Having used E-M5 for months, the new PL5 firmware features are easily noticeable, such as HDR and the ability to change myset via mode dial. However, not sure if I got a defective unit or this is by Olympus design. After assigning mode dials to specific mysets, it seems changing the mode dial would only change all the wheel/directional pad settings without changing the button settings. For example, if I assign myset#1 to "A" mode which maps the FN button to "AEL", even when I switch to "S" mode which is assigned to myset#2 that maps the FN button to "Exposure+/-", the FN button would still be "stuck" in myset#1's "AEL" despite the screen showing the icons "myset#2" in "S" mode. The only way to "get out" of myset#1 button mapping when in myset#2 is to manually go into menu and "set" to myset#2 again, which totally defeats the purpose of "myset via mode dial" convenience. Why only the wheel/directional pad mappings are set via mode dial but the button mappings are not set by mode dial? Does anyone else notice this issue? Or do I just have a defective unit? Does the above even make sense? My first-ever attempt to explain something technical :tongue:
Neither a firmware bug nor a defect...you have a misunderstanding of the way MySet works. MySet is NOT supposed to change when you change the mode dial...it's supposed to stay on the MySet you have chosen! If you want it to switch to MySet2 you have to go into the menu and select MySet2. If you change exposure modes after selecting a MySet, whatever settings you HAVEN'T changed manually will be whatever they are in the MySet you had chosen. For instance, if I was in Manual mode and I had the exposure set to 1/125th f/8 and then Set that into MySet1, and later chose that MySet, if I was in M mode I get that 1/125 f/8...if I was in S mode and selected that MySet I'd have the 1/125, and whatever aperture the camera needs to balance te exposure...but if I didn't change the exposure settings and switched to A mode I'd have f/8 and whatever shutter speed is required by the camera etc. The mode dial is independent from MySet, but it will adapt whatever MySet settings are possible.
As Mike said. You can assign modes to mysets, but you don't assign a myset to a mode. You can switch the mysets from the menu or with assigned buttons. The only mode dial position you can use to select a MySet is the iAuto.
The reason why I use M mode when I configure to save a MySet is it allows me to also choose the predefined shutter speed and aperture as well...really nice for my studio MySet where I mostly use flash.
On the PL5, there IS a setting called "Mode Dial Function" that "sets registered Mysets to the mode dial." But the fact is, the new PL5 does allow the change of Myset based on mode dial change (See attached screenshot from PL5 manual). What I'm noticing is, the Myset settings change based on mode dial ONLY affects the wheel/directional pad assignments, and NOT button assignments. I suspect this is either an incomplete (but intentional) implementation or firmware bug.
Yes, Leif & Mike appear to be commenting on pre-e-pl5 behaviour. It does seem a shame the button re-maps don't carry over with this new (awesome!) function, but even without them we now have a one-click access to proper bracketing, among other things. This would be the second really important feature tempting me to the newest bodies.
Oh, you're right. I always thought that you can only assign them to the mode dial position iAuto since this is the only one it shows directly. But you can move the cursor up to get the other ones. My fault So yes, Settings -> B -> Mode Dial Function is the way to go. Have to try out the other now...just used iAuto so far. Maybe they fix the other button assignments in a further update.
We could have a poll about which PASM we'd assign to MyMode. I'd plump for 'S' since I always fungle everything else to get my shutterspeed into a general range for the job : and 'P' is nice for when I've got the flash on. (I don't have an e-pL5, probably never will : there's no good place to glue on my modifications.)
At this point, I'm not sure Olympus will ever "fix" this, if this is by design. But then I can't think of any reasons why one would want not want the button assignments to be changed when changing Mysets. I guess we'll see when the new firmware for EM5 is released which might incorporate this feature, if ever?
Yea, a poll would be great to see what creative ways are possible with this new feature. By the way, with this new Myset via Mode Dial feature, it's even possible to assign other Exposure modes to any of the dials. For example, I can assign Aperture-priority to the S-dial with a slight modification of settings compared to the the regular Aperture-priority settings assigned to the A-dial!
I'm happy to report the PL5 firmware v1.1 completely fixed this "Myset via Mode Dial" bug! I knew I wasn't going crazy This feature is so simple, yet so amazing. Try it! The only disappointment is to not see these list of latest firmware enhancements introduced to the "flagship" Olympus E-M5 yet, which doesn't make sense because they share almost everything from sensor to firmware design.
Hmm, I'm on v1.1 and it hasn't fixed it for me. For example, I have iAuto -> Myset1, and ART -> Myset2. Myset1 = normal focus on shutter Myset2 = focus on Fn Sometimes - it works when I turn the mode dial to ART and the buttons get re-mapped. Othertimes I have to actually go into the Myset menu and apply Myset2. I haven't found a pattern... it works about 2/3 of the time successfully...
And yes this is an amazing feature and I don't think I'd buy a camera without it now!! Especially that you can have A-mode or S-mode in the Myset too...
Firmware version 1.2 is available and I have just upgraded. Other than the benefit of support for VF-4, I notice no difference.
I thought it was by design that Myset only saves and transfers the settings not button assignments. I wish it would save all the button assignments too.