Couple of EM-5 menu questions

[stowei]

A couple of things I can't work out, please:

• Having started to get used to the menus I recently cleared the MySets (I bought the camera used) to install my own). I am sure that before I did the full reset, when I shot a picture it would appear in the viewfinder for maybe 2 or 3 seconds. Now it appears for only a tiny fraction of a single second. I cannot find what menu setting controls that. (NB I am an EVF-shooter; I only use the monitor for menu setting)
• I cannot find any way of knowing what MySet I have installed. Nothing I change makes the MySet number appear in the EVF, and when I go to the MySet menu settings it just shows me the options to load them, but not which one is already loaded. Baffled!

Thanks

Ian

 

[OM User]

Menu -> Setup (Spanner, 5th option) -> Rec View (4th option) -> 2 seconds

 

[stowei]

Awesome - thanks. I'm finding the Olympus lexicon very challenging, but I guess that's just because I am used to a different one.

Any ideas about MySet?

Thanks

 

[Bobo Hodls]

stowei wrote:

A couple of things I can't work out, please:

• Having started to get used to the menus I recently cleared the MySets (I bought the camera used) to install my own). I am sure that before I did the full reset, when I shot a picture it would appear in the viewfinder for maybe 2 or 3 seconds. Now it appears for only a tiny fraction of a single second. I cannot find what menu setting controls that. (NB I am an EVF-shooter; I only use the monitor for menu setting)
• I cannot find any way of knowing what MySet I have installed. Nothing I change makes the MySet number appear in the EVF, and when I go to the MySet menu settings it just shows me the options to load them, but not which one is already loaded. Baffled!

As was said, in the last of the menu sections listed on the left you'll find the REC VIEW time setting.

With the OM-D's My Sets you have to memorize what configurations you've set up. You can only tell that you've loaded one by being familiar with what it sets.

I get by with this scheme, in the order of most common called upon - but it took me some time to figure out what type of My Sets I most commonly needed:

1st Set - Normal daylight, ISO 200, Color, RAW only, IBIS

2nd Set - Low Light, Auto ISO, Mono JPG + RAW, IBIS

3rd Set - Tripod work, 2sec. timer, ISO 200, RAW only IBIS off

4th Set - Was for tripod work exposing for HDR frames, but recently set it for remote flash wildlife.

There's not enough slots once one starts populating them, and the lack of names means having some sort of scheme one can recall what each slot was set up for.

 

[stowei]

Thank you. How very odd. However, my D3 is not without its MySet-equivalent foibles. With the D3 if you alter any settings while in a 'MySet' it automatically saves them even though one only intended to apply the tweak for a single shot. Equally frustrating.

 

[Guy Parsons]

stowei wrote: ..... I cannot find any way of knowing what MySet I have installed. Nothing I change makes the MySet number appear in the EVF, and when I go to the MySet menu settings it just shows me the options to load them, but not which one is already loaded. Baffled!

MySets are a total pain on any Olympus prior to the E-PL5.

You do "fly blind" and do need to remember which MySet was the last one invoked. Maybe get clues from settings, like whether it shows a fixed ISO or an auto ISO.

The major problem that I see is that to get an A mode MySet to work then you must be at the Mode dial A spot otherwise it won't work as an A mode operation. The Mode dial over-rides everything prior to the E-PL5.

That must be why I never bothered with MySets until I got my E-PL5 where I can assign the MySets to the Mode dial and over-ride the Mode dial setting. In that case I do see "My1", My2" etc on the LCD for what Mode dial spot I'm in and which MySets was invoked plus of course the Mode shows so even if I have the Mode dial set to S but have an A mode MySet assigned to it then the LCD shows that I am in A mode with the appropriate My1 or whatever displayed.

There's hope of course that a future E-M6 will enjoy that E-PL5 feature. It makes life so easy when MySets work this way.

My complaint is that Olympus should have provided a nice mid-life firmware update for the E-M5 and included the extra E-PL5 features.

Anyway, on my E-PL5 I did make a simplified note about which MySet is for what purpose and stuck in to the screen hinge, so I can move the LCD out a bit and see the notes if needed.

I keep nagging about how Olympus should let us name the MySets so they will display something in the menu about what we designed them for, but they never seem to listen, or maybe they are just holding back and will very slowly leak out useful features one by one spread over many years to make up keep buying the product.

Another complaint is why the heck does Olympus use the word "Set" to mean both "to store current settings to a MySet" and also to mean "to recover a stored MySet and make it the current camera setting"? What's wrong with using the words "store" and "recover"? Then there would be far less accidents and frustration.

I feel better now.

Regards.... Guy

 

[Jim Coplan]

Guy Parsons wrote:

stowei wrote: ..... I cannot find any way of knowing what MySet I have installed. Nothing I change makes the MySet number appear in the EVF, and when I go to the MySet menu settings it just shows me the options to load them, but not which one is already loaded. Baffled!

MySets are a total pain on any Olympus prior to the E-PL5.

You do "fly blind" and do need to remember which MySet was the last one invoked. Maybe get clues from settings, like whether it shows a fixed ISO or an auto ISO.

I created a table in Word of my MySet settings, then photographed the table. I save that photo on my card, so it's always viewable as a reminder of all the settings for each MySet. Alas, it doesnt solve the deeper problem. It's just a workaround.
Jim C

 

[Mike_PEAT]

stowei wrote:

• I cannot find any way of knowing what MySet I have installed. Nothing I change makes the MySet number appear in the EVF, and when I go to the MySet menu settings it just shows me the options to load them, but not which one is already loaded. Baffled!

Many new Olympus users have difficulty with the concept of the MySets. They AREN'T meant to be a fixed mode like portrait mode, or landscape mode. The MySets are there to reset the camera to specific state, from which you can further change specific settings, without the need to manually change every setting to get the camera to a state you want.

For example say one of MySets is indoor ambient lighting...but the lighting is incandescent instead of the fuorescent white balance that's part of your MySet. So you select the MySet where you have your indoor ambient settings saved, and then you change the white balance...is that MySet still "installed"? OF COURSE NOT...because you changed a setting that is different than what was saved in the MySet. But as I said you don't install the MySet...you reset the camera to the configuration stored in the MySet.

Actually, a better name for MySet is "Custom Rest".

Shutter speed and aperture are also saved as part of the MySet. For my studio MySet I have 1/125th and f/11. But say I want to drag the shutter. In the world that MySet was something you have to be stuck to, I couldn't change the exposure because it would be locked to the MySet's 1/125-f/11. BTW, if you programed te MySet to 1/125th and f/11 but chose S mode, the speed would be 1/125 but the aperture wuld be adjusted to what the meter read...in A mode the aperture would be f/11 and the shutter speed would change.

Every time I'm on a new shoot I'll select the MySet closest to my needs. If I used the daylight MySet yesterday but I want a fresh start today, I'll run the daylight MySet again because I can't remember what settings I messed with...I want to start at a fresh starting point today. I'm not going to look at the display and say, "oh look, the last MySet I used was daylight so I don't need to change a thing." WRONG! Because the night before I did some twilight shooting and changed several settings to bring the best colours out of the sky...but now I can't remember what the defaults of those settings were, never mind what settings I changed. The easiest solution, run the daylight MySet again to reset the camera to a known state!

THAT is what MySet is for!