Olympus EPL-1 - problems with dark LCD screen

Hello all at Wetpixel,

I enjoyed a great week of photo opportunities at Anilao - a site with great biodiversity and and a great variety of divesites - must return one day. It was my first trip with my new EPL-1 and, as I have always done with previous cameras, I shoot on full manual. I found generally the LCD to be very dark indeed, despite a bright Intova focus light. Particularly so on F22 when I was shooting macro. The LCD is clearly a reflection of how the camera 'sees' the exposure - obviously the camera presents an exposure preview - the LCD lightens up when prefocussing but then darkens again once focus is set. I brightened the LCD up as much as possible, but it was very hard to find subjects in such a dark LCD. My buddy with a similar camera uses Aperture priority and has no such problems. But I am loathe to go to Aperture priority and lose full control. Anyone know of any way to bypass this exposure preview so that the LCD remains bright...? Many thanks.

You have to set the LCD to Live View. The image will then always be similar to what you saw during the prefocus phase.

Bob W

Thanks so much Bob....sorry to be a pain...I'm new to this camera...How do I set the monitor to Live View..?

If you have the User's Guide, the setting for Live View is on page 74. If you don't have the User's Guide, you can download it from the Olympus site. To get to the setting, MENU > gear > D. Scroll down to Live View and turn ON.

Bob W

Thanks so much. Works well...makes a huge difference!