Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III: How to Use USB-C for External Power & Charging ep.242 

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Hi Rob, I have a pair of OM-1's, and ran into this problem last week in the field. Customer Support referred me to your video. I found the same thing during my testing in the field last week, not surprisingly the one Powerbank I had that both powered and charged is the Anker, a very similar model, and I just picked up a second for backup as well. Great job on the video, coincidentally other than reading the manual I went through the same steps in the field as the batteries were running down and I had each body connected to a separate power bank. I found about the same timing as you did for charging, the really nice thing, I was still able to use the camera, that is a huge bonus. In general, the one you found that works, I have fully recharged my laptop, my cell phone as well, several times over. Thank you very much !

Even years later after you first posted...planning a trip to Europe and I really appreciate the level of detail you have provided, bar none the most useful video on this issue I've watched. Thanks for what you do!

Hey Rob, just wanted to say that it was you who got me into Olympus system. I started with Em10 mark 2 instead of mark 3 because of how much more you can customize it. Wonderful little camera for a start.

Great Vid, Rob! I followed your advice and the Anker product works very well, indeed. In your video, starting at 8:56, you mention a tip to accelerate the selection of PD power when connecting the Anker battery (c.f. gear > D4 > USB PD). I think two additional and relatively important tips should be that: "1. Tethered power supply only works if the camera’s internal battery is charged to at least 10%." "2. Tethered power supply is disabled if the HLD-9 grip / battery holder is attached to the camera, regardless of whether or not it’s holding a battery (the USB PD option is grayed out on the camera’s normal USB mode screen)." I removed my HLD-9 grip and sure enough the USB PD was no longer grayed out. However, it did power my EM1iii although the internal battery was at 100%.

Great info just ordered the mark iii , have the same Anker powerbank , good to know I can use it with Mark iii. Have watched you a long time, got a lot of info for my Pen F ,best street photography camera. I would like to see more tutorials on the Mark iii , using the new added features like, Live ND and handheld High Res , Bulb on the Mode dial. Be glad to get out and take pictures again and you’ll be doing your walk around again. Keep up the good work.

This info is great. I have asked Olympus and they said that the camera cannot be used while charging via USB. Another hidden gem! Thanks Rob for making this video and the research for it.

Great info I was considering just any power bank until I stumbled onto your video. Very much appreciated, keep up the good work!

Thank you so much for doing this test and getting that power brick! I could not figure out why none of my bricks were working! Thank you!

Rob, thanks a lot for this super useful video! I was reading manual and saw USB PD. I know it is relatively rare thing, very few power banks supports it. You went a long way to get things right. BTW several laptops, for example Microsoft Surface Laptop 3, supports USB PD instead of Thunderbolt 3 power delivery (like MacBooks) so this Anker can be used for it too.

Thanks Rob. Fantastic info as usual!

Thanks so much for this Rob. I just got the MkIII and was totally baffled as to what I could use for USB power and charging, this clears it up. More accessories to buy though!

I came to RU-vid to research the HLD-9 grip and found this video. I think this might actually be a better solution for my application and cheaper too! very informative video thank you!

Great info, thx for the research! One thing that might be worth checking out is if the 2nd power bank you used works together with the USB cable you could successfully use with the third power bank. USB-C is notorious for cable issues. It can often drive you nuts that some cables can do what you intend in a certain combination of devices, whilst in the next scenario the same cable fails and another cable manages to do the intended thing. This seems to always be an issue when using USB-c USB-c cables for any operation beyond basic data transfer, which seems to work in any combination that I have tried at least. I really hope that it gets more standardized soon, I have bought so many cables that fail me, and then the next cable I get works, only to later find a specific scenario where the first cable can actually be used. Now I put a sticker on each such cable listing the specific scenarios that it can be used for.

Thank you so much for doing this video. I was having some of the same problems trying to figure out why the cables were not working. Thanks again for explaining everything.

