The Battery Thread

S

sunburst

Well-known member
Okay, whats the skinny on batteries needed? In our excitement who really
knows whats happening?

1. Is it even worth it to upgrade firmware?

2 I imagine NEW HACKED firmware could address this battery "scam" right?

3 what do these batteries cost? best place to buy? does it come with
full sets of batteries?

4 how many batteries TOTAL are needed to run cam IN VID MODE? In
stills/ flash MODE ?

5 recharging?

6 Cost per shoot / cost per month?

I ask this, 'cause I have a high end dslr - that shall go nameless - since I have
to dump it - THAT EATS HIGH END BATTERIES!!!!

I mean EACH shoot could run $ 15.00 ++ in batteries! They burn out fast, and don't last. Put the cam in a drawer - and their DEAD when you need em!

So who's shooting, what are the best and cheapest options?

thanks!
 
Your high end dSLR -- it's not clear from your post. Are they rechargeable or disposable? If they're rechargeable, are they NiMh or LiIon? Because NiMh will self-depleat in a drawer. LiIon is much better.

I would say for now it's best to buy Panasonic batteries.

If Panasonic were to release a firmware update that fixed all our complaints, than there would be no need for a hacked firmware. Without a hacked firmware, you'll be relegated to...Panasonic batteries.
 
Most modern batteries don't deplete that fast. Li-ion or Li-po has a slow discharge rate, and if you're using AAs the new low discharge NiMHs like the Sanyo Eneloops take over a year to lose less than half their stored charge.
 
Okay, so the gh1 only uses ONE lithium ion battery right?

so you just charge it up, like lets say an HV20? great.

if thats so thats a super relief.

My dslr forces you to use BOTH AA batteries and CR123. cr123 are of course 10 bucks for 2. {discount } .

I note I have - NiMh - AA rechargeables - DEAD - in the cam now. I guess that is my latest
attempt to "modernize". Since I use the cam infrequently. forgetten what i was even using.

Ease of use seems to be my number one need now.
 
Peter J. DeCrescenzo said:
Have you read the GH1's user manual? Use of its battery, charger & more are described in the manual.

See the GH1 FAQ thread:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=174020
Click to expand...

So its just the one battery right?

makes sense cause of cam size. I guess the flash runs off that to?

have the manual. did quick search. only "battery" found by adobe reader 7,
AND foxit 3 was ONE entry - in the accessories. so i was confused. is the pdf a diff format?

thanks!
 
sunburst said:
... have the manual. did quick search. only "battery" found by adobe reader 7, AND foxit 3 was ONE entry - in the accessories. so i was confused. is the pdf a diff format? thanks!
Click to expand...

Odd. The PDF copy of the GH1 manual I downloaded from Panasonic's website, when searched using Adobe Acrobat Reader & Mac's Preview app, contains several dozen references to "battery".

You might try downloading a fresh copy of the PDF, or use a different PDF reader, or simply read the manual from cover to cover.
 
We are waiting for you to make one :)

The GH1 comes with a battery shaped adapter that you put in the battery compartment and connects to the charger with a standard plug. Charger outputs 9.3V - 1.2A to the adapter so I guess a belt battery pack that can be set to that voltage could make it shoot longer than you can stay awake.
 
sunburst said:
ha. I thought only Panasonic [ and maybe yashica] made cameras?
Click to expand...
It's not the Fuji? Their earlier efforts are franken-cameras, with the camera portion coming from Nikon (hence the CR123s) and the digital portion coming from Fuji, using AA batteries.
 
Charger outputs 9.3V - 1.2A to the adapter so I guess a belt battery pack that can be set to that voltage could make it shoot longer than you can stay awake.
Click to expand...
I did some research, but didn't find any battery packs with the combination 9.3V - 1.2A (or 9.3V - 1200mA...) Now I'm not a crack in technical stuff, you think / are sure, that this 1.2A value is unimportant? And then, there's a lot of battery packs which can supply 9V - would this possibly be useful as well?
Ciao, FD
 
Hi FlyingDutchman: Just an FYI: According to p. 186 in the user manual, the GH1 itself uses a maximum of 2.9W @ 9.3VDC to record/play (as opposed to charging the GH1's battery).

The usual caveats apply: Use caution when powering delicate electronics, especially when replacement cams may be hard to obtain! :cheesy:

YMMV.

Edit: I just noticed the manual & Panasonic's websites disagree on the voltage the GH1 uses:
http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=177284
 
Last edited:
Hey guys,

A while back I built a behemonth rig with an hv20 that ran off a single battery.

You might want to look into a solution like that. Given the way anything that uses a battery has pretty wide tolerances for voltage ranges the 9.0v should work perfectly fine. Also give the option to run another 12-14.v device at the same time. I made a breadbox to run up to four device at the same time. Check out that old thread and if you have any questions just let me know.

are sure, that this 1.2A value is unimportant?
Click to expand...
the amperage is just stating how much power its drawing at the giving voltage. Using this battery would probably equal to ~3x the panasonic batteries' output.
 
Hi Vanawesome, I'm afraid those don't run, if you already updated your firmware; in case you didn't it should work. Anyway the capacity isn't that huge, personally I prefer the external option - I didn't try it though.
@ Delaney: looks very cool, but it'd take me some weeks I'm afraid; most of all because either I have to buy it from overseas, pay taxes & have trouble in case of sending them back; or one has to spent hours, to find out where to get similar stuff in Germany. Battery looks cool though, maybe I'll just order it and live with the taxes etc :-)
The only thing missing there is a Magsafe adapter - anyone has an idea, whether this could work with a mbp? Because this stuff here is nice, but slightly overpriced imho :Drogar-SunGlass(DBG
 
@ FlyingDutchman

Hey I look at those mac batteries. Yeah, they are about 150 more than they 'need' to be but that what pretty plastic goes for. :cheesy:

What you could do if you wanted is simply hook a DC-DC to a fanny pack battery rated at 132 Wh that is hooked up to a GH1 via a DMW-DCC3. Given the general 95% efficiency of DC-DC and a nominal output you should be able to run a gh1 for ~684 minutes which I would say reliably could be used as a 8 hour constant shooter while using the LCD. Obviously this is just theory but when I get my damn GH1 trust me I'll but doing something similar.
 
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