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Olympus C-4000 Zoom

Olympus introduces a top-of-the-line four-megapixel model with superb *configurability* great image quality, and an impressively low price.

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Page 9:Camera Modes & Menus

Review First Posted: 8/27/2002

Camera Modes & Menus


Scene Program / Movie Mode: Accessed by turning the Mode dial to the movie camera symbol, this mode allows you to capture movies without sound for up to 33 seconds in high-quality mode, or 148 seconds in low-quality mode. Shutter speed is automatically set from 1/8,000 to 1/30 second Movie mode, depending on light levels. This dial position also lets you select between a range of preset Scene shooting modes, including Self-Portrait, Night Scene, Landscape / Scene, Landscape / Portrait, Sports, and Portrait modes. Limited exposure options are available in each mode. You select the various sub-modes via the C-4000's "Virtual Dial" LCD-based interface.


Aperture Priority: Lets you select the desired lens aperture (in varying increments, from f/2.8 to f/11), while the camera adjusts the shutter speed to achieve the correct exposure. If the required shutter speed is beyond the camera's capabilities, the shutter speed / aperture status numbers in the LCD will flash red.

Shutter Priority: Lets you select the desired shutter speed (in varying increments, from 1/1,000 to four seconds), while the camera adjusts the aperture to achieve the correct exposure. If the required aperture is beyond the camera's capabilities, the shutter speed / aperture status numbers in the LCD will flash red.

Manual Mode: Lets you select both the desired aperture (f/2.8 to f/11) and shutter speed (1/1,000 to 16 seconds) settings. The onscreen display that normally shows exposure compensation adjustments becomes an exposure meter, showing the amount of under- or overexposure the settings you've selected will result in. If the amount of over or underexposure exceeds +/- 3 EV units, the settings displayed on the LCD screen turn red instead of green, and the display remains at -3 or +3 EV.

"My" Modes 1-4: An interesting feature, which Olympus has brought further than I've seen from other camera manufacturers. You can create up to four custom groups of settings, drawing on the full range of the C-4000's capabilities, and assign them to special "My Camera Modes." These can then be selected in A/S/M/My mode via the Virtual Dial, just like Aperture or Shutter Priority or Manual modes. This strikes me as being very useful, if you're in situations where you're likely to switch quickly between very different shooting conditions. (Indoors vs outdoors at a party or reception, for instance.) I could also see these "My" modes being very handy when used in conjunction with the fine-grained "customization tweak" settings that I mentioned earlier in the review, letting you get just the right combination of contrast, exposure compensation, color saturation, and white balance adjustment dialed in ahead of time, ready for use with a flick of the Virtual Dial. Very slick.


Programmed Exposure: The camera selects both shutter speed and lens aperture, based on existing light conditions and certain camera functions. For example, it uses a faster shutter speed when the lens is in the telephoto position and a slower shutter speed when the lens is in the wide-angle position.


Playback Mode: This mode allows the user to view previously captured images using the Arrow Pad to scroll through frames stored in memory. The Zoom Lever switches the image display to Index mode when moved in the wide-angle direction, and enlarges a single image when moved in the telephoto direction, by zooming in to a maximum of 4x magnification. While zoomed in on an image, the Arrow buttons can be used to move the enlarged view around the full image area, allowing you to inspect all parts of it.

 

Camera Menus

Shooting Menus
When the Menu / OK button is pressed in any shooting mode, the menu screens shown below appear. Menu options vary depending on the actual shooting mode. Depending on the shooting mode you're in and whether you've chosen to reassign their functions or not, three of the top-level menu items are Short Cuts to menu options controlling by default (clockwise from the bottom) Drive, Image Size/Quality, and Aperture/Shutter/Manual (or Self-Timer in Program mode) exposure control. The fourth option takes you to the main Mode Menu itself. Since the destinations of the short cut options are simply sub-levels inside the main mode menu, I'll only show the main Mode Menu screens here.

