Battery life and Sandisk Extreme compatability?

[Picturequest]

I went shooting tonight for the first night shoot with my new hacked GH-1. I haven't calculated how many minutes I shot yet, but my battery died pretty quickly. How long does the average battery last while shooting? I shot in 4 locations, no more than 15 minutes, maybe shooting 50% of that time.

Also, I have a Sandisk Extreme 16gb card. For some reason it will not show up in my USB card reader, but works fine in the GH-1, and when I USB connected the camera to transfer footage. It formatted it in the Cam?

I have a 512k SD card, that works in the Cam for firmware and pics. Also mounts fine in the reader? My reader is a couple years old. Do I have a bad Sandisk? or does my reader not support SDHC? or larger 15gb cards? I'd rather not plug the GH-1 into the USB to transfer.

Any car charger solutions for the GH-1 battery?

Thanks

Max

 

[MR Fanny]

i have noticed shorter battery life with the patch. more bitrate more processing more power consumption is my guess. i have 2 spare batteries and it is rare that I ever end up using all three for a day, two seems to cover it. switch to EVF maybe if you are not shooting or put it on economy on a shorter interval like say 2 mins idle.

I would stick your Sandisk in another computer/reader before i call it a dud. There maybe a transfer option via usb that is moving, deleting or formatting card after transfer?