Just bought an Olympus E-PL1

[digiMom]

I think you did a good job with the slower shutter speeds. You'll invariably get motion blur or camera shake on some shots and you can try higher ISO's to get the faster shutter speed, but you'll have the tradeoff of noise in the photos. You can take care of the noise though with some post processing.

Do you think an ISO of 800 is the best choice indoors with this camera? I've read that the E-PL1 holds up until it gets to that number. Or can I push it more than that?

 

[Pugrpooh]

Do you think an ISO of 800 is the best choice indoors with this camera? I've read that the E-PL1 holds up until it gets to that number. Or can I push it more than that?

There are a couple of settings in camera that you can change that I've seen other photographers recommend. One is noise reduction and the other one I can't think of the name for it just now. It's past 10, it's been a long day and my mind is mush! Actually, try looking here in the micro 4/3 forum on dpreview. http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/forum.asp?forum=1041

Scroll down to the bottom right of the page and check out the most bookmarked threads in there. There are some with recommended settings for the E-PL1 and other tips you may find useful.

Topaz and Lightroom both have excellent noise reduction features for post processing. I have an E-PL2 and most, if not all, of my photos from the Taylor Swift concert last month were at ISO 1600. I ended up with over 100 keepers and I use Lightroom. I don't remember having to do a whole lot of noise reduction anyway.

Just try different ISO settings in the same low lit room and see if you would be happy with > 800 ISO settings. They could still be cleaned up more with post processing.

 

[digiMom]

Thanks for the link. I've pulled up threads from dpreview, but hadn't found the whole forum. I don't own lightroom, but the photographer has it where I work so I'm slightly aware of it. I have my own set of expensive software for web design/development that I've invested in, so lightroom's not in the budget in the near future. I'm not sure if I can use Photoshop... I'm not a teacher or student, but work at a college so I think I qualify for the student edition. I should check into that.

(My DS wants me to add a banana. He's singing "peanut butter jelly time..." )

 

[digiMom]

OK, basic rule: Use a shutter speed no faster that focal length of your lens. So essentially, at 150mm your shutter speed should be 1/150 or less? What about the 2x conversion? Should it really be less that 1/300? Thanks...