Panasonic HMC150 VW-VBG6 battery - Decoded / Chipped $40

Awesome! Thanks for the heads up guys. I just bought 3 of 'em for an upcoming trip. I figure 1 1/2 per day should cover me :D
 
Ack!

Ack!

i bought three of these. ordered one and then a few days later ordered two more. they all arrived on the same day, in two different envelopes. the single one was only wrapped in plastic and bubble wrap. the other package had two batts in boxes. i lost track of which was whcih but after charging them all, only two of them worked. the third one will power up the camera but the viewfinder displays the message 'This battery cannot be used", and then the cam shuts down. this is highly disconcerting, but on the other hand i did get two good batteries for a total of a hundred bucks which is still a good deal, but damn! anyone else have anything to say about this? is there some possible way of reactivating this batt? or should i just give the ebay seller bad feedback. i think it is interesting that the camera has built into it a message that says This "battery cannot be used"
 
My 3 arrived, and (so far) they work great! Not a bad deal at all for a little over 100 bucks shipped. That's 18 additional hours of continuous shooting time on my HMC40, in addition to the two Panasonic batteries that I already own (one 6 hour, one 3 hour).
 
I've now used all 3 of mine for two charge-discharge cycles. They last just as long as my Pana battery, and report battery status properly. $120 well spent!
 
BrianMurphy said:
I just got one in the mail today. I had some difficulty getting it to "snap" into position in the camera. WIth a bit of persuasion it did. It showed 88 minutes, and is now in the charger and I will let you know where it goes from here. But not being rejected from the get go is a good thing. I have three Panasonic batteries, but I am now considering another monitor option and would like to carry the right combination of charger and battery. I love my belts but they are heavy when you have to take a plane. If these work out to power the camera when I need them in a pinch and will power the monitor I will be super happy. I don't mind paying for technology that makes my shoot easier and knowing the Panasonic batteries tell me where I stand at every minute/.second of the shoot is a good thing.
Brian
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Brian,
Which monitor do you use which uses the same batteries as the HMC150? Or did I misunderstand. Are you happy with the monitor and would you recommend it?
Regards,
Davdav
 
I ordered one of those VBG6 clones from Hong Kong on eBay also (should be here anytime now). I was just looking at BH's site a little while ago and noticed that they have a "Pearstone" version of the VBG260 now (on back-order though). I got curious and plugged both "VBG6" and "VBG260" into the search at Amazon, and found a number of clones there for both of them. It's nice that we finally have serious options to Panasonic's rather pricey batteries for HMC cams. That makes the HMC150 look significantly more attractive to me now.
 
Bought a battery from the seller two weeks ago. It arrived yesterday with a little bit of a charge left on it. Popped it into the camera and everything worked as it was supposed to. I can't testify to the length of the battery yet, but it does have the chip in the battery that allows it to communicate with the camera. I was able to get a estimated time left. The only real noticeable difference so far is the aftermarket battery feels about twice the weight. Not really a big deal, very happy with it. Will be buying another one in a month
 
Jman2453 said:
The only real noticeable difference so far is the aftermarket battery feels about twice the weight. Not really a big deal, very happy with it. Will be buying another one in a month
Click to expand...

Just wondering if you could weigh both the aftermarket and original batteries and let us know their weights.

Thanks.
 
I happened to have a scale handy.
Panasonic: 8.1 oz
Generic: 10.6 oz
Far from twice the weight. Unless he meant twice the weight of the tiny cube (battery that's included with the 150).
 
I don't have a scale that would be able to weigh it. I never said my thoughts were 100%. I'm stating that the generic battery does have a noticeable weight difference when you are holding it.
 
Thanks Jman for bringing this to our attention, and thanks ChrisPrine for weighing them.

It's still a significant 30% increase on weight from the original battery. This is very good to know prior to buying the aftermarket batteries, especially as keeping weight down is a critical factor for me.
 
Well, I finally got my eBay VBG6 clone from Hong Kong. It doesn't seat well enough, mounted on my HMC40. It's just loose enough that the camera loses power momentarily when the camera is tilted various ways. Unless I can figure a good way to get it to seat securely, I guess I'm the proud owner of a $35 battery shaped paperweight.
 
Thanks for the tip on that 29 dollar battery... it fits fine, works fine... no problems or issues... 3+ hours.
 
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