AC130: AC130 battery question

pronghornproductions

pronghornproductions

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I recently purchased a slightly used AC 130 and absolutely love it! I am in need of a couple of spare batteries for all day outdoor shooting and would like to find something bigger than the 5400mAh I got with the camera........Is there no option for a 6400 mAh battery or at least a 5700mAh ? I would like to stay with the battery packs and not invest in an under camera battery system as it would add too much bulk and weight to my set-up (I frequently have to pack around 50-75lbs. into the woods and even alittle added weight is too much).......Anyone have any info on a higher mAh battery??? It would be nice to get 5-6 hours of operating time on one battery (that would not be continuous rec. but long periods of standby with brief 4-7 mins. periods of recording).
 
I highly recommend that you stick with OEM batteries, they are large but actually quite light. I bought my AC160 from EBAY with no accessories at all just the camera for a great deal. I also purchased a cheap charger and 2 supposed high capacity batteries. I was highly disappointed with the charger and both batteries. One of the batteries did not charge at all and the second one lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes, the problem with that battery was even the slightest movement would make it look contact with the camera and the camera would power of instantly which sucked, And I mean slight touch like touching the pan bar on the tripod. But there was another issue, I had borrowed and OEM charger and battery from a friend and that was the charger I used on my eBay battery. I tried using the cheap eBay charger the next time and it didn't work at all it just got hot and didn't charge the OEM or aftermarket crap battery.

I ended up returning the aftermarket crap from eBay and purchased the OEM Charger from Spec-Comm and a battery from B&H and I couldn't be happier. I did end up purchasing a second battery from the marketplace here, It was a Swit S-8BG6 battery and it has a little less run time than stock but I got it for a great deal. My 2 batteries last 6 hours no problem and are very light weight.
 
If you need all day power B&H have a battery pack that fits under the camera and is around 9000mah!!! However you do lose the LCD battery remaining display cos it powers the camera via the AC cable and plug ..As far as I can remember, the packs do have their own level indicator ..I just can't remember the manufacturer. Powering the 130 from the AC cable also disables the decoder that is necessary in the battery so any 7.2v pack can be used. It does however add bulk to your camera.

Can anyone remember who makes these????

Chris
 
ChrisHarding said:
If you need all day power B&H have a battery pack that fits under the camera and is around 9000mah!!! However you do lose the LCD battery remaining display cos it powers the camera via the AC cable and plug ..As far as I can remember, the packs do have their own level indicator ..I just can't remember the manufacturer. Powering the 130 from the AC cable also disables the decoder that is necessary in the battery so any 7.2v pack can be used. It does however add bulk to your camera.

Can anyone remember who makes these????

Chris
Click to expand...



Yes, they are by Anton Bauer (sp?). Seem pretty reasonable, however I have no experience with them personally. Anton Bauer is a good name, I think I would trust them.

What I do have experience with are the Panasonic batteries, as well as Lenmar. The Panasonics are outstanding, albeit expensive. The most reliable, in my experience.
I have also trieds Lenmar, as a respectable pro shop near me had them for $R65 each, vs. $139 for the Panasonics. I was comfortable trying the Lenmars, as I have a couple I used on my Canon XHA1, and they were great. But tyhat was then, and on a Canon.....

The Panasonics are a much better deal! Reliable, long-ish lasting, and obviously will work well with your camera.

The Lenmars did NOT want to charge in less than (no kidding ) 24 hours! Actually one needed 48 hours. Even after that length of time, one did not last long at all. The one that "worked" was not recognized by the AC160, but was fine on the HMC150. Go figure.

The great take-away for me here was to just keep my trust in the Panasonics. I have accumulated about 5 of them over the years, spread between 3 cameras. None have ever failed me since I started shooting with HMC150's in '09. Highly recommended.
 
