Setting up new E-PL6

First of all I am shocked by the small size of the camera and its buttons. I wanted something small to be able to easily mount to my telescope, so it's not an unpleasant shock- I am just having to get used to pressing buttons with my finger nails rather than using more of my fingers. I do have a concern though, how fragile/brittle are the small buttons and dials on this camera?

I went through the whole Olympus menu thing (coming from the E-520 it's nothing new to me), but there are a few options I cant easily find. One would be to turn down the sharpening a tad- is that in the advanced menu? Another is the level gauge which is supposed to be a new feature on the E-PL6. Third thing and something I dont know if its a feature on this camera or not but I heard its on the EM-5 so I would guess I should be able to do is the "direct histogram" or "zebra stripes" where you can see the over and underexposed areas in live view before you take the shot- is this a liveview feature on this camera and how is it enabled if so? So far I've only been able to enable it in playback mode. Also if this is a playback mode only feature is there a way to briefly see this in playback mode without pressing any buttons just after the shot is taken? That is a feature my E-520 has. One other thing is the touch screen, how does one set it to only control the focus point and not to trip the shutter also? Thanks!

Are there any settings to control the SSWF Olympus uses to fling dust off the sensor? In my E-520 a button used to light up when it was running (briefly when I turned my camera off), I dont see any such light on the E-PL6 and I'm trying to make sure it is working since my E-520 used to make an audible noise when the SSWF was doing its thing and I dont hear any such noise from the E-PL6.  At any rate, when changing lenses, there is an IR blocker in front of the sensor that protects the sensor from dust and moisture, isn't there?

One other thing that's perhaps minor- does anyone use one of those cut-out LCD protectors to protect the screen from scratches? I bought a set of three that can be custom cut to match the screen (which is a good thing because the camera screen has a nonstandard aspect ratio). But I found that the camera comes with a protective nylon cover on the LCD and am considering leaving that on and not attaching one of the sheets I bought unless the nylon cover falls off. I'm hoping the LCD protectors I bought are sensitive to the camera's touch screen and dont themselves fall off with time if I need to use them.

Do others use the grip that comes with the camera? So far I haven't and just left it in my camera bag. The camera gets rather warm to the touch after some usage (I suspect that it's the metal body efficiently conducting heat) and I thought that it might get warmer with a grip attached; the metal in the body should help in dissipating the heat- so far I dont see any noise problems, I set it to AUTO ISO 200-3200, Noise Reduction ON and Noise Filter Standard.

Gidday Alex

Congrats on the new beastie

If it's like the E-M1 (it might not be ... ), I would set NF = -1, sharpening = -1. These help to minimise smearing of detail in OoC JPEGs at higher ISOs in particular.

John King wrote:

Gidday Alex

Congrats on the new beastie

If it's like the E-M1 (it might not be ... ), I would set NF = -1, sharpening = -1. These help to minimise smearing of detail in OoC JPEGs at higher ISOs in particular.

Thank you so much John! I'll turn down the NF, I'm still looking for the Sharpening setting.  What's the highest ISO you usually use on your cam? I set mine to AUTO ISO 200-3200.  It would be nice if there was a feature which allowed you to have different sharpening settings at different ISO, but right now I'd settle to find where you can actually change the sharpening setting

alexisgreat wrote:

John King wrote:

Gidday Alex

Congrats on the new beastie

If it's like the E-M1 (it might not be ... ), I would set NF = -1, sharpening = -1. These help to minimise smearing of detail in OoC JPEGs at higher ISOs in particular.

Thank you so much John! I'll turn down the NF, I'm still looking for the Sharpening setting.

Should be under SHOOTING MENU 1/PICTURE MODE/

I also have Contrast = -1

What's the highest ISO you usually use on your cam? I set mine to AUTO ISO 200-3200.

ISO 25,600 ... ; Auto ISO = 200-3200. But ...

The lovely Rosa at ISO 6400 from the OoC JPEG ...

Eureka Tower, Melbourne CBD. ISO 12,800. From RAW with some minor PP and NR in PS6.

It would be nice if there was a feature which allowed you to have different sharpening settings at different ISO, but right now I'd settle to find where you can actually change the sharpening setting

I don't know if these settings are saved in MySets??

I just checked this. All can be saved as part of a MySet
p.150 and after of the E-M1 ver.4 manual. Might be different with your E-PL6.

