How many batteries to get

Another thing to consider: when/if you resell your gear: do you think you'll break even on the batteries and chargers?

I saw a For Sale item where a person is selling a Panny with six batteries and three chargers.  I'm not sure how much he paid for the batteries and chargers to be basically giving them away but, man, that's quite a bit of stuff to lose money on and then pay to ship it. Of course, any potential buyer has no idea what condition they are in - but if they are OEM you at least know the baseline and won't have to guess at whether they function properly with the original chargers.

I consider the return on the investment for all of my gear.

HRC2016 wrote:

Another thing to consider: when/if you resell your gear: do you think you'll break even on the batteries and chargers?

I consider the return on the investment for all of my gear.

Photography gear is an expense, not an investment. I don't expect to break even on any of it, though there is a chance that a couple lenses I purchased used could be sold for close to the same price I paid.

An OEM battery for the G9 is $60. A compatible aftermarket battery can be had for $13, so buying a couple of those per camera is a negligible expense, and it would be silly to worry about whether that small expenditure could be recovered when the camera is put up for sale years down the road.

Neither I nor the vast majority of those who buy aftermarket batteries have suffered any dire consequences from using them. Since you don't buy extra batteries, you wouldn't know.

pannumon wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Yes I would love that! Looking around for a solar powered charger for my camera right now.

Maybe there is a way to solar power the camera itself? I have the external power dummy battery, all it would need is to be connected to an external solar power source!

I think, in practice, you still need a battery. You don't want your camera lose power when it is writing to the SD card. When that happens, everything in the card may be lost.

If your camera supports USB-charging, that is another thing. However, think normal power banks are not enough to power a camera. You can charge via USB (if the camera supports it), but in order to power it, you will probably need a USB PD power bank that can provide the specified amount of amperes.

He owns an E-M10... PD isn't gonna make a lick of difference regardless of what route he takes. You might be thinking of a recent thread about the E-M1 III which does require a PD source to charge and power it simultaneously, since it does so natively via USB-C (only way to implement PD, it's not made for USB Type A gear or micro B)

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63733305

If he's using a third party coupler and wants to hook that up to a USB source then PD could conceivably be employed but so far I haven't seen any voltage converter or USB hookup that even uses USB-C let alone PD. Something like the Case Relay Tether Tools handles the voltage conversion and has it's own internal battery so you can hot swap standard USB power banks while using it, tho they don't make a coupler for the E-M10 so you have to source that separately... AFAIK no E-M10/E-PL body can even charge in-camera via micro USB. The E-M5 III can (same battery).

This thread contains some more suggestions solutions for the E-M5 III (and thus the E-M10):

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63686722

HRC2016 wrote:

I have only one for each model, and they are all OEM.

OEM are very reliable and you know what you are getting. Why take a chance with off brand either bulging or not holding a full charge? Why risk your expensive gear to save a few bucks on a mystery battery?

Not sure what risk there is. With Olympus you might lose some features like knowing the exact percentage number of the battery remaining, but I can't think of anything that would labelled a risk.

Buying several mystery/cheapo batteries means you have more to carry and to charge, and you're never quite sure what you will get. So you buy more "for safety". Isn't it easier to carry just one that is reliable and use it wisely?

Carry one? Mileage varies based on usage. One for you might be fine, where it's 3 for someone else.
There are aftermarket batteries with better reputations and reviews than others, choose wisely just as you would any purchase.

I practice good power management and have never had a battery die in the field. Never. Even for the 2017 eclipse, I only had one battery for the shot of a lifetime (actually a time lapse).

You're #1 very lucky, I'd venture extremely lucky and #2 you don't shoot that much compared to some of us. I've shot off and on all day from sunrise to sunset and gone through 4 batteries. Add cold to the mix and things can get even worse. Add to the reality that batteries are bleeding power as they sit and the two sitting in the bag that you haven't charged in a week and when you go to grab one, it's at 75%, lots of variables and the more you are shooting the more there are.

Battery manufacturing and disposal is bad for the environment. As a photographer I believe it is imperative we protect our environment.

I could care less about that aspect of owning extra batteries for my camera. You probably find that super offensive, but it's probably on the mild end of the scale in ways I could offend you.

You posted a bunch of questions about solar power, USB power, etc. throughout the thread, so rather than answering them under each comment imma just dump it all in this post.

