Olympus PEN E-PL1 User manual

1
Getting the Lay of the Land
In This Chapter
▶ Taking a tour of external controls
▶ Looking at lenses and memory cards
▶ Using the optional electronic viewfinder
▶ Selecting from menus
▶ Customizing your display
▶ Viewing and adjusting picture-taking settings
▶ Customizing basic operations
At first glance, the Olympus PEN E-PL1 could easily be mistaken for just
another digital point-and-shoot camera. But don’t be fooled by your
camera’s diminutive size or the simplicity of its outward design:
Under that small, sexy exterior lies a lot of photographic
muscle.
This chapter covers the basics you need to start
enjoying all the E-PL1 has to offer, introducing you to
its external features, showing you how to work with
interchangeable lenses, and explaining how to navi-
gate menus and select camera settings. In addition,
the last part of the chapter details options that
enable you to customize basic camera operations.
Taking a Quick Tour
If you’ve used a digital camera before, some external con-
trols on the E-PL1 may be familiar to you. The button that you
press to erase pictures, for example, is marked with the universal
delete symbol — a trash can. But some features are unique to the E-PL1, so
the next three sections provide an overview of the function of each external
control. (I discuss these controls in more detail later in this book.)
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COPYRIGHTEDMATERIAL

8Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
Topside controls
As shown in Figure 1-1, the top of the camera sports a couple features:
Hot shoe Mode dial Shutter buttonFocal plane marker
Figure 1-1: Use the Mode dial to choose a basic exposure mode.
✓ Power button: I won’t insult your intelligence by telling you what this
button does. But see the section “Exploring setup options on the Custom
menu,” near the end of this chapter, to find out about the Sleep setting.
That setting enables you to specify how quickly you want the camera to
automatically shut off to save battery power.
✓ Shutter button: I’m sure you also figured out this one. But see Chapter
2 to find out how to specify whether you want the camera to record a
single shot, a continuous series of shots, or a self-timer shot each time
you press the button.
✓ Mode dial: You select the shooting mode, or exposure mode, via this
dial. Chapter 3 explains the simplest, most automatic modes — iAuto
and Scene (SCN) — as well as Movie mode. Chapters 6 and 7 cover the
more advanced photography modes (P, S, A, and M). For help with ART
mode, check out Chapter 9.
✓ Flash hot shoe: Hot shoe is the traditional photography term for “con-
tact on top of the camera for mounting an external flash.” But on the
E-PL1, the electrical contacts on the hot shoe also enable the camera to
communicate with the optional electronic viewfinder. See the upcoming
sidebar “Awesome add-on: The VF-2 electronic viewfinder,” later in this
chapter, for some additional information.
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9
Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
✓ Focal plane marker: See that little circle with the line through it,
between the Mode dial and the hot shoe? That line represents the plane
at which the lens focuses light onto the image sensor (the element that
replaces film in a digital camera). If you ever need to know the exact dis-
tance between your subject and the camera, basing the measurement on
this mark produces a more accurate camera-to-subject distance than
using the end of the lens or some other external point on the camera
body as your reference point.
Back-of-the-camera controls
Traveling over the top of the camera to its back, you see the controls labeled
in Figure 1-2. The following list introduces you to each item:
Flash Up switch
Accessory port
Fn/Thumbnails button
Playback button
Zoom button
Movie/Protect button
Erase button
Start/OK button and arrow pad
Figure 1-2: Use the Start/OK button and surrounding arrow keys to navigate
menus and adjust picture-taking settings.
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10 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
✓ Flash Up switch: To raise the built-in flash, slide this switch to the right
and release it. Chapter 3 introduces you to flash; Chapter 6 gets into
more advanced flash features. (To close the flash, just press its top
gently down.)
✓ Accessory port: If you buy the optional electronic viewfinder (a choice I
highly recommend), it attaches into this slot. See the upcoming sidebar
“Awesome add-on: The VF-2 electronic viewfinder” for more details. The
port also enables you to attach an optional stereo microphone.
Fn
✓ Fn (Function)/Thumbnails button: This button performs a different
function depending on whether you’re shooting pictures or reviewing
them in playback mode:
•Shooting function: By default, pressing this button during shooting
toggles the Face Detection feature on and off. (Chapter 2 intro-
duces you to Face Detection.) But you can set the button to per-
form a variety of other functions instead (see Chapter 10).
