E-M5 as point and shoot

My wife and I visited London a month ago. When home again she was disappointed about her pictures from her compact compared to mine from my E-M1 with 12-40/2.8. She said: I want your old camera. I said: it has no lens. She: Get me one, then. But small. I picked up a used Panasonic X Vario14-42/3.5-5.6  pancake power zoom and put it on my old E-M5. A very neat package. And the lens turned out to be very sharp, not much worse than my 12-40. That was a real surprise.

This lens has power OIS which doesn't seem to be possible to shut off. Is it wisest to only use the lens IS and shut off the camera ISIS?

My wife wants it as simple as with her compact.

To make a long story short: what's the best settings to make an E-M5 a point and shoot?

I tend to use my GX80 as point and shoot.

Just stick it in Aperture Priority, with ISO limit of 3200. When she gets used to using it explain to her how to control aperture a bit more and exposure compensation.

Tacitvs wrote:

I tend to use my GX80 as point and shoot.

Just stick it in Aperture Priority, with ISO limit of 3200. When she gets used to using it explain to her how to control aperture a bit more and exposure compensation.

Aperture priority mode is what I use myself mostly, I was thinking of P or iAuto. I don't think she never will bother herself with any settings. She's has the eye, very good at composing pictures, but totally uninterested of all technical aspects.

As a raw shooter I have never bothered about the jpg settings. I have set it to the best jpg quality, but what about the other settings to get most natural colours?

If she is accustomed to a compact camera, setting the EM5 to Vivid might be a good choice. Also, I'd be inclined to lower the noise filter to low.

There are a few snags: if you shoot jpeg there is no CA correction and Olympus lenses are better corrected than Panasonic lenses. Also there is a risk of purple fringing on high-contrast edges, which is because Panasonic lenses do not filter out UV light like Panasonic lenses.

I have got really good results (close enough to the 12-40 to be happy in good light), but I do shoot RAW only. The E-M5 and Pana 14-42X is a remarkably compact combination and with the X-Cap (automatic lens cap) added it becomes a real point and shoot.

shinndigg wrote:

If she is accustomed to a compact camera, setting the EM5 to Vivid might be a good choice. Also, I'd be inclined to lower the noise filter to low.

Thank you. I thought vivid might exaggerate colours a little too much, but why not try. Noise filter to low seems wise, to avoid smearing. The E-M5 isn't very noisy at modest ISO anyway.

Paul De Bra wrote:

There are a few snags: if you shoot jpeg there is no CA correction and Olympus lenses are better corrected than Panasonic lenses. Also there is a risk of purple fringing on high-contrast edges, which is because Panasonic lenses do not filter out UV light like Panasonic lenses.

I have got really good results (close enough to the 12-40 to be happy in good light), but I do shoot RAW only. The E-M5 and Pana 14-42X is a remarkably compact combination and with the X-Cap (automatic lens cap) added it becomes a real point and shoot.

Yes it's indeed compact and the result looks fine so far. We'll see if there are any serious problems with CA and purple fringing.

Glad to be of help.