Rob, I enjoy your channel as it is very informative and easy to follow along. Great information...I own the M1 MarkIII, with it I have the PBH(power Battery Handle) which I love. You may want to pass along that the internal battery does not seem to charge or utilized the power cell when the PBH is connected. The PBH does have its own connection cord for power that can be used to bypass the PBH battery to use the camera. I'm not happy that is does not charge the battery in the PBH(Why OLYMPUS). The option to choose from the home screen does not highlight to use the USB PD. When I disconnect the PBH, the camera works perfectly with the Anker power cell as the USB PD option is now highlighted. And yes I did follow your link for the Anker power cell, I hope others do as well.

Thanks Rob. This video is really helpfull. I've been struggling for a while trying to figure out how to power the camera from an external power supply. I understand now the issue.

A really useful bit of information.Thank you

A lot of very helpful info, Thank you

Thanks for making the video Rob and showing the setting to have it automatically charging when USB is plugged in. In Australia when you buy the EM1 Mark III, Olympus is running a promotion that you can get a bonus Anker PowerCore+ 26800 portable charger for free upon redemption. I am waiting to get my charger in the mail, there is a 40 day wait before Olympus process the claim before shipping it out...

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I am interested in the bracket you are using to mount the smaller camera behind the larger one. I would find that helpful in recording the LCD screen.

Very interesting video. It's also a long awaited option that could be useful for astrophotography and timelapse (in addition to starry AF). Concerning the noname batteries, I have a bunch of them for astrophotography in very remote places. For sure, they are welling and loosing capacity more than original ones. Some of them are just dead. I will not charge them inside the camera but I will still use them, considering the price of genuine one.

this is great info. Thanks so much. I didn't bring my battery charger on a trip but then I realized I should be able to charge by USB. Great explanation

Thank you so much for sharing this. I was wondering what level of compatibility Olympus E-M1 III has with power banks (and now it seems to be just on product confirmed). 3 years ago I got stuck in Brussels Train Station with no cash and no power and no way to get back to the UK and the only thing that saved me was a 5 Euro I found in a corner that got me a cup of coffee and about 3 hours to stay in a coffee (they wouldn't let me use their power outlets unless I was a paid customer) that helped me charge up my phone so I could call a friend and ask for help ... and made it back to the UK 24 hours later. My Panasonic GX7 (all I had back then) was nearly dead and no way to charge it either. This power bank is on my shopping cart for next month now ... lesson learned.

Thank you for the breakdown! Very useful!

Interesting, In Australia I picked up the Anker power bank via redemption when I purchased my Mark 3. It only came however with 1 cable USB to USB C. No AC charger so when initially charging the bank I used an AC adapter from my phone and it took quite awhile to fully charge. Still power bank charges phones quite quick so very versatile.

Thank you for this video!

Rob; thanks for this video as it will save many people from needing to discover how to get the correct power bank and cable. I noticed that the power cable is a USB-C to USB-C PD cable but that there are two types of USB-C cables, some that are used just for charging (PD) and others like the Thunderbolt 3 cables that can do both Power Delivery but also high speed data at the same time. I may be wrong (happens more often than I like) but I think if you want to both charge the EM1 Mark III battery in-camera while Tethering I think it might require a cable compatible with the Thunderbolt 3 standard (power and data). Thought I would pass this along but check it out with others as this is all new to me also.

Hi Rob great video, I got my EM1 M3 the day of the announcement from Olympus and JIP. When I got the camera there was a bonus of the Anker Powercore+ unit. The unit just arrived and it has 3 usb3 outlets on so no usbC out. The unit will charge the battery. but not power the camera. I tried to order the one on your link but as I live in Australia Anker will not supply this to Australia just the version I got from Olympus. I ordered from Amazon Australia a RAVpower PD Pioneer 20000mAh 60W 2-Ports Power Bank. and a RAVpower 60W charger. I am glad to tell you that this combination WILL power the camera from the power bank and the charger. This gives the users a second option to power the camera.

Very useful! Thanks!