  • Mode Menu
    • Camera:
      • Self-Timer: Turns the 12-second self-timer mode on or off.
      • Drive: Sets the camera's capture mode to Single, Sequence, AF Sequence, or Auto Bracketing capture modes.
      • ISO: Sets the camera's ISO sensitivity to Auto, 100, 200, or 400.
      • Flash Intensity (+/-): Adjusts the flash intensity from -2 to +2 EV in one-third-step increments.
      • Flash: Sets the camera's flash system to Internal + External or External only.
      • Slow Synchro: Selects between Slow Synchro 1, Slow Synchro with Red-Eye Reduction, and Slow Synchro 2. The Slow Synchro modes combine the flash with long shutter times, to allow more of the ambient light to influence the exposure. Slow synchro 1 & 2 differ in that 2 fires the flash at the end of the shutter period (second curtain sync), while 1 fires it at the beginning (first curtain sync).
      • Noise Reduction: When turned on, this function reduces the image noise in long exposures.
      • Multi Metering: Sets up the camera to combine up to eight selectable spot meter readings of a scene to determine an average exposure setting. NOTE that this mode is only available if the camera's metering has been set to Spot, via the macro/spot button on the camera's rear panel, and if the AEL function has been assigned to the Custom button on the camera's rear panel.
      • Digital Zoom: Turns the Digital Zoom function On or Off.
      • Full-time AF: Sets the camera's autofocus mechanism to operate continuously (On) or only when the Shutter button is halfway pressed (Off).
      • AF Mode: Sets the camera to Digital ESP or Spot autofocus modes.
      • Super Macro: Turns Super Macro mode on or off, which extends the Macro focus range to distances as small as 0.7 inches or 2.0 centimeters.
      • Panorama: Activates the Panorama shooting mode. (Available in P/A/S/M modes only, and only with Olympus-branded SmartMedia cards.)
      • 2 in 1: Enables "2 in 1" mode, which captures two individual images and saves them as one split-screen image.
      • Function: Lets you select between Black-and-White, Sepia, White Board, and Black Board exposure options.
      • AF Area: Available only in Spot AF mode, this lets you specify the actual AF spot area from among the five available.
      • Info: Turns on an additional shooting information display on the LCD monitor, or disables it.
      • Histogram: Enables the histogram display in shooting mode.
    • Picture:
      • Quality: Sets the camera's image quality to SQ1 (Standard Quality), with a choice of 2,048 x 1,536-, 1,600 x 1,200-, or 1,280 x 960-pixel resolution, High or Normal compression ratio; SQ2 (Standard Quality 2), with a choice of 1,024 x 768- or 640 x 480-pixel resolution, High or Normal compression ratio; HQ (High Quality), with a choice of 2,288 x 1,712-, 2,288 x 1,520 (3:2 ratio), or (Enlarge) 3,200 x 2,400-pixel resolution; SHQ (Super High Quality), with a choice of 2,288 x 1,712-, 2,288 x 1,520 (3:2 ratio), or (Enlarge) 3,200 x 2,400-pixel resolution; or TIFF (Uncompressed TIFF), with a choice of 2,288 x 1,712-, 2,288 x 1,520- (3:2 ratio), 2,048 x 1,536-, or 1,600 x 1,200-, 1,280 x 960-, 1,024 x 768-, or 640 x 480-pixel resolution. (Movie options are HQ 320 x 240 pixels or SQ 160 x 120 pixels.) (Phew.)
      • White Balance (WB): Sets the camera's white balance to Auto, Preset (Daylight, Cloudy, Incandescent, Daylight Fluorescent, Neutral Fluorescent, or Cool Fluorescent), or Manual white balance options.
      • White Balance Adjustment: Enables you to adjust the Blue and Red levels from +7 (blue) to -7 (red, arbitrary units).
      • Sharpness: Sets the picture sharpness from +5 to -5 (arbitrary units).
      • Contrast: Sets the picture contrast from +5 to -5 (arbitrary units).
      • Saturation: Adjusts the color saturation from +5 to -5 (arbitrary units).
    • Card:
      • Card setup: Formats the SmartMedia card, erasing all images, even the write-protected or Locked images.