•Playback function: During playback, pressing the button cycles
the display from single-image view to thumbnails view to calendar
view. See Chapter 4 for playback details.
To save time and space, I refer to this button simply as the Fn button
from this point forward.
✓ Zoom button: As on most digital cameras, pressing this button during
playback magnifies the image. But here’s a twist: On the E-PL1, you can
also magnify the live view during shooting, which can be helpful for fine-
tuning focus. See the later section “Zooming the live display” in this
chapter for details.
✓ Movie/Protect button: As indicated by its name, this button also accom-
plishes a different act depending on whether you’re shooting or reviewing
pictures:
•Shooting mode: By default, this button is used for one-button movie
recording. Press the button to start recording, and press again to
stop. Chapter 3 explains the art of E-PL1 movie making.
•Playback mode: Note the little blue key directly above the button.
That symbol indicates that during playback, you press the button
to “lock” the picture file and protect it from accidental erasure.
Chapter 4 has details. (As a reminder of the button’s playback
function, the key is blue, just like the symbol on the Playback
button.)
You can change the shooting function of the Movie button, just as you
can assign a different task to the Fn button. Chapter 10 provides details.
✓ Playback button: Press this button to set the camera to playback mode.
See Chapter 4 for all the ways you can customize the playback display.
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Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
✓ Menu button: Press this button to access camera menus; see the section
“Ordering from Camera Menus” for the fine points you need to know
about the process.
✓ Info button: Pressing this button changes the amount and type of data
displayed on the monitor during shooting and playback. The upcoming
section “Monitor Matters: Customizing the Shooting Display” explains
how you can tweak the display in shooting mode; Chapter 4 covers
playback display options. This button also comes into play for some
other operations, such as changing the level of magnification when you
zoom the display.
✓ Start/OK button and arrow pad: This collection of buttons is key to
most operations on the camera.
After displaying menus, for example, use the arrow keys to select a
menu item and then press the Start/OK button to select that item. You
also use the Start/OK button during shooting to access control screens
that enable you to quickly adjust picture-taking settings. And notice that
each of the four arrow keys bears a label: The label tells you that you
can press the button to directly access the function indicated by the
label. For example, you can display flash settings by pressing the right-
arrow key — the one sporting the lightning bolt, which is the universal
symbol for flash.
To save time and space in this book, I refer to the Start/OK button as
just OK (okay?). And I refer to the arrow keys by their position on the
arrow pad — “press the right-arrow key, press the down-arrow key,”
and so on.
✓ Erase button: During playback, you can erase photos by pressing this
button. Chapter 4 has details.
✓ Speaker: Finally, note the tiny holes just above the OK button/arrow
key cluster. When you play movies or picture files that contain sound,
the audio comes wafting through those holes, which lead to the internal
speaker. (And yes, you read me correctly: You can annotate your still
photos with audio notes; see Chapter 9 to find out how.)
And the rest . . .
Just for good measure, the following list details features found on the front,
right side, and bottom of the camera:
✓ Connection ports: Under the flap on the right side of the camera, you
find two ports that enable you to connect the camera to other devices,
as shown in Figure 1-3. The USB/AV (Universal Serial Bus/Audio Video)
port is for connecting the camera to a computer, printer, or stan-
dard definition television set. The HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia
Interface) port enables you to connect the camera to an HD display
for playback.
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12 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
Cables for making the USB/AV connec-
tions ship with the camera. To make an
HD connection, you must purchase an HD
cable. (Chapter 4 has details about con-
necting to a television; Chapter 5 explains
how to connect the camera to a com-
puter for picture download.)
✓ Battery/memory card chamber: Open
the cover on the bottom of the camera to
access the chamber that holds both the
battery and the memory card, as shown
in Figure 1-4. The upcoming section
“Working with Memory Cards” details
installing and using memory cards.
To find out how to monitor the battery
level, see the upcoming section “Monitor
Matters: Customizing the Shooting
Display.” And see Chapter 10 for
a menu option that controls how
depleted you want the battery to
become before the camera warns
you that you’re soon to be run-
ning on empty.
