Impact Extender battery review

Macfionn

Macfionn

Active member
Impact VW-VBG260EX Extender Battery
Purchased on B&H for $9.95 plus shipping.
Item is now showing as discontinued on B&H.
Perhaps can be found elsewhere.

I took pics and enclosed below, if interested.


Having ordered this on a suggestion from Robert M. Wright, I'm rather happy I did. It literally 'piggy backs' onto the existing Panny VW-VBG260, thus fooling the camera into thinking a Panny battery is attached. It is NOT a stand-alone battery, nor can be used as such with the HMC40.

I found that it adds an additional 2.5 hours of recording time, and takes every bit as much time to charge as the VW-VBG260 itself.

I drained it thoroughly, and recharged it again, with same 2.5 hours of record time.
*note* I haven't had it long enough to see how long I can use it before it begins to deteriorate.

I was worried it would but too much stress on the cameras battery pins, but it fits pretty snug into the battery guide, relieving that worry.

The amount of time reflected by the camera until battery discharge is that of the Impact extender itself! You don't get a 'combined' battery usage time. Once the Impact extender is run down, you then remove the Panny battery and plug "it" into the camera to use while recharging the Impact extender.


Details:
The Impact VW-VBG260EX Extender Battery prolongs the life of your Panasonic camcorder's VW-VBG260 lithium-ion battery. Simply mount the camcorder's original battery on the back of the VW-VBG260EX Extender Battery. It is mounted onto the extender battery only for the use of the chip information (no power will be drained), allowing the extender battery to function with the camcorder.

This extender battery is compatible with the following Panasonic camcorders that use the VW-VBG260 lithium-ion battery: HDC-SD9, HDC-HS9, HDC-SD5, HDC-SD1, HDC-SX5, HDC-DX1, SDR-H60, SDR-H40/41, SDR-H200, SDR-H18, VDR-D310, VDR-D50/51, VDR-D230, VDR-D220, VDR-D210, PV-GS500, PV-GS320, PV-GS85, PV-GS83, PV-GS90, PV-GS80.
Compatibility This extender battery is compatible with the following Panasonic camcorders that use the VW-VBG260 lithium-ion battery: HDC-SD9, HDC-HS9, HDC-SD5, HDC-SD1, HDC-SX5, HDC-DX1, SDR-H60, SDR-H40/41, SDR-H200, SDR-H18, VDR-D310, VDR-D50/51, VDR-D230, VDR-D220, VDR-D210, PV-GS500, PV-GS320, PV-GS85, PV-GS83, PV-GS90, PV-GS80

Specs:
Chemistry - Lithium-ion
Capacity - 2000mAh
Output Voltage - 7.4V
Dimensions - 1.8 x 1.5 x 1.8" (46.5 x 38 x 45.5mm)
 

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My questions would be

1. Does the panasonic battery have to have a charge for the piggyback to work?

2. Does it use the panasonic charger, or will that charger charge panasonic batteries?

3. How difficult is it to swap piggy back batteries?

4. Is it possible to swap the panasonic batteries without interrupting recording (though I don't know I would risk the camera to try this unless I was at ground zero of alien first contact or a Scarlett Johansen wardrobe malfunction)?
 
v3rlon said:
My questions would be

1. Does the panasonic battery have to have a charge for the piggyback to work?

2. Does it use the panasonic charger, or will that charger charge panasonic batteries?

3. How difficult is it to swap piggy back batteries?

4. Is it possible to swap the panasonic batteries without interrupting recording (though I don't know I would risk the camera to try this unless I was at ground zero of alien first contact or a Scarlett Johansen wardrobe malfunction)?
Click to expand...

1. No. it just needs it for the chip itself.
2. It charges via the HMC40 battery charger.
3. Quite easy actually. takes all of 5 seconds .
4. No. And its moot actually, as its not the Panny battery being drained. Its the impact battery itself. Once the Impact battery is drained, you uncouple the two, and then just use the Panny battery while recharging the Impact.

Keep in mind that its the Impact battery resting inside the HMC40 battery railing. The Panny is piggy backed to the impact.

And in the case of a Scarlett Johansen wardrobe malfunction, no matter your religion, I don't think theres a God that would allow your battery to die!!
 
Yeah. Real interesting. No phone number, no web address on the packaging.
Trying to google them but no luck so far.

Chinese brand so.... Maybe they were discontinued for adding baby formula to the LI-ION chemicals.
 
I got mine as well.

It's a little sketchy, in that yes, we knew that it piggybacks on the back of the existing battery, but until you actually see it, you don't really know what that means. What it means to me is "yeah, that's gonna break."

But for $10? This thing is a raging steal.

So -- I timed it. The stock battery runs for about 3 hours and 9 minutes on my HMC40. I put the piggyback battery on, and it said the combined batteries would run for 3:09. Uh huh. Okay, so -- the chip in the stock battery only reads its own charge, and can't read the piggyback's charge, so ... okay, that's fine, let's let it run. After an hour it said it was going to last for another 2:48. After two hours it said it would last another 2:27. So, definitely, it's working, it's powering the camera, and the stock battery is being drained slower. After six hours (!) it said it still had about 30 minutes to go, and after a grand total of 6:45 it was finally drained.

