Olympus XZ-1 Tips And Tricks Manual page 2

XZ-1 Tips page 2 of 29
5. Further down, select Spot metering, instead of ESP or Ctr-Weighted. After selecting
Spot, go out of the menu. The camera will now always meter light from the little circle-
area in the center of the screen.
6. Next comes Focus Point selection. Press the left-arrow key and make sure the green
focus square is in the center of the screen. Leave it there! The XZ-1 will now start
behaving normally. The XZ-1 will always try to focus in the green-square area in the
dead center of the screen, which is where you naturally point the camera.
(thanks to echelon2004 for helping me get this straight!)
Imagine that you are taking a picture of a sunset. Point the XZ-1 at the sky, to the left of
the sun. Press the shutter button lightly -- it will lock focus and exposure with a beep. If
you don't like the preview image on the LCD, move the camera up or down, and try
another preview. The screen lets you see right away what you will get!
7. Lastly, further down, select AF instead of Macro or Super-Macro. At the camera's
startup wide-angle lens setting, everything's sharp from about 2' to infinity -- like for
almost every photo you will take. But play around with Super-Macro... fantastic closeups.
Just don't forget to put it back on AF!
That's about it. Now after you set the camera, write these settings down on a piece of
paper in case something gets unset, and forget all about it -- time to start taking pictures!
From here on out, trust your eye and your camera. Think pictures, not camera settings.
Before you go, get two SD cards, and three spare batteries. You will get about 200 -250
pictures per battery charge... so three charged batteries should be all you need, who
knows what kind of electricity they have over there. You can carry the XZ-1 in a shirt
pocket, with a spare battery in your other shirt pocket.
Night photography -- if you're on the move, forget the tripod or monopod. Learn to
balance the camera on a fence, a railing, or braced against a pole. Or, carry a small
beanbag in your pants pocket. Use the camera's 12-sec self-timer to take a good sharp
picture of anything that isn't moving too much.