11.5 hrs to charge NP-FV100A, Sony faster charger recommendations

L

littlefish

Member
Just charged one of our new Sony NP-FV100A with the Sony BC-TRV charger and it took 11.5 hours for a full charge (using these to power a Z90V). Wow, I've never had a portable charger take that long, even with similar mAh. Not practical in most of our overseas filming environments.

Looking at the Sony dual AC-VQV10. Just found the manual online and it says 185 minutes for a full charge. I can't believe I missed finding this charger before.

Is this the best Sony charger for these batteries? Also wondering, when time is not an issue, if using the slower BC-TRV will actually help the batteries last longer.

Appreciate any words of wisdom.
 
I've never paid attention to how long it takes to charge one of those batteries, but that sounds excessively long. Try discharging the battery and charge it again and see if it's faster next time. If not, I'd bet you have a bad battery or a bad charger. I'm 1500 miles away from my Z90 kit so can't test it myself to compare.
 
Thanks Doug. I thought I was crazy, but the manual confirmed it. Unless I'm reading this wrong. According to the manual for BC-TRV it says 680 minutes to do a "full charge" on a FV100. That's about what it took for two of those batteries. I've order the dual charger and will end up selling the BC-TRV anyway. The dual charger works better for my applications.

Regardless I will do some tests anyway, as you wisely suggested, in case the batteries are defective.
 
littlefish said:
Just charged one of our new Sony NP-FV100A with the Sony BC-TRV charger and it took 11.5 hours for a full charge (using these to power a Z90V). Wow,
Click to expand...

Wow indeed! I thought the Z90 NP-V100B batteries were slow to charge at around 3 hours on the Sony AC-VQV10. A colleague of mine is using the Watson charger with the NP-V plates and if buying a charger again that's what i would get as it charges two batteries simultaneously which is often quite useful. The price is hard to beat it works well and you can get additional battery plates for around a couple of bucks which makes it a pretty versatile charger.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/837349-REG/watson_d_4228_duo_lcd_charger_with.html

Chris Young
 
Very helpful Chris Y, appreciate the tip. I had noticed the Watson, with the good reviews. Only steered away from it because I prefer to stick with batteries and charger from same manufacturer if possible. Long story. At this point I had already ordered the AC-VQV10. I think I will keep the much slower BC-TRV since it so small and light weight...just as backup. I am often charging two batteries in the evenings when on location, but I'm OK with 6 hours to charge two of the NP-V100s, that works in my workflow.
All the best!
 
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