Tip for Sony RX100 Shooters

If you bought a Sony RX100, you might have been put out to find that the camera only comes with one battery (that's normal) but no charger (that's not)—the user is expected to charge the battery in the camera. Not very convenient, because even if you can procure a second battery, it just has to sit around until the camera's free to charge it.

Aftermarket to the rescue—Big Mike's, though Amazon, sells a kit with a charger and two extra batteries for less than the price of one Sony battery alone. The charger works in the car or from the AC, and the batteries have a higher power rating than Sony's—1800 mAh vs. 1240 mAh. One user reports that the camera's battery charge indicator didn't work accurately with the replacement batteries, so keep an eye on that. Otherwise people seem to be happy.

Mike
(Thanks to John Camp)

Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)

Featured Comments from:

Edward Taylor: "I have had this charger and batteries for some time now. The charger works as advertised and the batteries seem to provide for at least as many shots as the Sony battery that came with the camera. Now I always have a battery in the camera, a battery in the charger, and a spare to carry along with me."

John Robison: "I guess batteries are the new film. By that I mean, with film cameras you dreaded running out of film. Now, with digital, you worry about running out of battery power. With either circumstance, you are left high and dry."

Freddy S.: "I don't own a RX100 but I own a Fuji F31fd which also charges its battery in camera. To be honest, I find that very convenient, espcially when you travel (light) you don't want to carry around all the accessories."

Mike replies: Can't you charge most small cameras directly, whether they come with battery chargers or not? I really don't know—I'm not in that habit myself—but I thought that was a standard option.

Barry relies to Mike: "Regarding your question about 'all cameras' and charging, the answer is absolutely not. Until quite recently (maybe this year), most cameras did not allow charging via USB connections. Just recently, Panasonic, Sony, and Samsung have started supporting this very useful feature. Canon still does not support it, nor does the new Olympus OMD. For those of us who find this an important feature, it has been very frustrating, but it looks like the trend is in our favor."

Comments

[Bill Mitchell]

NOW you tell me.
An additional SONY battery and 3rd party grip have already added about $100 to the high cost of mine. (Worth every penny!)

[Mani Sitaraman]

Not being a working engineer, it's a mystery to me how these retrograde design decisions come about in large corporations (or sometimes small ones).

[Chuck Holst]

I may get that third-party grip some day, but for now I'm using the cheap solution: a couple layers of black gaffer tape. Of course, the tape is cheap only if you have a roll lying around. I'll definitely get the extra batteries and charger, however.

[Vu Le]

I've purchased a very similar looking battery and charger bundle for my RX100. Love the charger, but the third party batteries came with a caveat: the battery meter doesn't work right. So the camera may abruptly die without the usual low battery warning. Caveat emptor.

[David Hatton]

Not unusual for Sony. I remember the Sony RS-1 having the same issue to much criticism. Good camera though.

[dan]

Funny, nobody seems to expect their cell phone phone to come with an external charger.

[John Robison]

I guess batteries are the new film. By that I mean; with film cameras you dreaded running out of film. Now, with digital you worry about running out of battery power.

With either circumstance, you are left high and dry.

[Andy Kowalczyk]

Can't attest to the compatibility with the RX100, but I have been happy with Wasabi Power batteries in my Olympus Pen. For what it's worth, they claim the cells are made in Japan (not China). Being just outside San Dimas they must have some Excellent Adventures!

Blue Nook
http://www.bluenook.com/s?ie=UTF8&searchKeywords=NP-BX1+

[John Ironside]

No indication of the state of charge seems to be a common problem for third party batteries made to fit recent cameras.
It's also the case for the OM-D (and third party is all I could find for the OM-D, up to a few days ago).

[Bill Tyler]

Forcing in-camera charging or third-party solutions indicates to me that the target market is casual snapshooters. In the film days, this would have been people who took 6 months or more to use a roll of film.

[Alan Fairley]

I personally like the option for in-camera charging, since it means there's one less wall wart I have to carry when I travel,. Since I always carry a spare battery in the cameras belt case, when one dies I can just charge it that night (I will never shoot enough to kill a battery during one day of shooting)

[Don]

Batteries and chargers have been driving me nuts for years. My wife and I have had Nikon D40,D50,D60 and a D90. So you can see the charges and wires we have carried around.
The D40 and D60 share the same battery, the D50 uses a 3a and the D90 a 3e. Now we each carry D3200,s and love the new charger it has a built in folding plug, no wires and fits in your pocket. Real nice.

