Hey what is the Batt life of the Zu1 with the stock Batts. I am looking at a package that has the Anton Bauer Hytron 50 Batt as part of the package is this over kill or not. I know the JVC HD100 only gets 40 min with their stock batts what about the Sony's batts I will be out in the field for at least eight hours with no way of charging any batts. Batt life with the LCD screen flipped out all day.

I can get about an hour on my Z1 with the LCD screen open. I think your most efficient way of getting battery life (dollars to minutes) is with the bigger Sony batteries.

I don't know anything about the Anton Bauer solution. I never used the included battery because it looks so wimpy :-) But I have a Sony NPF-970, a Power 2000 (I think) NPF-970 clone and an old Sony NPF-960.

The 970's give me over 4 hours with both the LCD and viewfinder turned on. I think I could get about 5 hours but have never run them completely dry during a shoot. I shoot our opera performances which are typically 90 minutes continuous shooting, an intermission, then another 90 minutes, plus pre-roll and time to set things up. Afterward there is still plenty of time left on the 970's (the camera might tell me there's about 2 hours left) so I generally run them down while capturing.

But if you're shooting in smaller segments and turning the camera off in between I suspect you might get even more time out of the batteries. If you got two of the 970's I don't think you'd have any problem getting through an 8 hour day (and you'd have the stock battery as a backup), but if you're concerned about getting them recharged quickly, or if you're just paranoid (like me ;-) you might want a third battery just for peace of mind or to cover a really long day of shooting.

They do take awhile to recharge in the stock Sony charger. I'd guess a 970 takes something like 4 hours but I've never timed it.

Hey Mark I am assuming that the 1hr batt life was with the stock batt. Which everyone knows that is to get you started but that info helps a lot because if I have to run it I know that I will be on the eyepiece to prolong the batt life. So it also seems the AB system is over kill unless it helps to balance the camera??? Is that a possibility? Is the ZU1 a lens heavy camera?

Boyd is right on about the NP-970. It is a monster. I use it to run the Z1, lights, and an M10U deck. It lasts longest in the camera, 4-5 hours. Running the 20W Sony light they last about 90 minutes, and I don't know about the deck yet because I have had it only a short time, but I think a couple of hours.

I have shot all day (Not really but you get the picture) an entire Blue Angels show, beggining to end with the Sony NPF-970 on one charge and even previewed the entire thing on camera on the same charge.

I think I also shot something the next day without charging.

Stick with the 970, which isn't stock. Two to three will last a good 12 hour day.

heath