battery from IDX?

Thomas Smet

Thomas Smet

Veteran
I was curious if anybody has used any of these batteries for the HMC40 from IDX? I thought there were no 3rd party batteries but I guess I was wrong.

IDX Technology SSL-VBG50
 
That's the one that the UK distributor of Panasonic cameras is bundling with the HMC41/HMC151 (European models of the HMC40/150) until the end of June:

http://www.holdan.co.uk/Panasonic/Panasonic_offer.php

I got one with my HMC41 and it works as expected, though it doesn't give a remaining battery time on-screen. There is an LED readout on the back that you can press a button and see how much power is left.

Not much to say about it other than it seems to work fine.
 
Thanks for the feedback Mike. How long would you say the run time is with that battery with your HMC41? I am trying to order an extra battery and B&H is sold out of the longer Panasonic battery and thats when I ran across this battery that is much cheaper. The lack of onscreen readout is annoying but if it runs long enough I doubt it would be a huge concern.

Thanks again.
 
Thomas,

I haven't used it for more than about two hours so far, and it still has power left. Specs say 140 minutes or longer, but I think that might be the HMC150/151. The tiny battery (2640mAh) that comes with my HMC41 lasts three hours (a recent 6 hour filming trip didn't drain the battery completely), the IDX is 5000mAh, I would expect it to last much longer.

I'll do a full charge of the battery and run a test to see how long it lasts.
 
OK, so the SSL-VBG50 test is complete, it shot for 7 hours on auto with the LCD and viewfinder both on. You could probably slice an hour or more off that for using zoom and other features, but it is pretty good!

As I said, there is no battery time indicator, but the battery symbol with the counting-down segments in it (not sure what the exact name is) does work.

I'm pleased with that.
 
Hey thanks a lot for the info. I think I will buy one of the IDX batteries for sure. The accurate indicator would have been nice but really at 7 hours of run time I really don't need to see the thing count down that many minutes all day long. I'm sure I will learn to know when to change the battery if I need to go beyond that.

Thanks again.
 
No worries Thomas. Just to confirm, you do still get the "3 minutes left! don't panic!" warning with the red battery icon with this battery, so it won't just go dead on you without warning.
 
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