Aftermarket Batteries for HMC70/72

[Chris Harding]

Hi All

I'm now tearing my hair out!! (what little is left)

I received a second after-market VW-VBG6 battery today and after charging it the camera says "This battery cannot be used in the camera" ...the eBay vendor lists the HMC70 as compatible

Does anyone here use an aftermarket battery on a HMC70 or 72?????? If you do AND it works PLEASE tell me where you got it as I'll getting tired of buying batteries that claim to be "de-coded" but do not work with the camera!!!


Chris

[Sherri Nestico]

Chris,

I have one on the way from Ebay for my HMC-40. I've got my fingers crossed. I may be tearing hair out right along with you.

[Chris Harding]

Thanks Sherri

When it arrives and if it works correctly you can PM the vendors eBay shop to me.

I'm really getting disallusioned here with all these HongKong and China dealers ALL claiming that the batteries work on HMC cameras (which they don't)

Chris

[Chris Harding]

Hi All

Just a quick update and weird problem!!!

I tried one last time getting a VBG6 Panasonic aftermarket battery and when I inserted it in the cam it came up with the normal "you cannot use this battery" message...I charged it and repeated the situation and still no joy!!

I thought to myself "Maybe the "decoded part" is just a hoax" so I opened the case with a box cutter and sure enough there is a complex little decoding board in it's own compartment so there IS a decoding chip.

Anyway I closed it up again and ran some tape around the cover and popped it in the camera again and of course, same error message...I was going to try the original Panasonic battery just as a cross check but grabbed the after-market one a second time and put it in and it worked!!! No error message!!!

Now can anyone tell me if the chip in the battery needs to have a few inserts/removals until it "remembers" it must tell the camera "I'm OK " or because, prior to putting the aftermarket battery in I put a genuine battery in, so could the firmware circuitry remember that a genuine battery has just been inserted and therefore accept the after-market one????? The aftermarket shows up as 94 minutes so I'm charging it before some more tests.

I would be happy to share stories with other users with either HMC40,70 or 150's that have weird situations with their aftermarket batteries!!

Chris

[Sherri Nestico]

Well, I finally got my decoded battery for the HMC-40 yesterday. It took a bit of force to get it on the camera and the charger (when I say force, I don't mean bend-the-pins kind of force, just more of an effort than the Panasonic battery requires). I'm not exactly sure why, since the batteries look identical.

Anyway, the battery DOES work and it does display remaining time. So I'm doing a happiness dance as we speak. I got it for around $37.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Sherri

Is yours a VBG6 battery???? My one works OK now but maybe a couple of times it will come up with the
camera error and say "This battery cannot be used".... if I remove the battery and re-insert it ..it then works OK!! If yours ever gives you that error just turn the cam off, unclip the battery, and clip it back in and it will then be recognised. I have to now test this battery on my Realty shoots to make sure that it doesn't come up with a battery error during a shoot!!! I can easily reshoot houses but not wedding vows!!!

Let me know if you have any strange happenings with yours if they do occur!!! I have an idea they are all made in the same factory too!!!

Chris

[Sherri Nestico]

Yep, the VW-VBG6. Funny thing is, my IDX battery charger - itself an aftermarket product - won't charge the dang thing but the Panasonic charger will.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Sherri

I think the Panny charger also checks to make sure it's a "decoded" battery... Funny also is that the genuine VBG6 is 5800mah but the ones I have bought are 4500mah so when fully charged I get a time remaining of 265 minutes ... Even if using the aftermarket battery has a few bugs it's still a neat standby for around $30 compared to the real one which is nearly $200 here!!!

I'm not really fussed if I have to re-insert the battery occasionally so the camera recognises it...mine clips in easily but remember it's a lot heavier so maybe that's why yours "feels" more difficult to put in???

Let me know how yours performs when you give it a good workout!! I bought the one that said they used Japanese cells rather than the cheaper Chinese cells ..I'm doing 5 Realty shoots at around 2 hours camera time this week so I'll let you know how the battery behaves...if it works well I think it wouldn't hurt to get another for that price!!

Thanks again for your feedback

Chris

[Chris Harding]

Just did a Realty shoot with a total of 17 clips shot virtually one after the other and totalled 92 minutes of footage!!! The battery started off at 263 minutes remaining and when I was finished it had 189 minutes still remaining.

No hassles and performed very well indeed...not bad for a $37 aftermarket battery!! I have an idea the decoding card and the camera firmware have to "get to know each other" so anyone that buys one and gets an error, just unclip the battery and insert it again until it's OK...after that initial episode I had no further problems with the cam recognising it as a "valid" battery

Chris

[Chris Harding]

Hi All

A very necessary bit of advice !!

If you get an after-market battery that does have a decoder board, the first time it goes into your camera it MIGHT not work and give an error message...if it does (and shuts down) simply turn the cam off and back on again with the battery in place and it will then "communicate" with the firmware and work normally once that's done...I had a new after-market battery arrive today which thre up an error but once it and the firmware became mates...all was well!!! It will save you sending batteries back to the supplier that you think are faulty but just need time to program themselves!!!

Chris