fully electronic shutter on my EM10Mk2.....

Helen wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

JimH123 wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Also, a related question.....I also saw this when I was using my EPL6 for long periods of time (long shooting sessions or even spending a lot of time in the Oly menus).....is it normal for these cameras to develop bright red or pink stuck pixels on the LCD when it's turned on for a long time? When I turn the camera off and let it cool down for awhile and turn it back on the stuck pixel cluster is gone. Is this something that would eventually show up in my photos and do I need to use pixel mapping to fix it or is it just an LCD thing and should I just ignore it? Thanks!

Are referring to long exposures, or just having the camera turned on? I have noticed that with long exposures, such a several minutes, that I get a lot of hot pixels in the image, and this is normal. There can be red ones, blue ones or green ones. It is possible to turn on long exposure noise reduction and the exposure time is then doubled with the extra time doing an exposure with the shutter closed so that it can map all the hot pixels and remove them in the final image. This works well.

Some editing SW can detect and fix hot pixels. I have found that if two hot pixels touch each other, that the SW does not fix them.

And it is possible with some software to take an image with the lens cap on and to use this to fix the hot pixels.

There is a setting to have the camera do a slightly long exposure and to map the hot pixels, but this doesn't fix the several minute exposures. I've tried.

FYI: This is one area that my Sony cameras really out do my Olympus cameras. They don't generate nearly as many hot pixels on a long exposure.

Thanks, I am going to need that for my astrophotography! I thought dark frame subtraction was turned on by default? Would you happen to know which menu letter it's under? I may have skipped it (although I think I went through all the menu options.) Does this fix all hot pixel issues in images taken with long exposures? I hope it also works with Live Composite mode!

I'll chip in here if I may. You know the menu with the tab containing a camera icon and the number 2 that has attracted your attention a lot? That's where there is an entry governing the use of dark frame subtraction for silent shutter use specifically (separately from the standard setting elsewhere). The reason it's here and independent is simply because you might be using silent shutter (electronic shutter) specifically for its silence. The dark frame subtraction process has to be done using the full mechanical shutter, so by default for silent shutter, it's off. But here you can enable it - and the manual warns that you will be getting sound from the shutter after your exposure because of this.

The thing to remember about this whole section of the camera 2 menu tab, which has the anti shock and silent shutter settings in it, is that it's not for CHOOSING the shutter mode you're about to use - it's about configuring them and setting them up to work the way you want WHEN you use them. Selecting them is always done from the control interfaces such as the SCP in its two varieties, or the alternative Live Control interface (that's the Canon-style one where the settings and choices are displayed on the live view image in borders - one across the bottom, one down the side and so on). Very occasionally, that control interface becomes useful to me though my main preference is for the Live SCP. As long as you've enabled them both to be available for use, you switch between the Live SCP and the Live Control interfaces by pressing the Info button whilst one of them is on view, having been called up by pressing OK. Info acts as a toggle (you probably know this all already) and it'll remember your preference until you change it.

But no, I was actually referring to the LCD developing a bright pink/red pixel- it wasn't in the final image. I saw this with my EPL6 and now also on my EM10Mk2. I was just spending a lot of time in the menus and when I was done and wanted to take some images, it was there in the LCD. I didn't show up in the final image, only the preview. Also, weirdly, it wasn't there when I was in the menu system either, only in the LCD image preview. When I took some quick images today there were no hot pixels anywhere (the LCD or in the images) and I didn't use pixel mapping yet. Do you think I should? Do I need to use SW or does pixel mapping fix all stuck pixel issues in the image? Thanks!

I've noticed this occasionally and it's easy to answer - as you know the sensor is furiously active providing live view, so it gets hotter. Therefore some pixels will become hot. Because it's displaying images at a rate of 60 frames per second or faster, it doesn't have time to do pixel mapping - that happens to the shots you've taken. Hence, if your pixel map is up to date, the hot pixel won't appear in the image you take, even though you saw it in live view. From time to time, sensors develop new hot pixels, and when one turns up that wasn't in existence when the last pixel mapping was done on the sensor, it'll show in the results too. At that point you just run pixel mapping and it'll disappear from the taken images, as before.

Wow, Helen, this is even more complicated than my older Oly bodies lol. I do think I understand the jist of this though.....do you think I still need to go into the SCP to set the fully electronic shutter on even if I can now get 1/16,000 sec shutter speeds when I turn my camera on and have that setting saved under MyModes? Or am I all set with that now?  I do have SCP and everything else turned on since I clicked on the check marks for each in every mode

Also, I saw the noise setting you're referencing in that 2 menu, and it's set to AUTO. Is that good enough? Basically I want it to do dark frame subtraction for all exposures longer than or equal to 1/4 sec. Does this double my shutter actuation count or since I will only be using the e-shutter, it doesn't add to shutter wear at all?

