06-21-2017, 11:19 AM
As someone who shoots Canon, Olympus and Panasonic, I would like to make a small addition.
The Olympus menus are not really bad at all, IMO. They are just very, very extensive, and occasionally quite deep, which makes it difficult to remember where is what. There certainly is logic to it. The neat thing with Olympus is that there is a Quick Menu for most used menu items, effectively, that it has one of the best if not the best touch screens and touch interfaces wrt cameras, and that virtually every button can be reprogrammed to whatever you like, which can also be mapped to a set controlled by one of the Custum menu options.
In short, if you really want to get the most out of an Olympus camera, it takes some time to set up and/or learn, possibly, depending on one's (perceived) shooting needs, but several options for different shooting types and styles can then be easily matched with one of the Custom sets (C1-C3), while it is still possible to easily adjust all the main options with the quick menu, or with the dials and buttons.
Generally speaking, I personally find these discussions over the top, as it is always possible to do stuff the old-fashioned and easy way, with most cameras anyway, and I reckon that will suffice 99.8% or more of most shots. Know what you want to do, and set the camera up accordingly, the simple way. You'll rarely need to use the menu in that case, and often not deep at all once the initial set up is done. That is my experience, although YMMV I guess.
As to Panasonic: I find the menus often too simple. And with Canon, despite the fact that I have always gelled nicely with their menu system and dials and controls set-up, even there it is hard at times and hidden fairly deep in the menus to set up something very specific.
All in all, unless one has become proficient with a camera menu system, take the time to learn and master the menu system, otherwise it seems rather involved, hard to do, whatever. I have heard people complain about the menu system of ANY camera brand, and that includes Fuji, Pentax, Panasonic, Olympus, Canon, Nikon, and Sony especially. My impression is that people often expect things to work immediately the way they want or expect, even though cameras cannot yet read minds, and that people are often very impatient, and not prepared to invest the time to get to know the tools one uses.
Kind regards, Wim
The Olympus menus are not really bad at all, IMO. They are just very, very extensive, and occasionally quite deep, which makes it difficult to remember where is what. There certainly is logic to it. The neat thing with Olympus is that there is a Quick Menu for most used menu items, effectively, that it has one of the best if not the best touch screens and touch interfaces wrt cameras, and that virtually every button can be reprogrammed to whatever you like, which can also be mapped to a set controlled by one of the Custum menu options.
In short, if you really want to get the most out of an Olympus camera, it takes some time to set up and/or learn, possibly, depending on one's (perceived) shooting needs, but several options for different shooting types and styles can then be easily matched with one of the Custom sets (C1-C3), while it is still possible to easily adjust all the main options with the quick menu, or with the dials and buttons.
Generally speaking, I personally find these discussions over the top, as it is always possible to do stuff the old-fashioned and easy way, with most cameras anyway, and I reckon that will suffice 99.8% or more of most shots. Know what you want to do, and set the camera up accordingly, the simple way. You'll rarely need to use the menu in that case, and often not deep at all once the initial set up is done. That is my experience, although YMMV I guess.
As to Panasonic: I find the menus often too simple. And with Canon, despite the fact that I have always gelled nicely with their menu system and dials and controls set-up, even there it is hard at times and hidden fairly deep in the menus to set up something very specific.
All in all, unless one has become proficient with a camera menu system, take the time to learn and master the menu system, otherwise it seems rather involved, hard to do, whatever. I have heard people complain about the menu system of ANY camera brand, and that includes Fuji, Pentax, Panasonic, Olympus, Canon, Nikon, and Sony especially. My impression is that people often expect things to work immediately the way they want or expect, even though cameras cannot yet read minds, and that people are often very impatient, and not prepared to invest the time to get to know the tools one uses.
Kind regards, Wim
Gear: Canon EOS R with 3 primes and 2 zooms, 4 EF-R adapters, Canon EOS 5 (analog), 9 Canon EF primes, a lone Canon EF zoom, 2 extenders, 2 converters, tubes; Olympus OM-D 1 Mk II & Pen F with 12 primes, 6 zooms, and 3 Metabones EF-MFT adapters ....