Olympus Feature Requests

These are my main requests after really spending time with Olympus cameras.  I would love t see them integrated.  Especially at a pro level.  Come on Olympus…

Feel free to leave a comment with your most desired request.  And maybe we can try to keep comments realistic, without trolling, negativity, and being ridiculous.  No…Olympus won’t be releasing a 7-150 F/0.75 Pro zoom that is the size of a 25mm prime and weighs less at the same time.  Not until new physics is discovered at least.

Global Shutter

This would be a great feature to see potentially.  I think this would unlock a lot of functionality when shooting with electronic shutter.  Motion artifacts would be gone.  Flash sync speeds would be much higher.  I would be curious to see how far this tech has come and what creative features Olympus is able to offer with it.

Built-In ND filter

I would LOVE to see a 3-stop ND filter built into the camera and linked to a custom button.  My X100 has this, and many video cameras have this.  It would allow quick access to a common ND filter size without needing filter holders, etc… It would also allow the fast pro primes to be even more usable in bright light without stopping down.  And sometimes that extra 3-stops is great for slowing motion when you don’t want to stop down or bring filter holders.  I would love this feature.
–Update as of Feb. 2019–  Olympus has added Live ND filter…which is half solution to this request.  It helps in regards to slow shutter speeds and motion.  However, it doesn’t help in video, or if you just want to shoot wide open in bright sun.  Then again, electronic shutter gets is super fast shutter speeds for wide open shooting in the sun.  Should I mark this completed?  It’s a different way around achieving the end goals I guess?  Just no luck for video.

Self-Timer Before HDR

Why can we not set a self timer or pre-shutter delay when shooting HDR?  We get locked to high-speed shutter.  High speed shutter is fine.  I prefer it even, since it makes handheld HDR brackets more  consistent.  However…when Im on a tripod i’de like to be able to have the camera fire AFTER a delay…and not while my finger is still pushing on the camera and creating vibration.  A cable release helps as it gets your finger away from the camera, and the OI Share app has a remote release function, but what if I have neither of those with me.  Especially when I do panoramas and 360-degree shots.  The downward facing shot especially.  I would really love to see this implemented.  It makes no sense since there is a pre-shutter delay in EVERY OTHER MODE.  Even Hi-Res has a pre-shutter delay!  Come on Olympus!

-Updated– 2022 The OM-1 now has a self timer for HDR mode!  Sounds great right?  You can only use it for HDR1 and HDR2 mode… NOT the HDR brackets options!  The modes we ACTUALLY use.  WHAT!?!?!?!?!?!?!  SOOOO CLOSE!  OMDS!!!!!  WHAT HAPPENED!  This is like a bad joke.

No-Delay Setting Changes

When you are in ISO, you need to exit out before you can call up AF or HDR settings or some other function.  This needs to be REMOVED.  We need to be able to switch straight from one adjustment to the next, and with no delay.  If Olympus can process insane hi-res shots and focus stacking together in camera…i know they can switch menus without delay.

–Update as of March 2019–  So I want to clarify this a little.  In the new E-M1X…the menus are virtually instantaneous to open and close.  Yes…excellent…but I guess I should have made my request more clear.  I want to be able to jump from the ISO menu straight into the WB menu, or the Bracketing Menu for instance.  You still have to cancel out of one adjustment menu to get to another.  So if I press ISO…and then I press Drive…i should switch directly to drive options.  Right now all buttons are locked out while in a specific adjustment.

–Update Feb 2022– Same as before with he OM-1…but even faster!  You can go in and out of a menu about as fast as its going to get!  Now how about direct switching?

Customizable SCP
(This idea comes from Brian!)  It would be great to have some kind of customization of the SCP.  Not all blocks are needed by every user.  My idea about this is that there are two blocks rarely used by the settings.  They are only affected by JPG options with color preferences.  And a third block is the colorspace (srgb or argb) block which also only affects JPG.  These are all on the far right side.  My thought that these could be made into hotlinks.  Just link the bottom right button icon takes us straight to the buttons menu…these three open blocks could take us to the first three quick menu items on page star-1 for instance.  Whatever is in those three blocks would come up when pressing the “hotlink” buttons.  So straight to those menu items.  They wouldn’t even need a special icon representing the option.  Just star-1, 2, 3 for instance.  That way we could utilize features from the SCP immediately versus even menu diving.  I think this would be huge.  Why not utilize the space?  And srgb vs adobe rgb?  Really?  Is that a huge priority for everyone?  That could easily be a quick menu item for people that need that.  I know we could say that about any option…but I think utilizing those three blocks would much better serve the majority of users in this proposed fashion.