I looked at the images I took today at 1/13 sec and no hot or stuck pixels so no need to use the pixel mapping function yet! I figure the more long exposures you take, the more it heats up the sensor, and the more the chances are that eventually one of them will become "stuck"? I bet smaller sensors are more prone to this because they heat up faster?

Helen wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Helen wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Helen wrote:

Tom Axford wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

epozar wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

epozar wrote:

Silent shutter setting is marked with a "heart" sign in your quick-menu.

I saw that and it was right under the antishock setting and both are turned ON, so that means the electronic shutter is fully active?

Believe me there is a *big* difference in a shutter sound

oh no well I still hear a shutter sound even with silent mode turned on

There may still be a sound from the aperture closing down.

To check, set the aperture to the maximum aperture of your lens in A mode and take a shot. It should be completely silent

Agree with the above. To the OP: aperture stopdown is a lot quieter than the sound of the mechanical shutter, so if you're hearing a sound that is still the same from the shutter, then you haven't yet selected silent (fully electronic) shutter operation. Anti-Shock sounds the same as the mechanical shutter (unless you've selected one of the timed delays rather than 0 sec - in the case of 1/8, it makes the shutter seem a bit unresponsive, whilst the longer delays are clearly that - a delay between pressing the shutter release fully and anything responding).

I found another way to test it, I went to manual mode and tried changing the shutter speed to the minimum, and I couldn't get lower than 1/4,000. I went back into the second menu and didn't change antishock and only changed the silent shutter setting (I didn't change it since it was already set to ON, I just selected ON and 0 sec again lol.) This time it worked and I was able to go down to 1/16,000 sec. But now I have another issue- image blur (visible at 1:1). 1/13 sec shouldn't be too slow for handholding at 75mm, should it? I posted the best images (best out of 2 taken with e-shutter on and 2 with it off, so a small sample size.) The two I posted were the best out of the 4, so could that be handholding blur I'm seeing? IS is set to ON though. The image noise is also a bit high for my taste but at least the shutter noise is now completely gone I have set NR to - anyway and the ISO was 2500. All the settings were the same besides the e-shutter in both sets.

I'd say that 1/13 sec at 75mm is quite a big ask for a completely unblurred shot consistently - don't forget, if we go back to the old "rule of thumb" for safe to handhold speeds (I'm old enough to remember it!) which was 1/focal length giving you the shutter speed, that it's not 1/75 as the safest typical speed, but due to the crop factor for this sensor size (2x) it's 1/150. And of course we all vary. You had IBIS on; we could say it's "only" giving you about 3.5 stops of correction here, but its job gets harder with longer focal lengths, and movement in the resulting image is easier to spot in a close up subject too I find.

Thanks Helen, so from what you could see in the images the small amount of blur in the e-shutter shot was from handholding and not from using the e-shutter itself?

It's actually quite hard to get absolutely consistent results regarding stabilisation at tricky speeds from one shot to another - with close-ish shots like this, hand holding movements are magnified and also you're very close with a telephoto lens, a fairly large aperture and hence pretty narrow depth of field to contend with too. I see the slight double image on the Coolpix logo in the electronic shutter shot - unfortunately human shake isn't exactly consistent so it's just the case that in this instance, the IBIS sort of slightly missed fully correcting the shake. Silent (electronic) shutter removes all possibility of vibration from the shutter mechanism of course (as does 0 second Anti-Shock, at least for single shots) but sometimes I feel that when I'm being super-cautious, nervous, over-thinking my desire to NOT allow any shake to creep in, for some reason I shake either more, or in a less predictable fashion, when I'm using silent shutter! Not in a way I can feel of course, it's a tiny motion, but that seems to me how it goes for me. Maybe it's similar for you.

The Olympus IBIS system is incredibly good, but it can't have a 100% perfect hit rate when we ask a lot of it, as our movements are just too variable and unpredictable.

Thanks, that's why I try not to overthink and rely on muscle memory, because I get that little shake too when I'm trying to be perfectly still!  Is the camera good for 5 stops of IS?  I forgot how many it was spec'ed for.

I have it set to where it wont take a picture unless it's in focus so I actually had to move away a bit to take it- do you know if there is a way to take a picture even if the picture isn't completely in focus?  Not thinking I'd do that, but it would be useful to know.

