Japanese market Olympus camera question

To feed my addition to Olympus cameras, I made a $200 counter offer for an Olympus 14-42 RII M. Zuiko lens that comes in a package with a mint Japanese market PL 5 plus a 40-150R M. Zukio tele, and flash, box, Japanese manual, SD card, and other goodies, all mint in the original box.

To my surprise the seller accepted and the goods are on the way to Missouri from Tokyo.

The two lenses are worth most of that $200 and I essentially get a free Japanese market PL-5 and those other toys.

I’ve never owned a Japanese market Olympus before.

My other Olympus cameras were North American English models with 34 language selections, but even so some of the modes and selections remain in English regardless of language selected.

Has anyone had a Japanese market Olympus to tell me what to expect on conversion to ‘Merican English ?

Any help, would be much appreciated.

--
Humansville is a town in the Missouri Ozarks

Humansvillian said:

To feed my addition to Olympus cameras, I made a $200 counter offer for an Olympus 14-42 RII M. Zuiko lens that comes in a package with a mint Japanese market PL 5 plus a 40-150R M. Zukio tele, and flash, box, Japanese manual, SD card, and other goodies, all mint in the original box.

To my surprise the seller accepted and the goods are on the way to Missouri from Tokyo.

The two lenses are worth most of that $200 and I essentially get a free Japanese market PL-5 and those other toys.

I’ve never owned a Japanese market Olympus before.

My other Olympus cameras were North American English models with 34 language selections, but even so some of the modes and selections remain in English regardless of language selected.

Has anyone had a Japanese market Olympus to tell me what to expect on conversion to ‘Merican English ?

Any help, would be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

All Olympus have English, you may need to menu dive at first if the camera is set to Japanese. Follow the same language menu path as on one of your existing Olympus.

Only Sony and Panasonic as far as I know make the local Japanese language only models that will never display English.

Setup Menu (wrench) - 2nd item is language, scroll through the language selection until you find Ozarkian.

Typical Japanese politeness may have already set it up for you.

Guy Parsons said:

Humansvillian said:

To feed my addition to Olympus cameras, I made a $200 counter offer for an Olympus 14-42 RII M. Zuiko lens that comes in a package with a mint Japanese market PL 5 plus a 40-150R M. Zukio tele, and flash, box, Japanese manual, SD card, and other goodies, all mint in the original box.

To my surprise the seller accepted and the goods are on the way to Missouri from Tokyo.

The two lenses are worth most of that $200 and I essentially get a free Japanese market PL-5 and those other toys.

I’ve never owned a Japanese market Olympus before.

My other Olympus cameras were North American English models with 34 language selections, but even so some of the modes and selections remain in English regardless of language selected.

Has anyone had a Japanese market Olympus to tell me what to expect on conversion to ‘Merican English ?

Any help, would be much appreciated.

Click to expand...

All Olympus have English, you may need to menu dive at first if the camera is set to Japanese. Follow the same language menu path as on one of your existing Olympus.

Only Sony and Panasonic as far as I know make the local Japanese language only models that will never display English.

Setup Menu (wrench) - 2nd item is language, scroll through the language selection until you find Ozarkian.

Typical Japanese politeness may have already set it up for you.

Click to expand...

I sure hope so.

The camera and lenses and goodies are all labeled in English, only the manual is Japanese.



But on my American market cameras the scene modes always have pretty American girls and laughing American kids and rugged looking American men on the Scene modes, and there are various help menus forever in Generic American English, right down to the spelling of colors.

We’ll see how American General Douglas MacArthur left Japan, before he faded away. .

Those are the first versions of the 14-42 II and 40-150 on closer look, but it shouldn’t matter.

That PL-5 body will bring $150 any day I want to pass it on, if it can be reset to full English.

With a bit of arbitrage, I can upgrade to a PL9, at least.

--
Humansville is a town in the Missouri Ozarks

That looks like a nice package and also a well capable compact kit. As Guy Parsons said said you should be able to switch the language setting to English without much hassle, of course if you ever do a full factory reset, it might switch back to Japanese.

As for the manual, you can easily download the (updated) manuals for all Olympus Imaging products as PDF files from Olympus:


You can either print it or use it on a phone, tablet, e-book or computer.

