BBW
Super Moderator Emeritus
There may be a good thread floating around somewhere on the forum that already covers these key points, but I can't seem to find it at the moment. I thought I'd start this one off and am going to use part of a great post akuyla just made over on another thread https://www.mu-43.com/f42/new-e-pl1-now-what-7780/#post67801 where he very kindly has helped out a new member who has just bought an E-PL1.
I'm not going to quote him in full, but am including most of the post because I think akulya's descriptions are so well done. Now if I can get him to add in a bit about EV compensation, that would be just great.
I hope others will feel free to add more to this thread and ask questions, as well. Now I'll go let akulya know I've taken the liberty of quoting him.
I'm not going to quote him in full, but am including most of the post because I think akulya's descriptions are so well done. Now if I can get him to add in a bit about EV compensation, that would be just great.

...OK, now the three variables of exposure should get a quick mention.
Apeture, shutter speed, ISO.
All three of these directly contribute to your exposure, but they are easy to understand, and relate to each other quite logically.
The Apeture is measured by an "f number" the smaller number, the bigger the apeture, and the brighter the lens.
The "f number line" is: 1 1.4 2 2.8 4 5.6 8 11 16 22
It continues at either end, but this is the relevent range.
Each number is 2x as bright as its neighbor, this concept of doubling and halving will soon become quite familiar.
i.e. f2 is twice as bright as f2.8, or f8 is half as bright as f5.6. Remember lower is brighter.
The f number is an important variable, and one which you probably want control over.
Shutter Speed also effects exposure, it measured as a fraction of a second and displayed on the camera as a whole number. "500" means 1/500s (i.e. one fivehunderedths of a second.)
The faster the shutter speed, the less light gets through.
So it should follow from above that a lens set at f2 will allow you to use a shutter speed twice as fast as a lens at f2.8. (e.g. if you were photographing a bird that kept moving, using a faster shutter speed would allow you to "capture the moment" without it blurring, but you would need more light to do so)
Controlling the shutter speed becomes important if you are capturing high speed movement.
ISO, this is basically the electronic gain on the imaging sensor (like the volume of an amplifier) as it gets higher things get less refined.
ISO200 is the base ISO of the E-PL1 camera sensor, and the one at which you should get optimum image quality, it goes up to 6400. But most people try and keep the ISO as low as possible, and ideally stay below 1600.
Each doubling of ISO acts exactly like a halving of shutter speed. (well, except for the extra electronic noise)
So, for example, if you were photographing a bird that was constantly moving, your lens was already open at it's maximum apeture, and you could not decrease your shutter speed without the birds movement causing motion-blur; then you could increase the ISO.
The E-PL1 lets you set and "Auto ISO" range, so that it will automatically select the lowest ISO within a user defined boundary, for a given exposure.
All OK?
Sorry if this is a bit basic, but someone might find this useful.
The Apeture of the lens (the f number) however does more than just let you know how much light it lets through the apeture also changes the depth of field; the two go hand in hand. If you use f1.7, you will have a lot less depth of field than f4.
This is neither good nor bad. It just is.
(Hyperfocal Distance and Depth of Field Calculator - DOFMaster is a good website for calculating this, if it takes your fancy)
Meaning, if you wish to take landscapes, you will need to use higher f number (f5.6 or even higher). Naturally, you will also need to use an appropriate shutter speed.
The m.zuiko 14-42 lens is just fine for landscapes, some people like to use very wide angle lenses, but its a personal taste, and the 14mm end of the range is still quite wide.
You have said you mainly want to take night, indoor and landscape pictures.
Available light night portraits with this lens will require unrealisticly slow shutter speeds, but the E-PL1 does have a flash just for this purpose! There is nothing wrong with using a flash, http://neilvn.com/tangents/ this guy is amazing at flash photography.
Night landscapes are just like normal landscapes but with really long shutter times (several seconds) so again the kit lens is fine, just put it somewhere nice and stable (or on a tripod) and set it up for a lovely long exposure, these are great fun.
Indoor photography will be the hardest. Not impossible, and not bad, but just harder.
This is really where large apetures start to earn their keep, as indoor backgrounds can often be cluttered, using the wide apeture to keep the depth of field small (and therefore put emphasis on the subject) as well as keeping the shutter speed up and the ISO down. You can always use flash, but sometimes indoor candid portraits are tricky to take with the flash firing away.
Just enjoy the camera you have for a few months. When you start to find the limitations, and want to move your own photography in a certain direction, that is when to start buying new gear.
Hope this helps!
I hope others will feel free to add more to this thread and ask questions, as well. Now I'll go let akulya know I've taken the liberty of quoting him.