I took 2 pics with e-shutter off and 2 with it on, and the others were more blurry than these 2 (even the ones with the e-shutter off, so this is probably a result of handshake.)

Helen wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Henry Falkner wrote:

For this update, I set Silent shutter -

Yes, it is un-sharp - done in a hurry while discussing Covid-19 with Sandra.

Pressed OK again for changing the shutter setting -

I did remember to set my E-M10 II back to Anti-shock again.

Henry

Henry, e-shutter and antishock cant both be on at the same time? That might be what got me confused when I tried to have both on at the same time from the second menu screen! I think I got it sorted now by only adjusting the silent shutter setting (and now I can access the 1/16000 shutter speed and the shutter is indeed silent lol.) But now I see a bit more blur in my images even with IS turned on- is this something that happens with the e-shutter turned on? I posted sample pics with it both on and off in my response to you in a previous post in this thread.

Here I come, barging in again without invitation, but here goes!

Anti-Shock and E-Shutter can't be on at the same time, because they are two different methods of exposing the sensor (i.e. two different shutter methods) and there's nothing to "anti-shock" in E-Shutter (i.e. fully electronic, silent shutter) anyway. Olympus muddies the waters a bit in their manuals by hanging onto wording about Anti-Shock which pre-dates both their introduction both of the 0-sec version of Anti-Shock (which is EFCS - electronic first curtain shutter operation - actually on the E-M10 II and III it's really a kind of virtual EFCS because the first curtain does still run, but it works, results-wise, just like true EFCS!) and also it pre-dates electronic shutter too. So their wording only refers to Anti-Shock being for avoiding handling vibrations (this is why the rest of the timed settings options for Anti-Shock run to rather long delays if desired) - there may also have been an unwillingness to mention shutter vibrations having any potential to affect results back when the words were composed, since back then there wasn't yet a way to avoid them (whereas we have both these methods now) and they probably didn't want to put it into our heads that they could even happen (sort of in denial - common with manufacturers!).

Oh, and as to knowing what type of shutter operation you've selected BEFORE you take a shot (aside from seeing how high your fastest available shutter speed is, as you mentioned) - look at the rectangular icon denoting drive mode, either in the SCP or at the right side of the live view image, about halfway down. If it's not there at the right edge of live view (after a second or two) - that's definitely plain old fully mechanical, single shot - on the SCP it's there, and is just a single rectangle, nothing else. Everything else permanently shows up on the right edge of live view, as in the SCP. Whilst things like stacked rectangles will show for continuous drive modes, often with a letter such as L or H to denote the speed, and of course you get self-timer symbols for, well, self-timer modes, the basic thing is this: if there's nothing else over and above these, it's full mechanical. If there's a little diamond to the left, it's Anti-Shock (whether you've set Anti-Shock to 0-Sec for EFCS, or any of the other longer delays, which are delays pure and simple); if there's a heart, it's E-Shutter/Silent Shutter/Electronic Shutter or whatever you prefer to call it! There will never, ever be both heart and diamond at once, because with the diamond (Anti-Shock) the second mechanical curtain will run to end the exposure, whilst with the heart (silent) neither mechanical curtain will run. So they're mutually exclusive.

Thanks again Helen! I still cant manage to find it even though I can now access the 1/16,000 sec shutter speeds every time I turn on the camera- that means it's in full e-shutter mode regardless of whether I can see the icon or not?   It should be on the right side of Live View, towards the middle not at the top?  Maybe I just need to get into the SCP to see it- I can get there by pressing OK and then press INFO to toggle with the other menu? If I press OK a second time in either menu it will go back to Live View mode?

About the antishock thing, is there twice as much wear on the shutter when using that, since it uses two mechanical shutters, so each actuation counts as twice?  And if I have silent shutter turned on there is no mechanical wear UNLESS I have noise reduction set to AUTO in Menu 2, in which case there will be wear, but only equivalent to 1 shutter actuation, and only if the shutter speed is slower than a certain number (and what is that number- 1/4 sec?)

Helen wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Helen wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

JimH123 wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Also, a related question.....I also saw this when I was using my EPL6 for long periods of time (long shooting sessions or even spending a lot of time in the Oly menus).....is it normal for these cameras to develop bright red or pink stuck pixels on the LCD when it's turned on for a long time? When I turn the camera off and let it cool down for awhile and turn it back on the stuck pixel cluster is gone. Is this something that would eventually show up in my photos and do I need to use pixel mapping to fix it or is it just an LCD thing and should I just ignore it? Thanks!