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Thanks, John, those are some spectacular images!  After some "testing" I set mine to 200-6400.  Going to do the contrast and sharpness now too.  Do you use multimetering and no EC also? I was experimenting with multi, spot and average metering.

Guy Parsons wrote:

alexisgreat wrote:

First of all I am shocked by the small size of the camera and its buttons. I wanted something small to be able to easily mount to my telescope, so it's not an unpleasant shock- I am just having to get used to pressing buttons with my finger nails rather than using more of my fingers. I do have a concern though, how fragile/brittle are the small buttons and dials on this camera?

I used a pair of very similar E-PL5 for quite a while with no problems whatsoever.

I went through the whole Olympus menu thing (coming from the E-520 it's nothing new to me), but there are a few options I cant easily find. One would be to turn down the sharpening a tad- is that in the advanced menu?

Easiest to find in the SCP, where you set the jpeg type top right there is also the Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation controls there. Even at -2 settings there is still a bit of sharpening happening. Best results come from raw files and not using Oly Viewer 3 which also sharpens when you don't want it to, use something like DxO for best raw conversions.

Thanks, I how do you enable the SCP? It's always on in my E-520

Another is the level gauge which is supposed to be a new feature on the E-PL6.

The Level should be in Custom Menu D - Info Settings - choose which display you want, then in live view you select the display by using the Info button.

I think I must have missed it, I just saw an on/off option, I set it to on but didn't see the lines

edit: Okay I see what happened, I was in the Utility Menu and saw "Level Adjust" (reset) or (adjust) and Touch Screen Settings (ON/OFF). That's what confused me.

Third thing and something I dont know if its a feature on this camera or not but I heard its on the EM-5 so I would guess I should be able to do is the "direct histogram" or "zebra stripes" where you can see the over and underexposed areas in live view before you take the shot- is this a liveview feature on this camera and how is it enabled if so?

That's the blinkies, more correctly called Highlight & Shadow, see Custom Menu D - Info Settings again to get that activated and displayed.

So far I've only been able to enable it in playback mode. Also if this is a playback mode only feature is there a way to briefly see this in playback mode without pressing any buttons just after the shot is taken?

Yes, it actually blinks in playback but in Live View it is static red/blue indication, Again that's in Custom Menu D - Info Settings - Playback.

Thank you. So the playback setting controls it in Liveview as well as Playback?

edit: Thanks I was in the right place but went to "Histogram Settings" instead where it lets you set the upper and lower bounds for the shading.

That is a feature my E-520 has. One other thing is the touch screen, how does one set it to only control the focus point and not to trip the shutter also? Thanks!

On the left of the screen you change the setting, it cycles through no touch/touch AF/touch AF & shoot.

Oh thanks I was looking for this in the menu.

Are there any settings to control the SSWF Olympus uses to fling dust off the sensor?

No, it always works when turning on, hence the manual's instruction to hold the camera level at turn on to help drop the dust onto the sticky strip. It also cycles if you do a Custom Menu J - Pixel Mapping.

Thanks, is this sticky strip something that needs to be replaced?

In my E-520 a button used to light up when it was running (briefly when I turned my camera off), I dont see any such light on the E-PL6 and I'm trying to make sure it is working since my E-520 used to make an audible noise when the SSWF was doing its thing and I dont hear any such noise from the E-PL6.

No, it is very brief at turn on.

At any rate, when changing lenses, there is an IR blocker in front of the sensor that protects the sensor from dust and moisture, isn't there?

The sensor is behind the usual few millimetres of dust shaker, IR filter, maybe AA filter so the sensor itself is well protected. Sticky dust on the front surface can be seen (if any) at f/16 or f/22, but usually disappears in the normal M4/3 working range of f/8 and more open. Olympus say not to try and clean it yourself, as it needs reinstatement of an anti-static layer.

Yes, I never use anything smaller than f/8 on any of my cameras and I know the SSWF has a great reputation.

One other thing that's perhaps minor- does anyone use one of those cut-out LCD protectors to protect the screen from scratches?

Never bothered, never had problems, but then I am careful with photo gear.

I bought a set of three that can be custom cut to match the screen (which is a good thing because the camera screen has a nonstandard aspect ratio). But I found that the camera comes with a protective nylon cover on the LCD and am considering leaving that on and not attaching one of the sheets I bought unless the nylon cover falls off. I'm hoping the LCD protectors I bought are sensitive to the camera's touch screen and dont themselves fall off with time if I need to use them.

