Wasabi Batteries

[Mark Goodsell]

Just wanted to provide some feedback.
I picked up a set of 819 Wasabi batteries for the XA10. Two batteries a charger and a 12v charger plug, $39.99, Amazon. I went with that size battery because I didn't care for how far the 827 batteries stuck out the back. These stick out about 3/8", which is about right. I especially like the very slick compact charger. I've had good luck with Wasabi batteries in the past and my main goal was to not have to carry the charger and chord around Europe for a month, plus to have the ability to charge on 12v:

Amazon.com: Wasabi Power Battery and Charger Kit for Canon BP-819, VIXIA HF10, HF11, HF20, HF21, HF100, HF200, HF G10, HF M30, HF M31, HF M32, HF M40, HF M41, HF M300, HF M400, HF S10, HF S11, HF S20, HF S21, HF S30, HF S100, HF S200, HG20, HG21, HG3

 

Amazon.com: Wasabi Power Battery and Charger Kit for Canon BP-819, VIXIA HF10, HF11, HF20, HF21, HF100, HF200, HF G10, HF M30, HF M31, HF M32, HF M40, HF M41, HF M300, HF M400, HF S10, HF S11, HF S20, HF S21, HF S30, HF S100, HF S200, HG20, HG21, HG3

Anyway just wanted to report that they work great. I was able to go usually a whole day of intermittent on/off shooting with one battery for most days (using the xlr mic). Some days it would run low but I had the ability to charge on 12v between locations/setup, etc. before they would go completely dead, so workflow was never interrupted. Of course, that's not a whole day of constant shooting. I suppose it would come out to 2-3 hours of actual recorded footage, but there is usually a lot of reviwing the shots, retakes (where the LCD might be open or closed, set-up, fussing with the menu, things like that. Then, sometimes I would use the viewfinder more than other times, so it's really hard to say. I never let the cam run to see how long a battery would last. At any rate, I actually never charged up the 2nd battery yet believe it or not. The few times I ran completely out was towards the end of day and then just used the little Canon battery as a back-up. The batteries report the available power accurately on the LCD. Like I say, I especially prefer the compact battery charger over the Canon power supply with electrical wires. It's very compact, adjusts for 120/220, has a fold-out plug ..perfect for on the go. It isn't a fast charger by any stretch. It takes several hours to re-charge a depleated battery. I made a habit of puttung the dead one on at night (all night), or left it in the car during off-shooting time (diner, etc). If I were doing a long wedding (which I don't do) or long interview event, then the standard power supply and cables make more sense. Bear in mind that, as I found out, you cannot transfer from the camera to a PC using the USB if you DON'T have the Canon power supply hooked to the camera. But you can xfer via the SD cards if your laptop has an SD slot, which most do these days.

I also want to put in a plug for Blue Nook who supplied the batteries. They were able to expedite shipping of my batteries next day on short notice and even called me to ensure they had all the correct information, then emailed me twice to let me know they were on their way. I don't work for them or anything, I was just pleasantly suprised how well they went out of their way to ship out the product. I would imagine the Canon batteries, although more expensive, would last longer, but these make a decent alternative. I have bought this same style charger (ebay) for a couple other cams I have in the past years ago and they've held up. Would be nice if Canon had a dual battery (or 4 battery) table-style charger with Charge status LCD like Sony has, but these little ones like in the Wasabi kit work great.

[Jeff Harper]

Glad you're happy with your purchase Mark.

[Jeff Harper]

A heads up: one user has reported otoday that he got only a two hour run time with one of these Wasabis. Very disappointing to hear this. I'm testing one today to see what happens. The Canons are usually good for around 4 hours, I think. They say if it's too good to be true, and all that, and I believe that.

[Don Palomaki]

When you post yor test results, plese give fulldetails, including the charger and methodology used, model and age of the battery,

Thanks for doing this.

[Don Bloom]

I just got one for my PD170. The battery ran for about 600 minutes. The LCD was open for almost the entire time. BTW I had 200 minutes left on the charge when I shut down. For me, if it craps out after 1 season I don't care. For $40 you can't go wrong. So far I like it, One battery for the entire wedding. Of course I had 3 other batteries in reserve just in case but didn't need them.

[Jeff Harper]

Maybe Scott got a bad one. If mine are fine I'll let everyone know asap. I'm not going to bother to test them at this point, I'll use them and see what happens. I'm using the Canon cameras primarily for a wedding ceremony, so I'll definitely get through that far safely.

