Olympus E-M1 Firmware Upgrade; What Features Look Useful?

"Flaming" Red!; Leica Minilux (point-and-shoot film camera), 40mm f/2.4 lens, Kodachrome
(click to enlarge)

Recently, at Photokina, Olympus announced that it was providing a firmware upgrade, version 2.0, for the E-M1 camera.  The official announcement of what is contained in the firmware upgrade can be found here on Olympus' site.

I've been seriously photographing for over 45 years and owned more cameras than I care to remember (you can see a partial list here), but the E-M1 is the camera I wished all my other cameras would have been.  So, when Olympus announced that they were going to add and improve features, that got my attention.

As I previously wrote, when installing the new update almost all of the camera's settings are reset to factory defaults!  I have no rationale why Olympus would do that.  That has never happened with any of my other cameras nor with updating other Olympus cameras.  Just beware of this and prepare to sit down and set all of your settings again.

Here are upgrades, according to Olympus (from their site). The additions/improvements highlighted in yellow on first glance, appear to be of value to my way of photographing.

8 new functions have been added: -Keystone Compensation (Digital Shift)
-Tethered Shooting System (OLYMPUS capture)
-Live Composite photography
-Zoom In/Out and Layout have been added to Photo Story. Save (complete partway through), Temporary Save, and Resume functions have been added to Photo Story mode.
-Vintage and Partial color have been added to art filter.
-Old film effect has been added to movie effect.
-The Aperture Lock function has been added to Aperture Preview.
-The Panning Shot Shooting mode has been added to SCN mode.
16 operability improvements:
-Image display time lag: 16 msec (when frame rate setting is high)
-Multiple simultaneous settings are now available in Live Guide.
-Exposure compensation (±3 EV) is now available in HDR 1/HDR2 shooting.
-A function was added to cancel Color Creator and return to the original Picture Mode by pressing the MENU button when using Color Creator function.
-Even when Art Filter is set for the Picture Mode in movie shooting, the Movie Tele-converter can now be used.
-AF function for each frame was added to Custom Self Timer. In Drive Mode's Custom Self Timer settings, you can now press the INFO button to change settings.
-MF Assist is now supported in magnified frame position.
-3x has been added to high resolution magnified Live View.
-The Peaking display frame rate has been improved.
-Electronic zoom speed setting function was added. An icon appears on the LCD monitor when using the Olympus zoom lens.
-When the arrow pad is set to Direct function, the Underwater/Underwater macro functions can be used with the left and down button on the arrow pad.
-Double tap is now supported in touch operations on the Super Control Panel.
-The level gauge and histogram can now be displayed during magnified frame display. The Touch Off icon was added to magnified frame display.
-A function was added so that shooting information recorded in HDR1/HDR2 can be viewed in the playback screen. Information on composited number of shots for images recorded with Live Composite was added.
-Short-cut access is now supported for Live Composite, Live Bulb, and Live Time setting menus.
-When the BKT button is pressed for seconds, the BKT menu now appears.
OI.Share -OI.Share version 2.4 is supported. 

For example, Keystone Compensation only works with JPEG.  I use only RAW.  However, since this feature is now included, I may try it and use it using JPEG + RAW.  Supposedly, this feature doesn't just adjust the keystoning and crop off the excess pixels, but interpolates and adds pixels.  I may be wrong about this, but I did read this at some point.  I will test it in the near future.

I think the aperture lock could be useful when carefully composing an image with critical depth of field.  I have a function button programmed to actuate the aperture so I can visually see depth of field. This could allow me to lock it and not have to hold in the programmed button.

I didn't have an issue with the EVF lag time, but any improvements are welcomed.  The EVF in this camera is one of the best available.

The additional EV compensation in HDR 1/HDR 2 is welcomed.

The improved focusing aids are certainly helpful.  Critical focus is paramount in all images.

Double-tapping of the SCP (super control panel) may provide some help in not accidentally changing menu items when inadvertently touched.

I like the idea of holding the bracketing button down for a few seconds and the menu appears.  Saves time and effort.  That is a good thing.

So, there you have it.  What I find most helpful is that Olympus is now adopting the Fujifilm policy of going back and providing many improvements on cameras that have already been introduced.  I hope they keep and expand that policy in the future.  The policy has paid off huge dividends for Fujifilm in the way of public relations and customer loyalty.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly.  Thank you.


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