As to the original question, I seldom used more than 2 a day with my E-M5 II (YMMV) but still had 1 OEM, 1 Watson (B&H house brand, a little more reliable than other 3rd parties) and a couple third party extras which I rarely touched. For my E-M5 III (which uses the same battery as your E-M10 or E-PL) I just bought a second OEM battery for now, might add a third later but that body can charge directly over USB so it's not a pressing need.

On USB charging: Even if you have a camera that can't charge directly over USB (don't think you do), you can still resort to the next best thing and get a slim USB charger for your batteries that you can then hook up directly to any car charger, power bank, etc. Basically just get something like this, loads of uses for it (I have that very one and it's working fine, that bad review wasn't there when I bought it, loads of similar ones on Amazon tho):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F47XYLT/

On solar power: You never want to go straight from a solar source to the camera, the voltage just won't be anywhere near reliable enough. What pretty much everybody does is use a solar panel to charge a larger external power bank (or your camera batteries using a charger like the one I linked before). I've had good luck with a BigBlue 28W model that has both USB Type A and Type C ports but I'm not seeing it on Amazon right now, similar to this one tho (again, lots of others to choose from):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EXWCPLC/

On external power w/a 3rd party coupler (and a USB source): I'd just point you to the thread below which covers similar solutions for the E-M5 III:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63686722

I'm still testing the Tether Tools Case Relay thing I bought along with the third party BLS-5/50 coupler I bought from:

http://helge-suess.com/hardware-en/battery-adapter-bln-1-and-bls-5/

https://www.tethertools.com/case-relay-camera-power-system/

More recently I've found a couple other cheaper non-DIY solutions for voltage stepping in order to use a USB source, tho they aren't meant to be used strictly with Oly bodies and the lack of a built in battery means you can't hot swap your USB power bank or charger (then again, the Case Relay seems to have iffy long term reviews regarding it's main advantage, that battery). I bought this to first examine how well it works with my Pana body and then maybe see if it would work with my Oly too:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076HXNV69/

You wouldn't need any special power banks for any of these solutions (be it the USB charger, solar, or direct external power), since none of them take advantage of USB-C or USB Power Delivery as the E-M1 III does:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63733305

That standard is the future tho, it greatly simplifies things in the long run, scales up for all kinds of devices, and you may already have a phone (or tablet or laptop) that takes advantage of it so if you're buying a new power bank it makes sense to get one with both standard USB Type A 5V/2A out as well as USB Type C with PD.

Hope that helps, happy to answer any other questions...

Edit: Oh yeah, best tip for battery was savings is just getting in the habit of powering off the camera when idle and/or using power saving modes. Mirrorless battery life is best thought of in terms of uptime rather than shot count as dictated by CIPA's outdated and uneven testing scheme (which is more relevant for DSLRs and is heavily biased against any camera with a built in flash, unless you happen to use that flash for half your shots).

The reason for that is because the camera is always consuming power due to the displays and the sensor feed to them, the act of actually taking a shot (or IBIS or just about anything else but for video) takes up a negligible amount of extra power compared to that constant draw. Simply put, you're gonna get close to the same uptime out of your battery regardless of whether you take 200 shots or 2,000 (and that's not an exaggeration).

The video specs/uptime numbers usually give you close to a worst case scenario for how long each battery will last in use (usually a couples hours if you leave the camera powered on the entire time).

brentbrent wrote:

HRC2016 wrote:

Another thing to consider: when/if you resell your gear: do you think you'll break even on the batteries and chargers?

Who breaks even when selling new gear as used?

pannumon wrote:

...in the 3rd world (no offence).

LOL!!!

I live in the wilds of Africa.  So I live in the "3rd world".  Doesn't make batteries or failed chargers any less relevant.  Especially if someone is on a dream trip or doing stuff for money or other reward.... I digress though.

For my G9 I have 5 batteries.  One OEM the rest off brand (but a brand I have come to trust - Blumax).  I have the original charger and a $8 duel USB one.  If a charger fails me here I could be waiting a long, long time to get another.  And that was before corona!  Why 5?  If on a multi day camping trip then I need that many.  Or a lot of video use.

For my 6Dii I have two.  More than enough.  We have enough canon chargers between us to have some redundancy.

For my 1dMKIV I have two.  Again more than enough.  No spare charger as it is so damn $$$.

G Dickson wrote:

pannumon wrote:

...in the 3rd world (no offence).

LOL!!!

I live in the wilds of Africa. So I live in the "3rd world". Doesn't make batteries or failed chargers any less relevant. Especially if someone is on a dream trip or doing stuff for money or other reward.... I digress though.

Yes, I was not totally serious.

