Olympus Menus

Todd3608 wrote:

I am looking for a new camera and have narrowed down my choices to the E-M10, E-M1 or GX7. I have owned Olympus cameras in the past like the E-PL5 and E-PM2. I honestly sold them due to the horrible menus. They are the worst I have ever seen on any camera and I have tried lots of them from Fuji, Pentax,Sony, etc. Maybe it's just a personal thing. I was wondering if anything has changed with the menu system on either the E-M1 or E-M10? I would love to see one locally but all that's around here is chain stores that do not carry cool cameras like these. Not trying to start a debate...Just hoping maybe the menus have changed to not be so confusing...

I don't see Olympus menus being any worse than any other brand of camera that offers a lot of customizations. Although I've never used a modern Nikon DSLR so maybe Nikon is better?

Olympus tries to group related functions together under the same sub-menu, so it seems reasonably laid out to me.

Having used both Olympus and Panasonic m43 cameras, I strongly favor the Olympus user interface.

I have an E-M5, and whilst I like the camera for what it is, and am of a similar opinion to you. The menus, mysets and the fact that only certain functions can be programmed to certain buttons is not to my taste either, and therefore avoid avoid using them.  I don't think the super control panel is perfect, but it does help.

I have played with the E-M10 and E-M1 and in a local electronics shop.  I found the E-M10 very similar to my E-M5. However, the E-M1 was much better due to the extra buttons.  For example, you don't have to delve into the menus to access bracketting.  If you aren't able to try before you buy, I think you would be taking less of a risk with the E-M1 than the E-M10. Just my opinion.

Good luck.

sigala1 wrote:

Todd3608 wrote:

I am looking for a new camera and have narrowed down my choices to the E-M10, E-M1 or GX7. I have owned Olympus cameras in the past like the E-PL5 and E-PM2. I honestly sold them due to the horrible menus. They are the worst I have ever seen on any camera and I have tried lots of them from Fuji, Pentax,Sony, etc. Maybe it's just a personal thing. I was wondering if anything has changed with the menu system on either the E-M1 or E-M10? I would love to see one locally but all that's around here is chain stores that do not carry cool cameras like these. Not trying to start a debate...Just hoping maybe the menus have changed to not be so confusing...

I don't see Olympus menus being any worse than any other brand of camera that offers a lot of customizations. Although I've never used a modern Nikon DSLR so maybe Nikon is better?

My opinion is that of all the cameras I've used over the years, Olympus menus are the worst. Frankly, they're rubbish. Calling an option "burst + IS OFF" (meaning that you have to set this option off to actually turn IS on in burst mode) is insanely idiotic, for example. It's been there since Olympus had image stabilisation and they never bothered to address this stupid double negative in a decade even though removing a few characters from a menu title must be one of the easiest things to do for a software engineer. Menu items are, in general, badly named in biblical proportions (what does "rec. mode" means to normal human beings ?).

Case in point : my mother, who is my yardstick for technologically challenged people (a TV remote already challenges her - granted, they're all mostly badly designed), understands 90% of the menus items on my 5DIII. She struggled a bit more on the Nikon D700, again a little more on Fuji cameras, and on Olympus ones, she's all at sea.

Olympus tries to group related functions together under the same sub-menu, so it seems reasonably laid out to me.

I don't think they're particularly well organised. For example, is there a reason why Wifi settings are in the general settings menu, but actually activating Wifi connection is in the playback menu (even though you can still shoot in wifi ) ? Of course, you can still activate Wifi via the touch screen, but then why do we need a menu item in the menus ?

However, I wouldn't exclude Olympus cameras just because of their menus. Like all cameras, it usually is a set and forget thing. Still, fully understanding what every single option does and configuring a Canon 5DIII or a Nikon D800 is a matter of 30 min max for me, but several hours for the EM1 (and it's not because it's more configurable, far from it).

