I would like to know what are your preferred settings on your E-PL1 (and why?): ISO: AUTO or on a specific value? Picture mode: i-Enhance, Natural or another? Mode: iAuto, (a specific) Scene or another?
For me, ISO: AUTO But I set my range from 200 to 800 If I need to shoot any hier or limit it, then I manual override it. Picture mode: Shoot RAW. all that can be adjusted in Olympus Master/ Studio / Viewer. But If I have to shoot OOC JPEG, then Vivid. This is personnel preference Mode: P when it's just Landscape. A when I am doing macro and S when I want to do panning or play with slow shutter speed. M when I shoot my panorama. WB on auto unless shooting panorama.
The E-PL1 very often sets the ISO on 1600 even when there is sufficient light. This especially occurs when you focus on a darker spot. Should I limit that to 800? And does somebody prefer e.g. the 'portrait mode' when shooting a portrait or do you stick to the P, A, S or M mode for that?
If it's outdoor and in bright sunshine, I usually shoot with a ISO 200. I think it could be your EV. I am usually on Center weighted or Full matrix. Do you mean that E-portrait mode? I think if you shoot in RAW, you can use Aperture priority to control the amount of DOF then in Master/Viewer use the E-portrait to touch up the photograph.
No I mean Portrait under the Scene options. But my general question is whether or not the scene modes are usefull or that you rather should prefer the use of P, A, S or M modes in order to make good pictures.
ISO: Anywhere between 200-1600. 400 and 800 are happy places for me. Picture mode: As others have eluded, this is a matter of personal preference, really. I'm dialed onto iEnhance. Mode: As I am admittedly a photography nub, I've been forcing myself to stay in A mode and make adjustments to my aperture, ISO and white balance.
I'm not a subject matter expert by any means but these are the general settings/guidelines that I use. ISO: AUTO (200-3200) Picture Mode: Natural Mode: P, A, S, M Depending on the shot/composition, I tinker with aperture or shutter speed values with an eye on the ISO level keeping it as low as possible. I absorb and understand concepts better when I'm able to distill down my changes to one or two parameters. I set the picture mode to be natural and turn off noise reduction/filter as I do some minor post processing.
Scene mode is actually good as a guide. When I first got into using my E-330, those scenes mode do help me a great deal in my photography. Slowly, I moved away from it as I began to learn the finer points. BUT that scene mode is always set at Digital IS.(DIS) As an example, in DIS, what the camera does is that it use your focal length and calculate a suitable hand holdable speed. To do that, it will open the Aperture to the max, then compensate with the ISO till what it thinks is the most suitable hand holdable speed. BUT this of which is 1/(2X focal length) of a sec. Such as at 150mm, a suggested hand holdable speed should be 1/300s And that is what the camera will give you. In fireworks mode, the camera will switch on that noise filter and noise reduction. All this can be done via A S M. but having said that, if you need to shoot a scene fast and have no time to fiddle with the settings, switch to the appropriate scenes mode then fire away. That was also the reason my upgrade from my E-330 was to an E-30 and not that E-3.
One other question. In a photomagazine I saw that a lot of pictures were taken with ISO set on 100. They also wrote that ISO100 was a good setting for making sharp pictures. Of course I also like to make sharp photo's, but I thought ISO100 was not advised on the E-PL1, and instead a setting of ISO200 or higher was recommended for this camera. Is latter correct?
I'm not familiar with any information out about ISO 100 not being advised on this camera. Where did you read or hear that? Sharpness has to do with more than just ISO, that's for sure...but I don't understand why an ISO of 100 would ever be considered as a negative when it comes to sharpness but I tend to go to the opposite end of the ISO spectrum quite often where most people might worry about too much "noise".
The reason ISO100 was not advised on the EPL1 was not because you loose sharpness, it was because the dynamic range would then be restricted (or something like that)
My advice is to ignore it and just take your photos and see what you think. I don't even know what the lowest ISO setting I have taken a photo at. But I tend to be more of a laissez-faire sort of photographer...at least in some ways.