4K60p Video option
-update- 2022 We finally got this with the OM-1 with C4k 60.

Video recording and dual card compatibility

When you are in video mode you can only choose data to be recorded to slot 1 or 2.  You no longer have any of the dual card options for redundancy or backup.  It would be great to have this.
-update- 2022- we have dual UHS-II slots…but still only one card records video.  I get around this by recording to an atoms Ninja V and the camera at the same time.  Better than nothing!

Video Zebras

-updated- 2022 The OM-1 brings us zebras!

 

What about yours?  Leave a comment below!

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24 responses on "Olympus Feature Requests"

  1. I have a request they could easily do in firmware update. I’d like to be able to turn off the blue shadow blinkies, but leave the red highlight blinkies on. I like to shoot in black and white mode with heavy shadows using the curve tool so I can see the lines well (shooting in raw). If I have the blinkies on then all those shadows are blue and distracting. I only care about over exposure in most of my shots.

    • I’de think this would be a great option to have. They let us tune when the highlight and shadow blinkies activate…why not just have an off function on each one too? Good idea to me.

  2. Option for selecting Small AF points in the E=M1 Mark II. LOVED this in the E-M5 Mark II, missing it now.

    • Yes, I miss it as well. Visually I think I just like seeming a smaller point. I find the AF points are still quite accurate, if not more so on the mkII. They seem to be in between the size of the mkI large and small.

  3. I’ve only been an Olympus user for a couple of months. I have an E-M1 (Mk1) and a PEN-F.
    I wonder when a firmware update will be available for the PEN, that allows in-camera bracketing as per the E-M1. When I purchased the PEN, I was confuse with the difference between focus stacking and focus bracketing, so ended up purchasing a (just) used E-M1 to carry on with until the PEN was brought up to speed!
    I’m not likely to upgrade to the E-M1 II, since many of the new features are not necessary for my style of shooting, and the Mk1 is more appropriate (would have been nice to have the 20Mp sensor though!)

    • The Pen has all the bracketing features except the 8-shot auto-alignment of the focus stack. I’m not sure this will get upgraded due to hardware limitations. The E-M1’s always seem to carry more horsepower. Olympus stated upon firmware release that it was an exclusive feature to the E-m1. Maybe this will change in the future. Between those two cameras however you have an excellent setup and access to the High-Res mode if ever needed. The E-m1 is an amazing performer all the way around and the sensor on the pen F is excellent. Lovely colors.

  4. Im doing a lot of HDR within buildings, nothing moving…
    Actually it is not possible to combine the HDR settings (mostly 5f 2ev) with the HighRes Mode. These HR pictures from interiors ( ie old libraries ) are amazing, but are even better with HDR. At the moment I have to touch the camera after each picture and must change the settings by hand

    Also it is not possible to combine the electronic shutter with HDR modes. HR uses the e shutter automatically, but with HDR I can not use it…

  5. How about giving another option for SCP with only raw shooting related choices leaving out everything which does not impact raw. Benefit- a simple layout.

  6. (1) Instead of (or in addition to) being able to program a button to activate a particular Myset, being able to program a button to toggle through all Mysets. I.e., push once for Myset 1, twice for Myset 2, etc.

    (2) Ability to rename Mysets so you can more easily remember what they do.

    (3) Self timer with Live Composite.

  7. I agree about needing the option to have a pre-shutter timer delay when shooting an HDR. As a former software engineer (now retired), I believe the software change required to implement feature this would be trivial.

  8. I don’t know where I got this email address, but rumour has it that actual Olympus engineers read it: cs DOT support AT ish DOT olympus DOT co DOT jp (obfuscated to keep them from getting deluged with spam).

    Here is what I sent them recently:

    I have another request that I think is simple to implement, and that would be useful to a variety of people.

    I am currently “scanning” film strips with my new OM-D E-Ma Mark II, and it would be very useful to be able to see in the viewfinder how negatives would look when they are printed, and then to have them saved as positives. This would mean not only that one would not waste time copying unsuitable negatives, but that one could perform adjustments on them before saving.

    For black-and-white negatives, this would be a simple matter of reversing the slope of the transfer curve. You already allow three points of adjustment (at 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 tone); if you allowed the end-points of the curve to be adjusted, end-users could easily shoot B&W negatives, saving them as B&W positives.

    For colour negatives, the orange mask would have to be subtracted, which it seems to me would be very simple to do via the mechanisms you already have for adjusting white balance, as long as it could be done AFTER the transfer curve reversal. (In which case, it would be a blue tint adjustment.

