Bugged by technology

This afternoon has been dedicated to getting to grips with a new camera. I decided to add a compact system camera to my collection, settling on the Olympus Pen E PL5. I particularly liked the movements of the LCD screen, which should prove useful for my street photography, leaving open the option for an external viewfinder should I see the need.

The bug-bear has been the navigation of the worst set of menus I have ever encountered in a camera. Of course there is no real handbook, just the pdf version. Whilst the information is no doubt there, it is still much harder to uncover than it would be on paper.

The camera defaults to automatic modes for everything and the instructions to set it up for more intelligent use are badly written and well hidden. A very frustrating couple of hours to figure out how to set your own ISO, how to change the aperture in aperture priority mode etc. Watching online reviews confirmed my view that Olympus are not doing anyone a favour with their approach.

Grumble over and I have just got round to trying the camera in the real world.

This blip was my first foray into the macro mode and is approximately one ninth of the area of the image the camera produced. By no means perfect but it was taken handheld in breezy conditions - and it will do for today.