Are referring to long exposures, or just having the camera turned on? I have noticed that with long exposures, such a several minutes, that I get a lot of hot pixels in the image, and this is normal. There can be red ones, blue ones or green ones. It is possible to turn on long exposure noise reduction and the exposure time is then doubled with the extra time doing an exposure with the shutter closed so that it can map all the hot pixels and remove them in the final image. This works well.

Some editing SW can detect and fix hot pixels. I have found that if two hot pixels touch each other, that the SW does not fix them.

And it is possible with some software to take an image with the lens cap on and to use this to fix the hot pixels.

There is a setting to have the camera do a slightly long exposure and to map the hot pixels, but this doesn't fix the several minute exposures. I've tried.

FYI: This is one area that my Sony cameras really out do my Olympus cameras. They don't generate nearly as many hot pixels on a long exposure.

Thanks, I am going to need that for my astrophotography! I thought dark frame subtraction was turned on by default? Would you happen to know which menu letter it's under? I may have skipped it (although I think I went through all the menu options.) Does this fix all hot pixel issues in images taken with long exposures? I hope it also works with Live Composite mode!

I'll chip in here if I may. You know the menu with the tab containing a camera icon and the number 2 that has attracted your attention a lot? That's where there is an entry governing the use of dark frame subtraction for silent shutter use specifically (separately from the standard setting elsewhere). The reason it's here and independent is simply because you might be using silent shutter (electronic shutter) specifically for its silence. The dark frame subtraction process has to be done using the full mechanical shutter, so by default for silent shutter, it's off. But here you can enable it - and the manual warns that you will be getting sound from the shutter after your exposure because of this.

The thing to remember about this whole section of the camera 2 menu tab, which has the anti shock and silent shutter settings in it, is that it's not for CHOOSING the shutter mode you're about to use - it's about configuring them and setting them up to work the way you want WHEN you use them. Selecting them is always done from the control interfaces such as the SCP in its two varieties, or the alternative Live Control interface (that's the Canon-style one where the settings and choices are displayed on the live view image in borders - one across the bottom, one down the side and so on). Very occasionally, that control interface becomes useful to me though my main preference is for the Live SCP. As long as you've enabled them both to be available for use, you switch between the Live SCP and the Live Control interfaces by pressing the Info button whilst one of them is on view, having been called up by pressing OK. Info acts as a toggle (you probably know this all already) and it'll remember your preference until you change it.

But no, I was actually referring to the LCD developing a bright pink/red pixel- it wasn't in the final image. I saw this with my EPL6 and now also on my EM10Mk2. I was just spending a lot of time in the menus and when I was done and wanted to take some images, it was there in the LCD. I didn't show up in the final image, only the preview. Also, weirdly, it wasn't there when I was in the menu system either, only in the LCD image preview. When I took some quick images today there were no hot pixels anywhere (the LCD or in the images) and I didn't use pixel mapping yet. Do you think I should? Do I need to use SW or does pixel mapping fix all stuck pixel issues in the image? Thanks!

I've noticed this occasionally and it's easy to answer - as you know the sensor is furiously active providing live view, so it gets hotter. Therefore some pixels will become hot. Because it's displaying images at a rate of 60 frames per second or faster, it doesn't have time to do pixel mapping - that happens to the shots you've taken. Hence, if your pixel map is up to date, the hot pixel won't appear in the image you take, even though you saw it in live view. From time to time, sensors develop new hot pixels, and when one turns up that wasn't in existence when the last pixel mapping was done on the sensor, it'll show in the results too. At that point you just run pixel mapping and it'll disappear from the taken images, as before.

Wow, Helen, this is even more complicated than my older Oly bodies lol. I do think I understand the jist of this though.....do you think I still need to go into the SCP to set the fully electronic shutter on even if I can now get 1/16,000 sec shutter speeds when I turn my camera on and have that setting saved under MyModes? Or am I all set with that now? I do have SCP and everything else turned on since I clicked on the check marks for each in every mode

To be fair, it's probably my fault - verbosity is one of my many faults - I tend to go into a sort of "info dump" mode, adding everything I think of as I go along!

Yes, once you're getting a 1/16,000 top speed and silent exposures, you're in fully electronic shutter mode - it'll stay on what you've selected (either in general, or in a MyMode that it's saved in). There are a few special operational features that force a particular shutter mode (apologies, I forget which!) but it'll revert to your preferred setting when you exit out of them if I remember correctly.

