I have often been asked what settings have I applied on my camera when I do my usual shooting. My answers have been consistent, there is no fixed setting that I follow, I will change my settings as the need arises. However, most people were not happy with that answer hence I am compiling a long list of camera settings, specifically for Olympus OM-D cameras (true for E-M5, E-M10, E-M1 and the new E-M5 Mark II). I shall also describe my practical reasoning behind my choice of settings as well as how I use them where applicable.
The new-comers to Olympus system may find the settings and menu system a huge challenge to go through. Therefore this blog entry serves as a quick guide on how to set your camera, and make the best out of it. Kindly take note that my recommendations and suggestions are based purely on my own experience shooting with Olympus cameras since 2008 (E-410 was my first Olympus camera), and there is no right and wrong in this matter.
Please do read the following disclaimers:
1) These set of settings are my own preferences only, they work well for me, but should not be regarded as the absolute must follow guides. You may change the settings as you see fit, for your own shooting purposes.
2) There are some settings in newer OM-D cameras that may not be available in E-M5 or E-M1.
3) There is nothing wrong with shooting everything in Auto. Same with all other alternative methods used to achieve the same goal: capturing images.
4) This does not serve as a complete guide or encyclopaedia for Olympus cameras. There is too much to cover and I do not intend to cover everything. I only pay attention to important settings and frequently used functions of the camera.
5) All that is written in this blog entry only represents my own personal opinion, they are not recommendations from Olympus.
Here are the settings in OM-D cameras that I use, in no particular order of importance:
1) SUPER CONTROL PANEL
Olympus may not have the most user-friendly menu system, but there is one particular feature Olympus has done right since even the DSLR days: the Super Control Panel (SCP).
SCP is a one page summary layout of all the most frequently used settings of the camera. I find the SCP to be extremely helpful especially to have one quick glance of my current camera settings and make sure I did not screw up or forget to change some settings. The frequently checked settings I have done quickly through SCP are RAW/JPEG, ISO, as well as the Image Stabilization. At the same time, you can immediately access these settings directly and change them accordingly. I make sure I have a quick look at the SCP from time to time between frames just to make sure I did not accidentally change any settings. This is one of the best implemented shortcut menu system, ever, and has been COPIED (yes you heard that right, Olympus came up with this SCP concept FIRST) endlessly by other manufacturers.
For E-M5 Mark II, the SCP is enabled by default. For E-M1, E-M5 and E-M10, you can enable it by going to Go to custom menu (Dispay) --> Control Settings --> P/A/S/M -> Live SCP ON
I personally disable the Live Control since I do not find it useful.
To access the SCP, you need to press "OK". If you have different views on the main screen, you need to toggle the "INFO" button repeatedly until you find SCP. That is another reason I disabled the Live Control, I can access the SCP immediately.
To access the SCP, you need to press "OK". If you have different views on the main screen, you need to toggle the "INFO" button repeatedly until you find SCP. That is another reason I disabled the Live Control, I can access the SCP immediately.
2) JPEG SUPER FINE
By default, the JPEG compression settings available are only Fine, Normal and Basic (corresponding compression ratio 1/4, 1/8, and... I don't even know what the compression ratio is for Basic and honestly I do not care). There is a hidden setting buried deep, deep inside Olympus menu system, which is SUPER FINE, having the lowest compression setting of 1/2.7. If you want the best image quality when shooting JPEG and you want to squeeze everything out of the Olympus JPEG Engine goodness, you should set your image quality to Large SUPER FINE.
To find this setting: Menu --> Gear Icon --> "triangle shaped icon"/Color/WB --> "triangle shaped icon" Set --> Change from F to SF.
This hidden setting needs only to be changed once. Subsequently you can select your image quality settings in SCP.
An important note, I shoot mostly RAW now on Olympus cameras, and I process my RAW files in Olympus Viewer 3.
3) NOISE FILTER = OFF
There are two separate Noise control settings in Olympus cameras, Noise Filter and Noise Reduction. We will talk about Noise Reduction after this.
Noise Filter is simply software based processing to filter out the noise (ugly grains caused by high ISO shooting) in the JPEG image. There are 4 levels of settings: OFF, LOW, STANDARD, HIGH. I highly recommend the Noise Filter to be set to OFF. Even when Noise Filter is OFF, the camera still does apply processing to control the image noise, and with the Noise Filter OFF, I find there is almost no trace of Chroma Noise (Color Noise), yet maintaining high level of useful fine detail even at ISO6400.
If you are OCD about noise appearing in image and cannot tolerate grain, then I recommend Noise Filter LOW, which applies stronger noise control, at the expense of some fine details. I sometimes use Noise Filter LOW, in situations when I know the majority of my images will be shot at ISO3200 and higher.
