OM System OM-1 Pro Capture Time Limits and Live Comp for Lightning ep.463 

I keep saying this, Rob. You are the best.

So we’ll explained Rob. You’re the man!

Excellent work, Rob. You explain it so clearly and covered the important details. For anyone wanting to photograph lightning in daylight, however, I would recommend against Live Comp. Live Comp is really good at sunset or dusk as the storm clouds will darken the sky enough that the contrast between the ambient light with a good strike and the -2 stops setting will allow for the lightning to act as a strobe effect and freeze any movements of clouds and wind effected foreground leaves and branches if present. I've taken very good 30 second and longer multiple strike Live Comps of lightning that looked good and landscape details like wheat and trees looked sharp against the lightning-lit landscape. But in daylight, even a few seconds will result in the cloud details quickly turning into mushy grayness and any foreground subject matter that is being affected by wind could be blurred into a distracting mess. I recommend in such a situation to use, on the OM-1, the SH-1 setting. As you know, SH-2 limits the minimum shutter speed to 1/320 at 25fps and 1/640 at 50fps. In SH-1 mode, we don't need the continuous AF for lightning anyway, and it allows us to shoot at 1/60 for 60fps or 1/120 for 120fps if needed. We can even set shutter speed to whatever we want, so 1/10 or 1/20 is possible. The nice thing is that at 1/60 or 1/120 at equal fps, we have enough shutter speed to probably adequately stop foreground element motion at least to a distracting degree as well as able to keep exposure to the left enough to not over expose lightning. Usually about 1 stop under is enough, depending on how dark the storm clouds are, as the contrast in daytime lightning is much less than at dusk and night. Normally, when I do this, I get a complete strike in a single frame but it's not unusual to have the strike extend over three or more frames and I will blend them in Photoshop by stacking them and setting the blend mode to 'Lighten'. This is in effect, what Live Comp is doing when we use it. It takes all the frames and is blending them like Photoshop does in Lighten blend mode.

Thank you again for your continued responses. Yes, I believe the lens connection is the real problem and I thank you so much for bringing it to light! Your patience and kind consideration with me is golden. I thank you. Were you I, what would you do next? With much appreciation, B

Very grateful to see this, rob. I'm more than a little bit intrigued by the "live composition" mode, and am rather itching to give it a try. My knowledge of the history of Olympus cameras is quite incomplete which raises the question: is "live composition" the same as "live bulb" in previous Olympus models. I ask because the photographer Chris Baitson (I hope his accent doesn't overwhelm you - he sometimes speaks as if he has several marbles in his mouth) uses the LB setting - he has a different model to the OM-1. (I saw you have a couple of clips on this feature from a few years ago.). In any event, he uses it to smooth water flow of a waterfall. (ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oykB8Npwxhw.html), which strikes me as a novel use, and not one I'd have immediately thought of. If LB _is_ different to LC please forgive me - I'm still learning how to drive my OM-1.

Hi Rob, excellent explanation of pro-Capture. There are a couple of things about it that bug me when using my PanaLeica lenses (100-400 and 200 f2.8). 1. I am able to use them in Pro-Cap SH2, but limited to the 25FPS (not 50FPS), even though they have the high speed (240 FPS) focusing motors fitted. 2. Pro-Capture with the 20, 15. 10 & 5 FPS options is not available, although you can use these in silent sequential mode, so again it does not appear to be a limitation of the lenses, just OM Systems not allowing it! I am sure both of these could be fixed in a firmware update, so fingers crossed.

You did it again, Rob, thanks for your efforts! After a couple of days configuring my new OM-1 I cannot find find the way to get the highlights & shadows blown indicator I had in my OM-D E-M1 Mark III viewfinder!!! I have tried many different options but to no avail, any ideas? Thanks!

Thanks for this, Rob! How do you get the histogram on the LCD screen? I’m not talking about when looking at a photograph, but, before the photograph is taken. I have looked all over the menu and I can’t find it. Thank you!

Love your videos I've learnt so much from you big thanks. I can please help me with this I have Olympus E-M10iii trying to tether it to my laptop so I can look at my portrait big size to check before moving on. my camera when wired to laptop just says storage MTP print exit no pc and what does MTP mean can you please help Eamonn

Biggest irritant I have right now with new OM-1 is not being able to get the Olympus Webcam software to work with Windows 11 laptops. Connects, streaming apps see the camera, but the camera only ever passes back screen to any apps on PC. OM Workspace and Capture work just fine.

Hello Rob! I have been a subscriber of your videos for years. I own a film photography store and understand the ins and outs of just about every film camera ever made. I understand the digital camera is a tool and that image quality has mostly to do with the person behind the camera. I also understand that each camera may have a better fit for each person in terms of being comfortable using the functions and their placements. I'm very interested in purchasing a OM-e5 mark III. It just seems like such a great value right now for all the features and the size of the sensor it has. I may purchase the camera and have it professionally converted for infrared. I'm wondering if you can recommend another camera I should do some more research on that may be similar, specifically in the price range. Something under $1,000. I definitely like the more diminutive size bodies. I would love your feedback and be willing to buy you two or three coffees. Or a direct payment to your PayPal account. In fact everybody watching your videos should be buying you a coffee. There are lots of content generators specific to micro for thirds, but I believe you are one of the best if not the best at giving a wealth of information on this system. Not only do you prolifically put out high quality videos. It's just that you have the right personality and you explain all the technical stuff that I think even beginners can have a really good understanding of the benefits that you're talking about with each of the cameras and lenses you discuss. I appreciate your years of service and would love any feedback on my possible choice of the EM5 mark III It may be good to add that I don't do sports photography, I'm a slow and thoughtful photographer, most likely because of mostly shooting film and think about each composition so processing speed or shots per second is not important to me. Kind regards, David Garcia

So if you do BBF, do you have to press both back button and half press shutter button simultaneously.

My Omd em 5 m II always shuts down after 7 seconds when in video mode. Any ideas? Thx

Thanks Rob. Got your response but I have to say that you are way too fast for me to follow. Sorry. While I usually shoot my videos in "art" mode using the B & W filter it always shuts down after 5-7 seconds no matter what. I often get the "please check the status of a lens" message as well. I only use the dial to set up, never the deep menu as it is too complex. That said, if you have any further suggestions or insight into these shut downs please advise. I strive for simplicity in all things creative. many thanks.