✓ Tripod mount: The little screw
hole just next to the battery
chamber is provided for mount-
ing the camera on a tripod.
When the camera is mounted on
a tripod, you can’t access the
battery chamber. Double-check
that your battery is charged and
your memory card is inserted
before you connect the camera
to the tripod.
✓ Lens-release button: Last but
not least is the little silver button
on the front of the camera, next
to the lens. Press the button to
disengage the lens from the lens
mount before removing the lens.
The following section discusses
this and other lens-related
information.
USB/AV port
HDMI port
Figure 1-3: Open the cover on the
right side of the camera to reveal
ports for connecting the camera to
a computer or TV.
Tripod mount Memory card
Battery release
Battery
Figure 1-4: The battery and memory card
share an apartment next to the tripod mount.
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13
Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
Working with Lenses
To take best advantage of the features of your E-PL1, match the camera body
with a Micro Four Thirds lens. If you bought the E-PL1 kit, which includes the
camera body plus the Olympus 14–42mm M.Zuiko Digital lens, you own this
type of lens.
Micro Four Thirds refers to the camera design and technology that permits
the E-PL1 to take such a small, lightweight form. If you’re interested in the sci-
ence and history of the Micro Four Thirds format, visit www.four-thirds.org,
an Olympus educational Web site.
When dealing with lenses, the important point to know is that Micro Four
Thirds lenses were designed specifically to partner with the E-PL1. Like the
camera itself, these lenses are built to be as small and lightweight as pos-
sible, and they support the camera’s entire range of features. (Note the M
in M.Zuiko; it distinguishes Micro Four Thirds lenses from standard Zuiko
lenses. As for Zuiko? It stems from two sources: an abbreviation created
to refer to one of Olympus’ original lens-manufacturing plants and a rough
translation of the Chinese expression for “golden light.” Won’t you sound
smart at the next meeting of the photo club!?)
At any rate, although you can mount other types of lenses on the camera, you
need to purchase an adapter to do so. And with some lenses, you lose access
to certain important camera features. For example, you can’t use autofocus-
ing with some lenses; you must focus manually. The Olympus Web site has
details about lens options.
Because of those complications — and because covering all the variations
involved with using your camera with different types of lenses is way, way
beyond the page count this book allows — instructions in this book presume
that you’re using a Micro Four Thirds lens, and illustrations feature the 14–42mm
Micro Four Thirds kit lens. If you use a different lens, check your lens manual
for help with any questions that you can’t sort out.
With that bit of business out of the way — okay, it’s probably about two or
three bits — the next sections explain the basics of working with a Micro
Four Thirds lens.
Attaching and removing lenses
Follow these steps to attach a Micro Four Thirds lens to your camera:
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Remove the cap that covers the lens mount on the front of the camera.
3. Remove the cap that covers the back of the lens.
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14 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
4. Hold the lens in front of the
camera so that the little red
dot on the lens aligns with the
matching dot on the camera
body.
Official photography lingo uses
the term mounting index instead
of little red dot. Either way, you
can see the markings in ques-
tion in Figure 1-5.
Again, the figure (and others in
this book) shows you the E-PL1
with the Olympus 14–42mm
M.Zuiko Digital lens. Assuming
that you stick with Micro Four
Thirds lenses, other lenses
should work and look much the
same, but if you have any ques-
tions, consult the lens manual.
5. Keeping the dots aligned,
position the lens on the camera’s lens mount.
6. Turn the lens in a clockwise direction until the lens clicks into place.
In other words, turn the lens away
from the shutter button side of
the body, as indicated by the
red arrow in the figure.
To detach a lens, take these steps:
1. Turn off the camera.
2. Locate the lens-release button,
labeled in Figure 1-6.
3. Press the button while turning
the lens counterclockwise until
the lens disengages from the
lens mount.
4. After removing the lens, pro-
tect it by placing the rear pro-
tective cap onto the back of
the lens.
If you aren’t putting another lens
on the camera, cover the lens
mount with the protective cap
that came with your camera, too.
Mounting index dots
Figure 1-5: When attaching the lens, align the
index markers as shown here.
Lens-release button
Figure 1-6: To disengage the lens, press this
button.
