Olympus E-PL1 Modes & Menus

Olympus E-PL1 Modes and Menus

Olympus E-PL1 Capture Mode

When powered on, the camera is automatically placed into Record mode. The Exposure Mode dial on top of the camera sets the main shooting mode, with the following options:

•  Program AE (Program Shift): This mode places the camera in control over both aperture and shutter speed, while the user has access to all other menu functions. Pressing the Exposure Compensation (Up Arrow) button once readies the camera for Program Shift mode, indicated by a Ps icon on the LCD display or EVF. Subsequent Up or Down arrow presses step through a range of equivalent exposure settings, while Left or Right arrow presses adjust exposure compensation. Program Shift is cleared by adjusting the exposure back to the values originally selected by the camera.
•  Aperture Priority: Puts the user in control of the aperture setting while the camera selects the best shutter speed. (The aperture range varies with the lens in use.)
•  Shutter Priority: The opposite of Aperture Priority, this mode allows the user to set the shutter speed, from 1/2,000 to 60 seconds, while the camera selects the most appropriate aperture setting.
•  Manual: Provides complete user control over the exposure, including both aperture and shutter speed settings. A Bulb shutter setting also becomes available in this mode, allowing variable length exposures for as long as you hold down the shutter button, up to a maximum of 30 minutes.
•  Movie Mode: Used for shooting HD (1,280 x 720) or SD (640 x 480) movies at 30 frames per second with monaural sound (unless using the optional stereo microphone jack adapter). A menu allows Program, Aperture Priority or Manual modes to be used, as well as the one of the six available Art Filters.Most of the art filters reduce the capture frame rate, causing the live preview and captured video to appear jerky.The Diorama art filter is particularly strongly affected, and curiously, is played back at roughly 15x realtime speed. Hence audio recording is disabled when using this filter.
•  Scene Mode:This mode provides access to the 19 preset shooting modes via a scene menu. Scene modes available are: Portrait, e-Portrait, Landscape, Landscape + Portrait, Sport, Night Scene, Night + Portrait, Children, High Key, Low Key, DIS Mode, Macro, Nature Macro, Candle, Sunset, Documents, Panorama, Fireworks, and Beach & Snow.
  
•  Art Filters: This mode accesses the six available Art Filter modes: Pop Art, Soft Focus, Grainy Film, Pin Hole, Diorama and Gentle Sepia. As in movie-mode, frame rate is adversely impacted when using most art filters, and the diorama effect in particular causes a very slow refresh rate for live view.
  
•  Intelligent Auto: This mode gives the camera control over most exposure variables: The E-PL1 analyses the scene and automatically selects from Portrait, Landscape, Macro, Sports, Night Scene, and Night Scene Portrait exposure modes. The user can still adjust image resolution / compression, aspect ratio, drive mode, image stabilizer, focus mode / point, and whether the flash should fire automatically, or be suppressed
  
  A Live Guide function accessed by pressing the Start / OK button allows 15-step control over saturation, hue, brightness, aperture, and shutter speed -- all accomplished with vertical sliders and "friendlier" terminology. For example, instead of Aperture, we have a "Blur Background" slider, labeled "Blur" at the top, and "Sharp" at the bottom. There's also a separate section of Shooting Tips, with advice on how to capture attractive images.

Movie Record Button: Pressing this dedicated movie record button will start and stop movie recording. Confusingly, in all but two exposure modes, the movies will be recorded using Program autoexposure, regardless of what modes are currently selected on the Mode dial, and in the Custom menu's Movie Mode setting. The sole exceptions are the Art Filter and Movie mode positions on the Mode dial. In the Art Filter mode, the movie will be recorded with the same art filter type as used for still images, overriding the Custom menu Movie Mode setting. In Movie mode, the custom menu setting will determine which exposure mode to use. The Movie Record button can be enabled or disabled, or used for something other than movie recording, via a Custom menu setting. (It's also possible to use the Function button as a Movie Record button, if the function of the Movie Record button itself has been changed.) If the Movie Record button is disabled and movie recording not assigned to the Function button instead, then the Shutter Release button initiates movie recording in the PL1's Movie mode, and movie recording becomes impossible in all other modes.

In Playback mode, the Movie Record button serves as a dedicated Protect button, marking images to be protected from deletion, or clearing the protection marker. (This doesn't protect images from deletion if the flash card is formatted, however.)

Playback Mode: The Playback button on the rear panel accesses Playback mode, where you can review captured images. The left and right arrow keys scroll forward and backward one image at a time, while the up and down keys scroll ten images at a time. You can enlarge captured images or display them in an index format for quick viewing. It's also possible to convert Raw images to JPEGs, perform basic editing functions such as cropping and red-eye fix, view a slideshow, and protect or delete images.

Olympus E-PL1 Menus

Pressing the Menu button provides access to the camera's full menu system. The following options are available in most camera modes as menu tabs at the left of the display:

Record Menu 1:

Record Menu 2:

Playback Menu:

Custom Menu:

Setup Menu: