How many batteries will I need?

M

Mike@AF

Veteran
I will be shooting a feature this summer. I plan on 12 hour days (who knows, maybe more) and want to make sure I have enough power for the camera. At this point I will be shooting/recording 1 of 2 ways. 1) Record to 4GB cards and transfer from camera to MacBook Pro via Firewire. 2) Firestore if capable of 1080i/24pA. How many batteries should I buy? Is there a charging solution for multiple batteries?

I noticed the DVXuser battery thread is gone from the DVXuser Shop forum and the banner ad no longer works. Are the DVXuser batteries no longer available?
 
Mike...

I've found that 2 batteries gets me through most days, but sometimes I've had to jump to a 3rd battery. I ended up getting knock off generics online and they work great. I also bought 3 chargers for like 15 bucks a piece. THe dual and rapid chargers are really expensive.

I'm going to get a power-strip and a softcase an keep it all contained in one unit. The batteries take a long long time to charge, but I can charge 4 batteries in maybe 5 hours or so...

So, I bought 3 addtional batteries and 3 chargers all for about 200 bucks. Going the panny way wouldn't even get me one charger and one battery...
 
I would say three minimum for a twelve hour day. The panasonic batteries are taking about 6 hours to charge when they're fully drained.
 
flmmkr said:
I will be shooting a feature this summer. I plan on 12 hour days (who knows, maybe more)
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I'd probably pack at least 4. It seems to me they are about 3 hours per battery. Maybe 5 batteries... better safe than sorry if you're doing a 15 hour day and can't do any charging... you might have one or two ready for the next morning if you don't use them all. If you know you'll be able to charge then probably 3 would do it.
 
Okay, I suppose I will be purchasing 3 of the DVXuser batteries. Are there any other options for a charger besides the DVXuser 4 Battery Charger for $500? I wouldn't even mind having to charge them separately as long as I can charge them all at once at the end of the day over night.

EDIT: I just thought of something important. Is the weight of the DVXuser batteries identical to the Panasonic 5400mah batteries? I will be using a Glidecam and don't want to rebalance because the weight is different. Also, I found Lenmar and Again & Again equivalent batteries on the net for $42.00. Is there something wrong with those? Is it really worth almost double the money for the DVXuser batteries with 200mah more?
 
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couple notes.

The 5600mah DVXuser batteries are 240 grams. you can measure your OEM battery and compare.

All the 6000mah cells you see arn't 6000mah. With current cell technology its just impossible to hit that number. The cells you see listed at 6000mah are the same as our older 5400mah cells ( our old manufacture informed us and offered to re-label to 6000mah, and that is why we stopped using them. )

It might sound like a crime to label 5400 batteries as 6000mah batteries, but its actually pretty common in china... and the companies here selling 6000mah may or may not know of this.. but it doesnt really matter.

Ive asked Speccom not to link to the 6000mah page they have because of this reason, but they keep forgetting so I gotta make this point clear.

oh and the thread should still work cause the page hasn't gone anywhere.

http://www.dvxuser.com/articles/battery/
 
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One more comment to add. While it is common to compare the batteries using mah rating, like many other things in life, mah rating is just the most obvious factor, but not the only one. A quality battery uses cells that will consistently deliver high current, particularly to the HD camera (higher power consumption than SD). A pack made of poorly matched cells might work initially, but after a number of cycles will fall apart, dropping in capacity very rapidly. One needs to look at the whole picture, not just the capacity number that is on the sticker. Use your past experience (or what other users here have to say about their real life experience) to judge the battery.
 
thanks alex... so right you are.

As for the comment about the chargers.. the Oem panasonic charger believe it or not is the best single cell charger there is.. its bulletproof and very nice to the batteries. I do alot of charging as you can imagine, and that OEM charger is the only one that has stood up the beating, that one and the $500 4 cell charger of course.

Before you gawk at the price of the dolgin charger as well, remember your getting 4 indi charges in one nice box, and it monitors, tests and gives you an accurate digital reading of the charge levels. This charger is a cry once purchase.. it hurts the wallet for a moment but you will never regret the purchase.
 
I'll go with the DVXuser batteries, but I'll have to think about the Dolgin charger. If I buy 3 batteries, three Panasonic chargers and a powr strip will only cost me less than $300, where the Dolgin is $200 more. That's a big difference.

Thanks for the link to the batteries. Last night I was trying to navigate to it through the Shop and Atricles rooms on the forum and couldn't find it. Also, the link from the banner at the top of the page just opened up another main forum window.
 
Jarred Land said:
yeah there should be a banner on the bottom of every page for the batteries.
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Thanks Jarred. The banner links at the bottom work, however I've tried two of the large banners above all the forum names (for DVXuser batteries and the Frame Rate review) and they don't work. It just refreshes the screen. I'm using the latest version of OS X and Safari.
 
Can anyone confirm that this charger will work for the Panasonic and DVXuser batteries? http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00006JPXI/ref=ord_cart_shr/102-6721606-7766526?%5Fencoding=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&v=glance&n=502394

It's the same model number of the charger at EVS, but $23 less each and I will be buying 3 of them.

Also, I can't find the weight of the Panasonic batttery and I don't have a scale to compare it to the DVXuser's battery of 240 grams. I did find weights of two "equivalent" aftermarker batteries and 1 similar model number from Panasonic, but I don't know if the weights stated on those sites are accurate. The weights converted to 283 and 290 grams. Does anyone know the actual weight?
 
flmmkr said:
I'll go with the DVXuser batteries, but I'll have to think about the Dolgin charger. If I buy 3 batteries, three Panasonic chargers and a powr strip will only cost me less than $300, where the Dolgin is $200 more. That's a big difference.

Thanks for the link to the batteries. Last night I was trying to navigate to it through the Shop and Atricles rooms on the forum and couldn't find it. Also, the link from the banner at the top of the page just opened up another main forum window.
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don't forget to add 2 batteries for any mounted 7" LCD you may be using. For my hvx set up....I've got a total of 4 batterys...will jump up to 9 as soon as Cineporter is released and proven. And go with the 4 seat charger Jarred recommends....trust me.
 
They can not be the same as the HVX200 uses 15W while in operation, while the DVX100 uses 8W. If you plug in the power hungry HVX200 into a low power DVX100 adapter, you either smoke it, or it will go into self protect mode. Battery charging only should be OK.
 
adolgin said:
They can not be the same as the HVX200 uses 15W while in operation, while the DVX100 uses 8W. If you plug in the power hungry HVX200 into a low power DVX100 adapter, you either smoke it, or it will go into self protect mode. Battery charging only should be OK.
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Does that mean that charger will take longer to charge the batteries than the charger that came with the HVX200?
 
Probably charging will be similar, I was pointing out at the camera powering requirements being different.
 
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