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15
Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
Always attach and remove lenses in a clean environment to reduce the risk of
getting dust, dirt, and other contaminants inside the camera or lens. For
added safety, point the camera body slightly down when performing this
maneuver; doing so helps prevent any flotsam in the air from being drawn
into the camera by gravity.
Familiarizing yourself with the lens
The kit lens (and some other Micro Four Thirds lenses) sports the features
shown in Figure 1-7. Get familiar with the following key components:
Unlock switchFocusing ring
Focal length indicator Zoom barrel
Figure 1-7: Get to know the functions of these lens features.
✓ Zoom barrel: If you own a zoom lens (such as the kit lens), zoom in and
out by simply twisting the zoom barrel.
✓ Focal length indicator: Every lens can be characterized by its focal
length, measured in millimeters. The focal length determines the angle
of view (the area the lens can capture), the relative size of objects in the
frame, and the depth of field (the distance over which objects remain
sharply focused).
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16 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
A zoom lens gives you access to a range of focal lengths — in the case
of the kit lens, from 14mm to 42mm. At the edge of the zoom barrel,
you see numbers representing various focal lengths within that range
(refer to Figure 1-7). As you zoom in and out, you can determine the cur-
rent focal length by looking at the position of the focal length indicator,
labeled in Figure 1-7. For example, in the figure, the indicator shows that
the lens is currently zoomed to a focal length of about 18mm.
Be sure to review Chapter 7 to discover how the results produced by a
given focal length are different on a Micro Four Thirds camera than on a
35mm SLR camera.
✓ Focusing ring: Even the best autofocusing systems have trouble locking in
on certain subjects — highly reflective objects and animals behind fences
are two that come to mind. To save you the frustration of trying to autofo-
cus in those tough shooting scenarios, your lens offers manual focusing.
Before you can focus manually, you must set the camera’s AF (autofocus)
mode to MF (manual focus) or S-AF+MF (single autofocus with manual
override). Chapter 7 provides details on how to select this setting.
✓ Unlock switch: If you’ve worked with a zoom lens on an SLR, it may have
had a Lock switch that enabled you to lock the lens at a specific focal
length. The kit lens, on the other hand, has an Unlock switch. Hmm,
what gives? A really cool retracting feature found on the kit lens and
some other Micro Four Thirds lenses, that’s what. Move your eyeballs to
the following section to find out more.
Retracting and unlocking the lens
Some Micro Four Thirds lenses, including the kit lens, feature a nifty retract-
ing feature. When you’re not using the camera, you can retract the lens so
that it takes up even less space in your camera bag than usual.
Check out Figure 1-8. The left side of the figure shows the smallest footprint
of the lens at its unretracted position. On the right side of the figure, you see
the reduced lens bulk you can accomplish by retracting the lens.
The key to the retracting feature is the Unlock switch on the zoom barrel.
Try it out:
1. Holding the lens by the zoom barrel, press and hold the Unlock
switch forward.
Refer to Figure 1-8 for a look at the switch.
2. Twist the zoom barrel counterclockwise until the lens is fully retracted.
Just to be clear: Twist the barrel toward the shutter button side of the
camera.
3. Release the Unlock switch.
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17
Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
Unlock switch
Figure 1-8: When you finish shooting, you can retract the lens to reduce the camera size even
further.
The next time you turn on the camera,
the monitor displays the screen
shown in Figure 1-9, telling you that
the lens is locked. To unlock the lens,
just twist the zoom barrel clockwise.
You don’t need to press the Unlock
switch.
Working with Memory
Cards
Instead of recording images on film,
digital cameras store pictures on
memory cards. The E-PL1 uses a spe-
cific type of memory card — an SD (Secure Digital) card — as shown in
Figure 1-10. You can also use the newer, high-capacity Secure Digital cards,
labeled SDHC.
Safeguarding your memory cards — and the images you store on them —
requires just a few precautions:
✓ Handling cards: Don’t touch the gold contacts on the back of the card.
(See the left card in Figure 1-10.) When cards aren’t in use, store them
in the protective cases they came in or in a memory card wallet. Keep
cards away from extreme heat and cold as well.
Figure 1-9: If the lens is retracted, this
message appears when you turn on the
camera.
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18 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
✓ Locking cards: The tiny switch on
the side of the card, labeled lock
switch in Figure 1-10, enables you
to lock your card, which prevents
any data from being erased or
recorded to the card. Press the
switch toward the bottom of the
card to lock the card contents;
press it toward the top of the card
to unlock the data.
