Micro 4/3 Button assignments with Olympus and OM System cameras

RAH

Regular
Location
Hampton, NH
Name
Rich
I am setting up this thread to address how to use button assignments, especially on the newest OMDS cameras, and also especially how they relate to C-mode settings.

Rob Trek has an interesting video on using button assignments for C Modes on the OM-1:


It kind of clarifies how these button assignments work while the dial is in normal PASM modes and when the dial is in a C-mode. Even on the OM-1, you cannot use a C-mode BUTTON to go to a different C-mode. So, for example, if you turn the dial to say C1, you CANNOT then use any assigned BUTTON to get to another C-mode (C2-C4). You MUST use the dial.

This essentially is what I was running into when I tried to use a button assignment on the OM-5 while the mode dial was in the C mode position. The camera ignored the button push, but it turns out it does on the OM-1 too.

The video does show how you can, while in PASM, jump directly from one C-mode to another without first toggling out of the button's C-mode. In other words, jump from button1's C-mode DIRECTLY to button2's C-mode, without going back and forth to normal (toggling out) between them. How he does it is kind of instructive (if you don't mind getting your mind blown) about how button assignments work within the C-modes themselves. In other words, it is a variation of the filenaming problem I ran into - a C-mode will retain earlier settings unless you reprogram it, even for button assignments that are assigned to C-modes. This is the problem in a nutshell:

Basically, what seems to happen is: say you have your camera set to use standard filenames. Then you set Custom Mode 1 to do say HHHR. So you start getting regular filenames on your HHHR shots. You then later set your camera to use special filenaming, say beginning with OM (as I did). Well, that apparently does NOT ripple thru and change the settings stored for Custom Mode 1 (for HHHR in this example). So when you use C-mode-1 you revert to the standard names. When you turn the dial to regular shooting, you are back to getting the special naming. So basically it seems to me that any time you change any setting on your camera, you have to reprogram your C-modes or else you will not pick up the latest change (if you want it on a particular C-mode). Makes sense, but it can be very confusing.
 
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