Thank you, Rob, Strangely enough, I was actually shopping for a power bank today. So yours was a very timely posting. Well done on discovering that the official Olympus information is wrong or, maybe, misleading. You can operate the camera from an external power source, however, I presume that you cannot BOTH charge the battery + operate the camera when connected to an external power source? Strrangely, I notice that the Olympus manual says that if the [camera's] batteries are at a very low charge level [or completely depleted], then you cannot run the E-M1 MkIII off an external power supply. This would seem to indicate that the feature is useless in the event that you're say, on a real estate shoot and flatten your battery. You cannot switch to the power bank or hook up to a laptop that is, itself, hooked up the the grid. That you need charged batteries and that the supplied USB cable is incompatible with running off external power kind of punches a big hole in the usefulness of this feature. For the price we're paying, they could at least have supplied the correct USB cable; else it's pointless having the circuitry inside the camera! Rick

Thank you for the video! It made me laugh so much. Honestly, that was exactly what I experienced when I tried to charge my OMD EM1 III externally. Thank you so much for the tips.🙏

Excellent critical analysis and R&D.

Great video, again!

Thanks, great work and usefull..

Thanks a lot for sharing.

Excellent information. Does anyone know if the EM1 MK III will work with the updated version of this powerbank? I was thinking about the updated one becuase it has more USB C ports.

thanks, very helpful

A+++++ would watch again!!!!

Hi Rob, I managed to charge the OM-D1 MkIII with an ordinary Power Bank with the following spec: ANKER PowerCore20100 20100mAh/73.36W Output 5V=4.8A Don't know why it works since it is far away from Olympus requirements, however it works! Regards Johannes

Good info Rob );-) interesting that Olympus, as a promotion for the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III, gave away a Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh. But! no charger, or power cable to camera. Mine has been sitting on the shelf for a while now until I saw your video (:-)

Thank for the info Rob very helpful, we have a campervan that we have fitted usb 12v charging points do you know if it's ok the use the cable supplied with the camera to plug straight in to charge? Regards Jan

Thanks Rob. I messed with in camera charging and it didn’t work. And now I know why. Lol

Good video, Rob, thank you. Yesterday I experienced something that I hadn't given any thought to. I wanted to use my M1-Mk III as a video camera for a live stream. I plugged in a property rated AC adapter via the USB C port. The camera was coupled to a BMD ATEM mini-extreme video switch and, when I connected the external power, the HDMI feed went black. Just trying to sort that now to see what settings I might have messed up. The USB PD setting was selected. The camera's video feed was fine running on the internal battery. Got any ideas?

Very useful video.

A closer look at the manual indicates that it needs at least 3A@9V or 2A@15V. This basically means you need a 27W USB PD source to run the camera. Some power banks can't supply this much power; I've seen quite a few cheaper power banks rated at only 18W. I've used three different USB PD power banks of different brands (Jackery, RAVPower, Omars), all rated at 45W. In every case, the camera successfully negotiates 3A@9V, allowing it to run off the power bank. (I don't presently have an Anker USB PD power bank, though I have a number of their wall chargers and non-USB-C power banks.)

very helpful, best regards from Germany, where no one is able to make a similar video.

Thanks for the invaluable info. Just one question: Will the battery in the grip and camera be charged at the same time?

Ron .. I solved My problem by inquiring on DP Review You cannot have a battery grip on camera When I took it off Eureka It worked just like your Video....Thanks

Hello Rob, I appreciate your terrific videos! I have an OM-D EM-1 mark ii, and was wondering if you have any thoughts about this dummy battery kit: Bescor BLH1AC Dummy Battery & AC Adapter Kit. Thanks!

Will a USBC PD Wall Charger work to power the camera the same way the external powerbank will?

Enjoyed your tech findings for EM1.3's battery charging and AC power running. Anker has newer model - Anker Power Bank, PowerCore III Elite 25600 PD 60W with 65W PD Charger (a slight upgrade from what Olympus and you have recommended) - would this be compatible with EM1.3 for charging battery and AC power run?