Coldpaw said:

That looks like a nice package and also a well capable compact kit. As Guy Parsons said said you should be able to switch the language setting to English without much hassle, of course if you ever do a full factory reset, it might switch back to Japanese.

As for the manual, you can easily download the (updated) manuals for all Olympus Imaging products as PDF files from Olympus:

https://cs.olympus-imaging.jp/en/support/imsg/digicamera/download/manual/

You can either print it or use it on a phone, tablet, e-book or computer.

Click to expand...

Plus I have some random (really random) notes on the E-PL5 at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/50-epl5-comments.html never been tidied or updated but a few bits are interesting. One day I'll have a read of it again and change or update as needed. One day....

About 6 years back, I bought EM5 + 12-40 f.28 pro in Japan (during my visit). No issues with Language. I was able to change to English. Infact, I did not find any difference.

Guy Parsons said:

Coldpaw said:

That looks like a nice package and also a well capable compact kit. As Guy Parsons said said you should be able to switch the language setting to English without much hassle, of course if you ever do a full factory reset, it might switch back to Japanese.

As for the manual, you can easily download the (updated) manuals for all Olympus Imaging products as PDF files from Olympus:

https://cs.olympus-imaging.jp/en/support/imsg/digicamera/download/manual/

You can either print it or use it on a phone, tablet, e-book or computer.

Click to expand...

Plus I have some random (really random) notes on the E-PL5 at http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/50-epl5-comments.html never been tidied or updated but a few bits are interesting. One day I'll have a read of it again and change or update as needed. One day....

Click to expand...

When I bought my OMD M5 II I tried to go on the wagon, about them fine Olympus cameras. I already knew that in good light an M. Zuikio lens does not care (although it DOES know) what Olympus m43 body it’s snapped on.

Exactly like the finest Leica ever, in good light all the user really controls is what aperture, shutter speed, and ISO will be used. The rest is all glorious foo fraws and gee gaws, like old Chester Wainscott had slathered all over the front and back of his fine sliver and black rangefinder he used so many years long gone ago in Spout Spring Hollow, amd made me nearly die of coveted ness.

Now look what that sly old Guy Parson has tempted me to read:

—-

To many people the change to the 16MP sensor that is also in the E-M5 is the feature that makes the E-PL5 attractive, but in reality it is a few other features that make it a more useful camera than the E-M5.

The ability to assign the MySets to any spot on the Mode dial is what sold this camera to me after using the E-PL1 for a few years. So now my favourite everyday A mode settings that I need for most shots are assigned to MySet1 and then assigned to the Mode dial spot A. That way whenever I turn on, or turn the Mode dial away and back to A, the MySet1 settings are there. No more mistakes because of strange settings being forgotten after some experiment. A page explaining MySets and Mode dial assignment is here.

I never use iAuto, Art or Scene Modes so these are available to me to make into something else via the MySets, or maybe just assign the 4 MySets to all of the PASM modes so they behave as expected with my preferred settings when I turn the camera on.

The other "at last they did it" feature is the ability to use Panasonic lens OIS on lenses that have no OIS switch. The menu item to set to lens OIS priority fixes that previous sad omission and now makes mixing Olympus and Panasonic lenses fully functional. This is important of course for any video as the E-PL5 video normally uses the usual Pen pixel shifting method which can produce jello effects. The Custom menu C "Lens IS Priority" needs to be ON and also turn on IBIS in the SCP or the menus, the logic is that stabilisation is on but the lens OIS has priority over IBIS so that is now off, until changing to a non OIS lens when the IBIS will take over.

——-

At one time I was down to just my first PL1 and my last M5 II. Then along came a genuine P5 with 17mm f1.8 and VF-4 just like Guy Parson’s for $400, and it surely wouldn’t hurt to have three Olympus m43 bodies.

Now I have coming the smallest Olympus camera body ever to have a PASM dial on top, with assignable MySets!

The grip removes just like my P3 so I can buy decorative stickers for it.

But the best part is the new PL-5 switched on the 15mm Leica lens:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Panasonic-...-/193986455613?_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49292

Only $329.

Thou shall not covet, has always been the easiest commandment to break.

