Stamp collection - Olympus focus bracketing

My first attempt at using the focus bracketing feature in the new Olympus firmware, released yesterday. Well, actually not the first attempt, about the tenth! It's a great idea, but I have to say the implementation is a problem. Where to start? Just a few points. I'd use the feature primarily like here for covering a limited range of focus,  but it seems you specify the nearest point, then a number of shots and how far apart, in an arbitrary number range!, you want to focus. After some trial and error I selected the closest range (on a scale of 1 to 10), and 15 shots. Only 6 of them fell within the focus range I wanted. At the end of the sequence the camera focus was left at the furthest point, not the original nearest point selected, so to try again meant refocussing. My third party remote release would not trigger the sequence, so I had to use a real Olympus one, and it seems impossible to use delayed action when using focus bracketing. It is difficult to tell when the sequence is in progress - no audible or other indications, though if I looked for the the indication of shooting on the screen it is possible to tell when it had finished. 

It's a useful feature, and I'm glad to have it, but it is nothing like as good as the third party remote application I tried with the Panasonic recently which allows the near and far focus points to be defined. On the E-M1, as opposed to the E-M5ii I was using, it is also possible to get the camera to produce a processed stacked image of 8 photos, but assuming the limitations regarding setting the range of focus to be used, I'd assume this isn't much use at all, though I'll give it a try when I feel motivated! With the E-M5ii the bracketed images needed processing with Photoshop to stack them.

Add-on features like this are great, but although Olympus generally implement them much better than other manufacturers, they are often very clunky, and mutually exclusive. Sony's feature which eliminates the need for a remote release but still leaves you in control of when to fire the shutter without touching the camera (an app which allows you to fire the shutter just by waving your hand over the EVF!) is similar - great idea, but the pre-existing camera settings before you enable the app are lost!

Perhaps I will elaborate on my web site ...

Incidentally, at f5.6 there was not enough DOF to cover all of this subject, though if I had gone to f16 (risking diffraction) I could probably have got the necessary DOF, but this is not possible with a lot of my plant photos.