PL-U95 - Has anybody tried this battery?
 

I realize most people have gone with an alternative solution to power their camera, monitor, 35mm adapter and hmi light, but has anybody tried using the PL-U95 battery?

I'm not ready to justify an external battery pack, so the extended life from this 3rd party battery looks promising.

There's really no information and it seems only the manufacturers of the battery are commenting on webforums about it.

A cursory search of our forum yielded no search results.

I won't bother bumping if nobody has an answer.

Thanks,
Stanley

Not used these - but have had some experience of cheaper Z1 copy batteries being quite unreliable.

Quite keen on this battery though - anyone with experience of these?

http://www.swit-battery.com/swit2006...ductdetail.asp

D-tap power is a very useful addition in my opinion.

Interesting battery. It's got more juice and it's 20mm longer, 130gm heavier and like the Swit includes a D Tap.
Might be good if running the higher power on camera lights.

Couldn't resist so I bought one :)
I wanted more power to run an on camera light without having to go to a brick battery and this battery seemed like a bargain.

Pros: It comes with a D-Tap lead. A short one terminated in the same plug as used for the EX. Just the D-Tap plug alone down here costs around $35 so it's a worthwhile addition.
Assuming the battery lives up to it's claimed capacity it'll run the EX1 and a light for quite a while. Li-Ion batteries have a high internal resistance so the bigger capacity batteries perform better than the smaller ones.
It might make hand holding the EX1 easier, see photo!

Cons: It's BIG and it's heavier. The weight's barely noticeable but the extra length is very noticeable.
The D-Tap connector ends up on the bottom of the battery in the EX1. Not a huge issue however with the plug in it'll be an issue putting the camera down. I think if you were to leave a release plate on the camera then the plug would clear.
Like all 3rd party batteries the camera only provides voltage indication so it's a bit harder to know how much juice you have left.

After taking the photo I realised the lead can be dressed a bit better by laying it into the groove in the battery, ends up much neater than in the photo. Overall I'm quite happy with this battery. The only other way to get this capacity is quite expensive and between it, the battery that came with the camera and a BP-U60 I can shoot all day off batteries.

In addition to 2 BP-U60s, I have 2 of the Swits that power my Ex3 & nanoFlash. Very good setup but you have to plug the cable from the battery into the DC input, even though you can lock the battery into the receptacle. The camera does not recognise the battery, so instead of seeing how long you have till the battery needs changing, you get a voltage display instead.

I am about to receive the Swit batteries I hope it comes with the required cables

It comes with the cable to connect the battery to the camera. The cable snakes into a slot in the top of the battery. You have to unfurl the cable and connect it to the camera. Note that you can pull extra cable out of the battery body. This is not obvious, I was quite reluctant to do this at first thinking I'd pull internal connections apart. Fear not, it is designed to do this.
When charging the battery you must plug the cable into the socket in the battery.
Hope this helps, this might all be covered in instructions that come with the battery...or not.

I've been using this swit 0620090816a on Flickr - Photo Sharing! with the Bebob adaptor. It gives me d-tap, and about five hours of service. It also balances out the handheld shot so they aren't so front heavy. I have 4 of them. Have never used the stock battery that comes with the EX3.

Helps you hold genlock?
 

It seems that having one of these batteries could help you hold your genlock with another device in the field, in my case a Sound Devices 788T. Turning the camera off will force me to reset sync as I understand it, but with one of these batteries already plugged in when I pull off the Sony battery power won't be interrupted. Or not?

Tip

I know this is an older thread but I was wondering if anyone can say how long their PL-U95 are actually lasting in the field? I'm thinking of picking one of these up in a few weeks, but if the performance is only slightly better then the U-60 then I may not buy this behemoth and stick with the U-60 for compact-sake.

Check out this battery over at B&H from Switronix. Claims of Double the life than the Sony U60. I'm really intrigued as the one being discussed here (PL-U95) is rumored to only get around 6 hrs. Having an 8 hr battery would be awesome!

Pl-u95
 

Got me one of 'em big Swits with D-tap for my EX3. Generally, a good buy - if you mostly use it with some onboard-device like a lamp. Otherwise, I prefer one of the original Sony batteries.

Yes it seems to me the Swit battery would be good when you have to power outboard stuff like a Frezzi or a nanoflash and don't want the extra weight (and cost) of the full size Anton Bauer or V-mount battery. For most people even if you are running say a Frezzi off it and your EX camera that should last a shoot if you are turning off your peripherals between takes. Certainly for handheld work it beats an Anton Bauer hanging off unless it is providing balance over the shoulder.