Avoid Noise Filter STANDARD and HIGH at all costs. They will successfully get rid of al traces of noise but at the same time destroy every fine detail there is. The resulting images will look soft and appear smudged.
The default Noise Filter setting for all Olympus camera is "Standard". Kindly turn it OFF or set it to LOW.
The location of Noise Filter/Noise Reduction settings vary from camera to camera but should be easily found under "Exp/ISO" area.
(Important Note: If you shoot RAW and process your files outside of Olympus Viewer 3 (Lightroom, Photoshop, etc) then Noise Filter is irrelevant to you. However, Noise Reduction is a different story. Read on below.)
(Important Note: If you shoot RAW and process your files outside of Olympus Viewer 3 (Lightroom, Photoshop, etc) then Noise Filter is irrelevant to you. However, Noise Reduction is a different story. Read on below.)
4) NOISE REDUCTION = AUTO
Unlike Noise Filter, which is a software based processing, Noise Reduction is a completely different thing.
If I were to give a direct feedback I would say, to not confuse the end-user, this setting should be called "Hot Pixel Reduction" instead of Noise Reduction. I am sure MANY Olympus users have been confused by Noise Reduction and Noise Filter. The Noise Reduction is employing the "Dark Frame Subtraction" method to minimize Hot Pixels, generated during long exposure shooting, typically longer than half a second shutter speed. The camera will take another frame of image while the shutter remains closed (after the first shot was taken) to map out the locations of the hot pixels, and the two captured images will be superimposed to erase the hot pixels found at identical spots in the image. For those of you who are not familiar with this technique please read Wikipedia explanation here (click). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-frame_subtraction
By default, the camera Noise Reduction is set to Auto, which means the Noise Reduction mechanism will be engaged when shooting 0.5 second shutter speed or longer. And when Noise Reduction is activated, the total time to capture an image will be double of the shutter speed used (say, a 10 seconds shutter speed image will require 10 seconds actual frame and 10 seconds dark frame, resulting in total of 20 seconds capture time).
Therefore, DO NOT turn Noise Reduction ON at all times, leave it to AUTO. The consequence if you leave it ON? You will have laggy camera performance as the shutter works TWICE slower. You will notice immediate latency from shot to shot.
On the other hand, I do not recommend this setting to be turned OFF. You can try it, and when you shoot a long exposure image, say a 30 seconds image, you will see the ugly hot pixels everywhere in your image.
5) WHITE BALANCE: KEEP WARM COLOR OFF
I generally find the White Balance setting in Olympus cameras to be pleasing and rather reliable at most times. There is a hidden setting (buried deep inside the menu, again) that controls the "warm color".
This setting: "Keep Warm Color" is applicable to extreme cases when the source of light is extreme on the hot side of Kelvin Scale. Typical scene would be candlelit room, or dim tungsten lighting source, that to the eyes, everything looks "warm" and "orange/yellow". You have two choices on how the Auto White Balance of the camera tackles this situation: either by maintaining the warm cast of the color, hence producing a more natural looking image as the eyes see it, or the camera can try its best to "neutralize" the warm colors and present them as accurately adjusted White Balanced color as possible.
To adjust this setting: Menu --> Gear Icon --> Color/WB --> Keep Warm Color --> ON/OFF
I am not going to say which works better, you will have to experiment on this to find out what works for you. I turned mine OFF. Also worth noting is that, while I do rely heavily on camera's white balance engine, I will not hesitate to override the white balance settings in post-processing, since I shot mostly in RAW.
6) PICTURE MODE: NATURAL
There are many picture mode settings to choose from, perhaps too many. I suggest avoid using I-Enhance and Vivid, as these two settings would render unrealistically over-saturated and high contrast images. I-Enhance may over-cook the skin tone and make it too "pink" or "orange". I highly recommend the use of either 'Natural" or "Portrait". Go for Portrait if you want more dynamic range captured in your photograph, the contrast is tamed down a little in comparison to "Natural". I personally use Natural, because I like the pop and punch in the image, yet still looking pretty much, natural.
7) SHARPNESS, CONTRAST, SATURATION = 0
I do not see the need to increase or decrease any of these settings. Do take note that even when the sharpness is set to "0" in value, the in camera JPEG engine is applying quite a fair bit of sharpening to the images, often resulting in some sharpening artefacts. I do not mind this and I do not find the artefacts to be intrusive at all, but some people may be overly particular about this issue, and if you are one of them, I suggest you lowering down the sharpness value to "-2".
8) GRADATION = NORMAL
I set my gradation setting to NORMAL. I discourage setting the gradation to "Auto". While it expands the dynamic range by brightening up the shadow areas of the image, you will see ugly noise being brought to life even shooting at low ISO settings. I find even at gradation normal the dynamic range of the images is good enough.
9) AUTOFOCUS SETTINGS
I use SINGLE AF. I do not use Continuous AF in my shooting style.