Still the requirement of abundance of everything (in the 1st world) is kind of funny. Gamers want that all the latest games, at all times, must run at high resolution 150fps at ultra high details. Computers must have so much memory that there is never need of closing a program that is unnecessarily running in the background. There must be enough space in SD cards for at least 10 000 photos.

If we were using film cameras, we would have to carry 100 rolls of film to get 2400 - 3600 frames capture capacity. This is equivalent to amount of shots that can be shot with  2-12 batteries (and these can usually be charged at some point).

Limitations are not the end of the world. What if I only take 20-40 pictures per day (even that is quite a lot)? What is the added value for getting additional 200-400 pictures per day? This would mean that I only need to carry 10 rolls of film (and 2 extra), or that I can easily manage with just one extra battery. These both would be enough for let's say one week.

For my G9 I have 5 batteries. One OEM the rest off brand (but a brand I have come to trust - Blumax). I have the original charger and a $8 duel USB one. If a charger fails me here I could be waiting a long, long time to get another. And that was before corona! Why 5? If on a multi day camping trip then I need that many. Or a lot of video use.

Video drains batteries and extra batteries are actually needed, I agree.

The answer is always one more.

If you actively take both cameras with you I think you'd want 4 just in case you are using one camera but somehow the other also runs down.  Then you have a spare for each.

Batteries are pretty light to carry and generally stay put in your bag so not easily lost and hence money just thrown away.

Dan

3

Last a full day of travel photography with some to spare.

Yar1971 wrote:

... so my review/summary below. Currently also have E-M10 II, some power source experience comes from previous era.

Methods:

1) A bucket of spare batteries

2) USB charger (haven't used personally, but see further details)

3) car socket 12V charger

4) solar power

Note, I don' shoot extremal numbers of photo, though I'm photographing tourist. I can take about 150-200 photo from typical 2 day's trip if the weather is good or similar amount from 1-2 day trip to some intersting sighseeing place. The largest amount from 3-4 week exotic travel could be 1000-1500 photos. With such power requrements my charging experience is:

Ad 1) - most used method; at summer time I can be 7-10 days without charging with 4-6 batteries; on the longest trek with E-M10 II, about 16-17 days unplugged in Karakorum mountains I had at least 8-9 batteries in total and didn't used all of them

Ad 2) - my colegue for E-M1 II took 2-3 batteries and USB charger + huge powerbank; excellent solution, he was doing a lot more photo and also some time-lapse sessions which are extremally power demanding; note, that USB charger itself is a good accesory for 3) and 4) method

Ad 3) -excellent option for car travel, I used it in old compact camera days in Iceland; can be done with special 12/24V charger or currently with USB charger; the last option needs 12V/USB adapter, no problem, just check output current (at least 1-2A, no 0.5A model) of the adapter

Ad 4) -I used it and think it's most controversial, unless You go for Egypt, Sahara, Australia or Atacama; You need 12V/24V charger + bare PV panel, alternatively PV panel with regulated 12 V or USB output + suitable charger. The most important problem with this method is that You really need at least 7-10W nominal power of PV panel (I used 10W) to even think about this method. All this cheap small "solar chargers" for smartphones or so are totally useless for any more power-demanding devices in changing weather. 10W polycrystaline PV panel is substantially larger than A4 format and hard to pack into big backpack, unless flexible or foldable. The weight can be comparable or larger than 1) or 2), the cost is rather high. Now I can justify it only when somebody is going into the wild for a at least 1 month...

Out of this classification is AC adapter with cord - it's not good solution even at home, unless You make studio photos from a tripod.

Hope I helped a little, like others

-J.

I really liked your extensive response! Question about the external battery thing, instead of having a dummy battery to ac adapter with cord, how about dummy battery to an external power source that takes AA size batteries. I have something called the iSun BattPak that can use up to 10 batteries at a time and can both charge them and be used as a power source.

Also, I would love to see images from your Karakoram trek!  How long do you think I would last with 3 batteries?  What about in the summer in a warmer climate?

HRC2016 wrote:

I have only one for each model, and they are all OEM.

OEM are very reliable and you know what you are getting. Why take a chance with off brand either bulging or not holding a full charge? Why risk your expensive gear to save a few bucks on a mystery battery?

Buying several mystery/cheapo batteries means you have more to carry and to charge, and you're never quite sure what you will get. So you buy more "for safety". Isn't it easier to carry just one that is reliable and use it wisely?

I practice good power management and have never had a battery die in the field. Never. Even for the 2017 eclipse, I only had one battery for the shot of a lifetime (actually a time lapse).

