Hehehe !

IMHO,
A BIG problem that Olympus has (for new users coming from other systems) is their hard to find, barely documented, and not even advertised "Super Control Panel".

And to be brutally honest, if it wasn't for online forums - I would have never discovered it!!!!!

Olympus grade here = "D"

__________________
Olympus E-PL5
M. Zuiko 17mm ƒ1.8 | M. Zuiko 17mm ƒ2.8 | M. Zuiko 14-42 II | M. Zuiko 14-150 ED | M. Zuiko 45mm ƒ1.8 ED | M. Zuiko 75mm ƒ1.8 ED | M. Zuiko 75-300 ED II | Leica DG Summilux 25mm ƒ1.4 ASPH | Lumix G Vario 45-200 |

Why did you buy it?

"Although I have decided to keep it, the thread is still useful so others will know about some of these issues."

I totally agree and thought it was good thread. I guess I'm surprised that you could go from thinking of returning it to deciding to keep it with only one day of experimentation. Took me months before I determined that the EP3 could replace my D7000...and I still don't like several things about the '3. :)

Hmmm...
So it's okay to say that some bought DSLRs but ended up not liking them....

Not cool with the OMD though.....

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Olympus E-PL5
M. Zuiko 17mm ƒ1.8 | M. Zuiko 17mm ƒ2.8 | M. Zuiko 14-42 II | M. Zuiko 14-150 ED | M. Zuiko 45mm ƒ1.8 ED | M. Zuiko 75mm ƒ1.8 ED | M. Zuiko 75-300 ED II | Leica DG Summilux 25mm ƒ1.4 ASPH | Lumix G Vario 45-200 |

HUH? There's something that comes with the camera (and most new products for that matter) called a "manual"...it shows you how to use the camera. The SCP is covered on pages 22-24 of the E-M5 manual.

As they say, RTFM (F stands for FULL in case you think it stans for something else).

People are just too lazy to make the most basic effort to learn how to use the camera; they spend money on cameras, lenses, and software, but they don't spend anything (including time) to learn how to use them properly!

For the record, I read the manual BEFORE I buy the camera...when I was deciding on my first dSLR I skimmed THREE manuals so I could give each camera I was considering a fair test, rather than picking up a camera and not knowing how to use it.

I also skim through a few months of forum posts so I know both the bad and the good people say about the camera(s) I'm interested in. In the case of your comment it would have been dismissed since I would have known all about the SCP from reading the manual already.

I'll be the first to admit that I did not read every single page, cover-to-cover but I did read the manual for the Super Control Panel section and to be brutally honest, it could have been written a bit better.

So here's my workflow:

-Open camera & assemble
-Charge battery
--While battery is charging, read manual

-Shoot after battery charges (which is usually a day or two after purchase - I've never had the time to buy & shoot on the same day)
--I know that I will miss some things but this first shoot is a familiarization shoot

-Go back and read the manual again for specific things that I want to do.

What I find interesting is how many other users in various online communities asking questions about the SCP - which lets me know I'm not the only one. In fact, Olympus dedicated a "FAQ" sectioin on their own website on how to enable the SCP for the E-PL1

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Olympus E-PL5
M. Zuiko 17mm ƒ1.8 | M. Zuiko 17mm ƒ2.8 | M. Zuiko 14-42 II | M. Zuiko 14-150 ED | M. Zuiko 45mm ƒ1.8 ED | M. Zuiko 75mm ƒ1.8 ED | M. Zuiko 75-300 ED II | Leica DG Summilux 25mm ƒ1.4 ASPH | Lumix G Vario 45-200 |

Perhaps you can explain how you do that WITH THE TIMER.

A lot of us don't like to read manuals, and with most cameras, that works just fine .

A couple of the Oly menu settings are unnecessarily complex, but for the most part, it all comes from the fact that they want to give us as many options as possible, and I do appreciate that.

__________________
Amin
Mu-43.com Webmaster (Site FAQ | Help Forum | My Disclosures | My Flickriver | My G+ Profile)

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"-Open camera & assemble
-Charge battery
--While battery is charging, read manual"

For me the 4th step is:

---get on internet to get info from someone who can actually understand the owners manual or who figured out the operation in spite of it! :)