Chapter 4 shows you how to pro-
tect individual images on a card
from accidental erasure by using
the camera’s picture-locking
feature.
✓ Inserting a card: First, be sure
that the camera is turned off.
Then open the battery cover
on the bottom of the camera —
the card and the battery share
this compartment. Put the card
in the card slot with the label
facing the front of the camera,
as shown in Figure 1-11. Push
the card into the slot until it
clicks into place.
✓ Formatting a card: The first
time you use a new memory
card or insert a card that’s
been used in other devices
(such as an MP3 player), format
it. Formatting ensures that the card is properly prepared to record
your pictures.
Formatting erases everything on your memory card. So before you
format, be sure that you copy any pictures or other data to your
computer.
To format a memory card, display Shooting Menu 1 and select Card
Setup, as shown on the left in Figure 1-12. Press OK to display the
second screen in the figure. Then select Format and press OK again.
On the confirmation screen that appears next, select Yes and press OK.
(If you need help using menus, the upcoming section “Ordering from
Camera Menus” explains all.)
Don’t touch Lock switch
Figure 1-10: Avoid touching the gold
contacts on the card.
Figure 1-11: Insert the card with the label
facing the front of the camera.
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19
Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
Figure 1-12: Format a memory card through the Card Setup option on Shooting Menu 1.
Some computer programs enable you to format cards as well, but it’s
not a good idea to go that route. Your camera is better equipped to opti-
mally format cards.
✓ Removing a card: If you just took
a picture, look for the memory
card access icon, labeled in
Figure 1-13, and wait until it
disappears, indicating that the
camera has finished recording
the file to the card. Then turn
off the camera, open the battery
cover, depress the memory card
slightly, and then let go. The
card pops halfway out of the slot,
enabling you to grab it by the tail
and remove it.
If you turn on the camera when
no card is installed, a message
appears on the monitor to
remind you. If you have a card
in the camera and you get these
messages, try taking the card out and reinserting it. Also be sure that
you haven’t locked the card (using the card’s lock switch).
One side note on the issue of memory cards and file storage: Given that
memory cards are getting cheaper and larger in capacity, you may be tempted
to pick up an 8GB (gigabyte) or 16GB card thinking you can store a gazillion
images on one card and not worry about running out of room. But memory
cards are mechanical devices that are subject to failure, and if a large card
fails, you lose lots of images. And putting aside the potential for card failure,
it’s darned easy to misplace those little guys. So I carry several 4GB SD cards
in my camera bag instead of relying on one ginormous card. Although I hate
to lose any images, I’d rather lose 4GB worth of pictures than 8 or 16GB.
Memory card access symbol
Figure 1-13: Don’t turn off the camera or
remove the memory card until the card
access icon disappears.
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20 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
Awesome add-on: The VF-2 electronic viewfinder
Micro Four Thirds cameras lack viewfinders —
it’s one main reason why the camera can be
so small. If you miss having a viewfinder, you
can purchase the Olympus VF-2, an electronic
viewfinder that attaches to the camera via the
accessory port just beneath the camera’s hot
shoe. You can rotate the viewfinder upward as
much as 90 degrees to suit the viewing angle
you need, as shown here.
In addition to its flexible neck, the VF-2 has
other powers you don’t get from a traditional,
optical viewfinder. Simply put, the VF-2 can dis-
play anything that you can view in the monitor,
including menus and camera settings. You also
can use the viewfinder for picture playback —
and the clarity of the playback display is really
stunning.
There are a couple downsides: You can’t use
an external flash, which also requires the
camera’s hot shoe, at the same time as the
viewfinder. (You can still use the built-in flash.)
The other issue is cost. At a suggested retail
price of $280, the viewfinder isn’t a casual
investment. But I suspect that if you visit your
local camera store to try it out, you’ll have a
hard time leaving without it.
