Y'all may remember that I was concerned about battery life when I first
got my E-M5. As a result I bought not one but two spare non-OEM "EZO
Power" branded batteries from this Amazon seller
<http://www.amazon.com/EZOPower-Olympus-Full-Decoded-Rechargeable-E-M5/dp/B00A743A06/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367694747&sr=8-1&keywords=olympus+EZO+battery>
I purchased these (knowing they have 16% less capacity than the
original) since the cost was low and, unlike others available at the
time, they are "fully decoded" meaning the Olympus charger recognizes
and will charge them and the camera recognizes them and reports the
charge level.
I had used all 3 batteries several times with no problems. Caution:
I'm drawing on faulty memory here... Sometime before we left Florida I
[think] I charged all 3 batteries and left the Oly in the camera. Based
on my shooting pattern I believe that was about March 5. Since then the
Oly battery has delivered approx. 250 shots shooting raw + medium size JPEG.
This morning I went out to take some photos of flowers and budding tree
blossoms when I got a message in the viewfinder "BATTERY EMPTY". After
a short chuckle over the wording of the message I went in to get one of
the EZO Power batteries. It turned out to be stone dead... no battery
empty message from that one. Then I tried the other. Same thing. I
measured the no load voltage which was 3.4 volts for each. Then I
measured the same with the Oly battery which, although "EMPTY" measured
6.6 volts. What's worrying is that (I believe) that both batteries
fully discharged without having any usage... and it's not clear when
that happened. Shades of old NiMH technology.
I have since charged all three batteries and was surprised to see the
EZOs only required 1-1/2 hours. The Oly required somewhere between 1-1/2
and 2-1/2 hours. I'm not sure since I was not around when the charging
ended. One of the EZOs is installed in the camera now. I will monitor
both from here on out to see how long they last both in and out of the
camera.
If you read the EZO reviews on Amazon you will see that 4 out of 10
reviews are at 1, the lowest level... the batteries prove defective in
one way or another within 1-3 months. I will report back when I know
more about my own batteries (they do apparently take a charge) but it
doesn't look good at the moment. BlueMall (the seller) also only offers
a 30 day guarantee. Not good. All these negative reviews were not
there when I bought mine in early January.
Chuck Norcutt
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|