Battery manufacturing and disposal is bad for the environment. As a photographer I believe it is imperative we protect our environment.

I'm very interested in seeing the timelapse from that eclipse!  I am planning to do the same for the April 2024 eclipse since it's in my state (NY).  Also, I only use OEM batteries, I have three of the BLS-50.

mfinley wrote:

HRC2016 wrote:

I have only one for each model, and they are all OEM.

OEM are very reliable and you know what you are getting. Why take a chance with off brand either bulging or not holding a full charge? Why risk your expensive gear to save a few bucks on a mystery battery?

Not sure what risk there is. With Olympus you might lose some features like knowing the exact percentage number of the battery remaining, but I can't think of anything that would labelled a risk.

Buying several mystery/cheapo batteries means you have more to carry and to charge, and you're never quite sure what you will get. So you buy more "for safety". Isn't it easier to carry just one that is reliable and use it wisely?

Carry one? Mileage varies based on usage. One for you might be fine, where it's 3 for someone else.
There are aftermarket batteries with better reputations and reviews than others, choose wisely just as you would any purchase.

I practice good power management and have never had a battery die in the field. Never. Even for the 2017 eclipse, I only had one battery for the shot of a lifetime (actually a time lapse).

You're #1 very lucky, I'd venture extremely lucky and #2 you don't shoot that much compared to some of us. I've shot off and on all day from sunrise to sunset and gone through 4 batteries. Add cold to the mix and things can get even worse. Add to the reality that batteries are bleeding power as they sit and the two sitting in the bag that you haven't charged in a week and when you go to grab one, it's at 75%, lots of variables and the more you are shooting the more there are.

Battery manufacturing and disposal is bad for the environment. As a photographer I believe it is imperative we protect our environment.

I could care less about that aspect of owning extra batteries for my camera. You probably find that super offensive, but it's probably on the mild end of the scale in ways I could offend you.

I care about the environment but I've never had to throw away any batteries.  Also, I only buy OEM so maybe that's why?

pannumon wrote:

G Dickson wrote:

pannumon wrote:

...in the 3rd world (no offence).

LOL!!!

I live in the wilds of Africa. So I live in the "3rd world". Doesn't make batteries or failed chargers any less relevant. Especially if someone is on a dream trip or doing stuff for money or other reward.... I digress though.

Yes, I was not totally serious.

Still the requirement of abundance of everything (in the 1st world) is kind of funny. Gamers want that all the latest games, at all times, must run at high resolution 150fps at ultra high details. Computers must have so much memory that there is never need of closing a program that is unnecessarily running in the background. There must be enough space in SD cards for at least 10 000 photos.

If we were using film cameras, we would have to carry 100 rolls of film to get 2400 - 3600 frames capture capacity. This is equivalent to amount of shots that can be shot with 2-12 batteries (and these can usually be charged at some point).

Limitations are not the end of the world. What if I only take 20-40 pictures per day (even that is quite a lot)? What is the added value for getting additional 200-400 pictures per day? This would mean that I only need to carry 10 rolls of film (and 2 extra), or that I can easily manage with just one extra battery. These both would be enough for let's say one week.

For my G9 I have 5 batteries. One OEM the rest off brand (but a brand I have come to trust - Blumax). I have the original charger and a $8 duel USB one. If a charger fails me here I could be waiting a long, long time to get another. And that was before corona! Why 5? If on a multi day camping trip then I need that many. Or a lot of video use.

Video drains batteries and extra batteries are actually needed, I agree.

I find that my photography was better with film and also when memory cards were low capacity like back in the early 2000s (I used a 32MB- NOT GB- card!) I was being much more careful with composition when I knew I could only take around 50 images on a card. Also, that was back in the days of AA batteries, so no danger of running out of them. I always had extra NiMH batteries. Nonrechargeable alkaline batteries are such a ripoff!

And about computers, I only upgrade once a decade or so. I was running a 2 GB desktop until two years ago when I realized that was no longer enough for browsing. Funny thing is I do run 3D apps, like Space Engine, but the browser uses more memory than the 3D apps do LOL.

mfinley wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Hi, I was wondering how many batteries I should get for my new EM10Mk2? I have two that I used for my EPL6 and one that I got with my EM10Mk2. So that's a total of three batteries for two bodies. I'll use the EM10Mk2 much more. Are three batteries enough? I have heard that each battery is good for 500 charge cycles, so 3 should be good for a total of 1500 charge cycles? I also have the third party dummy battery to external power connection (either ac adapter or aa power pack). Not sure how much I'll be using that though (I dont think that can be used with a camera grip because the battery door needs to stay open?)