Also, I saw the noise setting you're referencing in that 2 menu, and it's set to AUTO. Is that good enough? Basically I want it to do dark frame subtraction for all exposures longer than or equal to 1/4 sec. Does this double my shutter actuation count or since I will only be using the e-shutter, it doesn't add to shutter wear at all?

Yes, Auto means it will kick in once a particular slow shutter speed is used (without looking it up I don't exactly remember - might be 1/2 sec or 1 sec). My camera isn't to hand right now or I'd check. Maybe it could be 1/4 as you hope. Whatever the case, you'll know, because you'll get an extra, audible exposure after the shot itself, of the same duration as the shot. I don't actually know if it adds to the exposure count as I've never checked (and I don't have it turned on for silent shutter on mine); it will be running the mechanical shutter for the second, dark frame in any case. So you could say that this second exposure will add an exposure to the mechanical shutter's usage.

I looked at the images I took today at 1/13 sec and no hot or stuck pixels so no need to use the pixel mapping function yet! I figure the more long exposures you take, the more it heats up the sensor, and the more the chances are that eventually one of them will become "stuck"? I bet smaller sensors are more prone to this because they heat up faster?

I don't know that it's ever been suggested much that smaller sensors suffer more this way, actually. I suppose it's at least as influenced by how well the heat is dissipated by the whole design of the camera, and how hot the sensor and the electronics in there actually run, as well. Certainly more noise builds up with any sensor, including hot pixels, the longer you are running it, but it usually calms down again when it is rested, as you probably already know. At least we have a nice, easy in-camera pixel mapping process to hand, anyway.

No worries, I'm the same way!    Actually was wondering about HDR mode (there are several of them, specifically this is about where the camera takes 4 pictures with the exact same exposures and stacks them together.)

1) can this be varied or is it always 4?

2) can I use this feature in manual exposure mode?

3) will this always use the mechanical shutter?

There are gains on the swings and losses on the roundabouts with the electronic shutter - but I have not used mine often enough to learn the differences.

At my age of 78, 1/13th of a second is hit and miss. Besides, I always had a problem with 'tearing the shot' since my training in the Swiss Army. Using a 2 second delay sometimes gets me round this - it gives me just enough time to reframe after I have pressed the shutter button (which causes me to tear the shot) -

At 6400 ISO, handheld, I lost some detail due to the need for more noise reduction in PP

Clearly, this discussion can, and may, go on and on, so I will attempt not to 'hog the scene' any further.

Henry

I use the electronic shutter specifically when I want to avoid disrupting musical performances, and I have not looked for blur as compared to anti-shock like you have. So you are already more of an expert on that one than I am.

But thank you for telling me that you have found your way around on the camera, at least with regards to the shutter functions.

Henry

No worries Helen. Some people need your elucidations, so there is no need for me to compete with you.

Off Topic -

The Hibiscus in front of our house is accessible to us without breaking the Covid-19 Lockdown rules.

Henry

Helen wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

No worries, I'm the same way! Actually was wondering about HDR mode (there are several of them, specifically this is about where the camera takes 4 pictures with the exact same exposures and stacks them together.)

Hmm... it's not actually that all 4 are at the exact same exposure though, is it? It wouldn't be able to do an HDR result if they were...

1) can this be varied or is it always 4?

It's always 4, though there are 3, 5 and 7 frame sequence settings within the HDR menu, with varying exposure differentials - but these are for a different approach which produces the shots separately for you to align in an external program of your choice.

2) can I use this feature in manual exposure mode?

Technically, I'd say it wouldn't really work, because it needs to be able to vary the exposure over the 4 shots and HDR mode disables auto ISO and forces ISO 200. On all Olympus cameras you can enable Auto ISO for manual mode, but HDR1 and HDR2 (which are the 4-frame in-camera stacking HDR modes) disable it. I just dug out the camera and tried it though, and it DID work - it seems it unofficially overrides the manually set shutter speed - so it's actually sneakily working in aperture priority. Actually, for all I know it could be varying the aperture or even the ISO - but it's harder to detect either of these, since you can't see/hear the difference with them and you only get the stacked result. It's late here and I'm getting dozy, so I'm not really in a fit state to examine the (poor anyway, under too-dim electric light) result to see if I can detect any aperture variation - this would probably be the least desirable variation to have anyway, due to the visual oddities it might cause.

3) will this always use the mechanical shutter?

