Battery For Em1 (1 Viewer)

I have now used my new em1 witha 60mm macro for a couple of days now, however the battery life is much to be desired! Is there a heavy duty battery available??
Kind regards mike

The HLD-7 battery grip is probably your best option. Ever since camera manufacturers added built in winders and auto focussing back in the film days I seem to have been purchasing battery grips and many spare batteries. Unfortunately it is generally easier to find compatible batteries with less capacity than more, any claimed increases tend to be fairly marginal. Unfortunately it appears that the way the grip is implemented is not as user friendly as those designed for the bigger Olympus slrs.
At least Olympus slr batteries seem to survive a long time, I still have blm-1s that I bought back in the days of the E-1, C-880 etc.
Actually the E-1 was about the only Olympus camera that took a greatly uprated battery but only in its battery grip. It lasted for ever - but it cost a lot of cash, especially if you took a spare, and it needed a much bigger charger. It was one of the nicest to use, it had to be at that price and it didn't fit anything else.

I *think* the battery for the new EPL7 is a bit bigger and compatible.
Personally, I just bit the bullet and am the proud owner of 3 batteries. If I turn off the camera when not shooting, even if it might only be a minute or two before the next shot (but how can I predict for sure), I've battery life much better.
There's no getting around the fact that an EVF or screen is a battery drain. It takes getting used to after coming from an SLR, but extra batteries should be part of the cost consideration for these.

I recommend getting Oly batteries, third parties never last as long for me. At best, a battery costing half as much lasts half as long in my experience.

I should probably clarify, as that speedy comment was a bit misleading.
I have no evidence, but I find that after only a short time 3rd party batteries tend to give me fewer shots per charge. I also find they 'die' (by which I mean no longer provide a useful number of shots per charge) much sooner than own-brand batteries. So I think they are a false economy.

I've tried this with Canon (powershot and SLR), then after switching thought I'd try it with Olympus and I'm already finding the Olympus batteries out-lasting the other one. So, I won't be straying from first party batteries in future.

I don't bother with grips as they add bulk and it's easy enough to switch batteries.

Thanks guys, I think I have been spoilt with canon, which seemed to last a couple of trips, take today as an example out about 5hs 90 macro shots and had to replace the battery. However in its defence I was using live view to focus a lot, And s-AF.
Regards mike

Sorry to be the damp squib but the existing BLN-1 battery that goes with the E-M1 is 1220 mAh and the new BLS-50 is 1210 mAh - better news for Pen or E-M10 users but regrettably no improvement for OMD E-M1 or M5.

Pity I was getting excited.

J

i haven't really found battery life to be a problem but I usually don't take that many shots while I am out. 90 shots would be an unusually productive session for me.

I have two original Olympus batteries and two Ex-Pro (chipped exact) ones, which I keep for emergency use. They charge in the Olympus charger, unlike some other aftermarket batteries and show the state of charge in the camera but they don't last as long as the originals. The are about a sixth of the price, though, so I am prepared to make some allowances for their performance.

Ron

Like Ron I always carry spares - something to do with the paranoia I developed when cameras first needed batteries to operate.

Thankyou for your experiences, I am at the present due to it being Autumn again, into my fungi photography, with my recently acquired em1 and 60 mm macro lens. I find it strange, that a rechargeable AA battery
Can be twice the Mah that the Olympus can hold. I can only assume due to the over whelming popularity of the AA size that it is a financial gain for the manufactures. Olympus when in consultation at the early stages with there suppliers should insist on at for a higher Mah battery before signing up with there contractor? Therefore listen up Hahnel and other makers.
Kind regards mike

AA cells are probably produced for pence and the markup is probably high on them.

In theory you are paying for a much higher level of QC, better materials and regional testing for a relatively low volume component. Also the smaller the battery of the type encased in a plastic shell the available volume for the actual battery and its chipery (for which you are also paying) diminishes even more. If you look at current batteries of similarish size for other camera manufacturers they are all very similar in capacity.