So, yeah -- pretty cool.

But the design of it sticking out just screams like it's going to be a point of failure at some point. The mounting is a bit silly; it sticks out double-deep from the back of the camera, as you can see from Macfionn's second picture. Seems like that could end up putting a lot of torque on the battery connection if it were to be bumped. But there's a ton of available space in the battery well above the piggyback battery, so... if they discontinued it because they're redesigning it to mount vertically instead of horizontally, that would be perfect. Then it would be totally protected by the camcorder housing, it'd be nice and compact, and the thing does appear to work just fine.

Best $9.95 I've spent, although hey, with cheapo batteries, you never know how long it'll last. Even if I only get thirty charges out of it, it was probably worth it.

For clarification, I don't think the piggyback battery will charge on the panasonic charger by itself. I think you'd need to have the Panasoinc piggybacked onto it in order for it to charge.
 
Barry_Green said:
For clarification, I don't think the piggyback battery will charge on the panasonic charger by itself. I think you'd need to have the Panasoinc piggybacked onto it in order for it to charge.
Click to expand...

Unsure of your results, Barry, but I charged mine solo. As in, 'without' the Panny piggy backed, and it charged just fine.

Barry_Green said:
so... if they discontinued it because they're redesigning it to mount vertically instead of horizontally, that would be perfect.
Click to expand...
I sure hope that's the case. Though I bet we only got them at this price because of the pending discontinuation.
 
Oh okay.. so it drains the standard battery first then the piggy. Cool then. I thought it would just run the piggy using the chip from a regular battery. In other words.. you drain a regular batt then plug on the extender to get an extra 2 hrs or so. The way it actually worked is much better.
 
I don't want to sound negative again, but if Panasonic did not implement the super-secret handshake in its batteries, or at least priced OEM batteries more reasonably right from the start, people would not have to resort to questionable money-saving exercises like the above.

I myself have an external battery, which I use with the Panasonic SD1. The original battery runs for about 40 minutes and costs $60 (was $100-120 just a year ago). The huge brick battery that I am using (think eLipz for poopers) runs for at least 7 hours with LCD turned into bright mode (I stopped testing because I got tired of swapping memory cards) and costs the same $60. But it is pain, because I have to attach this brick somewhere close to the camera and to run it through the socket intended for AC adapter, and the cable is short, so I cannot put the battery on a tripod. I have this battery attached to a shoulder-stock-which-is-also-a-tripod thing.

I cannot use the VB6G battery (which is relatively reasonably priced, considering its capacity), because the SD1 has enclosed battery compartment and accepts only the "small" battery.

You guys with the HMC40 are lucky, because you can use larger batteries and also because CMOS sensor is much more energy efficient than CCD.
 
Is it possible that B&H are the exclusive dealers of this battery?! I can't find it ANYWHERE else. All other links regarding it refer to B&H as the selling point.
 
Cranky said:
I don't want to sound negative again, but if Panasonic did not implement the super-secret handshake in its batteries, or at least priced OEM batteries more reasonably right from the start, people would not have to resort to questionable money-saving exercises like the above.

I myself have an external battery, which I use with the Panasonic SD1. The original battery runs for about 40 minutes and costs $60 (was $100-120 just a year ago). The huge brick battery that I am using (think eLipz for poopers) runs for at least 7 hours with LCD turned into bright mode (I stopped testing because I got tired of swapping memory cards) and costs the same $60. But it is pain, because I have to attach this brick somewhere close to the camera and to run it through the socket intended for AC adapter, and the cable is short, so I cannot put the battery on a tripod. I have this battery attached to a shoulder-stock-which-is-also-a-tripod thing.

I cannot use the VB6G battery (which is relatively reasonably priced, considering its capacity), because the SD1 has enclosed battery compartment and accepts only the "small" battery.

You guys with the HMC40 are lucky, because you can use larger batteries and also because CMOS sensor is much more energy efficient than CCD.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, some aftermarket batteries do not meet specs and damage camcorders, so Panasonic says "well here is one way to stop people from using substandard products and then trying to make a warranty claim on us.."

But yeah, they do ask a bit much for them since they have the market cornered.
 
v3rlon said:
Unfortunately, some aftermarket batteries do not meet specs and damage camcorders, so Panasonic says "well here is one way to stop people from using substandard products and then trying to make a warranty claim on us.."
Click to expand...

Yes, it's obviously entirely for the good of the customer, to keep costs down by avoiding damage to camcorders and the expense of fixing them under warranty, which of course must be reflected in camera prices, so the poor company can squeak by in order to stay in business just so they are able to keep their beloved customer's cameras working properly...

...has nothing to do with monopolistic snare-the-customer, then bend-em-over and make-em-squeal while gouging their eyes out to pay for "accessories" that are absolutely necessary for using the product
 
Oh, I am not accusing the company of altruism by any stretch. I am just saying there ARE crappy batteries out there (and you can find the stories by those with cameras that DO take them), and Panasonic can make more money if people don't use them...

Then, they can make more money by charging extra for them as well...which is where things start getting crappy...
 
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