Download
Share
Print this page
Olympus PEN E-PL1 Manual
  1. Manuals
  2. Brands
  3. Olympus Manuals
  4. Digital Camera
  5. PEN E-PL1
  6. Manual

Olympus PEN E-PL1 Manual

Hide thumbs

Advertisement

Quick Links

Download this manual
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
A
t 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.)
1

Advertisement

loading
Need help?

Need help?

Do you have a question about the PEN E-PL1 and is the answer not in the manual?

Questions and answers

Subscribe to Our Youtube Channel

Related Manuals for Olympus PEN E-PL1

Summary of Contents for Olympus PEN E-PL1

  • Page 1 Viewing and adjusting picture-taking settings Customizing basic operations t 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.
  • Page 2 Part 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 Focal plane marker Mode dial Shutter button 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.
  • Page 3 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).
  • Page 4 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.
  • Page 5 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.
  • Page 6 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 USB/AV port how to connect the camera to a com- puter for picture download.)

  • Page 7: Attaching And Removing Lenses

    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.
  • Page 8 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...
  • Page 9 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;...
  • Page 10 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).

  • Page 11: Working With Memory Cards

    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.
  • Page 12 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps Locking cards: The tiny switch on Don’t touch Lock switch 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.
  • Page 13 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.
  • Page 14 If you miss having a viewfinder, you investment. But I suspect that if you visit your can purchase the Olympus VF-2, an electronic local camera store to try it out, you’ll have a viewfinder that attaches to the camera via the hard time leaving without it.
  • Page 15 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,...
  • Page 16 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.
  • Page 17 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.
  • Page 18 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.
  • Page 19 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.
  • Page 20 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.) •...
  • Page 21 Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land areas are indicated by a blue overlay. This display option is disabled by default and isn’t available in ART or Movie mode. • Multi View: This display option is available only when the Mode dial is set to P, A, S, or M.
  • Page 22 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps Figure 1-24: Press the Zoom button to magnify the display for a close-up look at your subject. 2. Use the arrow keys to move the green rectangle over the area you want to inspect. 3.
  • Page 23 Super Control Panel: Some photographers (including me) prefer to view all critical picture-taking settings together, as shown on the right in Figure 1-26. Olympus refers to this display as the Super Control Panel. As with the Live Control screen, use the arrow keys to select and adjust the available settings.
  • Page 24 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps Camera buttons: You can access a few settings directly by pressing the keys on the arrow pad. For example, pressing the right-arrow key brings up the screen through which you select flash settings. In most cases, the process from that point is the same as when you use the Live Control or Super Control Panel displays.
  • Page 25 Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land Figure 1-27: Enable the Super Control Panel through Custom Menu D. 2. Press the up or down arrows to scroll the screen until you see the Control Setting option, as shown on the right in Figure 1-27. 3.
  • Page 26 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps 5. Select a display option and press the right-arrow key to display the screen where you can turn the option on or off. Make your selection and press OK. 6. Press the Menu button or left-arrow key to return to the main Control Setting screen (refer to the left screen in Figure 1-28).
  • Page 27 Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land The Live Control screen Selected option becomes active, and you see a screen similar to the one in Figure 1-29. The rel- evant areas to note are • Icons running down the right side of the screen represent the picture options you can adjust, which...
  • Page 28 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps To take advantage of this live preview feature in some shooting modes, you must disable another option, Live View Boost. See the “Exploring setup options on the Custom menu” section later in this chapter for details. 6.
  • Page 29 Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land Figure 1-31: Use the arrow keys to select an option and then press OK to access available settings for that option. Here’s the lowdown on selecting and adjusting settings via the panel: 1.
  • Page 30 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps Reviewing Basic Setup Options Your camera offers scads of options for customizing its performance — the display options covered earlier in this chapter represent just a few of the ways you can make your camera, well, yours. Later chapters explain settings related to actual picture taking, such as those that affect flash behavior and autofocusing.
  • Page 31 Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land LCD Brightness and Color Temperature: Choosing this option displays the screen shown on the left in Figure 1-33. As with most digital cameras, you can adjust the monitor brightness to suit the ambient light in which you’re working.
  • Page 32 1.0. Keeping your camera firmware up-to-date is important, so visit the Olympus Web site (www.olympus.com) regularly to find out whether your camera sports the latest version. You can find detailed instructions on how to download and install any firmware updates on the site. Note that the update to the body firmware (from version 1.0 to version 1.1)
  • Page 33 Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land Figure 1-35: Press the up- or down-arrow key to scroll through the three screens of options. Control Setting: Use this option to enable or disable the Live Guide, Live Control, and Super Control Panel (SCP) displays. The earlier section “Monitoring and Adjusting Photography Settings”...
  • Page 34 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps Mode Guide: By default, the camera displays a message similar to the one you see in Figure 1-36 every time you change the camera Mode dial to a new setting. The idea is to provide you with a hint as to the purpose of the mode.

  • Page 35: Restoring Default Settings

    Chapter 1: Getting the Lay of the Land Auto, to Off, the camera restarts the numbering sequence at P100001.jpg every time you insert a new memory card (or, if the card contains images, at the next available number). Obviously, that setup can lead to multiple pictures having the same file number, which can cause problems when you download the pictures to your computer.
  • Page 36 Part I: Fast Track to Super Snaps...