Battery life indicator

[Lloyde]

Hi All,

Still getting to grips with my new camera and not posted before.

I have significantly extended my battery life by disabling a number of power-hungry features; I have bought a spare battery for those times when even that is not enough; now all I have to do is work out how to stop the battery life indicator going from full to nearly empty within two shots. Any suggestions?

Thanks

[Bikie John]

Re: Battery life indicator

Welcome aboard Lloyde.

Oly's battery indicators have always been a bit random (although the E-M1 Mk II is much better, which is no help to you). I got round it by using third-party chargers such as Hahnel's which show the percentage of charge in the battery. It's still a bit approximate but gives you some idea whether or not it would be a good idea to top up before setting out on a shoot. As you have found out, the indicator in the camera can go from full to "feed me now" very quickly.

Good luck ... John

[iso]

Re: Battery life indicator

John, you mention 'topping up'. I have always been hesitant to do that because of the dreaded 'memory' thing. Are you saying that Oly Batteries do not significantly suffer from that problem?
Also I have just had a case with a 3rd party unit. Trying to charge, it gets a flashing Error signal. Should I consign it to the bin (recycle of course)?
Thanks in advance.

[Lloyde]

Re: Battery life indicator

Thanks John. My query was about the indicator in the camera. I find it bizarre that going from full to empty in the blink-of-an-eye is just one of those things.

[drmarkf]

Re: Battery life indicator

There's no 'memory effect' in lithium ion batteries TTBOMK.

From the Olympus Horse's Mouth (well, Clare Harvey-May) last weekend: the M1ii battery indicator is factory set to flash red with 20% battery life left.

That pretty much accords with my experience. I use it as an alert to swap if a convenient moment arrives in the near future, but to keep on shooting for a while if there are a lot of good images around.

Overall I'm finding the M1ii noticeably better on battery life for all types of shooting than the M1i, but not massively so. I do need 2 spares for a full day of street photography (but my feet give out before my batteries do these days).

[Petrochemist]

Re: Battery life indicator

There's no 'memory effect' in lithium ion batteries TTBOMK.

AFAIK Memory effects ere only really a problem with NiCd rechargables.

On my non Olympus cameras I've often seen the battery charge indicator drop very suddenly after shooting a burst of images. If the camera is left idle for a few minutes it will usually fully recover. This suggests the larger current drain causes a temporary voltage drop giving false readings of the remainder.

The issue is not unique to Olympus, but if you only view the battery life after the cameras had a bit of a rest you should get a much more reliable reading. I've completed a club location visit taking over 50 shots when my camera thought the battery was almost depleted after the first shot. Other occasions when I've been taking shots less intensively the red warning has come quite shortly before the camera has cut out (fully flat).

I'm not sure but I suspect running the battery that low has reduced it's subsequent capacity.

[Lloyde]

Re: Battery life indicator

Done some more research on this and found a setting deep in the menus (K - utilities) that (I think) allows me to vary the battery life warning between -2 and +2; the instruction manual gives NO guidance as to what these numbers mean. Mine was set at -1, so I've changed it to +2 to see if that helps in giving me more warning of an impending flat.

[Bikie John]

Re: Battery life indicator

Mark - this thread is about the E-M10 Mk II, not the E-M1

Lloyde - sort of reflecting what Petrochemist said, I have often found (with the older bodies, not the E-M1 Mk II) that switching the camera on after it has had a rest, the battery indicator shows full. Then after only a few shots it starts flashing orange. And sometimes it will carry on taking loads of shots while it's flashing orange, and sometimes it will just report the battery as dead and refuse to do anything really quickly.

For these reasons I always carry a spare, and if I'm shooting a lot of shots I at an event I will also start with a fully charged battery in the camera. It's different on a holiday where I'm taking a few shots every now and then - I usually just let it run itself down then unless there is something really important.

I don't think the battery charge indicator was improved at all from the E-1, more than 10 years ago, until the E-M1 Mark II came along (around the turn of this year I think): it has a percentage display which seems to be fairly reliable. It's just one of those irritating things that we have to live with.

John