EPL-2 Settings

[Mooseman1007]

Im lucky enough to be about to depart on a trip out to Bunaken and Lembeh in a couple of weeks, and was thinking about maximising my pics by throwing some videos into the mix. I was hoping someone could advise as to the best settings for the camera (focussing, metering, white balance, shutter speed etc). I have a sheet of Lee "Bastard Pink" filter which I can cut to size over the lens if needs be.
My rig is an Olympus EPL-2 in Olympus housing. I have the 9-18 wide angle and Zen dome, plus the 14-42 kit lens (behind dome or stock flat port), and have 2 Inon wet diopters that I can bolt on for macro. I use a YS-01 strobe and have one of the little fantasea nano focus lights (or I can attach a Lenser Frogman torch with diffuser if I want some macro video light !)

My fiance was the lucky recipient of a Sola 800 and tray/handle for her Panasonic TZ10 and will be using that mainly for videos, so any suggestions for best settings on that rig would also be appreciated
Cheers
Mooseman​

 

[Mooseman1007]

....Bump

 

[jetlife2]

Here are some of what I use (see also thread where smoore posted a checklist)

-ISO 200
-mode M adjust aperture and shutter both. I normally try to keep shutter around 1/125 as a starting point then use the meter to adjust aperture before shooting but obviously with fixed ISO sometimes in bright light you will be adjusting shutter speed also. I suggest not going slower than 1/60, even if it seems way dark at the time (for example wreck wide angle where strobe is useless) there is so much info. in the RAW file you can fix later, better to do that than ruin the shot with motion blur. Also in same situation beware strobe backscatter can ruin the shot for ever, better to turn the strobe off entirely if that is an issue.
-focus centerpoint
-single frame
-Large Fine + RAW (or RAW only which I prefer)
-aspect 4:3 and HD for video
-microphone on for video
-WB auto
-metering centre spot
-flash to fill (sorry I have z240 not YS01 so cannot comment further)
-face detect off
-exposure compensation to 0


Hope that helps

 

[sentlon]

i have a epl-2 and with the Olympus housing with a 9-18mm and Zen Wa-100. i found out most of my pics have very soft corner using this setup.
these is one of the sample u can see.​

do u guys have this kind of issues as well ? is it normal to this setup?​

 

[CheddarChick]

Great question...I read that you can use the 9-18 in the standard housing. Any body have a results from that configuration?

 

[PhilW]

CheddarChick, I am pretty sure it would vignette with the standard flat port (assuming we are talking about the Olympus housing). Or the edge aberrations would be significant if not.

As I posted in the other thread, I also experienced the soft corners that Sentlon mentions. This is with the Zen dome & the 9-18 lens at 9mm. Example here: Uralba | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. They disappear as soon as I zoom in at all.

Phil

 

[Wisnu]

My camera is EPL-1 w/ 10bar w/ semidome port and 2x YS-01 strobe. For lens - I'm greedy to use this port for 7-14mm panny, 14-42mm lens kit and zuiko 35mm macro w/ converter.
Always use manual mode both camera and strobe. For macro, typically ISO100, 1/160, F22, flash force 1/16, WB cloud, strobe to adjust.
For WA, will start with ISO200, F8, 1/90 then adjust to get the desired BG, flash force 1/16, strobe to adjust for FG.
Mostly Jpeg .. yes RAW is the best but I'm too lazy to work with my pict other than auto level and resize.
Comment for the lens:
- Panny 7-14mm, soft edges at 7 mm. best at 9mm.
- 14-42mm lens kit, for macro I use at 42mm w/ Inon UCL165M67, okay but less magnification due to the semi dome port
- zuiko 35mm macro, very slow AF, can be very close, but again less magnification

Not very often use for video, but I remember my daughter simply set to P and manual WB, and this is what we got

[video=vimeo;29965696]http://vimeo.com/29965696[/video]

 

[sentlon]

CheddarChick, I am pretty sure it would vignette with the standard flat port (assuming we are talking about the Olympus housing). Or the edge aberrations would be significant if not.

As I posted in the other thread, I also experienced the soft corners that Sentlon mentions. This is with the Zen dome & the 9-18 lens at 9mm. Example here: Uralba | Flickr - Photo Sharing!. They disappear as soon as I zoom in at all.

Phil

it is kind like waste to zoom in to avoid the softness of corner.
we bought this lens to get the widest angle for better pics.
i really hope some one can give us a accurate answer to solve this problem.
after spending so much for the zen dome, we still get the softness that happen to the stand port from oly.

 

[Mooseman1007]

Thanks for the replys guys, much appreciated. Will have a play with those settings next week Will set ISO200, but how high is useable..800/1600?
Been a bit of a change to the lineups though, I just bought the missus an EPL3, so the Pana TZ10 has been retired.
Any hints on the best settings for Video on the EPL-2 / EPL-3. Just auto video ? or set aperture and shutter speed manually ? IS on/off etc ?
Cant wait to get wet again
Cheers for all the help
Mooseman

p.s. Sentlon....what aperture settings were you using for those pics? I guess stopping it down a couple of notches would help with corner sharpness if you were shooting wide open.