Englishman in France wrote:

I have an E-M5, and whilst I like the camera for what it is, and am of a similar opinion to you. The menus, mysets and the fact that only certain functions can be programmed to certain buttons is not to my taste either, and therefore avoid avoid using them. I don't think the super control panel is perfect, but it does help.

I have played with the E-M10 and E-M1 and in a local electronics shop. I found the E-M10 very similar to my E-M5. However, the E-M1 was much better due to the extra buttons. For example, you don't have to delve into the menus to access bracketting. If you aren't able to try before you buy, I think you would be taking less of a risk with the E-M1 than the E-M10. Just my opinion.

Good luck.

I didn't say anything about the LACK of customization, but you are right, Olympus is not as customizable as people make out. For example, the E-P5 assigns White Balance to the front wheel when you flip the switch to Mode 2, and there's no way to change this to something more useful. (I always shoot RAW, I have no desire to set WB to anything other than Auto.)

However the post-EM-5 cameras are a big step up in customizability becuase you can set the 4 MySets to the unneeded modes on the mode dial. (EM-5 didn't have this very useful feature. Why not? I don't know.) Although why the Mode dial doesn't also include "C1", "C2" etc. I don't get.

MayaTlab0 wrote:

sigala1 wrote:

Todd3608 wrote:

I am looking for a new camera and have narrowed down my choices to the E-M10, E-M1 or GX7. I have owned Olympus cameras in the past like the E-PL5 and E-PM2. I honestly sold them due to the horrible menus. They are the worst I have ever seen on any camera and I have tried lots of them from Fuji, Pentax,Sony, etc. Maybe it's just a personal thing. I was wondering if anything has changed with the menu system on either the E-M1 or E-M10? I would love to see one locally but all that's around here is chain stores that do not carry cool cameras like these. Not trying to start a debate...Just hoping maybe the menus have changed to not be so confusing...

I don't see Olympus menus being any worse than any other brand of camera that offers a lot of customizations. Although I've never used a modern Nikon DSLR so maybe Nikon is better?

My opinion is that of all the cameras I've used over the years, Olympus menus are the worst. Frankly, they're rubbish. Calling an option "burst + IS OFF" (meaning that you have to set this option off to actually turn IS on in burst mode) is insanely idiotic, for example. It's been there since Olympus had image stabilisation and they never bothered to address this stupid double negative in a decade even though removing a few characters from a menu title must be one of the easiest things to do for a software engineer. Menu items are, in general, badly named in biblical proportions (what does "rec. mode" means to normal human beings ?).

Case in point : my mother, who is my yardstick for technologically challenged people (a TV remote already challenges her - granted, they're all mostly badly designed), understands 90% of the menus items on my 5DIII. She struggled a bit more on the Nikon D700, again a little more on Fuji cameras, and on Olympus ones, she's all at sea.

Olympus tries to group related functions together under the same sub-menu, so it seems reasonably laid out to me.

I don't think they're particularly well organised. For example, is there a reason why Wifi settings are in the general settings menu, but actually activating Wifi connection is in the playback menu (even though you can still shoot in wifi ) ? Of course, you can still activate Wifi via the touch screen, but then why do we need a menu item in the menus ?

However, I wouldn't exclude Olympus cameras just because of their menus. Like all cameras, it usually is a set and forget thing. Still, fully understanding what every single option does and configuring a Canon 5DIII or a Nikon D800 is a matter of 30 min max for me, but several hours for the EM1 (and it's not because it's more configurable, far from it).

I still say that Olympus is better than Panasonic. And the menus are organized better than on the Ricoh GR as well.

You probably only think Canon is easier because you are more familiar with it.

That you have to set "Burst + IS OFF" to "off" in order to have IS on is a perfectly logical reading of the name of the menu item.

I got this to help me learn the menus before I get the OM-D E-M1.