    • Set Up:
      • All Reset: Resets the camera to its default settings whenever it's turned off and back on again.
      • Language: Changes the menu language to English, German, French, or Spanish.
      • PW on Setup: Determines what picture is displayed on the LCD screen at startup.
      • PW off on Setup: Just as above, determines what image is displayed when the camera is shut off.
      • Rec View: Turns Rec View On or Off. Rec View displays the most recently recorded image while it is being written to the SmartMedia card.
      • Volume: Sets the camera's beep sound to Off, Low, or High.
      • My Mode Setup: Customizes the specific user settings for each of the four available My Mode settings.
      • File Name: Lets you choose between Auto or Name Reset for recording file names. Name Reset resets the file numbering whenever a new SmartMedia card is inserted, while Auto continues the numbering scheme across cards.
      • Pixel Mapping: Initiates automatic pixel mapping, which checks for bad pixels in the CCD and maps them out. (Bad pixels shouldn't appear very often, and Olympus only recommends running this function once a year.)
      • LCD Brightness: Adjusts monitor brightness using an on-screen scale.
      • Date and Time: Sets the camera's internal calendar and clock.
      • Meters / Feet: Allows you to choose between feet and meters for distance measurement.
      • Video Out: Specifies NTSC or PAL as the video out signal.
      • Short Cut: Enables you to set the three short cut arrows to whatever menu items you want them to represent.
      • Custom Button: Enables you to set the Custom button to whatever menu item you want it to represent.

Playback Mode
Playback Mode is available by turning to the green Playback symbol on the camera's Mode dial, or by depressing the Display button twice in rapid succession in any Shooting mode. The Playback Top Menu has three options, which differ slightly between Shooting (Record) playback and Movie playback:

Still Playback:

  • Info: Changes the amount of exposure information that is displayed with each recorded image. Full information includes battery power (shown only if the batteries are low), image quality, resolution, shutter speed, aperture, exposure compensation, white balance, ISO, and file number. Minimum information includes only the frame number, battery power, and quality setting. Movie files display only the file number until you select the Movie Playback option.
  • Slide Show: Sets up the camera to run an automatic slide show playback of all single-frame recorded images.
  • Histogram: Displays a histogram of the tonal distribution for the captured image.
  • Movie Play: This replaces the Play option in the Playback mode's top menu during movie playback:
    • Movie Playback:
      • Playback: Plays back the movie file.
      • Frame by Frame: Sets up manual movie playback in which you can scroll through the movie with the left and right arrow buttons.
      • Exit: Takes you out of the Movie Playback function.
    • Index: Brings up a 9-image index of individual frames from the movie. You can change the positions of the starting and ending frame by using the left and right arrow keys. You can optionally save the index display as a separate still-image file. (See the description of Movie Mode under the Exposure section of this review for more details.)
    • Edit: Allows you to scroll through the movie and clip frames off the beginning and end of the file.

  • Mode Menu: Brings up three Playback sub-menus:
    • Edit:
      • Reduce Size: Decreases the resolution of the current image. The resized image is saved as a separate file, leaving the original undisturbed. (A second screen gives you options for the size of the final file.)







      • Crop:
        Enlarges a cropped portion of the currently displayed image. The zoom lever changes the size of the crop box, while the arrow keys position it on the image. The minimum size of the crop is limited to about 70% of the original image area. As you "zoom" in one direction or the other continuously, the orientation of the crop rectangle will change from horizontal to vertical and back again, letting you change vertical shots to horizontal ones and vice versa. Once you've cropped as desired, the OK button tells the camera to crop the image as indicated, enlarge it back to the same size as the original, and save it as a separate file. Pretty handy, I like the idea of being able to crop my photos without having to go to the computer to do so.
    • Card:
      • Card Setup: Allows you to erase all images on the SmartMedia card, except write-protected files, or format the SmartMedia card, erasing all images, even the write-protected or Locked images.







    • Setup:
      • All Reset: Resets the camera to its default settings or to set your own custom default settings.
      • Language: Changes the menu language to English, German, French, or Spanish.
      • PW on Setup: Determines what picture is displayed on the LCD screen at startup.
      • PW off on Setup: Just as above, determines what image is displayed when the camera is shut off.
      • Screen Setup: Lets you select a recorded image to be displayed at power up or off.
      • Volume: Sets the camera's beep sound to Off, Low, or High.
      • LCD Brightness: Adjusts monitor brightness using an on-screen scale.
      • Date and Time: Sets the camera's internal calendar and clock.
      • Index Display: Allows you to set the index display to four, nine, or 16 frames.

 

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