Olympus E-P2 Quick Start Part 5.

[Brian Mosley]

Hello everyone,

if we have a separate thread for each video, we can keep the discussion more organised.

You can find Part 1 here.

Previous Part is here.

<param name="movie" value="https://www.youtube.com/v/CSPiSjkHt04&hl=en_GB&fs=1&hd=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="https://www.youtube.com/v/CSPiSjkHt04&hl=en_GB&fs=1&hd=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="853" height="505"></embed></object>

Next part is here.

Please fire away with any questions below.

Cheers

Brian

 

[BBW]

Brian can you remind me when and why one would choose to switch the IS - image stabilizer - to OFF? I believe this is true if a tripod is being used...

Also, why did you choose to set the Noise Filter to off? I think that option was portrayed is in this lesson.

And thanks for your cont'd recordings!

 

[Brian Mosley]

Hi BB,

that's correct - you'd switch IS off if you had the camera on a beanbag or tripod/monopod... also, if your shutter speed is well over 2x your lens focal length i.e. > 1/100sec for the 20mm f1.7... or in other words, if you're shooting in bright sunshine with fast shutter speeds.

While it's fine to leave IS switched on at high shutter speeds, if you don't need IS, you can switch it off and there's no chance the IS mechanism can introduce shake to your image.

Cheers

Brian

 

[BBW]

Interesting. I can see that there's the potential here for me to drive myself crazy but thanks, Brian.

 

[Brian Mosley]

LOL, I've already been there - done that!

Just take it easy - it took me weeks to find out all this stuff, you're already on the fast track!

Cheers

Brian

 

[thearne3]

LF vs LSF

Hi Brian,

Great series! Just wondering where you come out on the above debate? I have tried to find a difference in the jpeg outputs and failed...so I conserve space with LF. I have heard that certain kinds of image PP can utilize the LSF, such as anything like "magic wand" in PS.

Your thoughts?

Best,
Tom

 

[thearne3]

Color space?

Hi Brian,

I usually stick with Jpeg. Just wondering why not stay with Adobe in camera, since it is the larger color space, then let your PP software make the conversion for specific output?

Best,
Tom

 

[Brian Mosley]

Hi Brian,

Great series! Just wondering where you come out on the above debate? I have tried to find a difference in the jpeg outputs and failed...so I conserve space with LF. I have heard that certain kinds of image PP can utilize the LSF, such as anything like "magic wand" in PS.

Your thoughts?

Best,
Tom

Hi Tom,

I've just had a quick look... raw files take about 12.5MB, LSF jpegs just over 8MB, and LF jpegs just under 6MB.

I would probably shoot LSF - even though I've read the dpreview experience that LF is indistinguishable to LSF... I wondered whether that had anything to do with them getting a lot of flack from some users when they did earlier Olympus tests using LF jpegs.

Most likely, I'd shoot raw. I've been shooting raw since the Nikon D1, and I like to keep the digital negatives - as raw converters continue to evolve.

Cheers

Brian

 

[Brian Mosley]

Hi Brian,

I usually stick with Jpeg. Just wondering why not stay with Adobe in camera, since it is the larger color space, then let your PP software make the conversion for specific output?

Best,
Tom

Hi Tom - good point, if you're intending to use PP software on your jpegs then Adobe colour space would make better sense, as long as you expect to convert to sRGB before presentation on screen.

What sharpening do you use for jpegs Tom? I found the E-P1 sharpening to be a bit too coarse for my preference... and I also prefer to sharpen at output resolution.

Cheers

Brian

 

[thearne3]

I confess that I've not (yet) felt the urge to play with the sharpening or the contrast in the E-P1. Some users recommend increasing sharpening and others (the majority) recommend turning it down. It's on my list of 'Experiments' - after deciding on Hexanon 40mm vs. Pen F 38mm, and nailing down the strange metering behavior (underexposing) at low shutter speeds with MF lenses, which I posted on in Adapted Lenses.

Best,
Tom

 

[BBW]

"PP software" stands for what? Any photo processing software? Maybe this section is too advanced for me.