The eBay seller’s description is tempting, indeed.

—-

Panasonic Leica DG Summilux 15mm f/1.7 ASPH. Lens. Condition is "Used". Shipped with USPS Priority Mail.

Purchased this lens a few weeks ago, but finding it isn’t quite what I’m looking for in my lens kit, so planning to go another route!

Lens is in good shape! The body is used and some of the edges on the focus and aperture ring are a little worn, but the glass is clean and the lens works great. Comes with lens hood with cap and rear cap.

—-

That lens hood, might be very useful.

And the front cap, would read Leica.

I've also got a Sony 1" compact so there's another rabbit hole you can fall down.

Humansvillian said:

The two lenses are worth most of that $200 and I essentially get a free Japanese market PL-5 and those other toys.

Click to expand...

Great deal , you could sell the lenses (you have them already I guess) and the EPL5 has the same superb sensor as the EM5 & EM10 series .. its` a tough little camera with a good feeling of solidity and shares batteries with the EPL1 etc .. sadly a fuse somewhere blew in mine cutting power to the lens mount a long time ago (a faulty lens I guess) so it only works with fully manual lenses on an adapter now so has been sitting in a drawer .

The EPL5 is pretty shock prone as it never got the EFCS firmware update the EP5 got (shame) so hang on to it tightly ..

Mine in the days when it recognised lenses







--
** Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist **

Guy Parsons said:

I've also got a Sony 1" compact so there's another rabbit hole you can fall down.

Click to expand...

I have fond memories of a high dollar small sensor compact Sony DSH-HX30V I used to record memories of my family and daughter.

My daughter had some Texas cowboy drive 300 miles up to see her sell a pony at the Hutchison Kansas sale barn, and I watched her talk to him five minutes in the parking lot and then she drove her dear old father back home to Missouri.

I said my mother would surely have been proud of you, when she said any cowboy from Texas, had better wear a 20X Stetson hat to watch her sell a horse.



My own friends aren’t so choosy about what hats they have me wear.



But that young man, at the station is an admirer of mine.

That seller on eBay in Japan, is one of many Christians there.

——

New message from: japan101234 (47)

Thank you for your purchase!
I will contact you again once shipment is ready.

Please let me know if there's any request on your invoice. I'm going to declare as used item and actual value you bought.

I recommend you to check your customs charge rules - it's all buyers responsibility.

IMPORTANT!
If you bought camera lens,
Please make sure the lens is compatible with your camera.
I sell many old lens which does not fit latest digital camera.

To the US buyer;
Items less than US$800 are no customs charges.

Please note we don't ship on Sunday.

Thank you very much!
MICHIKO KOSHITA

——

I think I might sell that young hatless man in that Sony photo his very own PL-1 with a blinking IBIS light and my old 14-42 wobble lens for $50.

I’m always honest on pricing.

But I will sell a friend a camera on Sunday.

That extra PL-1 of mine still works the best, the IBIS light blinks for some reason, but any Sunday he wants to sell me the entire rig back, for $150 more I’ll sell him a wonderful PL-5 kit, complete with 40-150 telephoto, if I still have it.

I never profit from dealing with friends.

--
Humansville is a town in the Missouri Ozarks

AdamT said:

The EPL5 is pretty shock prone as it never got the EFCS firmware update the EP5 got (shame) so hang on to it tightly ..

Click to expand...

I mostly used my E-PL5 first with Panasonic 14-45mm and later with Olympus 12-40mm and it was rare to see shock, but it can happen. I most times had the 1/8 sec shutter delay to make the shutter sound more graceful and only rarely did I need to consider the delay or turn it off for a while.

The E-PL5 of course has the 16:9 screen and the usual 4:3 frame looks pathetic on it when trying to see detail, so I shot raw+jpeg in 16:9 ratio so the image filled the frame, much more satisfying display - then used the raw file to get back the full 4:3 frame to later decide how it should be cropped. Some intelligent guesswork is required shooting 16:9 to see what is in or out of frame for the top/bottom slices you don't see on the screen.

I quite liked the idea of the E-PL5 having the review and delete buttons top left, easier to use in dim conditions than the usual clutter on the bottom right.