As much as I love the viewfinder, it’s an optional
accessory, so the rest of this book assumes that
you’re working with the monitor only. But know
that if you’re using the viewfinder, everything
works just the same way — you just see the
menus, screens, and so forth in your viewfinder
instead of on the monitor. For help attach-
ing, removing, and adjusting the viewfinder
display, see the camera manual and the instruc-
tion sheet that ships with the viewfinder. Also
be aware that shortly after the E-PL1 came
to market, Olympus released an update to
the camera firmware (internal software) that
enables some viewfinder features that aren’t
described in the manual; for details, visit the
Olympus Web site (www.olympus.com).
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Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
Ordering from Camera Menus
You access many of your camera’s features via internal menus, which, con-
veniently enough, appear when you press the Menu button. Features are
grouped into five menus, described briefly in Table 1-1.
Table 1-1 Menus
Symbol Open This Menu . . . . . . To Access These Functions
Shooting 1 Memory card setup, picture quality, and
a few other basic photography settings
Shooting 2 Shutter-release mode, image stabiliza-
tion, and additional photography
settings
Playback Picture playback and editing features
Custom Advanced photography and setup
options
Setup Basic camera customization options
One menu, the Custom menu, is hidden by default. That menu contains a
slew of advanced photography and camera customization options that aren’t
of much interest to casual photographers, so Olympus chose to simplify the
experience for those users. But you, of course, want to explore all your cam-
era’s features, so the upcoming list,
which details the basics of working
with menus, uses the task of turning
on the Custom menu as an example.
✓ Display menus: Press the Menu
button. The monitor displays a
screen similar to the one you see
in Figure 1-14. Along the left side
of the screen, you see icons rep-
resenting the menus. (Again, the
fourth icon, for the Custom menu,
is hidden by default.) The high-
lighted menu is the active menu;
options on that menu appear to
the right. In the figure, Shooting
Menu 1 is active, for example.
Menu icons
Figure 1-14: The fourth menu (Custom menu)
is hidden by default.
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22 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
✓ Choose a different menu: Press the up- or down-arrow keys to move the
highlight over the menu. To access the option that enables the Custom
menu, select the Setup menu, as shown on the left in Figure 1-15.
Figure 1-15: To display the hidden menu, choose this setting on the Setup menu.
✓ Select a menu item: Press the right-arrow key to jump from the menu
icons to the options on the selected menu. Then press the up- or down-
arrow key to move the highlight over the option you want to choose. To
enable the Custom menu, choose Menu Display, as shown on the left in
Figure 1-15. Press OK to display the screen that offers available settings
for the menu item, as shown on the right in the figure.
Olympus aficionados often refer to the Custom menu as the gear menu
because of the tiny gear symbols used to represent it. For the same
reason, some people call the Setup menu the wrench menu. I use the offi-
cial menu names, but you may encounter the unofficial lingo when visit-
ing online camera forums and other photography sites.
✓ Change the setting for the selected item: After highlighting the option,
you typically take one of two routes: Either press OK or press the right-
arrow key.
How do you know which button to
push? The camera reminds you by
displaying symbols at the bottom
of the menu screen. For example,
in Figure 1-15, the symbols tell you
to press the Menu button to go
back one screen and to press the
OK button to select the highlighted
option. But in Figure 1-16, note the
middle icon: It tells you that on this
screen, you press the right-arrow
key to access a secondary menu of
options. Figure 1-16: This icon tells you to press the
right-arrow key to access a submenu.
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23
Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
How the various options appear varies depending on the menu item.
Sometimes you see a screen that looks like the one on the right in
Figure 1-15, with only the current setting displayed. For other menu
items, you see a submenu listing all the available settings. Either way,
press the arrow keys (up, down, right, left) to scroll through the various
settings. When the setting you want is highlighted, press OK (or follow
the prompts that appear at the bottom of the screen).
To turn on the Custom menu, for example, press the up- or down-arrow
key to display On, as shown on the right in Figure 1-15, and then press OK.
✓ Go back one screen: Press the Menu button or the left-arrow key.
✓ Exit the menus and return to shooting mode: You can press the Menu
button (you may need to press it several times to back out of all the
screens). But a quicker option is to simply press the shutter button half-
way and release it.
The Custom menu is divided into ten submenus that are assigned alphabetic
labels (A, B, C, and so on). In this book, when I tell you to “choose Custom
Menu A,” I mean to open the Custom menu and then select the A submenu.
