This post is for OM System OM-1 Mark 1 (OM-1) users. It documents most of my OM-1 settings, particularly for exposure and auto focus, and, in some cases, the rationale for choosing them. My intent is to provide context so that readers can decide if a setting choice aligns with their desired outcomes and\or shooting style, or not.  No use wasting someone’s time trying out a setting or combination of settings, if the person has a very different set of use cases. For example, these are settings I use in a very mobile style. I do not shoot from blinds (hides). If I did, I am sure I would tweak the settings accordingly.  

I have included some recent shots to break up the monotony.

I will start with some broad ‘Guiding Principles’ that influence my setting decisions. The word ‘guiding’ is used to avoid coming across as establishing a rule. In fact, I try to present a case for why some conventional wisdom that has morphed into rules, needs to be reconsidered when setting up an OM-1, or any recent generation camera for that matter. You are welcome to go directly to the settings sections. But I do think knowing why I choose a setting or combination of settings helps you adjust them to better settings for the conditions you encounter on an actual day in the field. And, by the way, I think this understanding is critical even for the default settings, if not more. Too many photographers new to the OM-1 get bad results because they rely on shooting wisdom from past learning and shooting experiences from other times and systems. Yes, there is a performance difference with other systems, especially ‘full format’, but the gap can almost always be overcome with settings adjustments and wise use of post processing workflow.

Guiding Principles

Start Getting Ready At Home

I want to arrive in the field with camera settings as close as possible for dealing with target subjects and conditions I am likely to encounter. My experience is that fiddling with settings is a sure-fire way to miss decisive moment shots. I have the four Custom Modes ‘pre-programmed’.   C1-C4 are assigned to buttons for quick selection.

I am of course not completely clairvoyant. I have a few settings readily accessible by button, dial, or lever that are likely to need changing. Relevant ones are discussed in each Custom Mode section. There is also the Super Control Panel for quick changes in the field.

To prevent forgetting to return to the assigned settings, these temporary changes to the Custom Modes’ settings are not saved. The settings are reset to the original assignments each time the Custom Mode is accessed (Basic Settings/Image Quality>Custom Mode>Set>Saving Settings>Reset)

To keep in-the-moment thinking about settings to the minimum and attention on ambient lighting, surroundings and composition to the maximum, I use Aperture and Shutter priority modes and the Exposure Compensation dial rather than full Manual. More on this in each Custom setting section below.

More Light On The Sensor, Less Visible Noise In The Published Image

For each shot, I want to put as much light on the sensor as possible while getting the creative look – depth of field and motion freeze or expression – I want for the image. This gives me an exposure (which is aperture + shutter speed) that has the least amount of image shot noise ( best signal-to-noise ratio) before I push ISO up if I need to brighten the image. Thus, completing the catchy, but misnamed, Exposure Triangle.   

Counter to the conventional wisdom often offered by well-intentioned advise givers, ISO does not change the sensitivity of the sensor. That is set at the factory and is calibrated to base ISO.  Neither does raising ISO itself create noise. It does, however, add gain (boost the pixel brightness data) and amplify any shot noise in the exposure. Making it more visible in the final image, especially in lifted shadows.

If you have good exposure (proper or not depends on the creative outcome you desire), you can push ISO quite high. I am comfortable shooting 12,800 if needed and get an acceptable image for post processing, especially with the newer AI denoiser products. This point-of-view is implemented by Exposing to the Right (ETTR).  This technique moves the captured data, as shown on the histogram curve, to the right edge, but not past, and puts as much information as possible about the exposed scene’s light in the file without clipping the highlights. Be warned, that when you preview the image in-camera, it will often look like crap because you are looking at an ‘over exposed’ JPG preview. As long as you did not clip the highlights you can use the Exposure slider (really Brightness slider) in post to bring the image down to the ‘proper’ exposure, proper being the one you want. There are multitudes of information on the Internet covering the pros and cons of ETTR that you can access for your implementation decision.  

There is a practical ETTR constraint for wildlife photographers that must be discussed. How far to go with ETTR is determined by choosing the slowest possible shutter speed that minimizes blur from camera shake and gives the desired effect of freezing subject motion or displaying motion. Too slow shutter speed and motion blur, either camera or subject induced, is introduced into the image. Motion blur cannot be fixed in post without impacting the quality of the shot, regardless of what the software producers claim. You have a better shot at dealing with noise so being conservative with how far to push to the right is wise.

This is why I sometimes call my approach Exposing To The Rightish (ETTRish).

