Someone gave me this very nice camera and I don't know how to use it.

[GarlicGuy]

http://www.amazon.com/Olympus-E520-D...dp/B0019FJM9A?

A guy in my neighborhood just bought a $2000 camera, and told me he had an old - but nice - camera that he no longer needed. I was wanting to learn photography anyway - for my cooking website. I asked him how much he wanted to sell it, and he turned around and got the camera and gave it to me for free.

All I have ever used is a point and shoot or my camera phone.... I have no idea how to use this camera ( plus there were 3 total lenses and all kinds of filters, plus other accessories that I don't even know what they are ).

I don't even know where to start..... the only thing that he didn't give me was an owners manual.

For someone who has never used a camera like this, where would you point me for how to get started?

[Gemini Sunrise]

This may be a silly question: But did you check for an online users manual? Someone might have scanned it in down the line.

[vindicatorx]

Try googling it next time http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_se...ls.asp?id=1386

[GarlicGuy]

This may be a silly question: But did you check for an online users manual? Someone might have scanned it in down the line.

Wasn't silly.... I dd not think of that.

But more than just the owners manual, what I really mean was how to learn to use it while just using it..... like "learn as you go".... can I just play around with it and learn? Being digital, no cost for film, so why not, right?

[Gemini Sunrise]

Wasn't silly.... I dd not think of that.

But more than just the owners manual, what I really mean was how to learn to use it while just using it..... like "learn as you go".... can I just play around with it and learn? Being digital, no cost for film, so why not, right?

Yeah, it's a useful thing to know that most companies have digital versions of the user manuals for most things online.

And yeah, it's mostly a learn as you go thing. One thing I might recommend is getting a tripod if the thing has a spot for it. The cameras with attachable lenses are kinda hard to keep steady if you have a really long one, and that piece helps a bit.

[Gheld]

To start out use the auto mode.

Other than that: Gheld's TLDR express photography school.

It all starts with the Sunny 16 rule.

With the aperture set at f16 in full daylight the ISO rating of your film (or the setting on your camera) equates to the shutter time (in fraction of a second) required to properly expose the shot.

So at ISO 100 at F16 1/100th of a second.

Then remember the aperture stop points (it's complicated because it's based on geometry, specifically the area of a circle whose radius is being changed).

So from F1 it goes 1.4, 2, 2.8, 4, 5.6, 8, 11, 16, 22, 32, 45 and anything narrower than that and we're getting into some pretty advanced shit.

Basically 1 whole stop in either direction either halfs or doubles the amount of light getting in (lower is more).

So if you look around and surmise that it is about half as bright as full daylight (scattered cloud cover, early afternoon) if you open up your aperture to F8, then 1/100th and 100 ISO gives you a properly metered shot.

Consequently also the aperture is kind of like squinting. So the narrower the aperture the more of your shot will be in focus, the wider the aperture the narrower the "Depth of field" will be. So if you take a portrait lense, like say a 50mm F1.8 and open it way up things in the background and foreground will be blurred. The closer you are to the point you are focusing on the more pronounced this effect will be.

The focal length of the lens effects not only the magnification but as well as the "background compression" So while a 50mm lens on an APS-C (smaller sensor) camera might give you the "equivalent" apparent magnification of an 80mm lens, the background compression won't be the same.

However a 50mm lens roughly offers the same background compression and depth of field as a human eye. So if you open up the aperture fairly wide with a 50mm lens and get nice and close to your subjects you can get some really great shots that almost look 3d even when they are just a flat .jpg on a computer screen because you are roughly looking at what the human eye would be seeing in that same position.

Remember when cycling through aperture stops that they stack exponentially.

So if you were to start with your sunny 16, and open up all the way to F2.8 you are going through 5 full stops. So 2^5 = 32 times as much light getting in. This can be especially useful for action photography because a soccer kick might need your shutter speed nice and fast at 1/4000th of a second to freeze the action. And because you aren't exposing as long at ISO 100 you get 1/40th the total light in at 1/4000th as you do at 1/100th.

