OM1 Aide Memoire - my custom buttons

[Adrian Harris]

This seems handy to some but we learn best from our experiences that fail.

Based on advice from a friend who is a behavioral scientist and learning expert I mapped out my buttons (EM1.2 and OM-1) for the features I don't use often but want to use more. Those that I already use a lot I know how to find quickly.

I never use the Custom modes because that encourages one to remember "C1 is BIF, C2 is bird perched" which does not improve one's photography skills any more than driving a mile improves one's fitness.

I understand and agree with your comments, but the importance of c1 - C4, is that when in a panic and brain gone fuzzy it provides a ball park starting point. Many is the time for example when I have been out in the middle of the night attempting to photograph the milky way and then wanted to finish with a star trail and through tiredness couldn't think clearly!

.... No doubt it's largely due to my advancing years :-(

So often we see people sharing ways to set up buttons and menus, but that's just copying someone else's recipe. It might be good enough for some but it's not for me.

 

[Danielvr]

I never use the Custom modes because that encourages one to remember "C1 is BIF, C2 is bird perched" which does not improve one's photography skills any more than driving a mile improves one's fitness.

I doubt if fiddling with the menus and losing shooting opportunities do more to improve a person's photography skills.

This seems handy to some but we learn best from our experiences that fail.

That may well be true, but setting oneself up for failure by refusing to use practical camera features seems a bit extreme.

 

[PhotoMac503]

I never use the Custom modes because that encourages one to remember "C1 is BIF, C2 is bird perched" which does not improve one's photography skills any more than driving a mile improves one's fitness.

I doubt if fiddling with the menus and losing shooting opportunities do more to improve a person's photography skills.

This seems handy to some but we learn best from our experiences that fail.

That may well be true, but setting oneself up for failure by refusing to use practical camera features seems a bit extreme.

Yes, Daniel. Humans learn by failure.

My goal in photography is to improve my skills and enjoy the experience. I realize many others just want a lot of nice images and don't care about improvements in their skills.

However, improving one's skills means you aren't at the whims of camera manufacturers. Education instead of technology, that's my motto.

Now I appreciate what the OP has done and realize it might be helpful to some, but wanted to chime in that it may become a crutch, as all technology can be. Crutches are helpful, for some. But the chart is nice looking (beyond my skills and interest).

And yes, when I get a new camera I print the manual's button layout page and pencil in some thoughts to try out. I'll do that a couple of times to see how it fits my style and my goals (which is why I use a pencil). Then I put the sheet away. For the OM-1, I wanted to use its computational features. Some, like Live ND) I've never had before. So I mapped the buttons to easily acces things that I don't use, to make them more likely to be used.

You can improve your shooting opportunities by knowing your subject - fieldcraft. Most animal behavior is quite predictable. Of course, that takes time and this is a website that promotes instant gratification and buying things so ...

You can also improve your shooting opportunities by having clear goals. If you go out to shoot birds but are distracted by dragonflies, you're not going to improve your bird photography.

You won't grow as a photographer by keeping it in Automatic and using spray and pray methods. But you may get more keepers, if that is your measure of success.

It's not my measure.

 

[Danielvr]

You won't grow as a photographer by keeping it in Automatic and using spray and pray methods.

You still seem confused and prejudiced about the purpose of custom modes. They do not automate any photographically significant process, they merely allow you to quickly activate a number of settings, defined earlier by yourself. One of the benefits is that you can continue to observe your subject and anticipate its behaviour instead of wasting time and opportunity by diving into the menus.

 

[john isaacs]

I don’t want to overload my memory to remember what button does what so in my camera button does what label says. So this leaves 2 buttons on front + lens button + direction pad’s 2 buttons for free customization, enough for me. Buttons are set up same way for each mode to be able to switch beteween them without thinking. For everything else is my menu, one page for frequently used shooting settings, second for other frequent settings.

Of course if one uses camera every day for hours then this is not issue to remember modified layout but for amateur who may be has weeks between shooting it is not so easy.

Maybe there should be help page on camera menu which shows similar views with button assignment, if they want to allow such extensive customization and keep it under control. Current button assignment menu shows it separately for each button, it’s hard to get overview. Or app page, showing it. Then you don’t need to create and carry such cards.

Some camera makers (sony) find that it’s good idea to label buttons as fn1..fn9. They can as well not label them at all, such labels seem to be useless IMO. Ok, maybe it’s easier to say in manual that default setting for fn9 is for card formatting, during shooting such meaningless label is not much help.

The Button Function Menu shows function assignments for a list of functions. Two pages have 7 functions, and one page has just one function. So it's easy to see all functions with just two presses of the up arrow (and back using the down arrow) without scrolling.

 

[john isaacs]

Excellent - thanks for sharing. Very interesting to see the various button setups - gave me some new ideas! I never thought of using C1-C4 for different button setups... to basically that would give four settings for each button. Overwhelming... not sure if I could remember those though, and not sure either if I wanted to have to look them up every time...

If OM System could come up with an info screen showing all current button settings at a glance?

The current info screen shows a lot, and you can scroll through all three screens with just two presses of the up arrow (and back with two presses of the down arrow).

 

[brentbrent]

You won't grow as a photographer by keeping it in Automatic and using spray and pray methods.

You still seem confused and prejudiced about the purpose of custom modes. They do not automate any photographically significant process, they merely allow you to quickly activate a number of settings, defined earlier by yourself. One of the benefits is that you can continue to observe your subject and anticipate its behaviour instead of wasting time and opportunity by diving into the menus.

Some people, like Adrian, choose to share things they do on the chance that others might find the information useful or interesting.

Others, like PhotoMac503, choose to get up on a pulpit and preach about how folks who don't do it their way are doing it all wrong and aren't real photographers.

I know whose posts I find more valuable and less self-righteously annoying.

--
Brent

 

[JRobins]

Here's my version. I used photos from the pc mag review and FastStone (who knew they had callouts!). I don't know that I'll refer to it often or keep all these the same, but it sure helped me nail my own settings--just making the chart.

Mine is far less colorful, sad to say.

--
Joan
"Find a perspective that transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary."
www.joanrobins.com