Proud owner of a new Olympus E-PL6

OrdinarilyInordinate wrote:

alexisgreat wrote:

Now, what accessories to get? I was thinking of getting a second battery (BLS-50 since it will work as well as the BLS-5 in this camera and uses the same charger.) I was thinking third party, like the Wasabi's I recently got for my E-520 (2xBLM-5 plus charger) but I've now read reports of Wasabi's expanding and getting stuck in the camera 18 months from purchase. So I will definitely be sticking with Olympus OEM batteries....with the BLM-5 I had no choice since Olympus no longer makes them. I was thinking of just keeping the one BLS-5 battery that came with the camera for now and getting a genuine Olympus BLS-50 sometime next year. Previously I used to buy 4-6 OEM batteries at the same time and rotate them, thinking that this would extend their life, but I dont think this worked, since my older Olympus BLM-1 batteries (10 yrs old) dont hold a charge more than a few hours. I'm thinking that having so many batteries and only charging them once a year (at most) was a bad idea and shortened their lives. With just having one BLS-5 battery and charging it about once a month (based on how much I expect to use the camera), I think will be better for the battery. Thoughts?

I decided to go with another Olympus brand battery for my E-M1. It works great, and I wanted to minimize the bloating chance.

Thanks, sounds like you came to the same conclusion as me about picking Olympus OEM batteries.

I guess I got a bit duped by "each battery is good for up to 500 charges" Oly advertizing thing, I figured 4 OEM batteries=2000 charges lol. Now I have to also rethink the idea that Fuji batteries are good for 300 charges each so the 6 OEM batteries I have are good for 1800 charges lol.

Technically mirrorless cameras are not like SLRs. They are rated for some number of photos, but in reality that number doesn't mean anything. The amount of time a camera is turned on is more of a limiting factor. For example 3 hours of continuous shooting or just continuously being on might drain a battery a similar amount. There are reports of people getting 1000 shots out of an Olympus E-M1 on a single charge, and they are mostly just photographing continuously. And there are reports of people getting 50 shots during an evening out, but their camera was on most of the time. I habitually turn off my cameras after I take a photo if I don't intend to take another for at least a few minutes. At least the E-M1 turns on and is ready to shoot very quickly.

Since you are saying that you will be doing astrophotography, that means 2 things for the battery: 1. cold temperatures (unless you limit your photography to tropical nights) which lower effective battery charge, and 2. camera will be on continuously. So I'd get at least one extra battery and expect to swap if you will be doing long exposures for hours.

Specifically for E-PL6, I hope someone can comment on whether there are battery-saving features that could be useful for astrophotography.

I hope there are power saving features like the camera going into sleep mode after one minute of nonusage. I have that on my E-520. I half press the shutter and the camera comes right back on. It also keeps the camera from overheating. I wonder if the small form factor of the E-PL6 will make it more prone to overheating (and noise) during long exposures (like 15-30 seconds at ISO 1600, which is a common exposure length for me.) Good thing we have dark frame subtraction built in!

I have Panasonic Eneloop AA batteries that are marketed for being good for 2100 charges, I wonder about them too, but at least AA batteries are in no danger of ever going extinct lol, I can always get more.

Other thing I was wondering about is what kind of screen protector to get. I have a bunch of do-it-yourself strips I bought awhile ago that can make screen protectors from 1.5" to 4" by cutting them to the right size, good idea considering the 3:2 aspect ratio of the LCD? I did not get a glass screen protector this time because this is a touch screen- was that a good decision?

I just cut to size myself, buying larger sheets meant for tablets. I go for well-rated budget-friendly varieties on Amazon, like by IllumiShield or TechMatte. They work very well, and there are no problems with the touch screen. I've even used a matte version of IllumiShield on a camera once, which helped dramatically in bright light but understandably lowered clarity a bit in less bright conditions (but it was a worthwhile trade-off, since that camera had no option for a viewfinder).

Thanks, I just got the version you cut yourself- do these things have to be replaced periodically? I have 12 sheets.

Here's a great thread on here about micro four thirds cameras for astrophotography:

http://www.cloudynights.com/topic/451681-a-night-with-the-micro-four-thirds-cameras/page-1

Here it is on sensorgen:
http://www.sensorgen.info/
It is the second best Olympus camera on there, after the E-M1 (and beats the Pentax K-50 in lower read noise.)

http://www.sensorgen.info/OlympusPEN-E-PL5.html

vs

http://www.sensorgen.info/PentaxK-50.html

(I used the E-PL5's numbers since they use the same sensor.)

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Thanks for the Astrophotography info links!

Thanks I hope you like them, the sensor specs can be used for any camera for any purpose in determining how sensors have progressed through the years, for example, you can see there was a big jump in quality between 2011 and 2012- look at the sensorgen numbers for the E-PL3 and compare them to the E-PL5. It was an across the board change actually (across compacts, mirrorless, DSLR, etc.) , personally, I would no longer want to use a camera made before 2012 unless it was for specialty purposes.  Although thy still produce very good images in bright light, the 2012 and later cameras are much better in low light.