A bit difficult for anyone to give you an answer when you haven't given anyone any idea on your:

1. Usage - shooting all day long while traveling? Couple of thousand frames a day?
2. Time between when you can charge batteries, every day, once a week hiking in the wilderness?
3. Type of conditions (winter, summer, Antarctica???)

I can tell you I travelled with 5 batteries for my EM10ii and many days I burned through 4 of them. But that's not really helpful to you unless you know what I was doing.

The thing that could drain me of battery power is that I do about an hour of timelapse a few times a week.   I can charge them every night.  I would say I take about 200 images on those days/nights.  Temperatures would be around 30 in the winter, around 70 in the summer.

Impulses wrote:

You posted a bunch of questions about solar power, USB power, etc. throughout the thread, so rather than answering them under each comment imma just dump it all in this post.

As to the original question, I seldom used more than 2 a day with my E-M5 II (YMMV) but still had 1 OEM, 1 Watson (B&H house brand, a little more reliable than other 3rd parties) and a couple third party extras which I rarely touched. For my E-M5 III (which uses the same battery as your E-M10 or E-PL) I just bought a second OEM battery for now, might add a third later but that body can charge directly over USB so it's not a pressing need.

On USB charging: Even if you have a camera that can't charge directly over USB (don't think you do), you can still resort to the next best thing and get a slim USB charger for your batteries that you can then hook up directly to any car charger, power bank, etc. Basically just get something like this, loads of uses for it (I have that very one and it's working fine, that bad review wasn't there when I bought it, loads of similar ones on Amazon tho):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F47XYLT/

On solar power: You never want to go straight from a solar source to the camera, the voltage just won't be anywhere near reliable enough. What pretty much everybody does is use a solar panel to charge a larger external power bank (or your camera batteries using a charger like the one I linked before). I've had good luck with a BigBlue 28W model that has both USB Type A and Type C ports but I'm not seeing it on Amazon right now, similar to this one tho (again, lots of others to choose from):

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01EXWCPLC/

On external power w/a 3rd party coupler (and a USB source): I'd just point you to the thread below which covers similar solutions for the E-M5 III:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63686722

I'm still testing the Tether Tools Case Relay thing I bought along with the third party BLS-5/50 coupler I bought from:

http://helge-suess.com/hardware-en/battery-adapter-bln-1-and-bls-5/

https://www.tethertools.com/case-relay-camera-power-system/

More recently I've found a couple other cheaper non-DIY solutions for voltage stepping in order to use a USB source, tho they aren't meant to be used strictly with Oly bodies and the lack of a built in battery means you can't hot swap your USB power bank or charger (then again, the Case Relay seems to have iffy long term reviews regarding it's main advantage, that battery). I bought this to first examine how well it works with my Pana body and then maybe see if it would work with my Oly too:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076HXNV69/

You wouldn't need any special power banks for any of these solutions (be it the USB charger, solar, or direct external power), since none of them take advantage of USB-C or USB Power Delivery as the E-M1 III does:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/63733305

That standard is the future tho, it greatly simplifies things in the long run, scales up for all kinds of devices, and you may already have a phone (or tablet or laptop) that takes advantage of it so if you're buying a new power bank it makes sense to get one with both standard USB Type A 5V/2A out as well as USB Type C with PD.

Hope that helps, happy to answer any other questions...

Edit: Oh yeah, best tip for battery was savings is just getting in the habit of powering off the camera when idle and/or using power saving modes. Mirrorless battery life is best thought of in terms of uptime rather than shot count as dictated by CIPA's outdated and uneven testing scheme (which is more relevant for DSLRs and is heavily biased against any camera with a built in flash, unless you happen to use that flash for half your shots).

The reason for that is because the camera is always consuming power due to the displays and the sensor feed to them, the act of actually taking a shot (or IBIS or just about anything else but for video) takes up a negligible amount of extra power compared to that constant draw. Simply put, you're gonna get close to the same uptime out of your battery regardless of whether you take 200 shots or 2,000 (and that's not an exaggeration).

The video specs/uptime numbers usually give you close to a worst case scenario for how long each battery will last in use (usually a couples hours if you leave the camera powered on the entire time).

Thanks this was very useful! Sounds like if I do a lot of timelapse and keep the camera on for an hour or two per day I'll be using up a lot of power! I was hoping that sleep mode in between timelapse shots would save some energy but I guess not.