Do others use the grip that comes with the camera?

The little grip helps a bit when carrying, I only use wrist straps and never dangle around the neck or off shoulders. I did buy the bigger E-P3 optional grip, but it does not make a real difference.

So far I haven't and just left it in my camera bag. The camera gets rather warm to the touch after some usage (I suspect that it's the metal body efficiently conducting heat) and I thought that it might get warmer with a grip attached; the metal in the body should help in dissipating the heat-

Never had problems with heat, even on hot days in Australia.

so far I dont see any noise problems, I set it to AUTO ISO 200-3200, Noise Reduction ON

Noise reduction Auto makes more sense, then the dark frame subtraction only cuts in at 4 second and longer.

Okay going to change that now, I am encouraged at the low levels of noise, my old E-520 had lots of bright pixels even at 1 sec shutter speed.

and Noise Filter Standard.

Noise Filter always Off for me to reduce smearing of the joegs, that combined with Sharpen -2 or -1 helps reduce noise but maintain some detail.

I lowered the NF now going to lower the sharpening. Looks like this camera has more levels of controls than my E-520, which is a good thing.

The E-PL6 is a slightly updated E-PL5 so my E-PL5 notes should help a bit http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/50-epl5-comments.html and in particular see the "Menus" section. The E-PL6 will just have a couple more items added, the rest will be the same.

The USA advertising states that the E-PL6 has "3 axis IBIS" and that is a total lie, it only has the old 2 axis IBIS as per the E-PL5 and earlier.

Regards...... Guy

Thank you so much Guy, I am going to read your guide now. The IS ceases to function at anything slower than 2 seconds shutter speed. I found this out when going through the specs. I assume the E-PL5 is the same. BTW how can one set the focus to infinity for doing pictures of constellations? Stars are coming out a bit blurry in my pictures.

I am not sure I'm seeing all the menu options, I'm wondering if I have the latest firmware. It says 1.1 for both the body and the lens?

alexisgreat wrote:

Thanks, John, those are some spectacular images!

Thanks, Alex

After some "testing" I set mine to 200-6400.

Probably best to set the upper limit for Auto-ISO to 1600-2000 at the start. No mFTs camera is in the same league as e.g. a Nikon D4s, where you can get away with blue murder at ISO 6400 (and above ... ). You have to make sure that you get enough light on the sensor in our cameras (wide enough f-stop and sufficient exposure time - I have tried to work out what those values are in a desultory manner, but got lost ... ), or the noise will be horrendous, even at ISO 3200. The lesson being is that we cannot just ramp the ISO and to heck with the consequences! Lots of trial and error test shots help ...

Going to do the contrast and sharpness now too.

I'm not quite as brave as Guy as regards setting NF = Off, but STANDARD is way too aggressive, and forget about HIGH as if it didn't exist, unless you like your photos to look like oil paintings done with a palette knife ...

However, he might want to PP his JPEGs sometimes. Mine are only ever used for web upload, etc, for which I almost never start off with the RAW file. Our needs and methods are always going to be different - I can guarantee that!

Do you use multimetering and no EC also? I was experimenting with multi, spot and average metering.

IMHO, many posters here do not realise just how important metering (and AF) modes are. Changing metering mode will almost always get you out of trouble with highly back lit subjects and other difficult lighting situations. Also IMO, changing metering mode is often preferable to using EC. Also experiment with HIGH and LOW key metering modes. Auto-Gradation sometimes has its uses too (not very often, IMHO ... ).

Learning when it's appropriate to use Spot, Centre-weighted average and Matrix (ESP) is critical IMO. Also learn where the limits are of spot and CWA modes.

When all else fails, the camera is a wonderful light meter! Take a shot, and see how it turns out ... Then work out what you have to set and what to in order to 'correct' the 'errors' the camera has made to achieve the shot you want.

This photo required about 3-6 test exposures to work out why the camera was being fooled, then set it up manually to get the image of the illusions I wanted. Portrait of the artist:

Multiple illusions. What's real? What's a reflection?

Hope this drivel helps a bit.

AF modes are a whole other can of worms ...

John King wrote:

alexisgreat wrote:

Thanks, John, those are some spectacular images!

Thanks, Alex

After some "testing" I set mine to 200-6400.