My PL-U95 was showing 75% power remaining after having the camera powered for 4 hours and in record for 3.5 hours of that. It would appear that the PL-U95 is probably the same capacity as the Swit however it is around $100 cheaper.
This battery is quite a bit longer than the Swit which may mean they're using lower density cells and that can mean the battery will have a longer service life. On the downside I must say (again) it is quite a bit longer than the Swit :)

add a nanoFlash ...
 

I wonder what the PL-U95 battery life would be if you were using a nanoFlash unit on the camera?

Here's an image of the GripFun PL-U95 battery Bob is referring to...

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3RdPHThuWW...320/PL-U95.jpg

As mentioned, it is a lot longer than the Swit but this could be an advantage to some needing to throw weight off the back of the camera for balance and stability.

Post #4 in this thread I have a picture of it mounted in my EX1. That'll probably give you a better idea of how much it'll protrude from the camera. Even though I measured the distance with a ruler before I bought the battery it still came as a bit of surprise once I put the battery in the camera.

The only place the GripFun PL-U95 battery seems to be available in the states is from one vendor on Ebay.

Has anyone seen them available from a legitimate vendor in the US?

John

I have just used the PL-U95 on a feature project and found it to be very reliable.

Yes, it's long, but the length and weight was helpful.

I usually went a full day and got around 7 hours most of the time.

I purchased it off the eBay dealer and have no complaints.

After almost 3 months of use, a satisfied customer.

Hi sorry for dredging this thread up but I have just bought one of these batteries and was wondering at what level does the battery usually stop functioning.
The reason I ask is that it does not show in the time remaining like the U-60 battery does.

I use a couple of the SWits to power the EX1R and NanoFlash. I have had them for about a year now, and no real problems. I get at least 4 hrs of constant on and 90% recording time with NF and camera.

The led lights on the battery don't mean much. I use the voltage indicated in the camera to judge how much charge is left.

I usually switch when the indicator hits 12volts.

I have had a few occasions (2 or 3) when the EX1R will not run with this battery, even when fully charged. I just put it back on the charger and then after a while back on the camera, and then for some reason it will work fine, this is on one out of 3 batteries. It is a little disconcerting but mostly they have been trouble free. I have never had a Sony or IDX battery do this. So I do think you get what you pay for. The next time this happens I will see if I can return the battery for a replacement, when it is in this state.

The reason I ask is that it does not show in the time remaining like the U-60 battery does.
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Actually the specs for the Sunpow battery indicated that it is supposed to show remaining time on the LCD screen of the EX1.

The remaining capacity of the battery is displayed on the LCD monitor and viewfinder when the camcorder is powered on.
GripFun PL-U95 battery for Sony PMW-EX1 | Editsuite.com

The battery is no longer shown on the Sunpow website however:

Sony professional camcorder batteries, broadcast camcorder batteries

It's possible that the eBay vendor is selling old batteries.

John

Like the post before last said the indicator only shows in voltage, not time remaining. As far as I know it has never ever been able to communicate time remaining like a Sony cell does.
Something about Sony not wanting other people making cheaper replacement parts might have something to do with that I'm guessing.
Like Epson's ink cartridges saying ink was low when there was 20 percent left in the tank. People got tired of that and started coming up with solutions to bypass that.

Olof, what you are describing is the overcurrent circuit breaker inside the battery trips. If you do not overload it by connecting too many devices all at once or using a bad shorted cable, it should not happen. Contact me privately, I will help in replacing the battery.

Alex, that makes sense.

It has happened when my NanoFlash and EXcam are both connected to the battery, and I turn them both on at the same time. I am pretty sure this is when it has happened.

I did think about that the last time it happened, in Arkansas and it was very hot. The battery was hot too, right off the charger. Normally I don't think the NF uses much power, but maybe being very hot both the EX1R and the NF use more power and add to that the fact that the battery is hot too.

The other times it has happened is in the heat in FL and SC I think. So it may be heat related too.

The battery seems fine now in NH, hot here is 85, usually that is.

It might be that the ambient temperature played its role. But most likely it is so called "inrush" current that goes in on turn on. You said you turned on both at the same time, increasing the chance of that. Try to give it a few seconds in between.
Regards