You won't find an F1.0 lens for an olympus, and not for any camera for less than 10 grand, since the engineering required to make a lens with a super-low aperture ratio that produces good images is pretty crazy. Lenses with wider apertures also tend to be heavy, since they have bigger lens elements and a common saying among photographers is that the best lens is the one you actually use. So spending 5-10 grand on a big hulking monstrosity of an action photography lens for the 1 or 2 shots in your lifetime you actually end up getting with it is kind of silly when more often than not, (especially if you get a really good shot it's destined for grainy news print anyway) a cheap walkaround lens will do the trick. (a walkaround lens would be a compact lens with a zoom range that encompasses both wide angle(zoomed out) and mild telephoto(Zoomed in) shots)

Common cheapo lenses seem to be the so called "kit lens" usually something like 24-50mm zoom lens with F3.6(w)-F5.6(t) maximum aperture. The cheap starter portrait lenses usually 50mm f1.8. And the cheap super telephoto lenses 70-250mm F4-F5.6 (as you zoom in on a zoom lens you effect the aperture ratio in essence giving you a darker shot)

Basically if you are into technical shit, manual photography is fucking awesome.

EDIT: Also to all the "derp just google it" people, when you try to google things these days you end up with pages upon pages of results of people on discussion forums saying "WHY DON'T YOU JUST GOOGLE IT LOLZ" because when you "google it" it searches through the internet. So you are ruining the internet. kthkxstop.

[Herbert]

It's all about aperture... I call it the camera's butthole.

[Blackmist]

Just set everything to auto to start with. It's on the dial up top.

Take pictures. When you mess up your photos, look up why.

It's quite an old camera, don't expect miracles. When you get better you can upgrade, but don't do that until you know why.

[Gemini Sunrise]

Snip

If I could upvote this, I would.

And I tried to be polite about the user manual thing. If only because my experience with photography (even though it was fun) was: Does the photo look good (Y/N)? Keep if Y, try again if N. Definitely not as knowledgeable about the technical side of things.

[Gheld]

If I could upvote this, I would.

And I tried to be polite about the user manual thing. If only because my experience with photography (even though it was fun) was: Does the photo look good (Y/N)? Keep if Y, try again if N. Definitely not as knowledgeable about the technical side of things.

I'm just saying, the less internet content where people actually share their personal experience and the more where people say "just google it" the less useful results there are to find with google.

[Vermicious]

There's also a firmware update (1.4) so you may want to install that. Seems it corrects some things with auto-focus

http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_se...ts.asp?id=1386

[Reeve]

Try googling it next time http://www.olympusamerica.com/cpg_se...ls.asp?id=1386

Or come to a forum full of people who bring lots of different perspectives and experience. Discussion is fun, seeing what lots of different people think about a thing is fun. Why try to stop all that in its tracks by demeaning the person asking the question and the rest of the people who might want to answer it by telling the person to just go to Google?

- - - Updated - - -

I'm just saying, the less internet content where people actually share their personal experience and the more where people say "just google it" the less useful results there are to find with google.

Yeah I totally agree. It's a bit of a pet peeve of mine that people assume there's nothing of value to be had by asking questions on an internet forum instead of just googling everything. If they feel that way, they're more than welcome not to come here.

One of the big advantages of forums like this, by the way, is that I can learn about stuff that I didn't even have questions about. Someone else can ask about photography, something I wouldn't think about in the first place, and I just learned something about the Sunny 16 rule that I never knew before. Kudos. That never would have happened if they just googled it.

[GarlicGuy]

Thank you all for your answers. I did DL the manual, and will read it, but I am really looking forward to just going out to play with it. Realistically, though, it will mostly be used for shooting photos of what I cook.

I always had interest in photography, but was also intimidated by it.

[Vanyali]

Thank you all for your answers. I did DL the manual, and will read it, but I am really looking forward to just going out to play with it. Realistically, though, it will mostly be used for shooting photos of what I cook.

I always had interest in photography, but was also intimidated by it.

The biggest thing (and especially for food) is that your pictures will suck.

They will absolutely suck. It'll be blurry, or blown out in one corner, or the colors are off.. and that's fine and normal. My teacher told me something that's pretty important about this - you can take 100 pictures. Out of all of those, one will be a professional level after editing. Maybe.. Ten might be worth something when heavily edited. The rest will be substandard for some reason or another and, if even useable, will require a metric fuckton of editing to even be presentable.

Get a good photoshop program. Learn how to do color balances, level balances, properly crop, hell even hue and contrast when necessary. There's more work done on that than actually taking the pictures unless you're very, very good and very, very lucky.

[Puupi]

So you stole a camera....

[GarlicGuy]

I ended up buying an app that was made by a French guy named Serge. He has many 3 - 6 minute videos, and he speaks in a way that I learned a lot..... but now I have to get out and try it.

[Vanyali]

I ended up buying an app that was made by a French guy named Serge. He has many 3 - 6 minute videos, and he speaks in a way that I learned a lot..... but now I have to get out and try it.

If you have flowers or plants nearby..

buy a mister. You can get plenty of "rain" shots to practice with, and rain always makes plants prettier.