Olympus XZ-1 Tips And Tricks Manual

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Start with Program mode instead of I- Auto, Aperture, Shutter, or Manual.

On the screen menu that you see after pressing the back OK button --

1. Select Auto-ISO. The XZ-1 will try really, really hard not to go over ISO 200 -- and

that extra stop, from, say ISO 100 to 200, will give you super low-light pictures, with a

camera-set shutter speed fast enough to handhold.

2. Next, going down the menu, select 1 Vivid. Then press the little Menu button on the

back. Go to Picture Mode, select Vivid. Press the right arrow key, and set Contrast to +1,

Sharpness 0, Saturation +1, Gradation - Normal. Important: do NOT set Gradation to

Auto, or some other stuff will stop working.

3. Next, select white balance - Underwater (the fish icon). On the back-button Menu, go

to WB, press the OK button to select the fish icon, then press the right-arrow. Leave A

(amber) at 0, in the middle... but set G (green) to -1.

Between this and the Vivid setting above, you'll get beautiful pictures, indoor and out,

daytime, twilight, and in the dark.

4. Further down, select 'LF + Raw' as your picture type. This will make both a JPG and a

RAW image. In most instances, the JPG will be great... but the RAW backup lets you

rescue any image where the JPG isn't good.

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Summary of Contents for Olympus XZ-1