Olympus OM-D E-M1 Compact System Camera Guide

sigala1 wrote:

MayaTlab0 wrote:

sigala1 wrote:

Todd3608 wrote:

I am looking for a new camera and have narrowed down my choices to the E-M10, E-M1 or GX7. I have owned Olympus cameras in the past like the E-PL5 and E-PM2. I honestly sold them due to the horrible menus. They are the worst I have ever seen on any camera and I have tried lots of them from Fuji, Pentax,Sony, etc. Maybe it's just a personal thing. I was wondering if anything has changed with the menu system on either the E-M1 or E-M10? I would love to see one locally but all that's around here is chain stores that do not carry cool cameras like these. Not trying to start a debate...Just hoping maybe the menus have changed to not be so confusing...

I don't see Olympus menus being any worse than any other brand of camera that offers a lot of customizations. Although I've never used a modern Nikon DSLR so maybe Nikon is better?

My opinion is that of all the cameras I've used over the years, Olympus menus are the worst. Frankly, they're rubbish. Calling an option "burst + IS OFF" (meaning that you have to set this option off to actually turn IS on in burst mode) is insanely idiotic, for example. It's been there since Olympus had image stabilisation and they never bothered to address this stupid double negative in a decade even though removing a few characters from a menu title must be one of the easiest things to do for a software engineer. Menu items are, in general, badly named in biblical proportions (what does "rec. mode" means to normal human beings ?).

Case in point : my mother, who is my yardstick for technologically challenged people (a TV remote already challenges her - granted, they're all mostly badly designed), understands 90% of the menus items on my 5DIII. She struggled a bit more on the Nikon D700, again a little more on Fuji cameras, and on Olympus ones, she's all at sea.

Olympus tries to group related functions together under the same sub-menu, so it seems reasonably laid out to me.

I don't think they're particularly well organised. For example, is there a reason why Wifi settings are in the general settings menu, but actually activating Wifi connection is in the playback menu (even though you can still shoot in wifi ) ? Of course, you can still activate Wifi via the touch screen, but then why do we need a menu item in the menus ?

However, I wouldn't exclude Olympus cameras just because of their menus. Like all cameras, it usually is a set and forget thing. Still, fully understanding what every single option does and configuring a Canon 5DIII or a Nikon D800 is a matter of 30 min max for me, but several hours for the EM1 (and it's not because it's more configurable, far from it).

I still say that Olympus is better than Panasonic. And the menus are organized better than on the Ricoh GR as well.

You probably only think Canon is easier because you are more familiar with it.

The 5DIII was my first Canon, while my first digital camera was an Olympus E520. So I should have been a lot more familiar with the EM1 menus. Not that Canon menus are perfect, far from it. Just that in comparison to what Olympus does, well, it's on another planet.

That you have to set "Burst + IS OFF" to "off" in order to have IS on is a perfectly logical reading of the name of the menu item.

It's the double negative that's the issue. It's needlessly dumbfounding.

Still, if I were the OP, I'd really try to make the effort to get past Olympus' menus. Indeed very little has changed appart from what they look like, but the cameras have many qualities otherwise.

Todd3608 wrote:

I am looking for a new camera and have narrowed down my choices to the E-M10, E-M1 or GX7. I have owned Olympus cameras in the past like the E-PL5 and E-PM2. I honestly sold them due to the horrible menus. They are the worst I have ever seen on any camera and I have tried lots of them from Fuji, Pentax,Sony, etc. Maybe it's just a personal thing. I was wondering if anything has changed with the menu system on either the E-M1 or E-M10? I would love to see one locally but all that's around here is chain stores that do not carry cool cameras like these. Not trying to start a debate...Just hoping maybe the menus have changed to not be so confusing...

There are 168 items in the Olympus E-M1 menus. They're reasonably well-grouped and understandable, but the way you get to them and the manual makes them more difficult to understand than they actually are. Most are "set once, you're done" kinds of things.

I created a template form so that I could create crib sheets of my usual configuration, just in case I was in the field and had to set a camera up from scratch. Creating the template form made the menus clear and obvious to me since I could then see all the options at a glance and understand their relationships.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/25268645/EM1_settings/E-M1_Settings_BLANK.pdf