The Best Is Yet To Come..(Maybe)

[John Mahoney]

I've had my HVR-Z1U for only a few weeks. Around about the time of purchase, I read somewhere of the experience of another owner concerning battery life. He said he was happy getting 7 hrs out of an NP-F970 battery. The one that came with my camcorder is an after market version and when it charged up to 7 hrs use showing up on the charger, I was happy. After 2 more charges that dropped to 6 hrs 33mins, so I fugured it better to get another battery than get caught.
I bought 2 new aftermarket batteries of the 970 type. The website said some batteries were fully charged ex factory so I checked both of mine. They showed just over 50% charge and a usage of LCD screen 277 mins and viewfinder 299 mins..
One never really knows what are the real facts in advertising, but when I put one battery on the charger, it showed a battery life of 40hrs +. That was over half an hour ago and now shows 47hrs 41 mins.
I wonder what the real figures are..??? lol. Guess I'll have to wait and see.
The website is Australian.

[Noa Put]

My experience with aftermarket batteries and Sony camera's is that the read out for remaining battery life was never correct, they lasted a bit less then the original but if I wanted to know exactly how long I had left I needed to use an original one.

[John Mahoney]

Can anyone tell me the best way of discharging a battery to recycle/recharge it, please? I am lothe to just run the camera as a way of discharging it

[Adam Gold]

I think that's the best way. You don't have to run tape, just the cam.

Unless you have another device, like a deck or light, that uses the same batt.

[John Mahoney]

OK Adam. Thanks for that. I don't have any other gear that uses that type of battery.