[Bill Mitchell]

Living in South Florida, I use the "Sunny Day" setting for viewfinder brightness, which runs the battery down much faster. It is the only digital camera I've ever seen which allows a clear image outside, even in bright sun. Perhaps its best feature for me.

[c.d.embrey]

I don't think that many companies understand their customers. I'm sure that Sony thinks that all RX100 owners plug the camera into the USB port to transfer the JPG files to their computer. Therefore it make sense to Sony that the RX100 user would also charge the battery through the same USB port. Meh!!

Canon and Nikon can do stoopid thing 'cause they have a large fanboi base. Sony does not have that luxury. What was it that Forrest Gump said about stoopid??

[psu]

I never worry about batteries with my D700 ... the thing will easily shoot 500 pictures over a vacation (say) without a recharge. I'm not sure what the issue is. Still, I bring a backup just in case because with computers you always bring a backup just in case.

Now, the D200 was different. That's the only camera I ever ran out of batteries while shooting. Oops.

[Mike Johnston]

"What was it that Forrest Gump said about stoopid??"

That it's like a box of chocolates?

Mike

[Mike Johnston]

"I never worry about batteries with my D700 ... the thing will easily shoot 500 pictures over a vacation (say) without a recharge. I'm not sure what the issue is."

Generally--I say GENERALLY--the smaller the camera, the more battery life can be an issue. Bigger cameras have room for bigger batteries.

Mike

[Kevin Purcell]

The reason for the push in "in camera" charging is, I suspect, to follow directives from some governments (China? EU?) to move to a uniform power supply for portable hardware (i.e. a USB power source) and uniform power connectors rather than the current anarchy of "one device; one connector; one wall wart".

Lots of cameras have a power connector *and* a USB port now they only need the USB port for both connectivity and power.

Following that rule they can make a cost savings by moving the charging in camera and omitting shipping the charger. It's probably a 1 chip solution merged with the already needws voltage conversion/regulation from the Li ion battery so it adds little weight or heat dissipation.

The camrea makers could make external chargers that accept a USB connection to rather than a power line connector. I suspect a lot of people would be happy with that.

As other have pointed out until recently most cameras omitted the charging circuitry in camera.

[Chuck Holst]

USB charging is not just for cameras. A few months ago I bought a Chinese-made Tecsun portable radio powered by NiMH batteries. Like the RX100, the batteries are charged in-place through a USB port. Unlike the RX100, no wall wart was provided, perhaps wisely, since I already had one I could use. I find USB charging so convenient for travel (one wall wart and one 12V adapter!) that after my charging cables were stolen from my car, I replaced them all with USB equivalents.

[psu]

Yeah, to clarify, it's certainly the case that smaller cameras have more battery issues. I was more reacting to general statements like "batteries are to digital cameras what rolls of film were to film cameras." I also have no real power issues with my Lumix P&S or my iPhone. Both charge at night. Both generally last a whole day.

[Lorenzo Dunn]

I just bought an Olympus XZ-1 to take on business trips. Compact enough yet capable of decent pictures when I get a chance to wander around and take photos on a day off. Charging via USB was a big plus since the camera could share the same USB charger that I use for the Kindle, tablet, phone, headset, and all the other stuff I haul along on business trips.

The catch is on the camera end...instead of using one of the standard USB connectors (mini, micro, etc...) Olympus used their own combo USB/video connector so that only the special cable supplied with the camera works. I'd have been happy to give up video out to use one of the standard cables I already carry (and can buy anywhere if I lose it).

[Kevin Purcell]

Lorenzo:

It's interesting to see that Samsung did a similar thing with the EX1 (TL500 in the US) and provided a proprietary USB/charger cable (that's also a bit too short) with an odd socket on the camera.

In the newly released EXF2 (an update of the EX1) one of the changes was to drop the wacky connector and move to a standard micro USB for power and connectivity.

It seems Olympus have done the same on XZ-2 with a seperate micro USB to USB A and video cables.

One of those little annoynaces that doesn't get mentioned in reviews.