I'm trying to find out the real life run times of the Canon batteries for this camera. I'm getting ready to order one and I want to make sure I'm getting one that can easily go over 3 hours.

I am not interested in any third party batteries like Wasabi (been burnt way too many times). I only want Canon.

I would appreciate any information that users might have.

Thank you -

Scott

I just received mine. You can download the manual in PDF format at the Canon USA website. On page 234 there is a table. For the BP-955 battery, running at 50Mbps, the range is:

Maximum. 260 minutes
Typical. 150 minutes

When I turn on the camcorder with a full charge, the value shown on the OLED screen is a bit more than the 260 number (290 something), but it I wanted a (bombproof) run of more than 180 minutes I would bring a second charged battery.

You can buy the larger BP-975. Running at 50 Mbps, the table shows:

Maximum. 380 minutes
Typical. 235 minutes

I always buy Canon batteries, even though they are expensive. They are reliable, have good run times, and are safer (think lithium battery war stories). I will buy, however, third party chargers. The Watson dual battery chargers are handy, and the adapter plates can be swapped out.

FWIW: The user manual gives a table of maximum and typical run times for Canon BP-950G, 955, 970G, and 975 batteries. (Typical includes start/stop cycles and power on off cycles.

Max and typical with the optional BP-975 with OLED and viewfinder both on and MXF (50MBPS) recording for the XF200 are 380 and 245 minutes. (I cannot confirm those times from personal experience.)

Thank you both. I'll download the manual.

I shoot mostly theatrical / stage events, so there is almost no turning on and off of the camera. This is a big help, so again ... thank you.

Scott

Then to be safe you should consider the BP-975 to be absolutely safe for 3 plus hours. Will you be providing phantom power to a mic?

Different topic, but are the stages decently lit?

For the most part, the stage lighting isn't too bad. In one particular case, it's an archive video for the theater so all I do is set at wide and let it run. That's all they want for that particular job ... no zooming or anything else. For that theater I just set my XA 10 on program mode shutter speed 1/60 and let the Camera do the rest. All my others I control manually.

No intermissions? Hope the plays are good, and bladders are large!

No intermissions? Hope the plays are good, and bladders are large!

:-) They take a 15 minute intermission and there's no reason to make my way down and turn it off. This is archive in the truest sense of the word. The placement of the camera in the older theatre is at a center pole in the back surrounded by seats. I get in before they open the house (30 min prior) and start the camera and then don't go back till the end of the show and the floor has cleared (hence the long battery run time). I take it back, edit out the down time at the beginning, intermission and end and then give them their copy.

I started thinking about the WiFi capability last night and how I could run the camera on my iPad from the balcony. Still ... all they want is a wide shot of the stage. I guess I could at least adjust the iris for when the spots are working against me.

When I turn these DVDs over to them I always think of the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark. It goes on a shelf, never to be seen again. ;-)

If you run for over three hours, uninterrupted, and you record at 50 Mbps (which you should), then you will need some serious memory cards. Two 32 GB cards in relay won't do it (80 minutes times 2 will only get you 160 minutes).

and you record at 50 Mbps (which you should),
At the moment he is using XA10, which max at ~24Mbps AVCHD. Of course an XA200 may want CF cards, which sadly cost a lot more than SDHC/XC.

Any chance you could run the camcorder off the power supply rather than battery?

Actually in this particular case I could use a power supply, but I've gone so many years without using one that I'll probably just spring for the battery.

Thank you for the suggestions. I've also just downloaded the manual and will be ordering the camera and accessories tonight.

ETA: It is very possible that for the one theatre I will continue to use my XA10, since it's not as critical, I have 8 hours of recording time and the battery has proven to be more than sufficient. I will selling my Sony AX-2000 and Sony Z7. Can't believe it ... been using Sony cameras since the Sony V-5000 and now I'll be all Canon.