Programming of Dandelion for Olympus and Panasonic
Programming of Dandelion is simple and includes three steps:
1. Activation of the program mode
2. Command input
3. Data input
Activate program mode in Dandelion. In order to do that press the lens reset button and no later than in 2.5 seconds press and hold the preview button for 10 seconds. At the 11th second the camera will display aperture sign “-.-”. This means that Dandelion has entered the program mode. Press the lens reset button again. Dandelion will be ready to accept the command and data. Control dial will let you change the aperture from F4.0 to F11. Herewith each aperture corresponds to a number (see table 1).
| Aperture | F4.0 | F4.5 | F5.0 | F5.6 | F6.3 | F7.1 | F8.0 | F9.0 | F10 | F11 |
| Corresp. number | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 |
Table 1. Apertures and corresponding numbers.
All new Dandelions by default have a 10-second delay before activation. You can change it from 01 to 99 seconds (see F11 function). A short delay helps activate the program mode quicker. A longer delay excludes the possibility of an accidental activation.
Make sure that you press the preview button no later than 2.5 seconds after you pressed the lens reset button, and that you hold it continually for 10 seconds. Otherwise the program mode will not be activated. The camera has to be prepared as described here; if not, there is no guarantee that all commands will work correctly.
Dandelion will stay in the program mode until you enter command and data. If you wish to quit the program mode anyway, turn the camera off using Power on/off switch.
Command and Data Input
Command input is as simple as pressing the preview button on a certain aperture. After that you will have to enter several digits (data). The data are to be entered as such, for example, the number 28 must be entered in the following way: first 2, then 8.
List of Commands And Their Formats
F4.0 + 2 digits – aperture change. The first digit corresponds to an aperture value before point. The second digit – to an aperture value after the point. For example, to set aperture 2.8 press the preview button successively on apertures F4.0 (command), F5.0 (the first digit is 2), F10 (the second digit is 8).
Aperture change ranges from F1.0 to F9.9. If the command and two digits are entered correctly, there will appear aperture sign “-.-” on the display. Press the lens reset button and check the result.
Mind that if aperture is set from F1.0 to F1.9, it will influence exposure metering and reduce it.
F5.6 + 5 digits – focal length change. The digits are to be entered from greatest to least. If the focal length is less than 5 digits, add zeros. For example for 50mm: 00050. All five digits have to be entered.
Therefore to change focal length to 50mm, press the preview button successively on the following apertures: F5.6 (command), F4.0 (the first digit is 0), F4.0 (the second digit is 0), F4.0 (the third digit is 0), F7.1 (the forth digit is 5), F4.0 (the fifth digit is 0).
Focal length ranges from 00001mm to 65535mm. If the command and five digits are entered correctly, an aperture sign “-.-” will appear on the display. Press lens reset button and check the result.
F8.0 + 2 digits from 01 to 17 – correction of focus confirmation dot – or Dandelion calibration function. You may move the dot a bit forward or backward, to manually find the calibration constant. By default Dandelion is set for the center, constant 09.
F10 + 1…32 characters – input of text information about the lens type. If you have several lenses of the same type, you may assign each of them so that you could differentiate between the photos later on. For example, “Zeiss Planar 50/1.4″ or “Summicron R 50/1.4″.
Text information is transferred to exif in the same way as aperture and focal length information, and can be read on your PC later with the help of specialized software. Unspecialized software such as ACDSee cannot display text information about lens type, thus you’ll have to use specialized exif reading software, such as ExifTool.
Mind that Olympus system restricts the length of the line. It ignores lens type and doesn’t transfer it to exif; that’s why the text will be displayed on the same place as the serial number of the lens. As a result, the length of the text can be no more than 12 characters.
Panasonic DMC-L10 fully transfers lens type information to exif, thus all 32 characters can be used.
If you enter text in an Olympus camera, start with the tilde sign (“~”). The following 12 characters will be displayed like the serial number of the lens. Maximum text length is 12 characters + tilde sign in the beginning. You may enter 32 characters, but only 12 will be displayed.
There is no such restriction in Panasonic cameras, so you can enter 32 characters. You don’t have to use the tilde sign.
To enter the text you will have to use numbers from 00 to 94 that correspond to each character. You will find them in Table 2. The characters are to be entered from left to right, from first to last. If you wish to enter less than 32 characters, finish the line by entering number 99. The line will be finished automatically after the 32nd character. Aperture sign “-.-” will be appear on the display. Press lens reset button and check the result.
| Space | 00 | 0 | 16 | @ | 32 | P | 48 | ` | 64 | p | 80 |
| ! | 01 | 1 | 17 | A | 33 | Q | 49 | a | 65 | q | 81 |
| “ | 02 | 2 | 18 | B | 34 | R | 50 | b | 66 | r | 82 |
| # | 03 | 3 | 19 | C | 35 | S | 51 | c | 67 | s | 83 |
| $ | 04 | 4 | 20 | D | 36 | T | 52 | d | 68 | t | 84 |
| % | 05 | 5 | 21 | E | 37 | U | 53 | e | 69 | u | 85 |
| & | 06 | 6 | 22 | F | 38 | V | 54 | f | 70 | v | 86 |
| ‘ | 07 | 7 | 23 | G | 39 | W | 55 | g | 71 | w | 87 |
| ( | 08 | 8 | 24 | H | 40 | X | 56 | h | 72 | x | 88 |
| ) | 09 | 9 | 25 | I | 41 | Y | 57 | i | 73 | y | 89 |
| * | 10 | : | 26 | J | 42 | Z | 58 | j | 74 | z | 90 |
| + | 11 | ; | 27 | K | 43 | [ | 59 | k | 75 | { | 91 |
| , | 12 | < | 28 | L | 44 | \ | 60 | l | 76 | | | 92 |
| - | 13 | = | 29 | M | 45 | ] | 61 | m | 77 | } | 93 |
| . | 14 | > | 30 | N | 46 | ^ | 62 | n | 78 | ~ | 94 |
| / | 15 | ? | 31 | O | 47 | _ | 63 | o | 79 | End | 99 |
Table 2. Characters and corresponding numbers.TIP: Before entering the text write it out and assign each character to its corresponding number. Cross out the numbers one by one as you enter them. This will prevent mixing up the characters.
F11 + 2 digits – delay before entering the program mode. This is set to 10 seconds by default. You can change it into 01 to 99 seconds.
Mind that if the delay timing is set to 60 to 99 seconds, you will have to hold the preview button continuously for more than 1 minute to enter the program mode. The camera may enter the sleep mode during this time, so make sure that the sleep mode is activated no earlier than after 2 minutes in your camera.
In Olympus E-300 OK button can be customized to perform PREVIEW function.
In Olympus E-330 there is a special button for customizing the PREVIEW function
In Olympus E-400 a round Fn button is located near the controller.
In Olympus E-410 “<” button (left arrow) functions as Fn button.
The same for Olympus E-420.
In Olympus E-500 a One-touch WB button is used.
In Olympus E-510 there is a special Fn button.
The same for Olympus E-520.
In Olympus E-1 and E-3 the PREVIEW function is performed by a standard button near the lens. It doesn’t have to be customized.