Yes - that's the one I was thinking of in my earlier post when I said certain modes force mechanical shutter but I couldn't quite remember which one(s)... It always forces continuous high speed full mechanical - the speed because it gives it a good chance of producing results which are alignable in-camera even if hand held (never quite understood why it has to be mechanical, though, since you'd think silent shutter would be even more helpful in this regard). Nevertheless, it does a pretty good job of aligning.

An aside: a Panasonic G9 I have is totally weird at auto-aligning - it can only auto-align HDR results properly if I put it into fully automated scene modes that allow it to turn on HDR when it detects a need for it, even though it thinks it has the ability to auto-align HDR in PASM modes - you can actually turn the alignment feature on and off in those. With it turned off, and images don't align, in the expected manner. Turn it on, and it looks like somebody with a stencil kit lost control - a sort of misaligned cut-out effect! Very unnatural-looking. I've always been baffled by this, as it seems to use the same process to shoot the HDR in both the "proper" modes which don't work, and the fully auto scene modes - which do.

It's in the HDR section of the menu...... I assume it's a good way to reduce noise at higher ISO, because stacking 4 images reduces the amount of noise by half. It's also good for avoiding star streaks in astrophotography because you can take short exposures and add them all together and the total exposure is equal to the four shutter speeds added together. You'll see way more stars in the resulting stack then you will in any single frame. At least I hope that's the way Olympus does it. When I did it in DSS it also improved the resolution in the final result, I got to see little imperfections in the roof of my garage in the middle of the night that I never saw in a single image, even one taken in the middle of the day

I wonder if the HDR mode that combined all the same exposures can be used in M mode though? See if you can find that HDR mode in your camera, Helen!

About dark frame subtraction, I'm hoping it actually doesn't turn on in AUTO mode until there is a very long shutter speed (longer than 1/2 sec I'd hope.) I dont want to use the mechanical shutter and my work around is stacking a bunch of short exposures in DSS on my computer. Is there a way to find out when dark frame subtraction kicks in AUTO? Thanks!

I guess if I dont want to use the mechanical shutter at all I also need to avoid ALL the HDR modes too?

I was trying to shoot the splendid moon tonight at 4 am when I woke up but didn't want to go outside at that time so I tried shooting the moon with the 75-300 lens but the camera kept focusing on my window for some odd reason lol.  How does one fix that?  I didn't want to open it lest some bug fly in so I tried using hyperfocal distances and focusing on a street light but that also came out blurry even though I used the focus lock button.  Then I went back into the menus and choose Mode 2 which finally did the trick for some odd reason, after I switched to Mode 2 I could finally AF on the moon.  Is this the mode you use also?  I always keep the camera in S-AF.

I'll post the moon shot comparisons in another thread (I also tried out the 2x digital tc).

Henry Falkner wrote:

No worries Helen. Some people need your elucidations, so there is no need for me to compete with you.

Off Topic -

The Hibiscus in front of our house is accessible to us without breaking the Covid-19 Lockdown rules.

Henry

Wow that is so beautiful!  I shall have these blooming here in a few months, hopefully after the lockdown here ends.

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Thanks, I am going to need that for my astrophotography! I thought dark frame subtraction was turned on by default? Would you happen to know which menu letter it's under? I may have skipped it (although I think I went through all the menu options.) Does this fix all hot pixel issues in images taken with long exposures? I hope it also works with Live Composite mode!

On my EM1ii, this setting in under "gear" and is in "E1" , On your camera it may be different.

There are two setups, and they need to be understood. Olympus calls one "Noise Filter" and the other "Noise Reduction". They have different purposes. There is a write up by Robin Wong explaining these settings, but it is rather long. See: https://robinwong.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-robin-wongs-om-d-camera-cheat-sheet.html

He goes on to say that "Noise Reduction" should be called "Hot Pixel Reduction".  There are 3 choices:  ON, OFF and AUTO.  With OFF, Hot Pixel Subtraction never turns on.  And setting it to ON will give you Hot Pixel Subtraction all the time - not sure why anyone would choose this option.  And finally AUTO, it activates at 0.5 sec and longer.  With it turned OFF and you do a 60 sec exposure, you will find little red, and green and blue specs all over the image which turning it to AUTO would have corrected.  Of course, you could capture your own dark frames by putting the lens cap on and taking some images at the same exposure time, and to then use software that provides a means of using these dark frames.

The other setting is called "Noise Filter" and Robin Wong suggests to turn it off.  The other options are STANDARD and HIGH and they affect how aggressively the camera works to reduce noise in the image.  External software can do a better job.  And keep in mind that in camera noise reduction can reduce fine detail.