What is conservative shutter speed also needs to be discussed. Shooting wildlife at ‘slow’ shutter speeds is counter to much conventional wisdom that says always shoot wildlife, particularly birds, at a fast shutter – e.g., 1\1000+ – speed to get a ‘sharper’ image. This advice is intended to prevent subject motion blur that softens the image. As is often true, this guidance is often expressed as the generalized Shoot Fast Rule by some photographers. This is a rule that more times than not begs to be broken. If the subject is not moving fast, don’t shoot fast. When you shoot faster than need be, you are giving up light on the sensor. This is lost precious light in the low light settings of dawn and dusk and under forest canopy. Too make up for this loss, ISO is pushed up manually or automatically to get the ‘correct’ exposure. The final image has very visible noise and it is (almost always) blamed on the ISO setting when it is in fact an underexposed capture with a high noise-to-signal ratio brighten by the ISO setting.

Another prevalent piece of wisdom is to always shoot at 1/equivalent focal length to avoid camera\lens shake. This pearl came along before viable in-body (IBIS) and lens stabilization, and in particular the industry leading Olympus\OM-System IBIS and synchronized lens stabilization. Recent generation cameras and lenses can be shot at much lower shutter speeds and be safe from camera shake. How low is the lowest possible shutter speed without camera\lens shake blur? Depends on the photographer’s handholding skillfulness and the camera\lens stabilization technology, but it is far less than 1\focal length rule-of-thumb so experiment and find yours. This is a chance to put more precious light on the sensor.

My ETTRish Implementation

In my implementation of ETTRish, I shoot wide-open 90% of the time. Why? When wide open, I cannot adjust the aperture to put more light on the sensor. It is maxed out. This means that in calculating exposure I have one less thing to think about and can concentrate on the ever critical shutter speed + ISO combination. Plus, wide-open gives the most subject isolation possible for the attached lens. Specific use case exposure settings that get me to wide-open from either S or A mode are covered in the Custom Mode descriptions below.

Shooting wide-open contradicts another ‘rule of thumb’ that persists on the Internet, especially when shooting zoom lenses. Not too long ago and for today’s budget lenses, lenses have a ‘sharpness’ sweet spot one or two stops smaller than wide open (larger F number). Today’s quality lenses, Olympus\OM System Pro series being excellent examples, are sharp wide open. Many kit lenses maintain a good amount of sharpness wide open as well. These extra stops of light from the wide-open apertures lessens captured shot noise that would otherwise be introduced at smaller apertures. This extra noise robs detail when denoised. The net effect is the noise offsets any increased sharpness from stopping down. This is another example of capture as much light as you can when getting the shot and you take less noise into post.

For not-in-flight shots, to get to my desired exposure, my specific approach is to have highlight\shadows warning (‘blinkies’) turned on, focus on the subject and meter (center weighted), turn the Exposure Compensation dial (front dial for me) to increase exposure value until: Highlights blinkies flash and I dial the EV back or the shutter speed drops too low and I up ISO (assigned to top front button).

For each shot, I want to put as many pixels as possible on the subject. In candor, our 20mp is a constraint. There are technical reasons for the sensor to be 20mp (at this point), but that means we have minimal pixels to throw away by cropping. Rather than settings, this is more about field craft and birding skills to get as close as ethically possible to maximize the pixels on subject and relevant surroundings.

Placing an optimal number of focusing points on the subject is also critical. In this case, however, more is not necessarily better. Because of the architecture of the OM-1 sensor, there are 1053 phase detection cross AF points that cover 100% of the frame. These abundant focusing points can be configured in many patterns. Which pattern that is ‘optimal’ depends on several factors related to the use case and the actual terrain and conditions encountered in the field. This is why AF settings are one of the key differences between my Custom Modes.

Some photographers suggest having all focus points turned on or a large focus area constructed from many points is best when Subject (Bird) Detection is turned on. The reasonable rationale is this helps the camera find the subject anywhere in the frame, especially birds in flight. The problem is the Bird Detection can easily find other patterns of lines, shapes, color that look like a bird. So, my approach is different. I do not rely on Bird Detection finding the subject – detecting a bird – for the initial focusing acquisition. Instead, I use small focus point groups, sometimes single point, and point the group\single point at the bird I see and the one that I want to be the focused subject. This does mean that I must keep sharp (pun intended) my old-school camera\lens handling skills for placing the focus point on the subject. But this keeps the AI from wandering around the frame looking for what it thinks I think is a bird, getting distracted, and perfectly focusing on the wrong thing.

I find it helpful to reflect that most birds are hard to detect, and it is difficult for even the most experienced birder or even top-notch predators like Cooper’s Hawks to stay on target. Much less camera software that is just learning what is a bird. Plus, what fun is to just point your lens skyward and press the shutter.

