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| Image by Olympus |
Just a very short note to let you know that the instruction manual for the new Olympus OM-D E-M1 is ready for download. HERE. You’ll find links to versions in English, Spanish, and French.
Soon, there should be links for a Brochure, FAQs, and Software, but those aren’t ready yet.
“Back Button Focusing” refers to a way to engage autofocus (AF) on your camera separately from the shutter button. In practice, it allows you to use AF and then automatically fall back to MF to be able to expose, compose, and shoot without worrying about the focus changing when you actually shoot. Personally, I don’t always want to shoot this way … I may want to have everything (focus, exposure, and shot) happen quickly with a simple press of the shutter button. But for those times I do want this, here’s how I set up the E-M5.
There are many ways to set up the various customizable buttons on the E-M5, so please just consider this as a guide. This is just how I do it and I’m sure many of you will find different setups may work better for you.
First, I go into Custom Setup (Gear icon) > AF/MF > AEL/AFL where I set the modes for focusing to S1/C2/M3. The numbers refer to different modes, which in this case means Mode 1 for single AF which enables the shutter button to do AEL/AFL. Mode 2 for Continuous AF, starts focus at a half press and locks exposure and focus when the shot is taken. Then Mode 3 for MF sets the shutter button to AEL when half pressed and then takes the shot when fully depressed.
The next step is to assign buttons for focusing and for switching between AF and MF. So get back into the menus, Custom Setup (Gear icon) > Button/Dial > Button Function. Once there, I set Fn1 Function to MF and Fn2 Function to AEL/AFL. And that’s it! 🙂
Now, when I’m in MF, I just press the Fn2 Button to autofocus (after which the camera is still in MF) and then compose and take the shot. So the camera stays in MF, but momentarily switches to AF when the Fn2 Button is pressed. The beauty of this is that if you need to tweak the focus, a small twist of the focus ring takes care of it. Very nice!
If for whatever reason I decide to have it all happen with the shutter button, I just press Fn2 and the camera switches into S-AF and stays there until I change it. I would use this in more fluid situations like street shooting or maybe candids of the grandkids when I don’t want them to pose but rather try to catch them “in action”.
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I’ve written previous posts about setting up the E-M5 (Customizing the Olympus OM-D E-M5), but of course that’s always a work in progress as you learn more about any camera. Also, as you move from one project to another, your requirements may change, so flexibility is the word of the day. 🙂 However, to be able to be flexible and make the changes to your cameras setup as necessary, you must also have a thorough knowledge of what your camera is capable of and how to take advantage of those capabilities.
The Friedman Archives Press has just released two new titles. One is for the Sony RX100Mk2 and the other is the Spanish translation of the Sony Nex 5R and 6 ebook. These new releases add to an already impressive list of great books about almost all of Sony’s Alpha and Nex cameras.
The Sony Nex cameras are known for their excellent wireless flash capability. But did you know you could make it work with the built-in Pop-Up flash?
The “normal” way to do wireless is to use at least two external Sony flashes like the older HVL-F20AM ($128) as a trigger and the new HVL-F43M ($398) as a slave. (I still haven’t seen anything to indicate that the new HVL-F20M can function as a wireless trigger.) So there you are $526 into it … a bit expensive for my blood.
Well, I just discovered that the Nissin Di466 ($138.50 on Amazon) can function as a remote flash while using the Nex-7’s pop-up flash. Very cool! I actually got this flash to use with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 and it is advertised to be compatible with Olympus and Panasonic Four Thirds cameras. On those cameras it will also work “on camera” whereas with the Sony it will not. Still, $140 for a wireless flash “system” sure sounds better than almost $530! 🙂
One caveat: The Nissin will not work in TTL mode like this so you must shoot in manual flash. The camera can be in any mode that will fire the pop-up flash, but you may need to adjust the Nissin’s output.
It’s so easy, too. Just pop-up the camera’s flash, set the Nissin appropriately and fire away. You don’t even need to change the flash mode to wireless (actually, it’s not even available).
I’ve had the Nissin Di466 for a few months and it has worked great. It has simple controls and excellent recharge times with good batteries (4 AAs required). There only four buttons and three indicator lights so it’s a piece of cake to use. There’s an On/Off Button and the Pilot Button/Light which shows its “ready to fire” status and also doubles as a test flash button. Then there’s an exposure compensation Rocker Switch which you use to either compensate exposure or set the manual exposure value. The other tiny button lets you switch between Auto, Manual, and Slave (two modes, S1 and S2). With the Nex-7, I use S1 so it knows to fire when it sees a flash and doesn’t try to communicate with the camera.
There is another advantage to using this flash for wireless … it fires almost instantaneously when you press the shutter button. As good as Sony’s system is, there is one slight problem. When using Sony flashes in a remote operation, there is a delay of approximately 1/2 to 1 full second from the time you press the shutter until the photo is actually taken.
Good results on a budget just aren’t all that hard to accomplish if you just look around a little bit and see what’s available.
Note: This flash will probably fire wirelessly with just about any camera and flash. I got it to fire by just using another flash (off camera) and doing a test fire and … boom … it fired!
As always, your comments and suggestions are greatly appreciated and please feel free to “Fav”, “Tweet”, and “+1 or share” on Google+ or anywhere else.
Thanks,
Mike
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| Sony-NEX-5R ready to shoot a copper pot with the iPhone wirelessly tethered. |
Most of you wouldn’t be familiar with these lyrics: “Paranoia strikes deep, into your life it will creep …”. It was from a popular song written in 1966 by Buffalo Springfield called For What It’s Worth, but it still rings true, today, as I found out in a local grocery.
I live in a relatively small neighborhood and sometimes I take my camera out for a walk. Often, I’ll stop by one of the local stores to see what’s interesting, photographically speaking. What I like about the super markets is they have great lighting and are full of all kinds of detailed patterns and bright colors – perfect for photography. And the one I frequent most seems to be struggling because there are almost never very many people there so it just makes it easier to take photos relatively unimpeded … usually.
This morning was different. I was wandering around snapping a few photos, some of their “secret” stuff like apples and apricots, when I was approached by a manager asking what I was doing. So I told him and showed him the last few shots which were very colorful (apples) and competely benign – not incriminating in any way. He said they have to be careful and on the “lookout” for competitors and/or journalists, but then was nice enough to tell me I was okay and maybe just ask in the future. Okay, I guess I can understand that, but still ….
So, what is going on in our society? I’ve noticed other times when people would look at me with that concerned frown on the their face as they wondered, “Who’s the guy with the camera and what is he up to?” I’m not “up to” anything. I’m just a photographer out looking for some interesting images. If I were doing something nefarious, I wouldn’t use a nice camera, I’d use an 8MP iPhone, get great images and no one would ever know – or wonder. Maybe it’s just that I look intimidating. A 63 year old with a slight (very slight 🙂 paunch, grey hair, not tall and obviously not in great shape is a scary sight. Yeah, that’s got to be it. hehe.
I guess I’ll just start asking permission but then that makes me think of a couple of quotes:
“If you can’t take the answer, then don’t ask the question.”
“It’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.”
Y’all have a great day!
The apples and the balloons were shot with the Olympus OM-D E-M5, using the Panasonic Lumix 12-35mm f/2.8 lens.
