Fuji advice or guides for novice, easy settings to use X-M1 in bright sunshine?

[Chris GB]

Hi everyone,

I'm hoping to find any tips, advice or good guides that would help a novice photographer and new X user get the most out a Fujifilm X-M1 while on holiday.

It's my camera, but I've loaned it to my mother so she has something to capture her holiday with my young nephews. My knowledge is quite limited so I'm not sure myself how to set up the camera to make it as easy as possible. I won't be there to help or figure it out.

They are going to Barbados for a week and I've been able to provide: X-M1, XF27mm with Heliopan short hood, XC16-50mm with Fujifilm hood, and an MCEX-11 macro ring.

We don't have any filters, so mainly I'm concerned about getting the best setup to use around the beach and in what I hope will be bright sunny weather. Also my mother paints, so she wants to photograph any flowers she sees that she would like to try painting later.

We're sing RAW + jpeg mode already, I've decreased noise reduction. If anyone can offer any suggestions on the likely best modes, other settings etc. or point toward a useful tips guide I would be very grateful.

Thanks for reading and any help you can offer.

 

[Safari]

Suggestions only (going through the menus):
Auto ISO set to 100 default (for the beach of course), 800 max for indoors (though I got some great shots at 1600 and 3200), shutter 1/60 or 1/80.
Face detection ON for the nephews.
Any of the focus modes (probably except manual) could work. Continuous or Tracking if the nephews are fairly mobile, and these would work for almost any situation but may result in some hunting in some situations and faster battery drain. IS - ON.
AF Illuminator ON.
AF Lock - AE+AF.
Movie mode - Full HD (why not?), and continuous focus.
Most everything else in default or auto settings.
Probably stick to Auto shooting, maybe go to Sports if the nephews are particularly active.
She can use the pop-up flash for fill on the beach, maybe also for macro flower shots but probably with some negative compensation.

What do others think of these?

 

[Chris GB]

Suggestions only...

Thank you for taking the time to make those suggestions, it's much appreciated. We did some basic practice in camera operation and I wrote out a crib sheet with the different options to try, as suggested by you here and a few others elsewhere. Hopefully it was all enough to get some reasonable quality images, but as long as they have a good time and enjoy the experience that's the most important thing.