Thanks for the video , was wondering why couldn't charge. Question how did u get the red Cross across the display etc. Really like it

Thanks so much for this Rob. I was able to use my Anker PD to achieve powering the camera. One thing I noticed that simultaneously if I try to tether it via HDMI, it is not possible to tether. I could not get the information in the Manual regarding this. Have you noticed the same. Is there a way out? Thanks

Great info. I have also found that my MacBook Pro 16 96watt charger and supplied cable will power my EM-1 Mk3 when camera is turned on and will charge the battery when the camera is off. Just made my bag lighter!

V useful. Had major problems trying to get my E-M1 Miii to sp to my MacBook Pro 16" re firmware download - hubs will not work, could only use special Apple new connector. No probs though using pc. Discovered from Olympus that the firmware for both Mac and PC are the same so no probs caused switching from pc back to Mac.

Great information where (Anker PowerCore+ 26800mAh PD 45W) 45 watts is the important figure for running the camera. I am deciding on a 0M - 5 but battery wise a OM -1 will be more suitable. Not keen on carrying extra 500gram Anker PowerCore 3 months in my backpack . The OM-1 talks of charging the battery in camera with a 20W PowerCore and still be able to use the camera.Have you tested this yourself? I plan on 3 months Arctic winter -40c to -55c . Although I generally travel lite with a Sony RX100 V or similar I dont expect them to last the Artic.Cheers

Thanks for the info!!! Does this work with Olympus OMD em5 m II???

Hope you can make your best settings on Mark III.

Hi! I recently bought the Olympus OMD EM10 Mark IV and was wondering if this way of "charging" could work for that as well. I am going on a long roadtrip and realized I wont be able to charge it in the car through a car port and thought maybe this could work for it? Thanks in advance for any input on this dilemma!

Rob, I'm still considering the E-M5 III. Does it also have these USB restraints. I'm more concerned with in camera charging than powering the camera.

Hi Rob thanks for sharing this video I have now brought one of the batteries, is there a way of using the external battery and running an external monitor on a 1 MK 111, when the battery is plugged in it tunes off the external monitor.

Rob did you have to buy a separate cable to connect the Anker to the Camera?

Hey Rob I bought your setup for my new Em1MIII and did what you instucted but the USB PD never lights up to complete the function. What am I doing wrong. Thanks. John

I got the external power supply to work but when I try to plug in a capture card to the camera, the capture card wont work (works fine when power bank isn't connected) do you have any advice for this?

How long does it take to get a flat battery to 10% as I see from the manual the battery needs that before you can power it via USB power. Does that mean it just keeps the battery at least up to 10% and you are still using the battery as a pass through device? From the manual This feature cannot be used at battery levels of 10% or less.

Hi Rob, how about em10 mark2? Thank you

take a shot every time Rob says "power"

Very useful video. Olympus requires you to buy an HLD-9 and an AC-5 in order to use AC current, costs about $360. This is a much more reasonable approach for an AC adapter.

Can this be done with the OM-D E-M10 Mark ii?

Thanks Rob I’ve got two cameras and five batteries for me it’ll be easier just to stick them in the charger. I feel safer that way.

Please...Can you tell me how I can use an external power supply at this version(E-M1 mark1). For Zoom Video Broadcasting I have no idea which product to buy.

Does this mean that I should not use my iphone bank, which delivers 5v 2a, to charge the batteries of my E-M1X?

How timely this was. Since I recently bought into the new EM1x i was looking to take advantage of the in-camera charging capabilities of this camera and while snooping on Olympus's own website also located the recommended Anker power brick and charger for the brick. Pricey, but I shouldn't split peas now especially after spending the $2399 on my new EM1x... I really need to put the brakes on my G.A.S. o-virus......eek

I like it whenever someone says "everything you need..."😀Great advice, for Olympus users.

Thanks Rob, very helpful ! No way to charge a pen-F during a timelapse or livecomp ?

