I've kind of expressed this in other threads, but I want to say it more clearly - one of the biggest things I've been surprised about using the OM-3 is how much it's informed my use of the OM-1 Mark II. Due to this, I feel like I'm getting more out of the OM-1 than I was previously.
Since I'm using the OM-3 daily (usually multiple times a day) I've become much more familiar with it, with the menus, with the endless options available, etc. A few specific things that have come out of this:
- Using the Function Lever for "All Points" vs. "Single Point" mode. I pretty much had to do this with the OM-3 since there's no AF joystick. But switching between these two, in combination with the system's awesome Subject Detection is perfect.
I've set my function lever to switch between S-AF and C-AF modes with different sizes of focus areas. I wish S-AF+MF was also set via the function lever, but I don't think it is. I.e. I wanted MF available in S-AF mode, but not necessarily in C-AF mode.
Obviously on lenses with the clutch, I could use that. But not all lenses have a clutch ring. In addition, I find the clutch ring often gets bumped, and at times I just disable the camera from allowing the clutch ring to be used. That being said, I rarely go into manual focus mode.
- Subject Detection mapped to a button. In combination with point 1, having Subject Detection easily toggleable on/off and using press-and-hold to select the type (I often go between Human and Pets throughout the day) really "completes" the system for me (of course, having the "type" reliably automatically determined by the camera would be even better).
The trouble is the OM-3 has fewer buttons than the E-m5 mark III/OM-5 and OM-1 mark I/II. I really, really miss the ISO button that I would use for the digital 2x zoom toggle.
I have set the C1-C4 modes:
- C1 is my standard settings, so I can easily reset the camera by loading the C1 defaults at any time.
- C2 is human detection on the OM-3 and face detection on the OM-1 mark I.
- C3 is bird detection.
- C4 is bird detection with auto exposure bracketing enabled, as I have a set of herons that are hard to meter against the sky, and it is simpler to take 5/7 exposure brackets, and just delete the pictures that are over/under exposed.
It is nice due to the OM-3 having human detection, that the face/eye panel in the super control block is now subject detection. Thus with just a few button taps, I can change from bird to human to none, etc.
I do have subject detection now in my quick menu as well, more to get access to it quickly on the OM-1 mark I (since it is in the SCP on the OM-3).
It is a really nice option that for the C1-C4 modes, I can label the modes for quick reference. I wish the OM-1 mark I had this feature.
I do wish the color dial was in a different location. I also think it is a missed opportunity that the color dial doesn't have a button on it, that could be programmed.
I do wonder how many people actively use the color dial to its full potential.
In general, I suspect the majority of OM-1 users shoot raw, and develop the photo in post processing, while the OM-3 is set up to encourage users to shoot with JPG results. Note, I generally only shoot JPG, but occasionally now, I shoot JPG+RAW, and then for selected photos I go back with RAW and have the camera develop several photos using Art Filters (grainy film and dramatic mode being my favorites).
- IS Tweaks - Since I'm using the OM-3 nightly to capture the dinners my partner prepares, I've been doing a lot of "high magnification" photography which has exposed the IS differences between the two cameras (with the OM-3 being worse). This has resulted in me doing a few things...
- Having ISO-A Lowest S/S in "My Settings" for easy access. For high magnification, I find 1/125th to be the minimum. For lower magnification (further away, wider lenses) you can obviously go much slower. Having this easily accessible makes it easy to adapt
- The above setting, of course, is also different between my Custom Modes (where C5 is "Food", set to 1/125th) and the PASM modes.
- Diagnosing my handshake problems turned me on to Handheld Assist and the IS release priority modes, which I wasn't aware of previously.
I really hate the ISO-A Lowest S/S default in the OM-3. On my other cameras, auto would be 1/60, which is ok if you are using a prime in low light and want to capture people. However, on the OM-3, ISO-A Lowest S/S will set the shutter speed to 1/15 second if I'm shooting with the OM 17mm f/1.8 lens. In my experience, 1/15 is too slow when you are photographing people.
However in digging in, I have discovered this setting, and I have been using it more often. For example, yesterday I was trying to capture humming birds with my OM-1 mark I, and I set the lowest s/s speed to 1/1,000. This works better in diverse lighting situations than using shutter priority mode and setting the speed to 1/1,000 which would not use 1/2,000 or 1/4,000 if conditions got really bright.
I now have ISO-A Lowest S/S set as one of the options in the custom menu options on my OM-1 mark I and OM-3. On the OM-1, I have ISO-A Lowest S/S set to auto, and on the OM-3 I have it set by default to 1/60.
- Grid Settings - Working on a variety of subjects made me experiment with the Grid Settings -> Display Color to make it easier to see my AF Point in a variety of situations. I kept "losing" the AF point when the coloring was too similar to the subject, so I have customized this. My general setting now uses Yellow, my Food setting uses Blue.
Yes, I've run into it, but I should set it more often. I found with both the OM-1 mark I and OM-3 that because the camera has so many focus points now, that it is hard to see the focus point at all when you are in single focus point mode (even if the color is different from what you are photographing). With the older cameras having far fewer focus points, it was easier to see the focus point on the screen.
- AF Area Pointer - Related to the above (and sort of connected to having no AF Joystick), I've started using AF Area Pointer in the "On2" selection, to make it clearer what has been selected. This is especially helpful with the "All" area, but even on the smaller AF areas it helps see where it's actually focusing.
- C-AF Sensitivity - As I noted in another thread, comparing the two cameras pointed out my own misunderstanding of how this worked, with -2 working significantly better in some situations.
I haven't looked into C-AF sensitivity, maybe I should....
Now, I guess I could have just RTFM'd to learn most of this, but the documentation leaves a lot to be desired, and nothing can really replace direct use.
In almost every case, I've set up the OM-1 identically to the OM-3 because of these observations. So not only do I have an EDC that I love, I'm getting more out of my "Pro" camera than I was before. Whatta win-win!
I really, really, really wish the RM-WR2 was shipping, or that the OM-3 had a wired shutter release port, or the OM-3 could actually use the RM-WR1.
In fact, I thought maybe the documentation might be wrong, and the OM-3 did support the RM-WR1. So I tried to pair the OM-3 to my OM-1's RM-WR1, but it wouldn't pair.