    This may seem rather specialized, for a very small audience, but I could see this effect being popular as an “Art Filter.” (In fact, the closest I ever got to Art Filters was to search them for a “negative effect” filter!) Especially in combinations — a new “negative effect” art filter, combined with monochrome conversion and film grain, might be very attractive to those who use Art Filters!

    Thank you for listening! I am loving this camera!

    —————-
    Previously, I sent them this:

    As one who uses many legacy lenses all the time on my OM-D E-M1 Mark II, I’d like the “Lens Info Settings” facility enhanced:

    • with a “bottomless,” numberless list. Surely, these things don’t take up much RAM in the camera?
    • with the ability to sort the list by time of last use, title, focal length, or aperture.

    Anyone who has more than a few manual lenses and a focal reducer needs many more slots than the ten we now have — plus, better ways of managing them! In addition, I would like to be able to add to the list things like my tilt adapter or extension tubes. The combinatorial makes for a huge list!

    Ordering an infinite list by “last used” would be enough to keep me happy, and is probably a lot more easy for you to do than allowing different sorts. For one thing, this option would not require any changes to the menu system UI.

    Also speaking as a legacy lens fan, I’d like focus peaking to be more “sticky.” At present, it seems to take every opportunity to “go away.” I have my camera set up for maximum battery life, which means that not using it for a relatively short period turns focus peaking off!

    So, how about a global mode that you can set or unset that will make focus peaking the default whenever a manual lens is detected?

    Also, some viewfinder indication whether it is on or not would be helpful, especially if you can’t make a new global default for it. The way things are, I am never quite sure if it is on or off unless it is already in focus! When system events (like power-on time-out) cause it to be automatically turned off, I often toggle it back and forth several times, trying to focus each time, before being assured it is on. This is time-consuming and frustrating!

    Thank you so much for considering these request to make a GREAT camera even greater!

  9. Olmypus has added this as of the E-M1X in Febvruary 2019. Look forward to it in other models soon.

    Custom My-Menu

    I would love to have a custom menu that is user set.  So basically a 10-slot menu where each slot is user selectable.  You would select a slot and then run through any of the custom options available in the entire menu system and make a selection.  That option would now appear in your custom quick access menu.  This would allow a user to collect their 10 most frequently used custom options in a quick access location.  I actually like the Olympus menu layout, and to me it makes sense based on such depth.  This would make the cameras even faster to use.

  10. Love to see where one can customize the Super Control Panel. I realize the E-M1X allows a custom menu, but there are things on the SCP that I don’t use that I would love to reassign.

    • This is actually a very good idea. I’ve had this thought before as well because the far right side of it is also of no use to me as it is. I don’t shoot JPG ever, so the color adjustments are irrelevant. However, your post makes me thing… It seems slightly unrealistic (but what do I know…) that any option could be assignable into the SCP. There are A LOT of options in this camera. However…what if the SCP could have “hotlink” buttons in a sense to even the first three Quick menu options? So a whatever is placed into Star-Menu-1 items 1, 2, and 3 would be linked to three buttons on the SCP. Clicking on those buttons would take us directly into that custom menu item assigned. I could work with that. I bet that is easy to do on their end. (again, what do I know?) The bottom right button does that with the “buttons” menu already. I figure this is no different. Thoughts?

      Reassignment of the entire SCP or rearranging would be quite the interesting challenge. However… Thom Hogan has always talked about camera manufacturers needing to open to third part customization. (very paraphrased…) Imagine if someone would have an installable app to allow reconfiguration of the SCP blocks. That would be interesting.

  11. The ability to rename Mysets is essential, especially for people who may not use the camera very often.
    I can’t remember what I had for breakfast today so have zero chance of remembering what I programmed into the various “Mysets” last month.
    Such a simple and easy thing to implement, why was it never thought of before?

  12. In order of importance (in my opinnion):
    Global shutter.
    Better dynamic range.
    4K 60fps HDR 10bit log or / and raw.
    FULLHD 240fps HDR.
    Square sensor would be nice (vertical and horizontal videos from same footage – 4K DCI square: 4 096 x 4 096 px).
    Stop Motion animation features (onion skinning) fast way to match taken frames for next one/shot and play animation sequence – possibility/easy and fast way to create sub folders and separate takes/shots (also for interval / time lapse shoot).

    And in distant future: 360 videos, volumetric videos and stills with depth map data and photogrammetry tools for scanning using this information. 196khz audio support with 24bit for video. 50mp sensor for 8k hdr video and with sensor shift to create 100mp images with focus and exposure bracketing and panorama support. Depth map generation from automated focus stacking.

  13. Olympus,
    Allow tethered capture directly into Capture One. That would make a Pro workflow.

  14. The ability to change ISO on the fly during a time lapse sequence.

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