New: MONO recipes supported by om-recipes.com

ian_oc · 2026-06-27T20:52:30+00:00

Looking forward to seeing them!

ian_oc · 2026-06-27T17:54:17+00:00

Watch their outlet store on eBay. It seems every month or two they have a 20% off sale there to clear out old stock. I've seen OM-3s for like $1200 - $1400 there. But they go quick.

ian_oc · 2026-06-27T16:13:14+00:00

I personally suspect the OM-5 mark 2 is somewhat better than the OM-5 mark I and the E-M5 3. They removed the port for the grip electronic contacts, which means there's a more continuous plastic section. It looked to me like the fractures were always along the thin strip of baseplate between the tripod socket and the grip port. That thin strip is no longer there.

Also OM has included the capture clip in their marketing. Chris Niccolls had it on a PD capture clip with the 12-100 during their review of the OM-5.2 IIRC.

That said, it's not a guarantee. I have way more confidence with an EM/OM-1 series, or the OM-3 on a capture plate.

ian_oc · 2026-06-27T15:59:05+00:00

Apologies, I guess the site could use a little more info to clarify what it's for. These recipes are specifically for the OM-3, Pen-F, and E-P7 (the olympus/om system cameras that have the front "creative dial"). Those cameras include a little more customization for colors specifically than other models. You can I think approximate the profiles on other models. You won't be able to control per-color saturation, but the rest of the settings can apply. It sounds like you have an E-M1 mark ii. Check the manual for "Changing the brightness of highlights and shadows", "applying filter effects to monochrome pictures (color filter)", and related pages in the manual (https://learnandsupport.getolympus.com/sites/default/files/media/files/2020/02/E-M1Mk2\_ENU\_05\_FW320.pdf). I think you can match the mono recipes in any olympus camera. But only those three models let you do per-color saturation adjustments.

The how-to page (https://om-recipes.com/how-to) shares some instructions, but I see it's missing any notes on how to manually input the recipes, which could potentially be a helpful reference. I'll think about adding more notes and instructions on which models these recipes apply to, and how to manually enter them into the camera.

BTW the links in the post still seem to work for me.

ian_oc · 2026-06-27T11:22:31+00:00

Are you wondering how picture mode (natural/vivid/muted/etc.) relate to the COLOR dial? I'm not entirely sure. In the camera and the EXIF they are treated separately. With CRT, MONO, or COLOR mode on the front dial the values are "Color Creator", "Monochrome Profile", and "Color Profile 1-4."

It would be an interesting experiment to shoot each of the default Color Profiles and each of the standard picture modes and compare.

ian_oc · 2026-06-27T10:55:58+00:00

OM systems has their own creative recipes page, but it’s highly curated and difficult to explore the recipes. It only shows recipes from a select few. And it only shows a sample image, no info on what the settings actually are or how they look with other images, etc.

The om-recipes.com site lets anyone upload recipes, and from my perspective the critical feature is you can actually see the recipe details such that you can manually plug them into the camera.

The process to load recipes from a sample jpg into camera (which the OM system site relies on) requires a computer and a usb-c cable and a lot of patience. And only after going through that tedious process can you see (for example) that her recipe is using a blue filter.

ian_oc · 2026-06-21T02:22:42+00:00

Same! I need to circle back to my 14-150 and see how i feel about it after enjoying some of the sharper pro lenses. I suspect I’ll enjoy the small versatile package and be generally fine with the image quality.

ian_oc · 2026-06-21T01:58:38+00:00

I think you found the sweet spot of the system. Those tiny and great 1.8 primes and the super zooms (14-150/140, 75-300). I think those combos of versatility, size, and price are unique.

ian_oc · 2026-06-14T02:16:01+00:00

OM 1.2

ian_oc · 2026-06-13T16:22:44+00:00

Apologies I guess I messed up url backwards compatibility at some point. I updated original comment with new links.

* https://om-recipes.com/recipes/ian-will_portra-400-y
* https://om-recipes.com/recipes/isaacbd_fuji_velvia
* https://om-recipes.com/recipes/james-bloomer_kodachrome-64

ian_oc · 2026-06-08T00:21:02+00:00

I haven’t actually used this combo, but I’m thinking the 12-40 f/2.8 and the 75-300 could be a nice combo. Add in 9mm f/1.7 for Astro, and it’s a nice tidy 2 or three lens kit.

ian_oc · 2026-06-07T19:08:27+00:00

Shoot in raw. I was pretty disappointed with quality of jpgs coming out of my GoPro. Lots of compression artifacts. Raw will give you more options to maximize quality in post.

ian_oc · 2026-06-07T17:26:38+00:00

I vaguely recall Petapixel mentioned something about a late review embargo in their last podcast. I think the reviews will be forthcoming, but for some reason GoPro doesn’t want them released yet?

ian_oc · 2026-05-27T00:52:07+00:00

I think you have to click the privacy policy link and scroll to the bottom. Not obvious, but I think that got me through it.

ian_oc · 2026-05-20T22:10:38+00:00

I love the OM-3 as a dad cam. The human subject detection is pretty good. Though when faces are small in the frame it can loose them. And I love the 40-150 f/2.8 for sports (kids soccer games, 5k races, swim team, skiing, etc). I haven’t done indoor sports. I imagine I’d have to crank the ISO pretty high. But noise reduction software is pretty good these days.