In addition, some menu items are represented by symbols rather than text
labels. For example, the option you use to set the camera’s date and time
is labeled with a little clock symbol. Because it’s difficult to insert those
symbols within the text here, I instead provide you with a text name for the
symbol and, in most cases, label the menu in an accompanying figure.
Monitor Matters:
Customizing the
Shooting Display
When you’re not using the menus or
viewing your pictures in playback
mode, the monitor displays some of
the critical picture-taking settings,
as shown in Figure 1-17. The type of
data that appears depends on your
exposure mode; the figure shows
the display for the P exposure mode,
explained in Chapter 6.
Later chapters detail each symbol;
for now, just note the battery status
icon in the top-right corner. The icon
appears for a few seconds when you
turn on the camera and then disap-
pears to declutter the screen. If the
Battery status
Shots remaining
Figure 1-17: The battery status icon appears
briefly when you turn on the camera and then
disappears.
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24 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
battery begins the run low, the icon appears half-full; if the battery is nearly
depleted, the icon blinks red.
One other key item, the shots remaining value, appears in the lower-right
corner of the display. This number tells you how many pictures will fit in the
space remaining on your memory card. If the number is low, grab another
card, visit Chapter 4 to find out how to erase some pictures, or pay a trip to
Chapter 5 for details on how to download photos to your computer. Chapter 2
explains how your Image Quality settings affect the number of shots you can
fit on a card. Chapter 3 explains how Movie Quality settings affect how many
minutes of recordings will fit.
You’re not limited to the display style shown in Figure 1-17, however. By
pressing the Info button, you can add a histogram to the mix, as shown
on the left in Figure 1-18. (If you’re unfamiliar with histograms, Chapter 4
explains them.) Another press of the Info button clears all the data from the
screen so that you see your subject only, as shown on the right in the figure.
Figure 1-18: Press the Info button to switch between the initial data display and additional
display modes.
If you don’t care to see the two display modes shown in the figure, you can
disable them. You can also access a couple other display modes that are
turned off by default. The following section explains your options. Following
that, you can discover some another neat trick for customizing the display —
a feature that lets you magnify your view of the scene.
Enabling and disabling display styles
To control which display styles appear when you press the Info button, take
these steps:
1. Select Custom Menu D, as shown on the left in Figure 1-19, and
press OK.
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25
Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land
Figure 1-19: Choose which displays to enable through this option on Custom Menu D.
2. Choose the Thumbnails/Info Setting option, as shown on the right in
Figure 1-19, and press OK.
You see the screen shown on the left in Figure 1-20.
Histogram
Figure 1-20: You can control which of these five displays are enabled.
3. Select LV-Info and then press OK.
(The LV is a reference to live view, which is what the monitor displays
when you shoot with the E-PL1 — a live view of the scene before the lens.)
After you press OK, you see a list of display options that you can enable
or disable, as shown on the right in Figure 1-20. In some shooting modes,
not all display options are available; you can choose from all displays
only in P, A, S, and M modes.
4. Enable the display options you want to use; turn off the others.
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26 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps
This screen requires that you press the right-arrow key after selecting an
option. After pressing the right-arrow key, you see the screen where you
can enable or disable the display.
Here’s an overview of the five styles you can enable or disable. (You can’t
disable the default display style, which is the one shown in Figure 1-17.)
•Displayed Grid: Enabling
this option adds gridlines
to the screen, as shown
in Figure 1-21. The grid is
helpful for ensuring that the
horizon line is level or in
other cases where you want
to compose the shot so that
objects fall into some other
precise alignment.
To enable the grid, choose
Displayed Grid, as shown
on the left in Figure 1-22,
and then press the right-
arrow key. You then see a
list of four grid styles, as shown on the right in Figure 1-22. Make
your selection and press OK. To disable the grid display, return to
the menu and choose Off.
Figure 1-22: You can choose from four grid styles.
•Histogram: Choose the menu item represented by the histogram
symbol (refer to Figure 1-20) to enable or disable the histogram
display. This display mode is enabled by default.
•Highlight & Shadow: This display alerts you to areas of the frame
that may be seriously overexposed or underexposed at your current
exposure settings. When you press the shutter button halfway, over-
exposed areas are indicated by a red overlay, and underexposed
Figure 1-21: The grid display is helpful for
checking that the horizon line is level.
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