VX & PD series battery / batteries

[Tyge Floyd]

There is one thing about this camera I'm not at all happy with, the eyecup. It is very thin, flimsy and collapses backwards if I pull the camera into my eye like I like to. It drives me nuts and is virtually useless for my style of shooting. I'm already looking for another one but am not seeing much available.

[Jim Garrison]

<<<-- Originally posted by Tyge Floyd : There is one thing about this camera I'm not at all happy with, the eyecup. It is very thin, flimsy and collapses backwards if I pull the camera into my eye like I like to. It drives me nuts and is virtually useless for my style of shooting. I'm already looking for another one but am not seeing much available. -->>>

Try the I-CUFFDV viewfinder hood. EVS has them.
http://www.evsonline.com/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=EVS&Product_Code=ICUFFDV

[Hugh DiMauro]

Tyge:

The hum is an LCD flipout door malfunction that Sony (I believe) will repair. B & H may take it back.

I purchased an aftermarket 13 hour battery at B & H for $59.00. Just for regular shooting it goes for about ten to twelve hours. Not bad.

[James Connors]

i have 3x960s, i don't think even one of them has ever run out on me during a shoot! they're great. the best thing about a camera at this level is you can get batteries that long that are cheap, small and last a long time. upgrade to a bigger cam, and you'll soon realise the pain batteries can be :)

and yes, the recording channels mode is very odd when you first use it, and makes little logical sense.. but when it "clicks" you realise just how good an idea it is.

[Tom Hardwick]

Sounds to me as if you're describing barrel distortion rather than vignetting, Bob. (Canon WD58). If it really is vignetting (darkening the corners of the frame) then make sure you remove any filters before fitting the Canin w/angle.

tom.

[Bob Harotunian]

Thanks Tom,
You're right...I meant barrel distortion, not vignetting.
Bob

[Gustavo Godinho]

When I turn on my PD170, the battery power remaining shows something around 145 minutes. In less than one minute, it´s almost empty. It jumps from 145 minutes to that "almost no battery" sign, and then turns off.

When I attach the battery to the recharger, it shows around "2h47m" of battery life.

What might be causing it? If it´s a battery problem, do you think the better is solution is thinking about buying another one?

Almost forgot: this battery (Li-ion 5500ah~7.2V - NP-F960 from a brand called ENERGIA) has being used for about 8 or 9 months.

[Don Bloom]

It sounds like the battery blew a cell. Either return it if you have a manufacturers warranty and get a new replacement battery or go out and buy a new replacement. Batteries do occasionally blow cells and when that happens you can't fix it.
Don

[Gustavo Godinho]

Don, you mean my battery won´t work beyond those 147 minutes?

[Don Bloom]

No, I mean you're battery won't work for more than a few minutes if that. Once a battery blows a cell the battery is not going to hold a charge at all and will give false readings. This has happened to me once with another brand of battery for my 150s. You need to replace that battery with a new one.

Don

[David Ennis]

I just got mine out of the box an hour ago. Checking charging progress is going to be a hassle. It seems that I have to unplug the charger, fire up the cam and wait for it to sense the charge level. Am I missing anything?

[Steve McDonald]

Originally Posted by Fred Retread

I just got mine out of the box an hour ago. Checking charging progress is going to be a hassle. It seems that I have to unplug the charger, fire up the cam and wait for it to sense the charge level. Am I missing anything?

When you first charge a battery or one that has been discharged down to the camera shutoff level, you may have to leave it in the charge mode for several minutes, before any number of recording minutes appears on the display. After that, the growing number of minutes should show, without having to disconnect and start the camera.

I almost never use the in-camera charger, preferring to use my $45. Sima SPM-13 L-ion fast charger. It's twice as fast as the built-in charger and doesn't tie-up the camera when you want to shoot or do playback with it. It works with most brands and models of 3.6V and 7.2V lithium batteries.

[David Ennis]

Steve, I would ultimately buy the charger, but I do want things to work as they should. Are you saying that an indication should appear in the display even though the cam is turned off? That's what the manual implies too, but neither it nor you said that explicitly.

I get no charge level indication unless the cam is on and the adaptor cable is unplugged even with a battery that is 70% charged.

[Steve McDonald]

Originally Posted by Fred Retread

Steve, I would ultimately buy the charger, but I do want things to work as they should. Are you saying that an indication should appear in the display even though the cam is turned off? That's what the manual implies too, but neither it nor you said that explicitly.

I get no charge level indication unless the cam is on and the adaptor cable is unplugged even with a battery that is 70% charged.

Fred, I just plugged in my VX2100 to make sure. The small LED battery display on the outside of the viewscreen door does indeed light up when the camera is off and the external DC power plug is in and a battery is inserted. It shows the number of recording minutes in the accumulating charge. I installed an NP-F570 that was previously charged and in the time I've typed this, it's gone from 212 to 214 minutes.

I recommend that when the charge gets close to the maximum possible charge, that you stop the charging. When it's near full capacity, the charging rate will slow to a crawl and it
will take 10 minutes to add just one more minute on the meter. It may not be good for the battery to ram that extra little bit into it and it certainly isn't time-efficient.

[David Ennis]

Steve, thanks for you patience. I didn't notice that that window was there, I thought the "display" references were to the LCD or viewfinder.