My new Olympus OM-D E-M1 must be the most complicated camera I have ever seen. To compensate for this, the instruction manual is almost completely useless. After nearly a year, I'm still working on understanding it, but here I'm accumulating of the things I've changed from the standard settings.

Adjusting the level display

The E-M1 has two level displays, one showing lateral horizontal level, the other showing vertical level. My camera has a strange idea about the horizontal level. To change, select “Level Adjust” from Custom menu K. “Reset” sets the levels to what the camera thinks, which in my case is wrong. “Adjust” sets the level to whatever the current position of the camera is.

How long to display previous image?

An electronic viewfinder has many advantages over a purely optical viewfinder. One is that when you take a photo, it is briefly displayed in the viewfinder, by default for 0.5 s. You can get rid of it sooner by half-pressing the shutter release.

But what happens when you're taking many photos of moving objects? It's really irritating. So, of course, you can turn it off (you can also set the display time to between 0.3 and 20 s). But how? Looking at the overview of the cog menus, it's clear that it belongs in menu D (“Disp/bang/PC):

 

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But no, it's not there. In the past I've spent lots of time looking for it. It's in the “spanner menu” at bottom left on this view:

 

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And the name is “Rec View”. No wonder I couldn't find it.

Undocumented and useless “features”

A number of the features of the camera are so badly documented as to be useless. Here are some I have found:

• Menu A, “C-AF lock”. The only “documentation” I can find is on page 93 of the revision 2 manual:

  When [AF Mode] (P. 75) is set to [C-AF], the AF does not adjust to sudden changes in subject distance. Depending on the sensitivity selected, the time it takes for the AF to adjust will change.

  This has little to do with the settings, which are “High”, “Normal”, “Low” and “Off”. My guess is that “High” means “respond quickly” and “Low” means “respond slowly”.

• Since firmware revision 2.0, navigating the setup menus produces irritating popups:

  
  

  Image title: E M1 menu 1          Dimensions:          4572 x 3044, 1104 kB Make a single page with this image Hide this image Make this image a thumbnail Make thumbnails of all images on this page Make this image small again Display small version of all images on this page All images taken on Wednesday, 30 December 2015, thumbnails          All images taken on Wednesday, 30 December 2015, small Diary entry for Wednesday, 30 December 2015 Complete exposure details

  
   

  To get rid of them, press the Info button (that's what the strange X INFO in bottom centre is trying to tell you):

  
  

  Image title: E M1 menu 2          Dimensions:          3482 x 2328, 736 kB Make a single page with this image Hide this image Make this image a thumbnail Make thumbnails of all images on this page Make this image small again Display small version of all images on this page All images taken on Wednesday, 30 December 2015, thumbnails          All images taken on Wednesday, 30 December 2015, small Diary entry for Wednesday, 30 December 2015 Complete exposure details

  
   

  There's a similar situation with the mode wheels. You can disable that with the menu D “Mode Guide” settings.

• Custom menu H: “File Name”. The only documentation says:

  File Name [Auto]: Even when a new card is inserted, the file numbers are retained from the previous card. File numbering continues from the last number used or from the highest number available on the card. [Reset]: When you insert a new card, the folder numbers starts at 100 and the file name starts at 0001. If a card containing images is inserted, the file numbers start at the number following the highest file number on the card.

  But that doesn't match my experience: when set to “Reset”, the file number goes back to 0 every day. “Auto” seems to be the way to go. It doesn't seem to work the first time round, so you're stuck with a discontinuity.

• Custom Menu H, “Edit Filename” [sic]: Change first character (P) to 1 for this camera.

• Custom menu H: I once set my name in copyright settings. Note that the emetic ABC keyboard doesn't respond to touch. You position on the characters with the arrow keys, select the letter with OK, and finish by moving to END. When firmware 2.0 overwrote the information, I couldn't be bothered to re-enter it.

“Myset” settings

The camera can store 4 different sets of settings, which it calls “Myset”. This is up from the 2 that the E-30 has. On the down side, it's much more difficult to access them. On the E-30 you press two buttons (±EV and ISO) and then select the mode with a wheel. On the E-M1 you have to select menu, right arrow to Shooting Menu 1, down to “Myset”, right arrow, down arrow to the mode you want, press OK, up arrow to answer "Yes”, then OK again, then Menu. Maybe there's a faster way, but it's not documented. Here's how I've set each of the four settings:

Most, probably all, of the settings below can be set from the configuration menus. Press the MENU button to get this display:

 

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This is half-documented in the manual (version 2) starting at page 77. You can get rid of the irritating “help” text by pressing the INFO button. This doesn't seem to be documented anywhere.

Most of the functions are in what Olympus calls “custom” menus. You access them via the icon (press the down arrow 3 times to get there). Then you see this display:

 

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The tiny letters to the left of the texts are the letters I refer to below.

I'm still trying this out, and some of the stuff below may be contradictory. A ! at the beginning of the line means that this is the default setting (or was for firmware versions 3.0).

Myset 1

These are settings for normal photos. They keep getting reset when new firmware updates come in. The sequence is designed to make it easier. In particular, how do you disable this silly popup text that obscures the menus? It's not documented in the “manual”.

Menu		Parameter		Setting		Purpose
Main display		AF target		central
Main menu
		Flash compensation		+1.0 EV
		Flash		Fill-in
		Meter Mode		Centre-weighted
		Focus mode		S-AF+MF
		ISO		200
		Recording format		Raw
A
!		AF Mode video		C-AF		Focus follows subject
!		AEL/AFL		S-AF mode 1
!				C-AF mode 2
				MF mode 3		AEL/AFL button focuses
		MF assist		peaking on, magnify off		Use upper front button for magnify
!		C-AF lock		normal
B		Button functions
!		Fn1		AF ara select
!		Fn2		Multi-function
!		REC		Rec
!		AEL/AFL		AEL/AFL
		Top front		magnify
		Bottom front		focus peaking toggle
		Arrow pad		Direct function
		Arrow right		±EV
		Arrow down		Multi-exposure
D		Displayed Grid		First grid choice
		Mode Guide		Off		Don't display texts when rotating mode dial
		USB Mode		Storage
		Backlit LCD		30 secs
		Power off		30 min
		Live View Boost		Manual: On2
H		File Name		Auto

The remainder of these settings have not been updated since firmware revision 1.1. Various difficulties make use of Myset much less attractive than it might seem.

Myset 2

Settings for non-HDR panoramas. Start with the Myset 1, and change:

Menu		Parameter		Setting		Purpose
		IS off
A		AF Mode still		MF		Manual focus, focus with AEL/AFL
C		Image stabilization		off
B		Fn2		Myset 3		Move to next Myset
?		Aperture		f/8

Myset 3

Settings for HDR panoramas. Start with the Myset 2, and change:

Menu		Parameter		Setting		Purpose
B		Fn2		Myset 4		Move to next Myset
C		Image stabilization		off
Button		HDR		3F/3.0 EV
Button		EV		+1.3 EV		Together, expose -1.7 EV, +1.3 EV, +4.3 EV
?		Aperture		f/8

Myset 4

Peaking Settings for manual exposures with flash. Start with Myset 1, and change:

Menu		Parameter		Setting		Purpose
C		Image stabilization		off
D		Live view boost		On		Don't darken viewfinder
?		Aperture		f/22