Probably best to set the upper limit for Auto-ISO to 1600-2000 at the start. No mFTs camera is in the same league as e.g. a Nikon D4s, where you can get away with blue murder at ISO 6400 (and above ... ). You have to make sure that you get enough light on the sensor in our cameras (wide enough f-stop and sufficient exposure time - I have tried to work out what those values are in a desultory manner, but got lost ... ), or the noise will be horrendous, even at ISO 3200. The lesson being is that we cannot just ramp the ISO and to heck with the consequences! Lots of trial and error test shots help ...

Thanks, I see what you mean with the ISO 6400 shots not being exactly what I was looking for- I set the AUTO ISO downward now. One little disappointing thing is the IS isn't all that great (maybe 1 stop?) but that could also be because the camera body is small, from my experience, the larger the body the less it "shakes."

I did some research on the sensor and found something called ISOLess- the camera becomes ISOless around ISO 1200.  What this basically means is that anything above ISO 1200 is unnecessary because you can achieve the effect in PP by postprocessing the RAW image and adding EC.  So let's say you took an image at ISO 1600 and wanted to brighten it later to ISO 6400.  Take the RAW and brighten it by two stops and there you have it!  The result will also have more noise, but perhaps not as much as taking an ISO 6400 image directly.  Or at the very least, it will be the same amount of noise.

Going to do the contrast and sharpness now too.

I'm not quite as brave as Guy as regards setting NF = Off, but STANDARD is way too aggressive, and forget about HIGH as if it didn't exist, unless you like your photos to look like oil paintings done with a palette knife ...

However, he might want to PP his JPEGs sometimes. Mine are only ever used for web upload, etc, for which I almost never start off with the RAW file. Our needs and methods are always going to be different - I can guarantee that!

I did a compromise and instead of turning everything off or to its lowest settings, I put NF on Low, Sharpening to -1 and Contrast to -1

Do you use multimetering and no EC also? I was experimenting with multi, spot and average metering.

IMHO, many posters here do not realise just how important metering (and AF) modes are. Changing metering mode will almost always get you out of trouble with highly back lit subjects and other difficult lighting situations. Also IMO, changing metering mode is often preferable to using EC. Also experiment with HIGH and LOW key metering modes. Auto-Gradation sometimes has its uses too (not very often, IMHO ... ).

Learning when it's appropriate to use Spot, Centre-weighted average and Matrix (ESP) is critical IMO. Also learn where the limits are of spot and CWA modes.

When all else fails, the camera is a wonderful light meter! Take a shot, and see how it turns out ... Then work out what you have to set and what to in order to 'correct' the 'errors' the camera has made to achieve the shot you want.

This photo required about 3-6 test exposures to work out why the camera was being fooled, then set it up manually to get the image of the illusions I wanted. Portrait of the artist:

Multiple illusions. What's real? What's a reflection?

Hope this drivel helps a bit.

AF modes are a whole other can of worms ...

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Wow is that image from multiple exposures? I like the effect! About metering, I was trying to ascertain how large the "spot" is when spot metering. The moon is 2 days before new right now and I'm not sure if a moon that small properly registers on the camera's meter (I had the focal length set at 42mm to get Venus and some background in the same field of view.)

I set focusing mode to S-AF+MF like I have with my E-520. In my experience this is the best focusing mode, the camera does a coarse autofocus and if you want a finer adjustment you do MF.

Guy Parsons wrote:

alexisgreat wrote:

Thanks, I how do you enable the SCP? It's always on in my E-520

Use my help page http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/53-epl5-scp.html

Thank you. So the playback setting controls it in Liveview as well as Playback?

No they are separate setups, you get to choose what screens you can cycle through in both Live View and Playback as separate entities, it's all in Custom Menu D - Info Settings and my E-PL5 notes say:

"Choose what displays when Info button is pressed for Live view/Playback/Index playback. In each case you can choose any, all or none of the options.
For Playback choose - Image only, Overall, Histogram, Highlight & Shadow (blinkies), Light Box (depends on another setting)
For Live View choose - Histogram, Highlight & Shadow (blinkies), Image only
For Thumbnail view choose - 4 display, 9 display, 25 display, 100 display, calendar display."

The E-PL6 of course will have Levels added to the Live View choices.

Thanks I think I set it up right. I dont see the Levels lines but I think that's because I have the "zebra stripes" turned on in Live View? Can those and Levels not be used at the same time in Live View?

edit- I have all the options you mentioned EXCEPT the Levels option. It's not in my menu system- no wonder I couldn't find it!

edit: Thanks I was in the right place but went to "Histogram Settings" instead where it lets you set the upper and lower bounds for the shading.

I set upper 255 and lower 0 as that gives a sensible indication of highlight blowouts in the jpeg that usually are not blown out in the raw file. It depends on jpeg settings, I use Natural with Sharpness, Contrast and Saturation all at -1. But use the raws anyway.

Thanks I did exactly the same thing, however I left Saturation at 0, everything else is -1. What is this keep WB "warm" setting in WB Auto? I was thinking of setting that to Normal because maybe setting it to warm will have more noise or false color at higher ISO? I kept NF on Low.

Thanks, is this [dust catching] sticky strip something that needs to be replaced?

For pro use with many thousands of clicks per year an annual service is advised and the strips get replaced then, otherwise the average amateur user could go 5 to 10 years before it needed fixing. Usually the camera is well obsolete by then so it doesn't matter. I've never had the strips replaced and I've never had any dust issues at all in years of 4/3 and M4/3.

Yes, I think our cameras are much less prone to dust than larger DSLR. I live near the beach and never had a dust issue either- and none of my bodies are weatherproof.

In my E-520 a button used to light up when it was running (briefly when I turned my camera off), I dont see any such light on the E-PL6 and I'm trying to make sure it is working since my E-520 used to make an audible noise when the SSWF was doing its thing and I dont hear any such noise from the E-PL6.

No, it is very brief at turn on.

At any rate, when changing lenses, there is an IR blocker in front of the sensor that protects the sensor from dust and moisture, isn't there?

The sensor is behind the usual few millimetres of dust shaker, IR filter, maybe AA filter so the sensor itself is well protected. Sticky dust on the front surface can be seen (if any) at f/16 or f/22, but usually disappears in the normal M4/3 working range of f/8 and more open. Olympus say not to try and clean it yourself, as it needs reinstatement of an anti-static layer.

Yes, I never use anything smaller than f/8 on any of my cameras and I know the SSWF has a great reputation.

Yes, wide open to f/8 hides most dust problems.

Thank you so much Guy, I am going to read your guide now. The IS ceases to function at anything slower than 2 seconds shutter speed. I found this out when going through the specs.

Yes, you can prove that by using manual mode then taking some 1 sec, 2 sec, 4 sec shots and hear the difference in sound. The 2 axis IBIS sounds like a quiet coffee grinder.

I assume the E-PL5 is the same. BTW how can one set the focus to infinity for doing pictures of constellations? Stars are coming out a bit blurry in my pictures.

If the default is set to Custom Menu A - Reset Lens = On makes the lens reset to infinity at turn off. But we all know that is often not truly infinity so fine tuning needs to be done. I don't do night sky shots so I suspect that trying to get a very distant streetlight (or the moon when available) in focus would be close enough to infinity, especially at the widest angle.

Thanks, I have that setting, but just to be sure I'm going to do the streetlight method. My shots came out a bit blurry last night, so maybe it's because the IS isn't great (aren't small bodies more prone to camera shake- is the IS on this camera good for 2 stops, or more like 1?) or it could be a focus issue. Although the camera said it locked focus and yet it was still blurry. Shutter speed was set to 2 sec, focal length was 14mm. Focus mode was S-AF+MF. I didn't try the streetlight thing though I'll try that tonight, I hope the focus mode I am using is the right one. I also set Anti Shock to 1/8 sec, not sure if this is right, but there is no 0 sec option.

Is there an AE/AF lock button somewhere on this camera?

I am not sure I'm seeing all the menu options, I'm wondering if I have the latest firmware. It says 1.1 for both the body and the lens?

Body is at 1.2 see http://dl01.olympus-imaging.com/ww/ud2/ENU/0001/1120/index02a.html but those changes probably don't matter to you. But you never quite know what other things they have fixed and never tell us about it so I always update to latest regardless of apparent relevance.

My links page may be useful http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~parsog/olyepl1/03-epl1-links.html

Regards........ Guy

Alright I see I need to update the firmware! Is this something I can download to the memory card and let the camera update it internally or do I need to connect the camera to my computer via the included USB cord? Thanks for all the help, Guy!

I cant find the firmware download page but I found this on your site:

Firmware is updated by using the update program that installs with Olympus Viewer 3 and connecting Olympus body via USB cable. Body, lens and accessory updates are checked and performed automatically.

