press it locks both focus and exposure and I just want to lock focus and not let the camera meter until I've recomposed the shot! So that's Mode 2.

Seems the most useful to me for my needs.

Come to think of it, can I program the AEL button to AF lock only so I dont even have to do the shutter half press and recompose thing after every shot- because I can lock focus to infinity for my entire shot sequence!

In those cases I use manual focus.

I just thought of another way.  If there is a distant structure in the same frame, the arrow keys can be used to move the focal point there, while the center of the frame is still metering on the sky (or whatever subject I want it to meter on.)

Also, if I set one of the function buttons to EC and press it in manual mode, what will it do?

On the E-PL5 it enables the adjustments of aperture/shutter by the usual up/down/left/right.

Also, is there a way to program the function buttons to change aperture and/or shutter speed so I dont have to use the rear dial to do that? Thanks!

The above does it, that is if the E-PL6 behaves the same way.

Thanks, it works!  One other thing about the function keys, what is L-Fn? Do I have to press two of them simultaneously to get that function to work?

Regards..... Guy