I used to use a lot of rechargeable AAs of high capacity in two way radios, my charger gives a report on actual capacity, a lot get nowhere near it after a short use, even with proper discharge recharge cycling.

However having worked in the aircraft business at some time I was aware that the actual new aircraft was rarely sold at a profit, certified spares on the other hand.....

The old HLD-4 battery grip for the E-3, -30, -5 had an adaptor to take AA cells however it was an extremely bad way to save money.

Good luck with the fungi it looks as if it may be a good year judging from my garden. I am still using the f2.0 50mm macro on manual focus with adaptor on m 4/3, attracted to the 60mm, maybe one day.

It's not just the mAh that are important, but voltage two. Battery packs tend to have a higher voltage (eg 7V compared to 1.5V) and the energy supplied is related to the voltage x amperage, so the battery packs actually have significantly more energy stored in them. This lets them run a faster processor and recharge flashes more quickly.
It also lets them build in some electronics, choose shape etc. and charge customers for extra packs.

I usually carry 2 or 3 batteries on a field trip just-in-case.

I now have 3 batteries, which should suffice. As I am new to Olympus, how is the 50mm macro, and which lenses are very good wide angle lenses please. I like to take a wide angle shot of fungi in the right circumstances?
Kind regards mike

The Olympus 50mm macro is a 4/3 lens that proved remarkably good (see the Robin Wong comments on almost technically perfect) with several reviewers using it as a standard lens for testing new bodies.

Olympus have gone head to head with Leica with microscopes and similar equipent and in the past invested heavily in professional macro lens heads and other close up equipment, such as bellows etc.

This review will give a users view and show why the lens you have is in no meaningful way inferior and in some important ways, better. I have never bothered with getting macro lenses for my Nikon or other bodies as the Olympus set up was perfect for my needs.

http://robinwong.blogspot.ca/2012/09/olympus-mzuiko-60mm-f28-macro-lens.html

The 50mm has a 4/3 mount and therefore needs an Olympus MMF-2 or similar adaptor to fit mft cameras such as the EM1.

Unlike the similar f3.5 35mm 4/3 macro or your 60mm, it will not go down to a true 1:1 ratio without an Olympus EX-25 extension tube. The good news is with all this tube and mount it still talks to the camera. For most use such as fungi the 1:1 is only necessary if you are getting very close up and personal with the gills. Your 60mm will go to 1:1 as you know.

Optically it is an excellent lens both for macro use and for portraits etc, being crisp and low on abberations. The f:2 aperture is an obvious help for critical focussing.

The however is that is not a fast a/f lens and has no focus limiter. It will a/f without the extension tube quite happily on my EP-1 and therefore should be even better on an OMD. There is little point in trying to a/f with the ext tube on the EP-1 - never tried it on my OMDs, however at these ranges I manually focus and move the camera for critical focus etc., so it isn't a problem to me. The EP-1 has a multi-angle VF-2 viewfinder which I find useful hence the choice of this older camera.

As between it and the f3.5 35mm macro I already own (that focusses faster and I use for small mammals and reptiles), I don't really need the 60mm as it really duplicates what I've got especially as I have a Sigma 105 mm macro for insects.

If I was new to Olympus I would buy the 60mm you have and leave it at that.

I use the Olympus 9-18mm as my mft wide angle, the Panasonic equivalent is reputeably excellent but I have never tried it and it costs more. The Panasonic 8mm is a fisheye so is probably of little interest.

If you have less need for the more extreme wides there are a lot of lenses that go out to 12mm, including zooms and primes.

I hope this provides some background - all focal lengths quoted are true figures and not 35mm equivalents

Excellent light today for crisp close ups.

thanks again, and iveljay for the input, One good point I have found when I was photographing some parasol mushrooms was that due to the dimunitive size of the em1+ 60mm macro was that I could actually place the whole kit right under the parasol to photograph the gills. but the canon 650D +100l macro was far too large,as you can imagine I was well pleased. I very rarely pull up the fungi to see the gills. I would try and bend the stem if possible.
Kind regards mike