Sony Lithium Ion Battery Life

[Peter Newsom]

I use a Hytron 140, a Dionic 90, and one of the new Dionic 90HC's.

I use the Hytron140(it's about four years old, and still good) for tripod work, and the 90's for hand-held. It only takes a second to swap batteries, so I go back and forth whenever possible.

The new Dionic 90HC's can handle more current, and have no problem running my PDW F350 and a 50watt Ultralite. The older style Dionics can't handle that much current and I was limited to a 20W lamp for the sungun.

There is almost no difference in the cost between the HC's and the older 90's so that's what I'll get from now on.

My first Dionic that I bought about four years ago is still going, though it will only run my camera for about 20 minutes or so. It was a very good battery though for about three years.

The second Dionic 90 that I bought has not been so good. It abruptly shuts down at the 40% range according to my camera, which is not good because it's a real pain when an XDCam camera is powered down without being able to save the clip it was recording properly.

That battery was about 14 months old when this problem first showed up. It has been sent to the dealer to determine what can be done.

Anton only warranties these batteries for 18 months so we will see how they treat me.

If they don't treat me well, I will likely look at moving to another make as dependability is the most important thing for me.

[Anton Strauss]

hmmmm, I would still like to know what sort of lifetime I could expect from the Sony 90's

if they last a lot longer, then I don't mind buying a Sony charger and sell my AB charger

[Anton Strauss]

also, I was not really happy with the Hytron 140, it has bitten me badly

all day shoot at darling harbour auditorium

the first battery was getting low so I swapped to the second and placed the first one on the interactive charger

then when the second one went low, I wanted to grab the first one and it was flat, because the charger went into a maintenance test cycle and was fully discharging the battery

I was not impressed, and since then this has happened on several occasions, but now I know to watch the charger display when connecting the battery to make sure I hit cancel when it beeps and starts testing

[Daniel Larson]

I like to bring a Hytron 120 and several Dionic 90s. If I'm on the sticks I'll go with the H 120 and handheld the 90s.
Dan

[Peter Newsom]

Originally Posted by Anton Strauss

also, I was not really happy with the Hytron 140, it has bitten me badly

all day shoot at darling harbour auditorium

the first battery was getting low so I swapped to the second and placed the first one on the interactive charger

then when the second one went low, I wanted to grab the first one and it was flat, because the charger went into a maintenance test cycle and was fully discharging the battery

I was not impressed, and since then this has happened on several occasions, but now I know to watch the charger display when connecting the battery to make sure I hit cancel when it beeps and starts testing

I recently bought an AntonBauer Tandem 70 charger/power supply. It fits in between the camera mount and the battery. It's very handy because it powers the camera or if the camera is turned off it charges the battery.

If you are on sticks for a long period of time, just plug in the AC cable and you don't wear your battery down. If you need to go handheld, just unplug the AC cable and off you go.

I particularly like it for feeding my laptop on location, because I just plug in the AC cable beside the laptop and use it for transferring files.

It also charges a battery when off the camera, so it makes a good location charger as well. It only weighs about a pound, and even helps the balance of my F350.

[Anton Strauss]

I found some good reports about the Dionic
http://www.antonbauer.com/uploads/An...0-%20FINAL.pdf

I will order 2 of them and see how they go

[Anton Strauss]

I also found this handbook very handy
http://www.antonbauer.com/uploads/Do...20Handbook.pdf

[Peter Newsom]

Originally Posted by Peter Newsom

The second Dionic 90 that I bought has not been so good. It abruptly shuts down at the 40% range according to my camera, which is not good because it's a real pain when an XDCam camera is powered down without being able to save the clip it was recording properly.

That battery was about 14 months old when this problem first showed up. It has been sent to the dealer to determine what can be done.

Anton only warranties these batteries for 18 months so we will see how they treat me.

An update on my Dionic90 shutdown issue.

After having some trouble getting my Anton distributor to accurately relay the nature of my problem to the service department, I was able to get Anton Bauer's Customer Support involved.

Mike Pedevillano has arranged for a replacement battery to be sent to me.

His concern and quick action has re-assured me that Anton Bauer cares very much about us(the end users), and our ability to trust their products.

If you have problems, this a good place to turn.

[Don Bloom]

Peter, I agree AB customer service is in fact one of the best out there. They really know the meaning of the words Customer Service. When I was using their batteries on my full size cameras I had a couple of small issues with my Intellicharger and they took care of it for me in fast and compentent fashion. They are really up there.

[Anton Strauss]

I received my new Dionic 90's today

wow, they are light, and my camera is now front heavy when on shoulder :)

readjusting shoulder pad all the way forward helped a bit but not enough, I need to add some weight :)