I'll have two XA10 running simultaneously, and so I can get a very good idea of how the batteries I've got compare to the Canon brand.

[Scott Brooks]

I just charge both overnight ... one shows 168 minutes and the other 172 min. Not really what I was hoping for.

Last night's clip was one hour and nineteen minutes. It was set on auto and wide. At the end of the first act of rehearsal ... it was blinking so I shut it down. I don't know if the footage is lost if the battery dies without being properly powered down.

Since it was un-manned there was no zooming to use up extra power.

Needless to say, I wouldn't purchase these again unless someone could explain how it was user error.

Scott

[Chris Frechette]

Just did a test with a Wasabi BP819 charged in the Wasabi charger. Almost exactly four hours with MXP recording on my HF-M40 with the LCD open and LCD brightness turned all the way down. The battery time indicator said 197 min I think when I first started the camera. If I remember correctly, I got over five hours last fall when I did this test with the LCD closed.

[Jeff Harper]

I started with about 300 mins indicated on my new Wasabi's, which was close to the Canons, it was actually a bit higher. My two batteries are fine, very happy.

[Don Palomaki]

A new, freshly charged, Wasabi BP827 gave me 5 hour 44 minutes 35 seconds of continuous recording.
This was to a SanDisk Ultra SDHC card in slot A.with the LCD screen open at SP quality.
The camera was left to record until it shut off buy itself (on low battery).

This rounds to 345 minutes. Funny, that matches the number on page 178 of the manual. But YMMV.

When first connected the viewfinder read 362 minutes of battery remaining (off by a trivial 5%).

Worth noting that battery mAh ratings are based on different criteria than typical camcorder low voltage cut-off.

[Scott Brooks]

Originally Posted by Don Palomaki

A new, freshly charged, Wasabi BP827 gave me 5 hour 44 minutes 35 seconds of continuous recording.
This was to a SanDisk Ultra SDHC card in slot A.with the LCD screen open at SP quality.
The camera was left to record until it shut off buy itself (on low battery).

This rounds to 345 minutes. Funny, that matches the number on page 178 of the manual. But YMMV.

When first connected the viewfinder read 362 minutes of battery remaining (off by a trivial 5%).

Worth noting that battery mAh ratings are based on different criteria than typical camcorder low voltage cut-off.

Thanks Don. I'm going to try that same test here at home to see what it gives me. Perhaps it's a totally invalid time reading or maybe they need to be charged more than once.

[Don Palomaki]

Charging is subject to some variables.
The battery I used was charged using the Wasabi charger and spent perhaps 9 hours on float (green light) after the red light went out. Many chargers give the green (full) indication (arguably more like a shift from rapid to trickle/float charge) at something less than actual full charge. On some it is at around 80% to 90%, but I do not know the actual point with Wasabi. This time spent on "green" probably allowed the battery to get closer to 100% charge.

[The numbers in the following are approximate, but illustrate the problem.] I recall with the older NiCD technology used in Canon Hi8 camcorders (e.g., A1 Digital and L2) the battery was a nominal 6 volt cell, but more like 7.5 volts at full charge, and camcorder low-voltage cut off was at about 5.5 volts, However, NiCD battery mAh ratings were based on a 20 hour discharge rate to 5 volts. Camcorder usage was more like a 2 hour discharge rate resulting in operation along a different time-current-voltage curve.

The low cost of the Wasabi is perhaps in part due to more relaxed QC, so one can expect wider variations in performance of individual units.

At least with some laptop PCs, the battery time remaining indication needed to be re-baselined on ocasion. Frequent parital discharges would cause it to loose accuracy. Not sure if that applies to camcorder batteries, but it might.

[Luke Thompson]

Does anyone know if these wasabi batteries could be charged in a canon charger or better yet a Pearstone Duo charger?

[Don Litten]

I charge them in my Canon charger...so yes, they can .BTW, the batteries should get better after a few charge discharge sessions.

Now if I could only find Wasabi's for my AC130, I'd be happy.

[D.J. Ammons]

I bought the Vivitar version of the BP-819 battery and fully charged it sayd 178 minutes in my Canon HF M301 so that is right in line with what your Wasabi says. My offbrand BP-829 in my XA10 shows a little more than 270 minutes I believe. I paid $9 for the Viv 819 and $23 for the other offbrand 829 so if they last one year or two I will be happy.