This section is all self explanatory and there’s little we need to dive deep into.

Custom Modes are dealt with in the relevant section. Picture Mode is best set at Natural. Colour settings for Picture Modes do not affect Raw images, only the Jpegs, however exposure settings do affect Raw, so stick with Natural. If you want to use Jpegs feel free to experiment but remember to change it back, or use one of your Custom Modes when they are set, it will default back to natural when you switch off.

I always have Image Quality set to Large Super Fine + Raw, just in case I do want the Jpeg, which usually get deleted but digital film is cheap.

Most of these are Off for obvious reasons, we are not using them yet.

For Anti-Shock set 0 which sets a delay to prevent any shutter shock. 0 is actually a fraction of a second so it’s worth setting.

Silent Mode Settings set all to Not Allow. This disables the focus ‘Beep’ confirmation, AF Illuminator and flash mode so Silent is completely unobtrusive.

High Res set 1/4th second delay which is enough to let the camera settle when using a tripod and shutter release, but not enough to impede hand holding. Max is 30 seconds, useful if you want to use High Res and forgot a release cable. The phone App can be used too.

Leave all at Default – Video is not something I ever use. 

Set Rotate to Off, it’s super annoying. This is the option which rotates portrait orientation images to fit landscape orientation. Far better to be able to rotate the camera for a larger image.

All other settings in this menu can be ignored, there’s nothing that needs to be set.

Set basic AF settings, SingleAF+MF, which will be changed later to suit Custom Modes. AF+MF allows the lens focus ring to be used.

AEL/AFL determine how the AEL interacts with focus modes and is needed for Back Button Focus. Set as shown and see Buttons Section for more detail on BBF. CAF Sensitivity set to 0, it can be changed to suit in a Custom Mode, plus or minus. Centre Start and Priority can be enabled and changed later as needed.

Target means the focus point, whether 1, 3×3 etc, that is the target. Target Mode settings allows which different sets of AF Target Points can be recalled. When switching between a small, medium, cross, 5×5 etc, this setting dictates which are available to select including the 4 custom targets that can be created. There are 9 in total. Some feel it is too much choice so deselect some. I enable the default first 4, and one custom with a smaller step size. See below.

Area Pointer On1 which displays a momentary green focus point when focus is achieved. On2 shows all focus points when a grid is selected which can jump around and can be confusing. On1 is simpler.

Set Home determines if the focus point is returned to a home position when the centre jog button is pressed. Set all and set the point to the centre.

Select Screen Settings looks confusing but it is quite simple. It dictates what function the front/rear wheels and the Direction Pad arrows perform when the focus target is active. Nudge the Joystick and the target is active. There are two Sets that can be created. Choose between selecting the target size options, and moving the position. I set Set 1 with wheels altering Target size, and arrow buttons moving the position. The Joystick still moves focus position too.

Loop, target mode will move off the screen one one side and appear on the opposite side. Off because its annoying.

Target Mode Settings can be used to create Custom Target Groups (which is what it should be called). You can set any you like. Personally I don’t use any, the default small single target suffices for me.

Orientation Linked sets different target modes for portrait or landscape. I leave off, I have no need for it.

AF Target Pad allows the Four position to be set by touch on the rear screen. I leave Off because it can be enabled on the rear screen when needed. It is useful sometime although I never enable the shutter too.

AF Illumination Off although it can be useful in some situations such as low light and macro. Remember the AF Illuminator will shine a red light on the subject from the front of the camera, so if you want to be in stealth mode for candid portraits with silent shutter also switch off the illuminator.

AF Focus Adjust allows fine tuning of the focus. I would not mess with this, focus is factory set and you risk messing the settings up.

Other settings are off because we do not need them and we will enable them in Custom Modes when needed.

I set Starry Sky AF to Accuracy because it is obviously more important than speed. Add it to My Menu if you want to switch between the two. Starry Sky is a good option to set as a default AF for an Astro Custom Mode.

Preset MF allows the distance to be set, we do not need it for general settings. See Custom Modes for setting it to a button in a Wildlife CM.

Setting AF Assist Magnify and Peaking On is very useful. You can change the colour of Peaking is Menu D3. Magnify is best but can be annoying when you don’t see the full frame. Adding Peaking to a button is a hack to get around this, see Buttons, but for now enable it.

Reset Lens, when On the lens is reset to infinity which could be useful when you want the lens to be at infinity, for astro for example. But it is approx, so I set it off, forcing me to find something to focus on for accuracy, I would not rely this.

We will look at customising buttons in detail in the Buttons Section. Have a look at the settings and how they are applied but there’s no need to change anything now.

Set Joystick centre to AF Home, then when moving the focus point it can be returned to the centre (or anywhere you like) quickly with a press.

Make sure the Rear D Pad is set to [AF], we will further customise it in Buttons Section.

Dial Function/Direction leave default unless you want to change them. If you use more than on body make sure any changes are the same on both or you create a headache for yourself.

*FN Lever Mode 2-This appears quite complicated at first. Setting this allows additional options:

1/Changes the front and rear dial to access WB/ISO

2/ Changes Auto Focus Target Modes 3/Swaps between the mode set on the top mode dial (eg PASM) or video mode.

1/ is redundant because we will set buttons to do this and there is an ISO button we won’t change. 3/ is redundant because there is a Video Mode on the dial. Select Mode 2 because it is more useful to set different focus modes and we will need it in Custom Menus and Buttons.