So do I have to install Olympus Viewer from the CD that came with the camera and connect the body with the included USB cable before the firmware will update? I assume it updates automatically from within the program without my having to go to any web pages?

I also found this:

http://www.olympus.co.jp/en/support/imsg/digicamera/download/software/firm/e1/

and this

http://www.olympus.co.jp/en/support/imsg/digicamera/download/software/firm/e1/#fp

The battery is labeled April 2015, I take it this means my camera was "made" around then? That explains why it has Firmware 1.1, as 1.2 wasn't released until June.  I hope the battery sitting around this long without being charged didn't lessen its overall lifetime of 500 charge cycles.  It was sitting uncharged for 9 months.

I've found most of the settings I asked you about, except I tried touching the left part of the LCD where the touch screen settings are supposed to be and that doesn't do anything. I also haven't been able to see the levels axes but that might be because I have the "zebra stripes" turned on in Live View? Aside from that I think I have everything else.

Helen wrote:

alexisgreat wrote:

Are there any settings to control the SSWF Olympus uses to fling dust off the sensor? In my E-520 a button used to light up when it was running (briefly when I turned my camera off), I dont see any such light on the E-PL6 and I'm trying to make sure it is working since my E-520 used to make an audible noise when the SSWF was doing its thing and I dont hear any such noise from the E-PL6. At any rate, when changing lenses, there is an IR blocker in front of the sensor that protects the sensor from dust and moisture, isn't there?

If you watch the top edge of the LCD like a hawk when you turn the camera on, a little horizontal rectangle outline (in white) with about 3 stars jauntily overlaid on an upper corner will make a very brief appearance (I forget which side of the screen offhand!). That's the SSWF indicator.

Thanks I think that is the only thing that shows up and then disappears? I noticed that a little icon was there and then it was gone! Everything else on the display stayed put

I've never used a screen protector with my smartphones or cameras, I've dropped the former occasionally and I jam the latter willy nilly into bags (where zippers or even the strap are probably the biggest danger)... Never gouged out a distracting scratch on any display. I'll occasionally notice a couple very slight hairline scratches under direct sunlight at just the right angle, but that's about it.

Most displays use reinforced glass if not something more advanced like Corning Gorilla Glass, it actually takes quite a bit to scratch that stuff, even something like an errant key won't easily manage it (I don't keep keys in the same pocket as the phone all the same). The one thing which WILL easily scratch em is fine grain particles, sand, construction dust, etc.

If I worked/played near that often I'd totally be using a screen protector, outside of that I'm not terribly worried about my displays, they feel much better naked than with any protector I've ever touched or tried on other's gear.

As for the levels, on my fairly new (still learning it!) E-M5 II they're in the same place as the live blinkies and CAN be enabled at the same time... It basically gives me three display modes to cycle thru and I can select any combination of levels, blinkies, and histogram for each IIRC... It's a little hidden but pretty intuitive once I found it, the Ok vs right arrow with those settings and others dichotomy still throws me off a little tho.

Impulses wrote:

I've never used a screen protector with my smartphones or cameras, I've dropped the former occasionally and I jam the latter willy nilly into bags (where zippers or even the strap are probably the biggest danger)... Never gouged out a distracting scratch on any display. I'll occasionally notice a couple very slight hairline scratches under direct sunlight at just the right angle, but that's about it.

Most displays use reinforced glass if not something more advanced like Corning Gorilla Glass, it actually takes quite a bit to scratch that stuff, even something like an errant key won't easily manage it (I don't keep keys in the same pocket as the phone all the same). The one thing which WILL easily scratch em is fine grain particles, sand, construction dust, etc.

If I worked/played near that often I'd totally be using a screen protector, outside of that I'm not terribly worried about my displays, they feel much better naked than with any protector I've ever touched or tried on other's gear.

As for the levels, on my fairly new (still learning it!) E-M5 II they're in the same place as the live blinkies and CAN be enabled at the same time... It basically gives me three display modes to cycle thru and I can select any combination of levels, blinkies, and histogram for each IIRC... It's a little hidden but pretty intuitive once I found it, the Ok vs right arrow with those settings and others dichotomy still throws me off a little tho.

Thanks, I'm going to try updating the firmware and see what that does. I've run into a bit of a roadblock though.

http://oup.olympus-imaging.com/ou1download/index/

It says here that you need at least Vista SP2.  I have XP SP3 here can I still update the firmware?

