Hi Allan,

Fantastic. That’s a really good combination which I’m sure you will enjoy.

All the best
David

Hi Hans,

Thanks for your comment. I’ve not heard of the beetle clip although I do use the Peak Design capture clip which I assume is similar.
I use the Haoge L grip which works well.

All the best
David

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for taking the time to comment here. I’m really pleased to hear that you have re-ignited your passion for stills. That’s a little like myself, having shot for over a decade and then lost my way a little, I found my passion again within the last few of years.

I couldn’t agree more with your comment about how a camera feels. It’s funny, but the more experience you gain and the more cameras that you use, the ‘feel’ becomes increasingly important as you realise, no matter how good the specs are, if the camera doesn’t feel right, you wont use it.
All the best with the OM-3, I’m sure you will enjoy using it. I’ll be adding more OM System content in the future. I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts on the OM-3 once you’ve had chance to use it a bit.

All the best
David

Thanks for the articles/thoughts on the OM-3 and the accessories. I did a lot of still shooting back in the day and even had a close working relationship with Olympus at the time. I was the only shooter in all of the Associated Press that used Oly.

Nowadays, I’m a motion guy (narrative cinema), went thru lots of brands shooting and lost my passion for stills, until a few months back. I’ve poured thru reviews and samples of a OM, Panasonic, Ricoh and Fujifilm and I keep coming back to where I started. Camera “feel” means everything and I think the OM-3 with that grip is exactly my thing.

Thanks again for the thoughtful writing….I’m ordering a OM-3. 🙂

Hi Michael,
That’s interesting as with the third party batteries that I have bought from Amazon I have not had any issues at all in regards to charging. I use a no name third party dual charger (USB-C) and the Wasabi one and both of them charge all my BLX-1 batteries including the originals. I’ve seen the batteries with in-built USB-C but have never quite been convinced by them, I think it’s probably because I have dual chargers and never enough USB-C sockets when travelling so prefer to use those. Otherwise, if I’m charging batteries individually it’s slower and no better than just charging through the camera in terms of efficiency.

Best
David

Hi Michael,

I can confirm that the Haoge grip does not interfere with the articulation of the rear screen at all. It’s not even close to doing so. How is the Leofoto grip as I notice that you say it doesn’t interfere much?

All the best
David

In terms of batteries, in the last few series of cameras, I’ve come to the conclusion that when you go to third party batteries, you should also get a charger from the same manufacturer and don’t mix the streams.

In particular, when I bought my OM-1 mark I in 2022, the BLX-1 batteries were hard to come by. When Kastar clone batteries first became available, I bought one Kastar clone battery and charger. I discovered that the OM charger (BCX-1) will not charge the Kastar battery. As more clone BLX-1 batteries came out, all of the new clone batteries had little disclaimers that they could be charged in the OM-1, but not in the BCX-1 charger.

But worse is I put one of my OM BLX-1 batteries into the Kastar charger, and the charger fried my BLX-1 battery. Now as far as I know, I am the only person who has had a 3rd party charger fry an OM BLX-1 battery, but do other people want to take the risk?

I don’t have experience with the Wasabi BLX-1 batteries, but Wasabi makes 2 versions of the BLX-1 clone battery. One is a normal clone battery and a charger. But for a little more money, they also make a BLX-1 clone battery that has a USB C port for direct charging. There are a few other makers that now offer this charging capability. I really like the ability not to carry a charger when packing gear.

I own 3 of these batteries from 2 different brands. I bought a Vidpro battery from the B&H photo store, and it seems to last about the same time as my OM BLX-1 batteries in the OM-1. When I’m shooting outdoor festivals, I get about 4 hours of runtime with an OM BLX-1 battery in the OM-1, and I got the same runtime with the Vidpro. I haven’t shot with the OM-3 at long enough sessions, but I would imagine it would be similar.

When I got the OM-3, I also bought a pair of Msplacell BLX-1 clone batteries from Amazon USA that have USB-C charging ports. I have mixed thoughts about them. They seem to work fine in the OM-3, but the Msplacell battery seems to be slightly longer than the OM BLX-1 battery, and I have to jam the battery doors in the OM-1 and HLD-10 battery grip in to latch the door. The Msplacell batteries do work in the OM-1, but I don’t like having to force the battery door to close it.

The Msplacell batteries do claim that you can charge them in the BCX-1 charger, and in fact you can. However, I have monitored the watts used, and the BCX-1 charger goes into slow charge mode to charge the Msplacell batteries. If you use the USB-C charging, the Msplacell batteries will charge much faster.

I have the Lefoto grip and it doesn’t interfere much with monitor articulation when the L-plate is normally mounted.