E-PL5 mysets

Olympus MySets and Mode Dial Assignment

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For the first time Olympus has made MySets extremely useful by enabling them to be assigned to the Mode dial. To date E-PL5, E-PL6, E-PL7, E-P5, E-M1, E-M10, E-M10ii and E-M5ii have this feature, so it will be there on all new bodies it seems, it is not on the original E-M5 unless they get generous with firmware updates.
Any four Mode dial spots can have the 4 MySets assigned to them.
The Pen-F has deliberate C1 to C4 dial spots marked and out of the box C3 and C4 have Art and Scene assigned, the user can change those to more useful custom setups, I am not familiar with Pen-F workings so you need to explore that yourself.
The assigned MySet mode not need to match the Mode dial spot function, the assigned MySet completely replaces the Mode dial function.
If, say, the MySet was an Aperture priority mode set then it can be assigned to any of the 8 or 9 positions of the Mode dial and thus making that Mode dial spot into an A mode spot.

First we'll cover how to use the MySets: (how to assign them to the Mode dial is below)

Set the Mode dial to the way you want to use the camera, it may be A mode or M or whatever, then choose the most likely settings you would use for your normal shooting, when happy with the way the camera is set up then store that to a MySet.

The Up/Down/Right/Left are of course the direction buttons of the control dial. Turning the dial also moves the selection but here we will stick to the four direction buttons.

Press the Menu button to go to Shooting Menu 1. (menu grabs via USB video recorder, so are 4:3 ratio instead of usual 16:9 ratio seen on this E-PL5 LCD, other cameras may have 3:2 screens, other cameras may have slight variations to the display compared to the E-PL5 used here).
Go right then Down to Reset/Myset.
Go Right to get into the Reset & Myset menu. If nothing has been stored in any or all of the MySets then the words "No Data" appear instead of the "Set" in each case. The Reset option has two alternatives and you need to read the full user manual (on CD or download) to see what it does. Here we are concerned with the MySets so we'll press on.....
If you go Down now to select one of the MySets then at this point if you press OK it will load the previously stored MySet back into the camera and make them the current camera settings. We are currently trying to store our newly made MySet so we need to move to the next screen......
Go Right again to get to this screen where we see the word "Set" for the second time. This time the "Set" means that the current camera settings will be stored into this MySet. Don't be confused, the first "Set" you see in the screen just above means that you will retrieve the previously stored MySet, the second "Set" that you see as in this screen means that you will store camera settings into the MySet and over-write what was previously in that MySet.
The second option (go Up or Down) in the above screen is this where we see Reset, this Reset clears out the MySet and leaves it blank so will show "No Data" next time into the menus. As shown on the bottom line of the camera screen, in all cases use the Menu button to back out of the menus without changing anything, or to back out after you have changed something.

When you have decided on your MySets and what functions they will perform, then it is time to assign them to the Mode dial to make them so much easier to use. After assignment if the dial is left on a spot that has a MySet assigned to it then at turn on of the camera that assigned MySet is loaded to that dial spot. If during shooting you twist the dial to or away and back to an assigned spot then the MySet is reloaded to that spot and any temporary changes are reset to what the MySet settings are.

If you have an A mode MySets assigned to the iAuto spot then that spot on the dial is now a true A mode spot and all the usual A mode operations and changes can be done, just the same as if the dial was at the A spot. The difference being that we can twist the dial away and back (or turn the camera off then on) and the MySet will be put back and any temporary changes are lost.

We need to use the Custom Menu, if not already enabled then read the notes in the Comments page.

Press Menu, then Down a few times to get to the Custom Menu, the Gear Wheels Menu.
Then Right and Down to B Button/Dial menu item
Then Right again to get to the Button/Dial menu.
Then Down to the last item, Mode Dial Function Or of course here in this menu you can go Up one from the top line and it wraps to the bottom line.
Go Right again to see where to assign the MySets. When first here all the MySets will have "Off" against them showing that no MySets are assigned to any Mode dial spots. Select which MySet you are to assign. Here on this screen we see how my MySets are assigned already.
Once a MySet is selected then go Right again to get to the assignment screen, at first you may see only "iAuto" and "Off", so go Up or Down to see more of the list as shown on the second screen here and press OK when you have selected the Mode dial spot that you want that particular MySet assigned to. The choices are the full set of 8 or 9 dial spots plus the choice of "off" to deassign the MySet from any dial spot. To make the, say, assigned A spot back into a regular A spot then turn the assigned MySet Off and then you can use the A mode spot as you like, when finished and want your stored settings back then re-assign the MySet to the A spot and the MySet is back and working again.

Caution: When using MySets assigned to the Mode dial, the Fn button custom settings seem to end up as the last one changed. The Mode dial button assignments do not agree with the manual's chart (that is, that all can be stored to MySets, but they can't if on the Mode dial). Only the MySets accessed via the menus do retain their button settings. Not a problem if all the MySets on the Mode dial use the assignable buttons in the same fashion, it is a problem if you need to have the Fn and other buttons assigned to different tasks as you swap MySets on the Mode dial.