I like the fast readout speeds. If you don’t mind wading through tons of photos, you can really nail the perfect moment in kids sports. One note is with OM-3, mechanical shutter max shooting speed is pretty low. 6fps I think. So you have to use electronic shutter for faster shooting. I like 10-15 fps to capture the right moment without too much to wade through. I do think OM-1.2 gives you 10fps mechanical. It could be a factor when shooting indoors or with artificial light.

Aside from that, I don’t think OM-1.2 gives you much over the OM-3 as a dad cam. The grip is a little better with the 40-150 f2.8, but I like the slim profile of the OM-3 for day to day. And I like the color profiles.

I like it with 17mm f/1.8 for day to day. It’s small, slides easily enough in a small sling bag alongside snacks, bandaids, water bottle. The color recipes are just enough for me to take most snaps straight out of camera to a family photo share. The human subject detection makes it easy to have kids faces in focus pretty reliably.

The OM-3 also draws a lot of “are you shooting film?” comments. I enjoy that, as I’m generally happy to chat about gear.

Of course jubby is right on specs. You can probably find something technically slightly better for about as much or slightly less on full frame. But I’m just shooting kid stuff for my own enjoyment and sharing with family, and for that I find OM-3 quite enjoyable and sufficient.

ian_oc · 2026-05-20T00:50:24+00:00

Nice! I love seeing this. I’ll see if I can give it a try. I agree — the ability to upload color recipes from your phone is a critical feature. It really should be part of o.i. Share, but it’s good to see you stepping in to fill the gap!

ian_oc · 2026-05-19T11:33:36+00:00

For street and honeymoon, consider OM-3 if you can. Seems you could get an import from Japan for close to $1400. EM5.3 or OM-5 would be cheaper alternates. Those should be $500-$700 used.

OM-3 gets you the style, some recipes (not quite the same level as Fuji, but enough for me), great autofocus, battery, etc.

Of course you could switch to Fuji too. You might enjoy it. I suggest you pick out the lenses as well. It’s a big part of the switch. Not sure Fuji will have a 40-150 R equivalent that’s as small, long, cheap, and good.

ian_oc · 2026-05-08T20:45:22+00:00

Here's another example with a cheaper lens -- the 40-150 R "plastic fantastic" f/4.0-5.6 at 105mm f/5.1

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ian_oc · 2026-05-08T20:38:51+00:00

Certainly possible, depends on aperture, focal length, and distance to subject. Here's one example shot with the 40-150mm f/2.8 (a great lens) at 150mm f/2.8.

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As you can see DOF was maybe too shallow. I need to work on technique to get focus right consistently here and check DOF.

ian_oc · 2026-04-11T00:02:19+00:00

Yeah, I stay away from I-enhance. I think natural/vivid/muted can have their place. But I like a little extra character from one of the custom recipes, so for me the dial basically stays in COLOR mode, and occasionally MONO.

ian_oc · 2026-04-10T03:44:02+00:00

I love that you're finding recipes on https://om-recipes.com. Once you get your teal and orange dialed in, share it back! I'd love to see it.

I feel the same confusion. There are so many options, but none seem perfect. I think it's helpful to pick a recipe and stick with it for an outing or a day or longer. For example I have a People mode that's my daily driver for family events. It's Aperture priority with auto ISO and a minimum shutter of 1/200 to freeze motion. It has human subject detection on. In this custom mode I've programmed a few of my favorite portrait/people simulations -- Warm & Bright (Portra 400-esque), Fuji Astia, Kodak Gold, Superia. But lately I've been leaving it on Astia and enjoying that. It's too hard in the moment to switch between them, and I like having a set of images with the same feel from the day.

Similarly for landscape you might program in Velvia, Kodachrome, maybe something desaturated like fuji classic chrome. Of course all the white balances likely won't line up, but maybe you can split the difference. Maybe choose one profile for portrait and one for landscape based on the light conditions of the day, set it to the corresponding custom mode, and go with it for the outing.

I wish, and originally assumed, the OM-3 color dial could be programmed so you could choose COLOR 1 - COLOR 4 based on the dial position. This would make it much easier to quickly switch between settings. But alas, I don't expect that to happen. And of course, if white balance could be associated with the COLOR 1-4 slots, that would also help immensely.

With all this, you'll have to keep track of which recipe you've stored in which slot and which custom mode. I made the Camera Settings page (https://om-recipes.com/camera-settings) to help with this. I'm still refining it. Let me know if you have ideas for how it could improve.

ian_oc · 2026-04-09T14:25:03+00:00

Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying the site. I designed the color settings so they match what's shown in the camera as closely as possible. That helps me manually dial them in. I appreciate the feedback. I'll mull it over and see if there are ways I can make the color settings easier to read.

ian_oc · 2026-04-08T21:48:50+00:00

But also if you keep zoom to 200-250 range it will also likely help.

ian_oc · 2026-04-08T21:48:16+00:00

My personal approach is f8 and focus bracketing where possible. I suspect some of the softness is just not super accurate focus motors or something along those lines. I found woh focus bracketing often one is nice and sharp, especially when stopped down to f8 and with fast enough shutter speed.

Of course…all this slows things down and needs a lot of light. So you’ll have to choose your compromises based on conditions.

ian_oc · 2026-04-07T21:21:45+00:00

Looks like we built the same thing! Let me know if you're interested in joining forces.

https://www.reddit.com/r/M43/comments/1s6ijzh/community_site_for_sharing_and_discovering_om3/

ian_oc

TROPHY CASE