Baseline settings and four picture-mode looks — tuned for macro, landscape & architecture, shot handheld.
Camera-wide defaults: capture, focus, exposure, stabilization. Each recipe below only changes the Picture Mode and color/tone settings — everything here stays put. Shooting RAW + JPEG means the look is never permanently baked in.
| Setting | Value | Why / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Image Quality | RAW + JPEG (LF) | RAW for latitude; Large Fine JPEG carries the look. |
| Drive / Shutter | Silent (electronic) | Vibration-free for macro; quiet for interiors. |
| IBIS | On — auto | Your handheld backbone. |
| Metering | ESP (matrix) | Reliable default; spot for high-contrast scenes. |
| AF Mode | S-AF + MF | Quick acquire, then manual tweak. |
| AF Target | Small / Single | Precision over coverage. |
| Face/Eye AF | Off | Not needed here; avoids hunting. |
| ISO | Auto 200–3200 | Low base, 1/100 min, ceiling for noise. |
| Base Aperture | f/4 – f/5.6 | M4/3 sweet spot; diffraction past ~f/8. |
| Color Space | AdobeRGB | Wider gamut for RAW; sRGB if JPEG-only. |
| Live ND / GND | Off until needed | Computational filters on tap for landscape. |
| Highlight Alert | On | Blinkies guard skies. |
| Histogram in EVF | On | Expose to the right without clipping. |
Save this baseline to a Custom Mode (C1), then store each recipe as C2–C4. Flip from clean foundation to any look with the mode dial — no menu diving in the field.
Bold and filmic, built around an orange filter and protected highlights. The filter choice is the one decision baked into a JPEG — RAW keeps full channel control to re-mix later.
| Setting | Value | Why / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Picture Mode | Monochrome | Mono Profile Control gives finer access. |
| Film Grain Effect | Medium | Low for clean architecture, High for grit. |
| B&W Filter | Orange (Or) | Darkens sky, lifts cloud separation. |
| Mono Color (Tone) | Neutral / B&W | Faint Sepia or Blue optional. |
| Highlight & Shadow | Hi −1 / Sh −2 | Protects skies, deepens blacks. |
| Contrast | +1 | High-contrast without crushing midtones. |
| Sharpness | +1 | Crispness for texture and line. |
| Gradation | Normal | Avoid Auto — it flattens contrast. |
| Noise Filter | Low | Grain does the texture work. |
| White Balance | 5400K (locked) | Keeps mono conversion consistent. |
Landscape / architecture: Orange (drama) or Red (extreme). Foliage: Green. Macro: Yellow or none.
Shoot single-frame for macro — stacking suffers from movement. High Res Shot is fine for static architecture and leaves cropping room for vertical-line correction.
The counterpoint to Recipe 01. Lifted shadows and a flattened curve give a gentle, open tonality — misty landscapes, soft window light, delicate macro. The big move is Shadow +2.
| Setting | Value | Why / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Picture Mode | Monochrome | Same base, tuned opposite to 01. |
| Film Grain Effect | Low | A whisper of grain; smooth, not gritty. |
| B&W Filter | Yellow (Ye) | Gentle separation without drama. |
| Mono Color (Tone) | Sepia (faint) | A hint of warmth suits the soft mood. |
| Highlight & Shadow | Hi −1 / Sh +2 | Lifted shadows = open tonality. Key move. |
| Contrast | −1 | Flattens for mid-tone-rich rendering. |
| Sharpness | 0 | Let tone carry the image, not edges. |
| Gradation | Auto | Here Auto helps — opens shadow detail. |
| Noise Filter | Standard | Smooths gently for the creamy feel. |
| White Balance | 5600K (locked) | Slightly warm, locked for consistency. |
Overcast and foggy light, backlit subjects, pale stone, high-key macro. Flat light that looks dull in color often becomes beautiful here.
Keep both mono recipes loaded — bold for hard directional light, soft for flat or diffused light.
Rich reds and earth tones, weighty shadows, restrained blues, a gently warm cast. Note: Kodachrome historically topped out at ISO 200 — this recreates the look, not a literal stock.
| Setting | Value | Why / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Picture Mode | Vivid (i-Enh off) | Vivid base, then tamed. i-Enhance shifts hue. |
| Contrast | +1 | Slide-film punch in the curve. |
| Saturation | +1 | Rich, not neon. |
| Sharpness | +1 | Crisp rendering typical of the stock. |
| Gradation | Normal | Keeps the deep, dense shadows. |
| Highlight & Shadow | Hi −1 / Sh −1 | Holds highlights; shadows stay weighty. |
| White Balance | 5200K | Daylight base, slightly warm. |
| WB Shift | A+3 / G+1 | Amber bias + a touch of green = signature. |
| Color Creator | Reds +, Blues − | Optional. Push earth tones, restrain blues. |
| ISO ceiling | ≤ ISO 1600 | The look needs clean, dense color. |
The character lives in the warm WB shift (amber + a hint of green) and dense shadows. Resist over-saturating — it looked rich from contrast and hue separation, not raw saturation. Golden hour flatters it.