There are several settings that I use across all the custom modes (for example, I shoot RAW and will not cover here. I do not want to preclude the reader from reading the manual and making their own decisions about these general settings 😊  

However, two important common setting is I have Bird Detect On\Off on the AEL button and Back Button Focus (BBF). If AI Bird Detect is getting distracted by branches, leaves, all-of-the above and more that look like birds, I can quickly turn it off and go back to relying on COI (camera operator intelligence). AI is not infallible, most birds have evolved to not be detected, except perhaps during breeding season.

There are hundreds if not more articles on the Internet covering the Whys and Why Nots of BBF. I choose to use it. YMMV.

C4 – Birds In Mostly Open Flight (BIMOF)

Why the enlarged acronym rather than just BIF? It’s because there’s a big difference between a large bird in soaring flight in an open blue or mostly cloudy sky and a ‘Little Brown Job”, small rocket-like bird close to the ground or worse in a forest setting.

I have BIMOF settings assigned to C4. Even though I have the custom modes set to buttons for quick selection, if I know the session is going to be all BIMOF, I choose it on the mode dial because it is next to the Video selection. This way, I can move the mode dial to video anytime that I think a video(s) is captures the moment better than a burst of stills.

Settings:

• S-priority – starting a 1/3200, Auto ISO. The camera’s formula for aperture favors wide open at these shutter speeds in most lighting. Shutter speed is changeable using back dial. Up or down and how much is a judgement call but in general if the subject is a big bird moving slowly with minimum wing flap, or soaring, I’ll go down to 1600 maybe 1000. Small rocket I will go as high as I can and keep ISO not greater than 1600. If the bird is high and the sun is high and bright creating underwings in dark shadows, I will quickly add a stop or two of Exposure Compensation to lift the shadow in-camera (I could lower shutter speed, but EC is under my index finger and is a reflective move after many years).
• AF settings:
  • AF Focus Area Mode Custom C, Size = 9X7 Step 5X5 (Menu>AF page 5>AF Target Mode Settings> C1-4)
  • Focus Mode CAF (do not use CAF+TR), Bird Detect On. This is with the Function Lever in position 1 (Function Lever is set to Mode 2 to change AF mode and AF target, Menu>Operations (Gear) page 1>Function Lever settings). In position 2, the AF Focus Area Mode changes to Custom C, Size = 23X19 Step 8X5 this covers 90% of the frame for open, clear skies
• Sequential Shooting SH2 (25fps)

C3- ProCapture For Birds Taking Off, Landing, Or Possibly Doing Something Unpredictable But Interesting While Flying

I’m not going to describe ProCapture and how it works. It’s clearly detailed on numerous sites and yes, even in the manual. My settings attempt to get the decisive moment and a couple of in-flight moments before the subject leaves the frame.

Settings:

• S-priority – 1/3200, Auto ISO. I seldom change shutter speed unless I desperately need more light then I’ll lower the shutter speed. If there is extra light I’ll raise the shutter speed. Taking off or landing is when there is a lot of bird speed, especially wingtips.
• AF Settings
  • AF Focus Area Mode Custom C (see above)
  • Focus Mode CAF (do not use CAF+TR), Bird Detect On. This is with the Function Lever in position 1 (Function Lever is set to Mode 2 to change AF mode and AF target, Menu>Operations (Gear) page 1>Function Lever settings). In position 2, the AF Focus Area Mode changes to Single for birds in cover
• Sequential Shooting ProCap SH2 (Pre-shutter 10, Limiter 30, Menu>Camera1 page 7>Sequential Shooting Sequence Settings)

C2 – Birds On Perches In Mostly Open Cover

C2 is for birds not in-flight and going about their daily routines, which is often perched and preening. Or, foraging in which case you are desperately trying to catch them when they pause for a nano-second.

• A-priority – F4, this my fastest long telephoto and the camera will automatically adjust if I have a slower lens mounted, Manual ISO changeable with bottom front button. Which ISO to start is a judgement call but the lower the better without dropping shutter speed below 1/160.
• Focus Point – Small
• Focus Mode CAF, Bird Detect On
• Silent Sequential Shooting Low

C1 – Birds In Deep Cover

C1 is for the times when the bird is doing its natural best to not fall prey to a predator, for example, me and my camera. What I am trying to do is thread the tiniest opening and lock a single focus point somewhere on the bird, hopefully the head.

• A-priority – F4 (see above), Manual ISO 1600 but will go up to 3200 if shutter speed stays above 1/160 or 1/250. If this is not possible I move on.
• Focus Point – Single
• Focus Mode SAF, Bird Detect Off
• Silent Single Shot

There you have it. If you have questions or suggestions for improvement, please use the contact page.