Just bought a second hand hmc 151.
It only came with the standard battery.

Anyone know a decent place to get the high capacity vw-vbg6 or an equivalent?

Hi Richard

GlobalMediaPro in the UK has them at good prices!! Careful not to be tempted into buying any generic batteries from Hong Kong!! They do not work in any HMC cameras (despite the fact that the sellers claim they do) The camera will simply reject the battery and turn itself off!!! I haven't found anything that works correctly other than the genuine Panasonic battery. They are expensive but last ages!!!! On the VP6 you can virtually shoot all day!!!

Chris

Thanks for the reply.

I've heard a few bad things about GlobalMediaPro with regards any warranty claims.
Their price is very good though...

I have 6 IDX SSL-VBG50 batteries that work flawlessly and last more than 3 hours continuous shooting.

UK prices seem to be going the wrong way due to the exchange rates. The first ones I bought were about £120 but they seem to be going up more and more.

The last couple I bought in B&H when I was in New York. They were about £90 at the time.

The difference between the Panasonic & IDX batteries is that the Panasonic versions will give you the number of minutes remaining whereas the IDX batteries don't. However, the IDX batteries have 3 LEDs on the back that allow you to look at the charge state so it's easy know if a battery is charged or not without having to mount it to the camera first.

I have 6 IDX SSL-VBG50 batteries that work flawlessly and last more than 3 hours continuous shooting.

UK prices seem to be going the wrong way due to the exchange rates. The first ones I bought were about £120 but they seem to be going up more and more.

The last couple I bought in B&H when I was in New York. They were about £90 at the time.

The Panasonic version only seem to be 30$ more right now.
That 30$ buys you a little more juice too, 5800mAh vs 5000.

True. Maybe it makes a difference to you, maybe not. For me the extra capacity was not enough to make me need fewer batteries to get through a wedding with 4 cameras :(

Also, when I was looking for batteries, everywhere was out of stock of genuine Panasonic versions, so the extra capacity was completely academic.

As I said, I've have no problems, but I also have no problems with the Panasonic batteries either.