Got some batteries from Power101.com
 

After reading here that some people were using these batteries, I decided to try them out. For only $50 I got 2 of the largest ones (6 hour) for my FX1.

The camera doesn't have any trouble using them (no shutdowns) but the batteries never show more than 50% charged in the camera.

Anyone else use batteries from there?

I bought some OEM batteries from another dealer in the past and endup not trusting these kind of batteries. With one of them, the camera will only work if I switch it on and off twice. The other battery will show no more than 50 % even at full charge. So I decided to use it only for my camera light. I think one of them even ruined one of my lights. I would not use it in my camera for fear it will somehow ruin the camera itself. I maybe wrong on this one, but I decided to stick with the Sony batteries purchased from an authorized dealer. I also bought a genuine Sony battery at eBay, factory sealed at 1/2 the price that B and H sells. It came from Hong Kong but after charging, it only gave me 1/2 the full charge. I returned it and got an exchange for another true Sony battery, same thing, it would not give me a full charge.

So I would recommend to stick with the true Sony batteries purchased from an authorized dealer.

Well, I've left the batteries on and the time ran down as indicated. In just about 2 and a half hours I got a low battery warning.

And I've had that warning now for about 45 minutes.

So my thought is that maybe the batteries do have a full charge, they so read weird on the time. Which doesn't do me a great deal of good. Besides having an annoying battery symbol flashing on the screen, it's not helpful to not know how much life is left.

But, for $18 a battery, what the heck.

For those that care...

The battery lasted another 2.5 hours, about 5 hours in total. So the capacity seems to be there, just a screwed up timer.

Continued update....maybe someone will happen upon this someday and the info will be worth something. I don't know.

I discharged both batteries in the camera and they both lasted 4+ hours. Close to 5, really.

I then recharged one overnight and when I plugged it into the camera this morning, the camera saw it as fully charged and everything looked correct!

Charging the second now and hope it will also behave the same.

Another 2 power101 success batteries.
 

I just received 2 D54-type batteries (for the HVX200) this afternoon. I grabbed 2 more after buying a single a couple weeks ago, just to try it out. You know... I noticed that one battery had been dropping power more quickly than the other I had. I usually like simply leaving it on, throughout my shooting.

So finally, in the field, I dropped a fresh battery in, and noticed the power drop quicker again. So I yanked it to see... it was the Panasonic battery!

The one I had gotten was a 5400mAh battery; the two that I received at work from power101 this evening are labeled as 5500mAh units. They charge more for shipping, but when you see $20 ship added to a $13 HVX battery, it works for the company. The 2 cost $48... power101 charges less for each added purchase, so get 3 or 4.

The 5400mAh power101 battery I used yesterday, covering the tightened airport security maintained juice throughout most of my shoot. Got there around 12:30, left 3 hours later. There were a couple times I shut down for a moment, but I've been leaving it on alot. And one bar dropped from full power.

No, I haven't tried these 2 new batteries. I just charged one, and it went to full charge after it seemed, about 2-to 2-1/2 hours. Maybe I read the time wrong, but I would say 2-1/2 hrs is right around the time. The Panasonic battery seems to take an awful long time to reach full charge IMO.

Yes I endorse them. No, I don't even know the first name of any of them; and I work for a newspaper (shooting movie files for web and grabbing frames for the paper), not affiliated with power101.

In my experience with using third party (aftermarket) batteries they work just as well, or better, than the oem batteries for a while. I have always managed to get slightly larger capacity than OEM's though. They do seem to lose their capacity earlier though--usually OEM's last a year or more before losing their capacity and the aftermarkets may go 6 months to a year depending on usage. I have a charger/reconditioned from Maha Energy that allows a complete drain and charge which helps the batt maintain capacity. But it also haas a mode that charges the battery and then drains it--then displays the total mAH of the battery, which will help determine when the battery is failing. We have had 1000mAH batteries go down to 250mAH capacity. I stll buy aftermarkets because of the price difference.

http://shop.mahaenergy.com/store/vie...?idProduct=185

When I 1st started out, a little over a year ago, I bought ebay batteries.

Since then I've had two die and for 8hr batteries they only last 4 hrs. When shooting a wedding and using ebay batteries I would change the battery after 2 hrs of use because I new the time indicator on the camera was funky.

Now, that I made some money I bought Sony 8 hr batteries. It is like night and day. The last a complete 8 hr day with time to spare. It is a lot better.

My advice is it is risky to use ebay batteries. I was lucky because I never had a battery fail during a critical moment, but it could have happened more easily with ebay batteries than with the real deal sony. I'm glad I got through it.

Funny thing is my ebay batteries say SON with a sticker over where the Y for Sony should be. The real Sony batteries have no such thing.

Bought battery from power101.com Shipping was fast only 2 days not fully charged is showing to 625 min already in comparison basic battery was about 120 -125 min

They definently arent as legit as the real sony ones, but they work.

I personally like to use the el cheapo batteries in my camera lights. Cheap power, and I don't need a timer.

I've had good luck with my 4-hour battery for my XL1s...got it through ebatts.com