I wrote elsewhere that the external power I was thinking of connecting to the camera is an iSun BattPak, which can both charge AA batteries (up to 10) and also serve as a power source. I wonder if that would work with my dummy battery solution?

Helge Suess sounds familiar! Is he from Austria? That might be from whom I bought my solution from back in 2016 when I got my EPL6. I never had a chance to use it (it's still sitting around); I was waiting to get a bigger camera, and now I have that in the EM10MK2. He advised me to go to a hardware store and get a variable voltage device, a DC input (for external battery power) and AC (for outlet power.) I got both.

I checked out Case Relay, they dont have anything for BLS batteries.

skysurfer5 wrote:

I think three batteries is optimal for OM-D series camera if you are in the habit of clicking the shutter a lot on a long day (like me in Yosemite National Park, which is an easy day trip for me). I think two batteries is fine if you typically limit a day's shooting to several hundred pics at most.

I have a friend who is a professional photographer (many genres, shoots Canon) who is much more deliberate than I am, usually limiting himself to a dozen or two landscape shots for an entire day. In this case, one battery is more than enough for him, although he always has at least one spare. If he's shooting birds, a wedding, or an event, he will take several hundred shots and carry more batteries.

With my E-1 and E-5, I found that just one or two batteries was all I ever needed, but it wasn't all I had. I had a grip for each camera, which I used about 1/3 to 1/2 of the time. The E-1 grip had is it's own hulking battery and the E-5 grip used the same BLM-5 batteries as the camera body. For convenience, I had two more BLM-5 batteries for the E-5 grip, for a total of four. When ungripped, I usually had two batteries with me, but sometimes only one. When gripped, I sometimes had all batteries with me, and sometimes just the battery(ies) in the grip. In fifteen years, I never ran out of power, even on a long day.

With my E-M1.2, it's a different story. Because it has an EVF, two batteries is usually a must for me, even though I have turned off automatic preview on the back screen and I frequently turn off the camera between shots. Last year I added a third battery for insurance. Depending on what I am doing, I will take one, two, or three batteries with me.

Back to the E-5 and the BLM-5 battery. Quite a few times I did 1000-5000 shot sequences for time lapse or several hours of video in one day, with and without the grip, and never had less than 50% of the full charge left in the battery(ies). I shot the time lapses at medium resolution (so my computer wouldn't choke) and kept the back screen off. For tripod-mounted video, though, I used the back screen. I wasn't doing anything fancy, just simple stuff. Still, I got good results without battery hassles. From my archives, here is one example of a finished time lapse and one example of a finished video, both using only a portion of what I shot that day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FikhvRkB5nM&t=20s and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRQaH-zrW_0&t=22s .

The BLM-5 batteries were studs. Even though the BLH-1 battery in the E-M1.2 is rated at 1720 mAH and the BLM-1 at "only" 1620 mAH, I seem to drain the BLH-1 batteries quicker. I'm pretty sure the EVF is the sole culprit.

Thanks, I'm going to do a lot of timelapse (an hour or two each day) so this is important info for me!

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

mfinley wrote:

OutsideTheMatrix wrote:

Hi, I was wondering how many batteries I should get for my new EM10Mk2? I have two that I used for my EPL6 and one that I got with my EM10Mk2. So that's a total of three batteries for two bodies. I'll use the EM10Mk2 much more. Are three batteries enough? I have heard that each battery is good for 500 charge cycles, so 3 should be good for a total of 1500 charge cycles? I also have the third party dummy battery to external power connection (either ac adapter or aa power pack). Not sure how much I'll be using that though (I dont think that can be used with a camera grip because the battery door needs to stay open?)

A bit difficult for anyone to give you an answer when you haven't given anyone any idea on your:

1. Usage - shooting all day long while traveling? Couple of thousand frames a day?
2. Time between when you can charge batteries, every day, once a week hiking in the wilderness?
3. Type of conditions (winter, summer, Antarctica???)

I can tell you I travelled with 5 batteries for my EM10ii and many days I burned through 4 of them. But that's not really helpful to you unless you know what I was doing.

The thing that could drain me of battery power is that I do about an hour of timelapse a few times a week. I can charge them every night. I would say I take about 200 images on those days/nights. Temperatures would be around 30 in the winter, around 70 in the summer.

Simple then. 2.

When its Mirrorless, any Mirrorless, its best to have at least 3 batteries.

I would go on amazon and buy the Wasabi Powered 3rd party batteries, even though it's not suggested by the manufacturer, but their batteries are usually expensive.