Nothing to be concerned with here. Elec Zoom Speed only applies to power zoom lenses like the Olympus Pancake Zoom. Playback Tick allows multiple options to be selected in playback, eg protect or delete. PBH (Power Battery Holder, or the external grip) and Buttons lock allows functions to be locked against accidental pressing.

This is an item which confuses many.

S-IS Auto is fine and will detect what stabilisation is required, whether utilising the full 5-axis, or just partial. IS1 forces all, however in my experience Auto works fine. IS2 and 3 is for panning and invokes stabilisation up/down or left/right. It is effective but you are best with IS off and using a good panning technique, although do your owns tests. Lenses with Dual IS such as the 12-100 and 300 which have lens IS built in will also sync with the body IS for improved stabilisation, using the lens switch to switch it off switches both body and lens IS off. Do longer lenses need to have IS off on a tripod? My experience is yes. I have tended to leave IS Auto enabled using the 12-100 and 40-150 on a tripod successfully, but on a very few occasions have noticed some images not being sharp. the only factor was IS, so I now switch it off. Other lenses (12-40, 7-14, 8-25) do not need IS Off on a tripod.

Cont. IS I set to Fps Priority, which gives priority to the number of frames. Stabilisation is achieved for the first image but will not reset the sensor to centre to reanalyse stabilisation required for each shot so it will not impact frame rate, and it seems to be the most effective setting for me.

Lens IS Priority only affects Panasonic lenses with an IS Button and need not be worried about for Olympus lenses. As the in-body IS and lens IS on Panasonic lenses can’t sync, giving priority to the lens IS is better. The Olympus 100-400 will use the body roll axis IS and the lens pitch and yaw axis together.

Info Settings are user defined and will need some consideration.

Playback Info – defines what screens and info will be presenter when Info is pressed when viewing recorded images on the card (Playback). Each press of Info cycles through each screen. I enable Image Only, Overall, Histogram, Hightlights & Shadows. Lightbox I don’t need.

Playback Magnify Info – All are selected.

LV Info – defines what screens and info are selected when info is pressed during live view on the screen, it is a great way to set different options.

Image Only > On. Screen is cleared for an uncluttered view. Exposure info only is displayed when the shutter is pressed.

Custom 1> Histogram. Main Screen with all info is shown together with Histogram.

Custom 2> Levels and Shadows/Highlights. Main screen is shown with all info together with the Levels (electronic spirit level) and shadows/highlights warning.

Setting these up gives information you can cycle through with a press of the Info button, worth paying attention to, if you set these and then set Custom Modes, then decide to change them you’ll need to change the Custom Modes too.

LV Off – Enable Shooting Info. When pressing the monitor button to display only the Super Control Panel shooting info (shutter speed, aperture) will still be displayed.

Grid Settings – For Playback, defines the thumbnails displayed or ‘zoomed out’ in Playback when the front wheel is turned, I use 4, 25 and calendar. To scroll though different images on the memory card I can ‘zoom out’ to a grid of 4, 25 or see different days.

Drive/Timer Settings – Defines which drive and self timer options are displayed when the Drive (Continuous) Button is selected. It’s tempting just to set all, but then you have many to scroll through.

Diamond Symbol = Anti Shock which we have already set

Heart Symbol = Silent Shooting.

Enable all on the first screen. On the second and third screen I enable 2 and 12s Timer for Anti Shock and Silent and omit the standard modes (non Anti-Shock/Silent). MAKE SURE YOU ENABLE PRO RES AND HIGH RES OR THEY WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE FROM THE DRIVE BUTTON.

sRGB v AdobeRGB-These are two different colour spaces and you will find many conflicting opinions about them, not to be confused with Color Profiles, Vivid, Natural etc. AdobeRGB has a wider gamut of colours and some prefer to use this, however sRGB is the standard used by nearly all print labs. The internet doesn’t have a colour space as such although most websites use sRGB as do mobile devices. Processing an image in one colour space and then outputting to a different colour space can lead to colour shift. As there is so little difference between the two you will actually see I always use sRGB.

*Image Review Seconds-Controls how many seconds an image displays on the screen or Viewfinder when taken. This is personal Preference, I set to max 20s because the image will display in the viewfinder without having to press the ‘Play’ button and I don’t have to move my eye from the viewfinder. A quick half press of the shutter will dismiss it.

** ISO Upper and Default-Set the upper ISO limit for Auto ISO. This is personal choice and you can set whatever you like. I don’t need ISO so high so set 12800. ISO 200 should be default. Don’t set the lower limit below 200 as these are computational and result in reduced dynamic range.

**Noise Filter and Noise Reduction are two very different things. Noise Filter reduces noise in an image but will only affect Jpeg images. Noise Reduction reduces hot pixels in long exposures and does apply to RAW images. Leave at Standard and Auto for now.

**Low ISO Processing is best set to Detail. In most cases we want to preserve detail over drive speed. The obvious situation when drive speed is more important is Wildlife etc. You may want to change this to Drive when you save a Custom Mode for Wildlife, however you are unlikely to be using a low ISO.

***Sequential Shooting Settings-Enabling all gives access to all choices. Leaving the default fps means we can edit them later in Custom Functions.

****Anti Shock-If enabled the shutter will always default to electronic first curtain shutter when under 1/320s to prevent shutter shock. Make sure it is set to 0 seconds to avoid delays.

¹Handheld Assist-Displays a box which shows how steady you are holding the camera. A centre point moves to show steadiness and bars move to show levels. Test first because you may find it obtrusive, but I find it useful. Adding this item to MyMenu gives quick access if you would prefer to enable on the fly.