Cody, that's a surprising assessment...sure you had the battery fully charged to start with?

The XL H1 lasts many hours on the standard BP-950G battery and I had the XH A1 powered on today using the LCD for well over an hour (although not recording), and the battery icon still shows fully charged.

The XH User manual shows over three hours using the LCD on bright under typical shooting conditions (see p17 of the manual). The battery icon in the display is depicted on pp142-143. Here's the existing sticky thread with a link to the downloadable user manual:
http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=78794

I'll keep watch on battery life, as no doubt many others will.

Canon claims five hours for the BP-950G and seven hours for the BP-970G. It'll be nice to know what the real-world endurance is like under a variety of conditions.

Yeah, that is a fully charged battery that came with it. Not sure the number on it. I shot for almost the full two hours and used zoom and focus.

Twice now it has come in like that. I just got my 970G so I am really looking forward to that.

Thanks guys. Sounds like even the most pessimistic assessment is a big improvement over typical battery life for the Canon GL1/GL2.

Coming from bigger cameras, a 2 hour battery life looks awesome to me.

I shot a wedding yesterday with the A1. I shot for 6 hours straight and only used 1.5 batteries. I was very surprised that they lasted that long, but is awesome!

The batts will last longer if you go tapeless as the transports wont be spinning tape stock.....another good reason for a Firestore!

Joe, was that with the standard BP-950G battery that comes with it, the larger 970, or 3rd party? Just curious because of the earlier comments about short batt life, which doesn't match my experience so far nor the battery life tables in the user manual.

I was using the 950G, the one that comes with the camera.

Battery Charging
 

Does the battery charge when the dc power adapter is in use? I have tried this several times and notice that the charging light goes off when I use the dc adapter. Is this normal?
Thanks

Yes that's normal. The CA-920 Compact Power Adapter functions as either a battery charger or as a camera power supply, but not both at the same time.

im not sure, but I believe this has something to do with not wearing out the battery.

does the battery ever get warm/hot inside the A1?
 

I started to think about this after playing with the
Canon G7 camera that I bought last night. It gets
very warm after only 20 to 30 minutes of shooting.
That's only with a small lithium battery, compared
to the big lithium battery inside the A1 camcorder.
Does the battery ever get warm/hot inside the A1?
(after an hour of use?)

Thanks!

BATTERY TIP-How to remove a stuck battery.
 

Some users are reporting that their batteries are getting stuck inside the camera causing difficulty in removing same.

Here is a tip: Get those small tiny clear suction cups that are used to dangle items from a holiday window. Simply press the cup against the battery and pull it out.

This does NOT seem to be an issue with REAL CANON batteries but rather the knock-offs that are slightly longer in size.

Excellent tip, Lou... thanks for sharing this!