Best cheap battery for AX100?

[Peter Wu]

What is the best third party battery equivalent to sony's NP FV100?

I prefer name brand and found a duracell branded NP FV70 replacement for $25, but I'm looking for a FV100 equivalent.

Do most people just buy the sony version for $135?

[Nate Haustein]

Don't. Just don't. Especially for this camera. They die, you lose your footage and there's no recovering it.

Pay for the Sony branded batteries.

[John Nantz]

Sure is tempting, isn't it? Save a lot of money ...

After two tries with Wasabi (same brand as sold by B&H, I'm done with aftermarket batteries. No consistency between batteries and really never held up anywhere near the Sony OEM battery. Had one go bad within the warranty period, found the sales receipt, and got a replacement. Just not worth the hassle.

My vote is +1 with Nate.

Just try to find a Genuine battery on-line via eBay or maybe even Amazon, although I'd say that Amazon is better*. Get a Genuine battery from a Genuine Sony dealer. And I'd say that for the other brands like JVC, Panasonic, etc. too.

I swear these aftermarket battery outfits are using recycled batteries from hybrid cars battery packs, at least that's what it seems like.

Edit: * What I mean't here is that while many listings say, or appear to alude to, the item is Genuine, they aren't necessarily. f.e., "a Genuine replacement ...", or "a Genuine Sony replacement ...". It would be good if eBay and Amazon would require sellers to have a uniform verbiage for items being sold that are, ore aren't, genuine. It's not only batteries but SD cards, microphones, etc. Too many counterfeiters and crooks out there.

[Ron Evans]

The camera cost a lot of money, the computer you will edit on cost a lot of money and clearly the event is important. Buy the best batteries and memory cards to use. 2x Sony FV100 and a few of the best cards will still be a lot less than the camera cost and you will be able to rely on them. I too am a firm believer in using the best batteries and cards.

[Andrew Smith]

Another vote for just buying the danged proper battery.

I even looked at the cost of purchasing a cheaper battery from the USA and having to sent over to Australia. It wound up being almost the same price. I bought the Sony battery and on a day to day basis it's not something I even think of stressing about.

Buy the OEM battery because they're the ones who care the most about how their video camera performs as a product.

Andrew

[Christopher Young]

Originally Posted by Peter Wu

Do most people just buy the sony version for $135?

Yes without failure. Can't afford to have a battery suddenly die on me and destroy a recording and corrupt a card on a client paying job. A couple of weeks ago I had someone bring in two cards that were being used in dual card record mode, recording to both cards for a safety back up he said. They were being used on a Sony X70 when the battery suddenly died. I tried numerous card and data recovery apps all to no avail. It was a long seminar shoot. I could see the files on both cards but they were showing 0kb file sizes. A total loss for the shooter. He lost the job and the client. As someone else said you pay good money for the camera and the cards so why court disaster by chancing your luck on cheap after market batteries. It's a hard lesson to swallow and that lesson can be generally be avoided by investing, note I said investing not gambling by buying genuine OEM batteries.

Chris Young

[Nate Haustein]

This series of cameras is particularly bad at corrupting data after a battery dies unexpectedly. There is a solution, a recovery service called AeroQuartet, but it isn’t cheap. You could buy a couple batteries for the price of a single recovery.

Peter, I use aftermarket batteries all the time for things like monitors and lights, but when it comes to cameras, and THIS camera specifically, don’t take the risk.

[Andrew Smith]

Was going to mention AeroQuartet (and a similar one out there) as Nate did, plus use of Recuva to get the files off the SD cards to begin with.

Andrew

[David Barnett]

Originally Posted by John Nantz

Edit: * What I mean't here is that while many listings say, or appear to alude to, the item is Genuine, they aren't necessarily. f.e., "a Genuine replacement ...", or "a Genuine Sony replacement ...". It would be good if eBay and Amazon would require sellers to have a uniform verbiage for items being sold that are, ore aren't, genuine. It's not only batteries but SD cards, microphones, etc. Too many counterfeiters and crooks out there.

One thing eBay tends to do which I like is it has "Ships from Hong Kong" written in the results page, fairly prominently, almost as if its an advance warning 'Likely knockoff product' or something. I think their official reasoning is to make users aware of possible shipping timeframes (10-20 days not 3-5 etc), but it's almost like its more of a warning about fake knockoffs.

[Lou Bruno]

Be so so careful. You will see a good charge, especially if a long wedding Ceremony or sports event.
Then as fast as lightning a cheap battery will take a nosedive.....the camera shuts off.....BAM.....corrupted files due to voltage depression as if the user pulled out a fresh battery while recording.

Goodbye....Ceremony...goodbye sports event....Hell-0 courthouse.

[Victor Wilcox]

I have a Duracell CAM10569A 7.4v 1650mAh as a backup battery. I haven't had any camcorder issues using it, but if I store it on the camcorder, it discharges. No issues with the Sony battery.

[Paul Newman]

I have a set of three double chargers and 10- Bluemax FV120 batteries which I've been using for 2 years on my AX100, AX53's and my more recent AX700.

I shoot longform - 12 hour days, so always cycling these batteries. They run the cameras for around 5 hours each - never had a problem with anything- ever - actually more issues with failing Sony items.

Just because it says Sony on the box and costs a fortune doesn't prevent failures.

Make your own choice.

Paul :-)

[David Barnett]

Do you all replace your batteries at set intervals (3-4 years) or anything, or just hang onto them & replace them whenever needed or lost?


Reason being I've had my NP-F70 batteries for a few years, seems they're not always charging 100% anymore. Sometimes yes, but sometimes only 60% or so. I only have 4 & should test which ones aren't charging full & try weeding them out. Hate the thought of buying new batteries &/or chargers.