So, how do you know your batteries are dead?
 

you've got 4 x Vf-BN823's
you can shoot all day

you empty the first battery, and throw it into your bag and promptly forget which pocket is for the 'dead ones'

i remember years ago my dads cheapie camcorder, the batteries had a little switch with a red dot that let you know it was full or empty

is there a simple solution?

I put a little piece of grey gaffer tape on each one and number the batteries. I always start with 1 and use the batteries in numerical order.

3 batteries, A B and C. Same again. If B is on the camera, gotta be A next, no wait C is next, isn't it, or is it A, oh man.

Cameras assistants often put a camera tape X over the dead batteries. Alternately, you could put a camera tape strip over the battery terminals and remove it when you put it onto the camera and put a new strip on when you recharge the battery (you could also put the charge date on).

I have an IDX battery for my Panasonic HMC41 that has a level indicator on the back with three bright blue LEDs. Push the button and you can see the charge level, even when it's not on the camera.

Pretty neat, I thought.

+1. I have 3 spares but indoors I keep a charger nearby and a charger for the car.

Never take the chance with a location that's 2 mins walk away .. and a battery that's getting low. Same with tape. And I kept the Lithium batts in a small temp stable food fridge container .. till I lost it :(

There's a recent thread here somewhere about keeping Lithium's happy for a longer life.
Cheers.

I have 2 Hytron 140 batteries from Anton Bauer. For the price I paid, I was expecting them to make contact with me by telepathic link, explain how they were running bit low on juice and would I mind very much just popping them off the camera and putting them on charge, and in exchange they would sit me down, fetch my slippers and make me a really nice hot cup of tea. Sadly they do none of this except display in real time (as near as dammit) the amount of charge left, which - with use of on-camera light, 2 radio mic receivers and external client monitor is one Earth day each. I used to have 3 of them but never even met the third!

I was thinking about knocking up an interface to mount one on the HM100..........

;-)

No knock on Hytron 140's as they are my mainstay battery for my HPX-500 and SDX-900 cameras but it does help to have a charger which displays the Battery status as they age. The meter on the side of the battery is not accurate for remaining capacity. I can have a brand new battery which rates a 9.2 on the charger or one which is older which measures 5.4 on the charger. they both say 3 with full displays on the side when you take them off charge but the 9.2 numbered battery has almost twice as much or more runtime as the 5.4 battery. Hold onto the display button a little longer than normal and the numbers should come up.

Side note about the 140's - they don't have a long working life - I had one go bad after 3 years. Had it replaced under warranty but the other two which went bad a few months, later I eBayed 'as is' and bought two more new 140's. By chance I then spoke to the AB man in Europe and he said go for the 100's next time as they are a different chemistry apparently and will last much longer. I use them because they last all day (give or take) and balance the camera perfectly for me as I like it a bit back-heavy. That said, I'm not getting any younger and my right arm is feeling the strain after 20 years of heavy cameras!

How do you know when you're battery needs service?
 

I have two Dionic 90’s, purchased at the same time, one works perfectly, the other registers as fully charged on the battery display but when attached to my JVC GYHM700, it acts as if there is no charge on it at all. What can I do to solve this problem?

The JVC BN-VF823 batteries come with a plastic cover for the terminal side. Once a battery is dead, I toss it back in the bag without the cover. I don't like the idea of always using my batts in the same order (a,b,c,d,e) as this will lead to battery "a" getting a lot more use than "e". I use them randomly. Although, if I were seriously anal-retentive, I suppose I could gaff tape letters on before each shoot, making sure "b" becomes "a" and so on, insuring I'm rotating the order of batts for each shoot....ugh.

When I get back from location, I fish out the dead batts and covers, charge them, then snap the plastic covers back on. Cover on-freshly charged. Cover off-drained. Easy.