OM SYSTEM OLYMPUS SBCX-1 Battery with Charger kit,Black

Bought an OM1 and didn't want to be stuck charging the batteries in the camera, so this was a much needed accessory.

Even though the camera lets you charge the battery directly on it, I prefer having a separate unit to do so. It's so much more convenient, and it helps you avoid using the connection on the camera. Having it on camera is great when in a pinch where there is no other choice. But the charger avoids you of accidentally damaging the small socket on the camera. Having said all of this, I have three batteries, and they are always charged and ready to go. I think it's a good investment.

Just got this delivered today. I charged my old battery which was at about 7% and it took exactly 2:07hrs to charge. The battery that came with it was absolutely dead at it took approximately 2.5hrs to charge. I don't think that's bad at all.

This charger/battery combo works for me bu is far more expensive than it should be.

This is a very expensive dock for the batteries used in the OM 1/OM 1 MkII. It is well made and comes with one battery but mine did not come with either a charger or USB C cable, requiring you to use the charger and USB C cable that came with the camera.Charging times seemed a little slow, but seemed to be the same whether you had one or two batteries in the dock however it works well enough. LED indicators show status but are not particularly detailed. OM System batteries for the OM 1 and OM 1 MkII are very expensive (around 20% more expensive than ones for Fuji, Canon and Sony) and this dock and battery follow that mold and seem very expensive for what they provides. Build quality is fine but it is an odd shape that takes the batteries lying down rather than upright which would have made it more compact and take up less space (a nit but adds to the feeling that this is not a well thought out product). I compare this to the FUJI charger (BC W235) for two batteries which has an LCD display.Overall an expensive solution for an external battery dock for the BLX-1 battery.

This is a good item to have if you take a lot of pictures. I like not having to wear out the cover for the charging cable on the camera

Incredibly slow charging with my own high output USB charger - 12 hours for first 50% LED to blink. I resent Olympus charging me $200 for one battery and plastic case. They must be struggling financially to pull this stunt. It does not work well.

For a charger kit that cost $200+ with a battery, one would think that a cable and an adapter would be included, so you can start using the charger immediately upon receiving the kit. However, I guess OM System thinks that it is reasonable to charge customer $100+ for a charger without anything else included. Instead, the company expects you to grab the cable and adapter that were included with your OM-1 camera to use for the charger. Luckily, it will work with any regular USB-C cable and adapter. I miss the good old days where you buy something like a battery charger you would get the little things like cable and adapter included. Apparently in today’s business model, it is to charge an outrageous price for a product that should only cost $50 and also to not include the essential accessories. I give this charger 2 stars. 1 star for charger working as it should and 1 star for being able to charge 2 batteries at the same time. Another thing to point out is, if you are used to the red and green lights for chargers indicating charging status, you will be put off by this charger’s light indication. It shows a blinking orange light to indicate that it is charging and the light will be off when charging is complete. At first when I saw that there is no light on, I thought that something went wrong and that the charging failed. But after trying with different batteries, I can confirm that it was just how the light signal was setup, and that the charger worked as it should. No traditional red and green lights like most of us are used to seeing. To sum it up, if you despise the idea of having to charge the battery through the camera and want to have a charger to charge a battery or two outside of the camera, this charger kit works as it should using your own cable and adapter. There are definitely OEM chargers out there, but I feel more comfortable sticking with an OM System charger, even if it is unreasonably pricey.