One important thing to note is that USB PD doesn't work together with HDMI Output which is quite a frustration and potential oversight in the product development. PS: as specified in the manual the USB-PD needs to give at least 28W and specifically one of the mentioned modes: 9V3A, 15V2A You can usually find this information on the technical specifications of the Powerbank

I think Canon also requires PD chargers, also not all will work. I guess it's not such a big issue because once you get a fitting PD charger it will still also charge your phone etc.

Hi Rob, I'm José from a town near Barcelona, ​​I have the olympus om-d e-m1 mark iii and the olympus zuiko 300 f4 lens and I love your tutorials. Too bad I don't understand the language but I pay attention to the details. I would like to know if the power bank Anker from UK. They can send it to Spain and with a plug for here naturally and thank you very much for the tutorials in advance 👍👍👍

Mine charges with my car lighter usb fast charger. Screen stays on the wait screen but battery charges fine

how many time we can charge that battery with that power bank?

A huge limitation with the Mark III is that you cannot get HDMI video out while USB is connected, so you cannot use the camera as a video camera sending 4K raw video out to a recorder or as a webcam or studio cam. You have to buy the HLD-9 grip and AC-5 power supply. Using the grip and power supply will not charge the batteries in the camera and grip. Using the USB port will not charge the grip battery, and again kills the HDMI output. In short, Olympus did not fully consider the use cases for externally powering the camera especially when using it for video. I hope Olympus monitors these videos, and provides a firmware update that, at a minimum, lets the camera output video via the HDMI port while being powered by USB. Regarding the need for a powerful USB source, this information was very hard to find. A 25w USB power supply won't do it, you need at least 3 amps or more (I bought a 2.5 Amp supply first, then bought a 5A supply). Even so, the fact that connecting a USB cable kills HDMI output is hidden in the manual. I have a half dozen Olympus MFT cameras, from the early PENs to a couple of E-PL7s to the PEN-F, to the E-M1 Mark II to the Mark III. I understand how Olympus has focused on still photography, but video IS the new still photography. Come on, Olympus, get it together! Supposedly the new OM-1 solves this problem... but without a significant increase in video capabilities, e.g., 6K, I'm not buying one... a FF dSLR with 4K/10-bit/120 fps or better is likely my next purchase.

Hi Rob, can you please be so kind and give me the link to buy your AC power adapter?! That would be wonderful. Thx so much, best regards from Germany and stay healthy - Andrea Dublaski / Spicy Artworks

This does not work on OM10 III, does it?

Apparently...they haven't sorted it out completely and in the near future...I hope that they will be able to make batteries and cameras run indefinitely with indefinite power supply. I remember that in those old handycams for consumers...you could just keep the battery out and use the camera directly with AC power. I don't know why it's not possible now.

👍

Compré un cable USB a C y no funciona en vez de C a C. Cree que esto es importante?

Does anybody know about an item called a battery coupler? It's also known as a dummy battery. Its what the stores use to display cameras, you don't see someone at best buy swapping camera batteries, they use dummy batteries. You then need a step up converter cord, which usually comes with, most, any usb charger will work with those two items. Check your camera battery model, and see if they make one. Nearly every other brand, besides Olympus, cameras have a weird little rubber thing on the battery door, that's designed to have the cord run out off the compartment, keeping the battery door closed. Some Olympus models have the rubber thing i speak of, some don't, you can always leave the battery door open, if no movable part on the battery door. It is a nice feature of the EM1 mark 3, I figured I would make a comment for those who have other Olympus models that do not have the charge and use feature. I don't have this, but there are some that do,

A smaller battery compatible if you find one.

Some aftermarket batteries are good, but Wasabi is the most well known bad one.

USB-C power cancels HDMI output. So, no monitor for video unless you use the internal battery? What in the world? The Sony A7iii can swing this and even the tiny ZV1, though it's micro USB.

My OM-D E-M10 Mark IV doesn't have a USB-C port. It has a Micro USB port.

I have used the Google translator jjjjjjjjjjjj I don't know if you will understand me 📷📸📷📸 

Very useful, thank you very much!