Landscape: golden hour. Architecture: warm stone & brick. Macro: flowers & insects glow.
Where Kodachrome runs warm and dense, Ektachrome runs cool and clean — luminous blues, crisp neutrals, controlled saturation. Built on a Natural base so it reads true rather than punchy.
| Setting | Value | Why / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Picture Mode | Natural | Truer base than Vivid — clean rendering. |
| Contrast | +1 | Crisp slide contrast without warmth. |
| Saturation | 0 | About clean blues, not saturation. |
| Sharpness | +1 | Fine, transparency-like detail. |
| Gradation | Normal | Clean midtones, controlled shadows. |
| Highlight & Shadow | Hi 0 / Sh −1 | Bright open highlights, anchored shadows. |
| White Balance | 5000K | Cooler daylight base than Kodachrome. |
| WB Shift | B+2 / G+1 | Blue bias + faint green = signature. |
| Color Creator | Blues +, Reds − | Optional. Inverse of Recipe 03. |
| ISO ceiling | ≤ ISO 1600 | Clean files keep the palette crisp. |
The inverse of Recipe 03 — a cool WB shift (blue + faint green) and open highlights. Keep saturation neutral; the look is about clean color rendition, especially skies and water.
Landscape: blue skies, water, midday. Architecture: glass, steel, cool stone. Macro: cool greens & dewy detail.
IBIS buys huge latitude for static subjects, but it can’t freeze a moving one. The rule flips by genre: stabilize for architecture and landscape, raise shutter speed for macro.
| Genre / Case | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Architecture (static) | 1/15–1/30s hand-holdable with IBIS. Brace, exhale, half-press to settle. |
| Landscape (static) | 1/30–1/60s safe. For smooth water, use Live ND rather than a long raw exposure. |
| Macro (still subject) | 1/160s minimum — your own focus-plane sway, not shake, is the enemy. At 1:1 a millimetre of drift blurs everything. |
| Macro (insects / breeze) | 1/320–1/640s. Accept ISO 1600–3200; a sharp noisy frame beats a clean blurred one. |
| Telephoto (75-300) | 1/250s+ at the long end. Framing wobble at 600mm-equivalent is unforgiving. |
Static subject → trust IBIS, drop shutter, keep ISO low. Anything that moves (or any macro) → push shutter first, let Auto ISO rise.
M4/3 gives roughly two stops more apparent depth of field than full-frame at the same aperture — a gift for landscape and architecture. But diffraction softens the whole frame earlier, so stopping down hard backfires.
| Case | Guidance |
|---|---|
| Sharpness sweet spot | f/4–f/5.6 across your lenses. Where the Pro zooms and primes resolve best. |
| Diffraction onset | Softening begins around f/8, clearly visible by f/11. Past f/8 you trade detail for depth. |
| Landscape / architecture | f/5.6–f/8 covers nearly everything front-to-back. Rarely a reason to go past f/8. |
| Macro reality | DoF is razor-thin even at f/8. One frame won’t hold a whole insect — this is where focus bracketing earns its place. |
| Subject isolation | Want background blur? Get closer and use the 60mm or fast primes wide open. |
Default to f/5.6. Stop to f/8 only when you truly need the depth. For macro depth, don’t chase it with aperture — bracket and stack instead.
Small setup changes that pay off constantly for macro and architecture. Set once and forget.
| Control | Setup |
|---|---|
| Back-button focus | Move AF to the AEL/rear button; shutter only fires. Pairs perfectly with S-AF+MF — focus, then recompose or fine-tune by hand. |
| Focus magnification | Assign to a button or the Fn lever. Punch in to nail critical focus on macro detail and architectural lines. |
| Fn lever | Swap dial functions or jump to MF — a fast way to flip behaviour without diving into menus. |
| Focus peaking | On (white or red, low intensity) for manual fine-tuning. Invaluable for macro and tripod-free architecture. |
| Custom modes (C1–C4) | Foundation on C1, then your four looks on the others. Flip with the dial. |
| Electronic level | Enable in the EVF/LCD info cycle. Your fastest defence against tilted horizons and leaning buildings. |
Everything here serves precise manual control — the thing macro and architecture both demand and that autofocus alone won’t give you.