Gh2 battery a joke

I

ingoandfloyd

Active member
The gh2 battery must be à joke, in the gh1 it was awsome and you culd be out shooting for a whole day, but know after 1 hour shooting is embty. And to charge it back to full take like 2 hours. What the hell is wrong? Is panasonic informed about this?
 
Last night I started a 3 hour time-lapse with 2 bars of battery. Battery lasted barely over an hour :/ I bought 2 batteries and an AC adapter now.
 
hyphygreek said:
Last night I started a 3 hour time-lapse with 2 bars of battery. Battery lasted barely over an hour :/ I bought 2 batteries and an AC adapter now.
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If you don't mind, can you tell me where did you get them from? I've been looking for batteries and AC adapter without any luck.
 
Completely agree that the GH2 battery is a big disappointment compared to the GH1 battery in terms of both capacity and charge time. Never used to even think about battery time if I had a full charge on one and a spare. Now, with the GH2, it has to be a major factor to consider in your shooting strategy.

If you can get 3 hours out of a single battery, memphishills, I'm thinking I must have a faulty battery because I'm lucky to get over an hour on a full charge. But that couldn't have been 3 hours shooting video, right?

And don't even get me started on not being able to buy spare batteries or the AC adapter from the usual outlets. Haven't gone the Panasonic Parts route yet only because I keep thinking other places would surely have them by now and I like to keep my direct dealings with Panasonic to a minimum seeing how they seem to have a real talent for screwing things up.
 
I think the difference is battery life may related to lens and power draw from contacts...

I get 3hrs using Prime lenses with no electronic connection...
 
J Bellari said:
I think the difference is battery life may related to lens and power draw from contacts...

I get 3hrs using Prime lenses with no electronic connection...
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About what I get, little less though.
Do you guys use the LCD or EVF, I use EVF most of the time because I prefer it but I also thought it might save some power compared to LCD?!

All in all I agree, surely won't fall in love with GH2 battery.
 
As a workaround for those who need continuous video shooting and don't want to buy 5 or 6 spare batteries, there are 2 items you can buy for around US$80 that will allow you to run the GH2 off a power outlet.

(These links are in Japanese, apologies, but mainly just to prove that this stuff exists rather than some guy just spouting nonsense)

Panasonic DMW-DCC8 - Sits in your battery compartment on the GH2, and connects to AC power adapters


DMW-AC8 - AC Adapater for the GH2

I'm not sure about availability in the USA, but for people like me who will be doing most of their shooting indoors/where powerpoints are handy, this is a much better option than spending hundreds of dollars on extra batteries.
 
The rumor is still floating around. I remember someone modified a generic 3rd party one to fit a gh1, so maybe we'll see something similar for the gh2 soon.
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question as I haven't had my hands on a GH2 yet, but does it take a different battery than the GH1? The three I have for my GH1 won't work in the GH2?
 
Guys, you can get the Panasonic DC DMW-DCC8 coupler together with our battery adapter/ plate
For this configuration we would use a similar plate to one on the picture, except it will be a Panasonic HVX200/DVX100 style (could also be a Canon or Sony NP970). As a result, you would get about 4-6 times longer run time than with the stock battery. The GH2 battery is 1200mah. The other ones are least 5600mah - 7200mah. Sure, the adapter will not fit in the battery compartment, you will have to put it in the pouch, or attach to the tripod etc.
 
seanmcleod said:
Sorry if this is a dumb question as I haven't had my hands on a GH2 yet, but does it take a different battery than the GH1? The three I have for my GH1 won't work in the GH2?
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Yeah your gh1 batteries are useless on the gh2.
 
With OIS lenses I average around 1.2 hrs on the GH2

When I attach my canon Primes I average around 2.6hrs of footage. This is with full time use of the LCD at mid level -----{}-------* Brightness.

So I say OIS is the prime culprit. For photos I find the battery more than adequate averaging 370 pics.

I finally received my two extra batts from Video Direct Today, it will be enough for a good shoot!

Tip for Timelapse: Close the screen and press display until its off in both the inner VF ad the outer LCD. Your battery will last at least 2hrs with a Panasonic lens with OIS off. Of course that is not the14-42 lens with no OIS switch.
 
Thanks Barry Good to know! Now all I need is a few more megabits in 1080i 60!

Tested it but...

BTW I can still hear the lens moving stuff inside when off (HandOffINRed) It seems some gyros continue to be on check it out!
 
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