$59 battery compatible with the AF100?!!

Guess someone will have to take a chance and try it out.

I may give it a shot.

Thanks for the link!
 
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I use the cheapest batteries I could find on ebay (usually $20-25) for my HPX (always keep 3-4 of them and 2 chargers on hand, that way 1 on the camera, 1 backup, 2 on chargers), and while they usually failed after a year of heavy use, I was always happy with them and that set up Maybe I just got lucky, but I always felt if a battery failed, that is why I had extras ready to go.

I worry about the battery issue a bit more with the AF100, as it shoots SD cards, so a sudden battery failure could be worse data wise than with P2. Also, I heard about there being a chip in the new batteries to calculate the time left... I wonder ho accurate that is in the cheaper batteries. Basiacally, I am wondering how the cheapo ones are working too, cause I like to go the several cheap ass battery route, unless I am going to be playing with fire there.
 
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I have three batteries, one that came with the camera, a Panasonic I bought from B&H and one of the $59 batteries. The $59 works fine. The other two batteries give me over 3hrs of life the $59 is just over 2 hrs, according to the in camera reading.

So I guess you can pay over $150 for a Panasonic battery and get over 3hrs of battery life, or you could purchase three of the cheap ones and get over 6 hrs. Although who knows which will last longer over the years.
 
The $59 battery that we sell is made by Lenmar. Lenmar is a very well known and established US based company. While the batteries are made off shore in their own plant, the administration, engineering and QC departments are in Camarillo, CA. While they warranty the batteries for 2 years, it is very rare that we get a request for a replacement.
As far as the hours remaining as reported by the camera, what you see is what the battery "fuel gauge" chip estimates as run time left. This is in general not a very exact thing, probably even less accurate with the generics. The only true way to compare the batteries is to fully charge them, put on the same camera and run them down to get the run time. Otherwise you really do not know if you are comparing the cells capacities or how good the fuel gauges are.
HTH
 
I never use off brand batteries. They are too much of a headache. Since I am already heavily invested in the camera, lenses, case and other accessories I don't see the point in skimping on the batteries that run the camera. Just my opinion though.
 
Taylor Rudd said:
I have 2, they work well. It's physically larger than the Panasonic battery, but weighs less. Also, it's rated at 5800mAh.
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This will work for me until a "Swit" style battery with a port to power other devices comes out. When that comes out I'll probably buy 4-6 of them so I'm always covered in all situations.
 
aaabassett said:
I never use off brand batteries. They are too much of a headache. Since I am already heavily invested in the camera, lenses, case and other accessories I don't see the point in skimping on the batteries that run the camera. Just my opinion though.
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I understand the confidence one feels when using Panasonic-brand batteries. I also understand that two Flashpoint batteries are less than half the price of one Panasonic battery!

For me, it was a $60 experiment. I still shoot a lot of stuff with ENG cameras. The AF100 will be more of a specialty camera, and dropping $280 on batteries seemed ludicrous!

That said, I flew the AF100 on a jib last weekend - using only the off-brand batteries - and it performed as expected. I kept the Panasonic battery fresh as a back-up and never needed it.
 
You could buy 3X as many off brand batteries for the AF100 than Panasonic ones for that price! Even more for the Adorama ones! I think if I bought 4 or so of the Adorama, i'd still be spending a fraction of the Panasonic ones and would be totally covered.
 
Jon Furtado said:
You could buy 3X as many off brand batteries for the AF100 than Panasonic ones for that price! Even more for the Adorama ones! I think if I bought 4 or so of the Adorama, i'd still be spending a fraction of the Panasonic ones and would be totally covered.
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Yep, that's what I did. The Adorama/Flashpoint batts work fine, and show time remaining.
 
Well of course they work, but for how long? It's a matter of value. Panasonic will charge full-victim pricing for the name-brand battery, while the others want to compete. While the cheap batteries may not last as long, they are most-likely a better value than Panasonic. The question is, which of the cheap batteries is the better value. Let's check back here once a year and see how they are holding up.
 
Brian@202020 said:
I use the Flashpoint battery that Adorama sells for $30 for my second battery. It works pretty good.

http://www.adorama.com/IBYVWVBG6.html
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Well, I know what I am getting for my spare batteries. A bunch of these and another charger and I am good to go all day.

On a side note, the charger is often more important than the battery I have found when it comes to battery lifespan. I bought two identical batteries for my HPX, which I numbered and put in my rotation. I only used one on the panny charger, one was only used on a cheapo ebay charger. The one charged on the ebay one died after about 8 months of use, the other one is going strong. I have a feeling the ebay one was slightly overcharging and killed the battery over time. I did not really care as it was a $20 batter+$10 charger that lasted me 8 months of daily use, so I came out on top, but for that reason I ONLY use Panasonic chargers with my real panny batteries (I would use the Dolgin or other highend charger with the factory battery as well if I owned one), and only use the cheapo in a pinch with the knockoff batteries.
 
Oliver Rush said:
I worry about the battery issue a bit more with the AF100, as it shoots SD cards, so a sudden battery failure could be worse data wise than with P2. Also, I heard about there being a chip in the new batteries to calculate the time left... I wonder ho accurate that is in the cheaper batteries. Basiacally, I am wondering how the cheapo ones are working too, cause I like to go the several cheap ass battery route, unless I am going to be playing with fire there.
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If the camera was done right, in case of power failure you should just get a message "restore media" after you power it up again. It's a norm both with EX1 and HM series from JVC.
 
robertrogoz said:
If the camera was done right, in case of power failure you should just get a message "restore media" after you power it up again. It's a norm both with EX1 and HM series from JVC.
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Well, the EX1 shoots to SXS media, which I believe to be closer to P2 than SD cards in terms of data reliability. I have no experience with the JVC cams though. Are we sure that the AF100 can restore media in camera like the P2 and SXS cameras if it shuts off while recording?
 
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