HMC 150 New Battery?

Nice. To bad it's not that much cheaper than the panny battery. Though if you were to buy a dozen then there would be a decnent savings.

Anyone else selling these so far other than BH?
 
for the amount of "on" time you need I think you should be running 2 extended batteries and a standard for backup. The extended ones take forever to charge but the standard ones not so much so cycle them like this.

Empty the standard batt first then go to the extended batteries. While you are on the extended batteries charge the standard one. By the time you run your extended batterys dry youll have a fully charged standard battery for backup. thats how I have been doing it for years in the news biz.
 
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I agree you would want at least 2 big batts for that... I don't think you would need the little one, but N635DC's practice is perfect if you want to 'be sure' you will have enough for a whole day of shooting.
 
I use an external battery for long shoots. Running a dc converter (12v to 7.2v) off 12v battery to the camera through the cord that is used for mains power. (the DC side of course).

These batts are also much cheaper. I have a couple 8ah (8000mah) and a few smaller ones, but you can get larger ones. Mine are sealed lead acid abtteries.
 
Denwa said:
I use an external battery for long shoots. Running a dc converter (12v to 7.2v) off 12v battery to the camera through the cord that is used for mains power. (the DC side of course).

These batts are also much cheaper. I have a couple 8ah (8000mah) and a few smaller ones, but you can get larger ones. Mine are sealed lead acid abtteries.
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Thanks for the info .. did you build this yourself? This is a great idea, I could keep the battery in my pack. Does the wire interfere at all? I hold the camera and need to be able to move freely.
Otherwise I would need two chargers or I wouldn't have time to recharge two large batteries at night when I shoot consecutive days. Do you have a link to the battery you use?

Thanks again
 
I am assuming you only have one HMC150 and thus only one charger. I just grab the chargers out of my other kits for hen I need to do that or just steal the batteries from the other kits as well. Do you have any chargers from older series like the 100 or 200? If so would they work for the new smart batteries?
 
N635DC said:
I am assuming you only have one HMC150 and thus only one charger. I just grab the chargers out of my other kits for hen I need to do that or just steal the batteries from the other kits as well. Do you have any chargers from older series like the 100 or 200? If so would they work for the new smart batteries?
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I'm looking to purchase & don't have other Panasonic cameras & chargers, but I see now I would probably need to consider a second charger if two big batteries are needed. How many hours does it take to charge the big battery?
I do like the idea of a large external battery pack that I only have to charge once then I'm set for the day even if it's for backup.
 
Any Electronics shop will have a multitude of sealed lead acid batteries. These are also used in those emergency lights in buildings and UPS units for computers. They come in a range of Amp Hour sizes.

Stepdown converters like these http://cgi.ebay.ca/LM317-DC-In-5-24...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item35a78077c0

can be used, though I also found one auto universal DC converter that outputs 7.5v 1 amp, which works for this cam. I spliced in a power connector into the panny cable as I could never find a female end that fit that cord.

Wish I could buy a couple of the cords form panny without having to buy the entire charging unit.
 
If you wanna run for 10 hours without chaninging batteries, you should probably check out the AB Elipz kit, so far I've heard good things about it (though it'll definitely mess with the 150's weight and distrobution).
 
The Elipz is exactly what that guy that went to Haiti needed :). I'd say that for a 7-8 hour battery, 183 $ is pretty damn resonable. The down side is that you have to pay an extra 158 $ for the charger. But hey, you only get it once...
 
for about the same money I'd just pick up 2 of the panny extended batteries, know I'll get almost 8 hours of on time out of them and call it a day. TBH, I was never really all that impressed with the elipz system.
 
I think it's more profitable for people who use two or more cameras on a shoot. This way they can buy one charger and more batteries.
 
I usually use 3 camera on a shoot. at the end of the day, I can charge 3 at a time, very useful if I have to shoot the next day. I still stick with panny mountable batteries.
 
If I had a bunch of Panny batteries and chargers I wouldn't switch to Elipz either. But I recently bought my 151 and just got my large battery a few days ago. If I had known about the Elipz before placing my order, I would have probably gone with it.
 
Personally I would like to see a sony L series battery adapter... Most of my equip has been adapted for the very affordable sony batteries.

But yeah, don't see why you wouldn't have another 2 extended batts that would be cheaper than another type of batt and charger. I am up to 3 big boys.
 
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