Page 1: Setting The Camera
On the screen menu that you see after pressing the back OK button -- 1. Select Auto-ISO. The XZ-1 will try really, really hard not to go over ISO 200 -- and that extra stop, from, say ISO 100 to 200, will give you super low-light pictures, with a camera-set shutter speed fast enough to handhold.
Page 2 (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.
Page 3: More About Settings
The background behind the person should be nicely blurred. Now, if you are doing this in bright daylight, there may be too much light for the XZ-1 to handle. So go into the OK button menu, and change ND Off to on. The built-in Neutral Density filter lets you take pictures at wide open lens settings in bright daylight.
Page 4 RAW vs JPG -- the XZ-1 JPGs are very good. But every now and then, like in some weird flourescent light or mixed-light situation, switch it from LF (best JPGs) to LF + RAW.
Page 5: Flash Settings
Leave it on Sync 2 all the time; saves a lot of pictures. But, since the XZ-1 has a very 'bright' lens, you also have the luxury of choosing a nice fast shutter speed. Put the XZ-1 in S Shutter mode, with the top dial.
Page 6: Optical Infrared Wireless Slave Flash
.. very nice (no orange flash filter needed, unless you want a 'late-afternoon' sunlit look). Optical Infrared Wireless Slave flash The XZ-1's popup flash can set off other flashes... infrared or 'slave' flashes. I use a cheap Yong-Nuo YN-460N, which is fully adjustable for intensity. It works perfectly indoors --...
Page 7: Radio-Controlled Wireless Slave Flash
1/250. Get a correct exposure from the window (the rest of the room will go black). Then, with the XZ-1 flash on 1/4 power, have it set off the slave flash -- with the slave flash bouncing light off the ceiling, or hidden behind a chair.
Page 8 112mm tele, with the aperture fixed at f/4, and the shutter at the fastest-possible setting. ISO remains at whatever you set; I use Auto ISO, since on the XZ-1 it won't ever go up over 200. All flash power options are available.
Page 9: Optical Viewfinder
"Avoid using digital zoom to take pictures (p.75)" That's bad! But is it really? You tell me. Here are three XZ-1 pictures, taken from the same camera position, handheld, at 28mm optical wide angle, 112mm optical telephoto, and 448mm digital telephoto -- jon404 >...
Page 10: Underwater Mode
Nothing else! Well, maybe a tripod in the car trunk. And , a small beanbag with lead shot to put the XZ-1 on when I don't have the tripod out. But thanks to digital post-processing, we just don't have to lug all that stuff around anymore... isn't it wonderful!
Page 11: Manual Focus
Sort of a 'hyperfocal distance' setting. I went around and around with this, hoping that there would be a way to set the XZ-1 at a usable hyperfocal distance, so that each time it powered up, it would be set to that.
Page 12: M And Auto-Iso
1/40 @ 28mm, and at 1/125 @ 112mm. xz-1 auto gradation, like vivid>auto gradation, knocks out spot metering. If want auto grad, shoot RAW normal, then change in post-processing ('developing' the RAW file as a JPG).
Page 13 XZ-1 Tips page 13 of 29 Depth Of Field (DOF) xz-1 f/5.6 , full tele, 40' to infinity. At wide angle, you don't even have to think about it... 6' focus distance will put EVERYTHING in focus. XZ-1 DOF circle of confusion = .00686 Camera sensor sizes-- 1/2.3 = 6.16mm x4.62mm ...
Page 14: Sharpest Images
11 x 14 = 3300 x 4200. 'Gallery sharp'. But the XZ-1 image size is 3748 x 2736, and, after cropping, you may not have enough image left at 300 dpi to go to, say, 11 x 14. But try a print anyway -- many XZ-1 owners...
Page 15: Slow Auto-Focus
...from posts on Dpreview by Vernatropius and Paul T. Turn Off the "Rec View" in the Camera menu. See page 50, XZ-1 user manual... "The image being recorded is not displayed. This allows the user to prepare the for the next shot while following the subject in the monitor after shooting."...
Page 16 4.) Hit Right to see your shutter count R is the shutter count. S is the flash count. There's different info on each of the directions although I don't know if they mean anything useful for the XZ-1. Just turn the camera off when you're done.
Page 17 Infrared The XZ-1's sensor can 'see' infrared light. Not very well, but it can, and so you can take real infrared pictures. Exposure time in daylight is long... like 5 seconds... so you'll want to put the camera on a beanbag, or on a tripod, Exposure -- 5 secs at f/1.8 -- XZ-1 in Natural / Underwater color modes, or...
Page 18: Dof Depth-Of-Field
DOF depth-of-field ...post on Dpreview by sderdiarian At the long end of its zoom, the XZ-1 has an aperture with a diameter of 9.6mm at 112mm equivalent, which compares favorably to the 9.8mm maximum aperture at the 83mm equivalent of a typical APS-C 18-55 F3.5-5.6 kit lens. It means the XZ-1 should give at least as blurred a background and do so at something much closer to the traditional portrait focal length.
Page 19 XZ-1 Auto Gradation XZ-1 Gradation? Well -- in a way, it is HDR. Sort of. The differences are subtle ...see my pic below (interior, low light, Vivid color mode). But key thing to remember -- if you use Gradation on Auto, you cannot use the Spot meter setting.
Page 20: Separate Focus And Exposure Lock
XZ-1 Tips page 20 of 29 "Gradation allows the camera to process images in various fashions suited to subject scenarios. It applies tools that affect the brightness and contrast of the processed image. The value of gradation is that the photographer can select the look of the image in-camera when shooting or change the gradation of a RAW image after the fact using the RAW EDIT function.
Page 21 XZ-1 Tips page 21 of 29 Go into the AF setting, select AF and press OK to confirm it. This is to make sure pressing OK next time will bring up the AF menu. Now suppose you need to focus on a point to your left, take the exposure from a scene to your right, and then take a picture of the view straight in front of you.
Page 22: Miscellaneous Notes
Rosco colored gel pack Miscellaneous notes ...from posts on Dpreview When viewing your photos on the XZ-1 you can rotate the images by rotating the lens collar for setting the aperture. If getting a reddish tone in your jpegs, use the following settings: Muted color picture mode, sharpness +1, contrast +1, saturation +1, NR off (Gradiation normal).
Page 23 According to testing data of DxO, or as compiled at http://sensorgen.info, you can see that the sensor in the XZ-1 has a very flat read noise profile. In other words, it's basically an "ISO-less" camera, like the Nikon D7000. This means one can choose to shoot in raw and basically ignore the iso setting all together and keep it at, say 100 or 200 and forget about it.
Page 24: Why Shoot Raw Monochrome
Why shoot RAW Monochrome? If your DSLR or smaller digital camera works like my Olympus XZ-1, you can have the best of both worlds -- color and B/W -- by shooting RAW images with your camera set to Monochrome mode.
Page 25: Raw Monochrome Is Color, Too
Experimented this morning -- hoping that if I shot a RAW image in the Monochrome picture mode, that, later, the Olympus Viewer XZ-1 software would let me pick a regular picture mode, like Natural or Vivid, which would restore the color... but only if I wanted Well, guess what? It worked!!! Bear with me, I'm very excited about this.
Page 26 Lastly, go back to P Program mode, and change the color setting from Monotone back to Vivid or whatever you normally use. The next time you use C Custom, the XZ-1 will be in Monotone... with your settings retained and ready to use.
Page 27 XZ-1 Tips page 27 of 29 But there are no formulas here. We all have different tastes, and the joy of an XZ-1 or Leica Monochrom is that you have choices, wonderfully traditional choices. And the amazing ability to see that black-and-white image on the LCD screen! Why RAW? ...condensed from an essay by Barry Thornton...
Page 28 8-bit JPG. But, if you start with a 16-bit RAW file, and adjust it in RAW software like Olympus Viewer BEFORE saving it as an 8-bit JPG... the outcome will be much, much better.
Page 29 S mode, and set it at 1/1000 (or faster). In low light, you might have to go down to 1/500. In either case, the XZ-1's small lens should give you enough depth-of- field to easily keep the whole flower in sharp focus.

Olympus XZ-1 Tips And Tricks Manual

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Setting the camera

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