Impulses wrote:

I've never used a screen protector with my smartphones or cameras, I've dropped the former occasionally and I jam the latter willy nilly into bags (where zippers or even the strap are probably the biggest danger)... Never gouged out a distracting scratch on any display. I'll occasionally notice a couple very slight hairline scratches under direct sunlight at just the right angle, but that's about it.

Most displays use reinforced glass if not something more advanced like Corning Gorilla Glass, it actually takes quite a bit to scratch that stuff, even something like an errant key won't easily manage it (I don't keep keys in the same pocket as the phone all the same). The one thing which WILL easily scratch em is fine grain particles, sand, construction dust, etc.

If I worked/played near that often I'd totally be using a screen protector, outside of that I'm not terribly worried about my displays, they feel much better naked than with any protector I've ever touched or tried on other's gear.

As for the levels, on my fairly new (still learning it!) E-M5 II they're in the same place as the live blinkies and CAN be enabled at the same time... It basically gives me three display modes to cycle thru and I can select any combination of levels, blinkies, and histogram for each IIRC... It's a little hidden but pretty intuitive once I found it, the Ok vs right arrow with those settings and others dichotomy still throws me off a little tho.

Thanks, I'm going to try updating the firmware and see what that does. I've run into a bit of a roadblock though.

http://oup.olympus-imaging.com/ou1download/index/

It says here that you need at least Vista SP2.  I have XP SP3 here can I still update the firmware?

Try it, I really doubt it'll fail because of that, the firmware updater will either run fine or it'll refuse to run altogether... It's likely XP wasn't even a consideration by the time they wrote that but it could likely still work.

Guy Parsons wrote:

WinXP is now an unsupported and insecure operating system. Time to splash out on a cheap Win10 notebook to get over that problem.

Regards..... Guy

I have that lol....but a Windows 7 satellite laptop actually. It just doesn't have internet on it and my wifi is really iffy here. The XP SP3 is a desktop I built myself, I can update it to a newer version but I have some customizations on it that are going to be hard to let go (and a bunch of USB devices that might not work with newer OS, but that's another story lol.) I guess I'll have to hook the ethernet cable up to the laptop because although the download worked and the program installed and ran and detected the camera and tried to update the camera, the percentage thing ran to 100% and then it said there was a sharing violation in the temp bin file, I have no idea what that means......

Still on 1.1

edit: maybe OV3 will work since it's supposed to work with XP SP3?

Impulses wrote:

Impulses wrote:

I've never used a screen protector with my smartphones or cameras, I've dropped the former occasionally and I jam the latter willy nilly into bags (where zippers or even the strap are probably the biggest danger)... Never gouged out a distracting scratch on any display. I'll occasionally notice a couple very slight hairline scratches under direct sunlight at just the right angle, but that's about it.

Most displays use reinforced glass if not something more advanced like Corning Gorilla Glass, it actually takes quite a bit to scratch that stuff, even something like an errant key won't easily manage it (I don't keep keys in the same pocket as the phone all the same). The one thing which WILL easily scratch em is fine grain particles, sand, construction dust, etc.

If I worked/played near that often I'd totally be using a screen protector, outside of that I'm not terribly worried about my displays, they feel much better naked than with any protector I've ever touched or tried on other's gear.

As for the levels, on my fairly new (still learning it!) E-M5 II they're in the same place as the live blinkies and CAN be enabled at the same time... It basically gives me three display modes to cycle thru and I can select any combination of levels, blinkies, and histogram for each IIRC... It's a little hidden but pretty intuitive once I found it, the Ok vs right arrow with those settings and others dichotomy still throws me off a little tho.

Thanks, I'm going to try updating the firmware and see what that does. I've run into a bit of a roadblock though.

http://oup.olympus-imaging.com/ou1download/index/

It says here that you need at least Vista SP2. I have XP SP3 here can I still update the firmware?

Try it, I really doubt it'll fail because of that, the firmware updater will either run fine or it'll refuse to run altogether... It's likely XP wasn't even a consideration by the time they wrote that but it could likely still work.

the download worked and the program installed and ran and detected the camera and tried to update the camera, the percentage thing ran to 100% and then it said there was a sharing violation in the temp bin file, I have no idea what that means......

I tried it several times, always the same result.

I was worried something happened to the camera but it seems to be working fine still on 1.1

edit: maybe OV3 will work since it's supposed to work with XP SP3?