 

[thearne3]

ReP

Yup! PP, from what I've seen on various forums, is either 'Post/Photo Processing' or 'Pixel Peeping', depending on the context. I try not to do the latter - and can't live without the former.

Best,
Tom

 

[pictor]

While it's fine to leave IS switched on at high shutter speeds ...

I don't know the technical details of the Pens good enough yet, but I know this for the implementation if IS in lenses: Nikon for example checks about 1000 times in a second how to move the lens element for VR (which is the same as IS elsewhere). When you press the shutter, the lens gets centered and begins to move again. When the shutter speed is shorter than 1/500s the probability increases that there has been not enough time to center the lens which results in a decentered lens which may influence the image quality negatively. Thus it is recommended to turn VR only on if one needs it.

The implementation of the IS by Olympus is different, since the sensor is moved instead of a lens element, but I would not rule out the possibility that their IS at high shutter speeds has a negative effect, too. Do you really know that it's fine to keep the IS on? Have you seen any difference between photos taken at high shutter speeds with IS on or of?

 

[Brian Mosley]

In Body Image Stabilisation (IBIS) works by moving the sensor only for the duration of the exposure... my guess would be the sensor is centred at the end of each exposure.

The thing I have noticed, is that burst mode shooting slows down noticeably when IBIS is engaged... so perhaps moving the sensor back to 'home' position adds a small delay following each exposure?

So, I'd disable IBIS where I'd expect very short exposures... but mainly to conserve power and improve responsiveness, but I wouldn't worry about having IBIS engaged causing image degradation at high shutter speeds.

Cheers

Brian

 

[phigmov]

Another great post Brian !

Again with the questions though

Does disabling the Noise Reduction / Noise Filter stuff affect all images or just the high-ISO pictures (ie is there a noticeable difference across the range or is it to allow for more realistic images at the edge case) ?

 

[Brian Mosley]

That's a great question! personally, at <500 ISO I have noise reduction switched off and gradation set to normal... If I'm shooting at high ISO (or using AUTO gradation to boost shadows) the noise reduction is switched on.

By shooting raw and developing in the free Olympus Viewer raw converter you can see for yourself which settings will give you the best balanced output. I'd encourage you to experiment with this - a great way to learn how the configurable options work.

Cheers

Brian

 

[phigmov]

Thanks Brian - I find shooting RAW tested my patience loading into iPhoto from the camera via USB. Does anyone else find the transfer times over USB to be fast/slow ?

For me it was just painfully slow (I have a 3 year old MacBook) and I could see some differences between the JPEG/RAW (I did marginally prefer the RAW. However, it didn't justify the extra download time or disk space that RAW was chewing up particularly as I tend not to do much post-processing.

I'm actually getting back into shooting film (Ilford 125 through my Pen FT or Trip 35 can't be beat!) so theres something about the 'what you see is what you get' from the basic JPEG mode thats kind of appealing.

Maybe better RAW handling would give me an excuse to upgrade my Mac ;-)

 

[BBW]

phigmov, not too long ago I purchased a new MacBook Pro and it is much, much faster than my 2006 MacBook Pro and now I know what Aperture 3 is supposed to be like, so I can imagine it must have an effect on other software programs, too.

If you have any Mac related questions, we've got some very helpful members here. For computer specific - check out and use the Technology forums. Graphics cards, hard drive, and memory are biggies. I'm not qualified to give you the technical reasons why an up-to-date MacBook Pro is better, but I can tell you it is much, much better.

 

[Brian Mosley]

I had a look at the Macbook Pro yesterday BB... is yours the one with the matte display? I like how the mouse pad accepts gestures.

Cheers

Brian

 

[BBW]

This time I did not get the mat display. I always have in the past and know that many photographers feel that the non glossy screen is the proper way to go. This time, I decided to go for what I enjoy. And I have always enjoyed other people's glossy screens, so...that's what I went for this time around.

I did not get the HD version because the size of the type is constrained, I believe.