In my case I have a P mode MySet assigned to the P spot for poor light desperation shooting, an A mode with no stabilisation assigned to the A spot for everyday good lighting, the same A mode set but with IBIS on and Lens IS Priority on assigned to the S spot (S for me now means Stabilised), and an M mode setup for flash use assigned to the M spot. But that may change over time as I find what works for me. I'm always tinkering with the settings within each MySet and it is an easy task to rewrite the MySet (go to the second "Set" that you see as noted above) and then that change is immediately seen at the Mode dial spot, no need to reassign it after any internal MySet changes.

So as seen I have assigned my PASM spots to be AAAM spots, but I could just as easily used up the iAuto, Art etc spots that I never seem to use. I just thought it more logical to use the already familiarly named spots as being easier to remember for their purpose.

The basic details are now on a label stuck on the LCD hinge so all I need to do is to lift the LCD a bit to see which MySet serves which purpose.

Slowly I will add ideas, that is, other peoples' ways of using MySets and Mode dial.

Bill Booz has an enlightening page about discovering how useful this feature is, he also links back to here, so please don't get yourself into a perpetual loop. :-)

Here's the first from the DPReview Micro Four Thirds Talk forum by John (JCB123)

A = Aperture priority with ISO = 200, IS off, small AF target area
P = Aperture priority with Auto ISO
ART = Aperture priority with 5 shot bracketing
Scene = Shutter priority, with default shutter speed 1/1000.

Another from Walter K in the DPReview M4/3 forum on E-M1.

(All were set in Aperture Priority with AutoISO up to 3200 max)

MySet1: S-AF, drive set for 1 Shot. Assigned to Scene Mode.
MySet2: C-AF, drive set for Low, 6.5 fps. Assigned to Art Mode.
MySet3: C-AF Tracking, drive set for Low, 6.5 fps. Assigned to iAuto Mode.
MySet4: S-AF, Face + Closest Eye, drive set for 1 Shot. Assigned to P Mode.

These of course will change as needs and experience change, it is a good initial setup to see how useful the AF modes are.

Another set from mshafik in DPReview M4/3 forum on E-M1.

Myset 1: aperture priority, lowest ISO, IS on, face detection with near eye on, smallest focus point, normal color profile, single shot anti-shock 0, with L release set to 3 fps, and high to 7 I think. This is my standard shooting mode, this myset is set to A on the mode dial, so that if I go crazy in other modes (usually manual mode), I always return to this without having to reset my settings.

Myset 2: aperture priority, lowest ISO, IS off, no face detection, large focus point set to center, center-wieghted metering, CAF, drive set to L @ 6 fps. This is my focus tracking mode, and it's still under development. This is set to iAuto on the mode dial.

Myset 4: this is my movie shooting mode, shutter priority @ 1/50th, auto ISO, muted picture style with all sharpness, contrast and saturation set to their lowest setting, IS off (assuming tripod use), face detection off, manual focus. This is where I need the red button to start movie recording, I have it set to magnify in other modes. This mode is set to the dial position just after the movie mode, the one with 3 squares.

Myset 3: this is my handheld movie shooting mode, same as above but with CAF, face detection and IS all on. I set this to the mode dial position SCN.

In the same vein I will re-list my own E-PL5 setup.

A = Aperture priority with auto ISO, limit often 800 up to maybe 1600, IBIS off, small central AF target area (always). Control Mode S-AF Mode 2, RAW+jpeg at 16:9
S = same as above but with IBIS on and Lens IS Priority on. RAW+jpeg at 16:9 (thus S means Stabilised dial spot for me).
M = Manual mode, ISO 400, designed for flash use but also for occasional non-flash M mode use. RAW+jpeg at 16:9. MF Mode 3.
P =A mode max aperture, auto ISO with limit 25,600, stabilisation on, jpeg = Monochrome. RAW+jpeg at 16:9 (thus P means Pathetic light for me)

Thus A spot for general shooting, S spot if I need stabilisation, M spot when I attach the flash, P spot for those hopeless situations where any shot will do. That P spot is monochrome so I quickly see if I have accidentally bumped away from the A spot. The Fn button assigned to AEL/AFL but used for AEL. The Red button assigned to 2x digital tele converter.

Added to this is my E-P5 setup as there's now no need to use the lens stabilisation, and I can leave the E-P5 5 axis IBIS on for all shots, whether hand-held or tripod, with no ill effects found so far.

iAuto is MySet 1 - A mode, f/5.6, ISO 200 for usual daylight shots, most times with 12-40/2.8 lens attached.
Art is MySet 2 - A mode, f/4.0, auto ISO limit 1600, for dimmer conditions.
Scene is MySet 3 - A mode, f/2.8, auto ISO limit 6400, for very dim light.
PhotoStory is MySet 4 - A mode, f/2.8, auto ISO limit 25,600, for no light at all basically.

The usual PASM spots are left untouched so they can be used as normal. All of this means that my dial now is really a P/A/S/M/Movie/A/A/A/A dial. I made a new dial top and stuck that over the original so I have a clue as to what I'm doing.

Last change Jun 1, 2016

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