The Panasonic factory batteries recharge quite fast, and I'm getting 3 hours and 45 minutes with them of actual recording. It would be hard for me to imagine you needing more than just a second battery. If you want to play it safe and have an extra backup, get a second one so that you have a total of 3. That would add up to over 11 hours of recording time.
 
pronghornproductions said:
I recently purchased a slightly used AC 130 and absolutely love it! I am in need of a couple of spare batteries for all day outdoor shooting and would like to find something bigger than the 5400mAh I got with the camera........Is there no option for a 6400 mAh battery or at least a 5700mAh ? I would like to stay with the battery packs and not invest in an under camera battery system as it would add too much bulk and weight to my set-up (I frequently have to pack around 50-75lbs. into the woods and even alittle added weight is too much).......Anyone have any info on a higher mAh battery??? It would be nice to get 5-6 hours of operating time on one battery (that would not be continuous rec. but long periods of standby with brief 4-7 mins. periods of recording).
Click to expand...
In the Panasonic form factor (dimensions) the ~5400 mah capacity is about the best that can be done these days - do not trust any claims you might see on E-Bay of higher capacity. If you look at the 3d party batteries, stay away from Lenmar (as others commented), they dropped the ball with the new generation of Panasonics.
SWIT is great, in fit and functionality, plus they have a DC jack for powering accessories and LED state of charge indicator.
Good luck
 
I also use the SWIT as well as the OEM Panny battery, The SWIT, as well as the advantages mentioned above, are lighter. So if you are on location (which is obviously your application) you could carry more. Panasonic=274gms while the SWIT is only 237 gms-about 15% lighter (but feels more somehow!)
 
Stick with the Panny batteries. I also tried others and they worked for awhile then went south and broke internally. Ebay has a good price on them.
 
For all important shoots I will rather trust Panasonic OEM batteries but I also have a bunch of generics in my case too. However they very seldom last the time they are supposed to and I find they degenerate pretty quickly after a year. But then again at $35.00 for a 4800mah battery I find they are worth having for shoots that are repeatable. I still use genuine batteries always at weddings...and really just use the generics for Realty work where I can easily reshoot or stop and change batteries during the shoot. I would hate to have to tell a preist to stop the wedding ceremony because my camera battery is flat!!!!

Chris
 
One issue with using external batteries that run through the AC-in: the camera doesn't "know" when the battery is about to die. With an internal battery, the camera will warn you, and then gracefully shut down. Shooting with power via the AC-in means when the power goes, your clip is cutoff mid-stream. If you're in-studio and want to use the AC adapter, it's HIGHLY advisable to get some sort of UPS box (uninterruptible power supply - cheap). If the line power dies (power failure, tripped breaker or tripped-over cord) they sound an alarm, and have several minutes of power.

Read the horror stories from folks who have lost an entire day's footage from the AC adapter power going out...
 
Hi Michael

Most external battery packs (Like the AB) have their own internal battery condition display ..It does mean that you have to keep checking away from the LCD or EVF but any decent external pack will have battery charge levels. Just also bear in mind that if you use generic batteries they will show around 260 minutes on the camera but once the time remaining gets below 100 minutes they die quite quickly..I use 'em on unimportant gigs and normally change when the battery gets down to the 50 -60 minutes left display.

Chris
 
Well, I bought one off of Amazon, a company called maximal power......... never again, even though it was only around $35.00 after the display on the camera gets below 2 hours the battery may have the actual time left in the charge or just a few minutes (usually 3mins.!) Not reliable at all, I think I will be investing in an Anton Bauer pack even though it is bulkier than I want it seems it will be more reliable in the field, my problem is I may have a 3-4 hour shoot in the am and then turn around a few hours later and have another 4-5 hours I need at least stand-by power for the afternoons, this does not allow me time to charge the spare battery for back-up for the afternoon shoots............Has anyone ever had any luck with the quick chargers they sell on ebay, I am thinking that may be my only other solution besides having 5 or 6 Panny batteries on hand.
 
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