How to get your Manual Lens Information and Aperture to show up in the EXIF data of your Olympus Camera Photographs

There is a large selection of manual lenses available for Micro Four Thirds cameras at reasonable prices. Many of these lenses have excellent optical quality and many of the Olympus camera features still work with these manual lenses.

One of the problems with using manual lenses is that the lens information, focal length, and aperture do not show up in the EXIF Data of your photographs. This is only true for manual lenses with no contacts. If you use manual focus lenses with electrical contacts like the Venus Optics Laowa 10mm f/2 Lens, the lens, focal length, and aperture information will automatically be stored in the EXIF data.

There is a way to get the lens, focal length and aperture information stored in your EXIF data when using manual lenses. This can be accomplished in the Lens Info Settings menu.

The Lens Info Settings menu is located in under the Gear menu, sub-menu H1.

Lens Info Settings - Gear - H1 Menu — **Lens Info Settings – Gear – H1 Menu**

How To Create a Manual Lens Entry

Highlight Create Lens Information and press the right button on the Arrow Pad
You need to enter the Lens Name, Focal Length, and Aperture value by pressing the right button on the Arrow pad for each one and pressing OK (except for the Lens Name – see below) to return to the Create Lens Information menu.
Select the Set option and press OK to save the lens.

Entering / Editing the Lens Name

The interface for entering the lens name can be a little tricky.

Use the Arrow Pad keys to move the cursor over the letter / number you want to type. Press the OK button to type the character.
Use the Info button to toggle between the keyboard and to position the cursor in the line of text you have typed.
Press the End key in the virtual keyboard when finished entering / editing the name to save your changes and return to the prior menu.
Once you press End key to return to the Create / Edit Lens menu. Scroll down to highlight Set and press the OK key to save the changes.

**Lens Selection in Lens Info Settings**

To select a Manual Lens

Scroll down to the lens you want to select in the Lens Info Setting sub-menu.
Press the OK button. A check mark will appear next to the lens.
Press the Menu button to go back to the previous menu.

Follow the same process as above to deselect a lens. The OK button will remove the check mark for lenses that are selected.

Don’t worry if you forget to deselect the lens when you are finished shooting with that manual lens. This feature will not overwrite the lens or aperture information for lenses with electronic contacts. It will only write the selected information for manual lenses.

**Creating / Editing the Manual Lens Information**

Changing the Aperture

If you want to save the aperture that you are shooting with on the manual lens, you will need to manually change it in the Lens Info Settings. If you have a manual zoom lens, the focal length can be changed in a similar way as changing the aperture.

In order to change the aperture information quickly, I create all of my manual lenses in the Lens Info Settings ahead of time. I also save the Lens Info Settings menu in My Menu by pressing the record button while Lens Info Settings in sub-menu K1 is selected. This way I can quickly get to this sub-menu.

Once in the Lens Info Settings sub-menu, scroll down to highlight the lens whose aperture you want to change.
Press the right button on the Arrow Pad, select Edit and press the right button on the Arrow Pad again.
Scroll down to highlight the aperture value, then press the right button on the control panel.
Change the value for aperture using the Arrow Pad buttons and press OK.
When you return to the prior menu, highlight and press the set button to save the change.
You’ll be prompted whether you want to Overwrite of Save as New Entry. I usually select overwrite so I only have one entry per lens.

If the lens was already selected (check mark to the left of the lens), you will not need to re-select it.

When you have the lens selected, your lens information, focal length and aperture will now show up in the EXIF data.

Written by Martin Belan

The Site may contain links to affiliate websites, and we receive an affiliate commission for any purchases made by you on the affiliate website using such links. Our affiliates include: Amazon, Skylum Software, Topaz Labs, DxO, Viator, Hotelopia, and Langly Co.