I use SMALLER AF POINTS for more accurate focusing. You can make the focusing box smaller. While you are controlling the location of the focusing area (by pressing any arrow button/pad), the size of the focusing box can be changed by pressing the "Info" button. The smaller focusing box works better when I need to focus accurately. I believe this is called "SPOT AF", which was first introduced in E-PL5/E-P5.
I do not trust the facial recognition of the camera, hence FACE DETECT AF I turn it OFF.
I do not use the AF Illumination light. I think it is annoying and even when it is turned off, in rather dark condition, the AF works just fine.
RELEASE LAG TIME is set to Short. If you set this to Normal, you will experience a tiny bit delay between what you see on the EVF and when you press the shutter button. The response is immediate (much like using Optical Viewfinder) when setting Release Lag Time to Short.
10) IMAGE PREVIEW OFF
This may not be the best setting for everyone, but do hear me out first. I turned the image preview after each shot is taken OFF, so that the camera can perform faster and there is less lag/stopping time between shot to shot. Your eyes and attention should be on the subject, and your focus should be getting the images, even after you have shot your image. Checking and previewing your images EVERY single frame is not a good habit. You do not need to do this AFTER every single shot.
Do not get me wrong, I am not asking you to stop chimping. Checking your shot (focus accuracy, white balance, exposure, etc) is crucial. Doing this after every single shot will slow the camera down (because the camera is paused and shows the image display). I turned the preview off and only press the "play" button to review the image when necessary (when there is nothing crucial happening and no need to shoot immediately).
I believe this is an important tip to always be ready, and you will have lower chances of missing photography opportunities.
You can set the preview on or off at: Menu --> "Wrench icon" --> Rec View
All other note-worthy settings:
Image Stabilization setting: S-IS 1
Use Mode 1 for enabling image stabilization at ALL Axis. When using tripod, turn this OFF. Mode 2 and 3 will disable certain Axis for smooth panning, but to be frank if you want to do panning images it is easier to just turn the IS off.
Anti-Shock 0 second
For some of you being overly critical about shutter shock, you may set the Anti Shock setting to "0" seconds. However, this option is not available for E-M5 (2012 version). The 0 second anti shock basically used First Curtain Electronic Shutter.
2x2 Switch Disabled
As smart and convenient the 2x2 switch is, I do not like it after I have used the E-M1 and E-M5 Mark II extensively. Yes, it is easy to switch it to a different mode that allows the dials to have controls over different parameters, but what gets me is the need to switch it back to original position to get back to the original controls. That additional step is troublesome for me, and may work against me in some situations when I forgot to switch the controls back. For example, instead of being able to adjust the exposure compensation quickly before I snap a shot, because I forgot to turn the switch back, I accidentally adjusted the ISO or White Balance. The wrong adjustment of ISO, will require me to FIX this setting, and then set the switch back to the right setting, and finally I get to adjust the exposure compensation. See what happened there? One mistake and I needed 3 steps before I can take a photo. Thankfully the switch CAN be disabled.
Flicker Reduction = 50Hz (Malaysia)
Have you been annoyed by the live view on the camera screen or the Electronic Viewfinder, flickering when shooting indoors with fluorescent light? There is a Flicker reduction setting and by setting this correctly you will not have this issue any more. In Malaysia, set to 50Hz. There are only two settings, 50Hz and 60Hz and try either one to get it to work.
Make the Red Record Button useful
I rarely record video, and the video record button is placed at such an auspicious position. You can customize it to do something useful, as a shortcut. For E-M5, E-M10 and E-M1, I set it to ISO shortcut. I can therefore control ALL 3 important parameters within the reach of two fingers on my right hand: dual dials for shutter speed/aperture/exposure compensation and that record button for ISO setting. For E-M5 Mark II, you can also set it to mimic the 2x2 switch function, eg by pressing the button you can then adjust ISO on the front dial and white balance on the rear dial.
Shooting Modes
I shoot mostly in either Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority. When depth of field is important (say I want to isolate my portraits) I use Aperture Priority, and adjust the Aperture (F-number) accordingly. When I want to play with creative motion (slow down shutter speed for motion blur, or panning) I use shutter priority. When I shoot with flash, I use full manual exposure with TTL on flash. I set my ISO manually, and trying my best to use lowest ISO possible, as far as the minimum shutter speed can tolerate while shooting hand-held.
Metering
I use pattern/evaluative metering, with flexible adjustments of exposure compensation. Yes, I adjust the exposure compensation a lot, by judging my exposure via the electronic viewfinder/live view screen. I rarely adjust more than +/- 1 EV.
Do you agree or disagree with my list of settings and recommendations for Olympus OM-D cameras? Or did I miss anything important out? Do you have additional tips and tricks to share? Please voice up in the comment section!
The Robin Wong's OM-D Camera Cheat Sheet
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