Sony Batteries

Let's talk cheap batteries. I live Sony batteries but they are so darn expensive.

I recently purchased some NP-F970 Clone batteries on EBay. They cost me $25 each and I get 4-5 Hours of record time on my FX1000.

The FX1000 will work with the Fancy Info Lithium packs with the built-in chip. It will also work with chips that don't have the chip.

I have the Sony VQ1050D Dual charger and it works really good with Info Lithium batteries. It will display the life left in the info Lithium battery and perform a quick charge. On NON-info Lithium batteries it does not display this info and only does the normal charge.

So is it worth it to get the Cheap Non Sony batteries? Well at 1/4 the price I think it is. My Sony batteries are in my bag only as backups.

Friggin' hell - the battery charger ain't cheap, either! Almost £112 on Amazon.

Based on the prices of the batteries, I'm with you because even if you get a reduced number of charge cycles with the clones before they start to deteriorate, it's still money saved and a battery is just a consumable item after all.

Will the camera charge the clones when it's attached to the mains, or do you have to charge them on the charger unit?

Paul.

I have generics for my hv30. I purchased a seperate charger, incase it would give me issues on the camera. I didnt even try it on the cam.

Ipurchased my PD170 back in 3/30/05 along with F970 battery which I'm still using today and performs for 9 hours. I have also used the Sony knockoffs from China or should say counterfeits which don't last as long. A friend of mine use to sell them and they came in an identical Sony package. I have a 10 w x 2 portable Sony camera light that uses F970 batteries adn those cheap knockoffs if they worh at all will only power one bulb. So much for cheap batteries.

I have always used clone batteries and they can be a mixed bag with some better than others in the longevity stakes. But at the cheap prices they are hard to beat and a little less of a lifetime isn't an issue as they will have paid themselves off several times over by that stage.

Mark

For my Sony HDR-FX7, I normally use a clone battery too, much cheaper, and it will last around 3-4hrs. I haven't had any major issues using the clone. The only peculiar thing I noticed using this clone vs the Sony battery is that with this clone the battery will run out when the battery-life meter says it has around 60mins left, with the sony battery the remaining life on the meter is much more accurate.

@Gitfinger
The FX1000 has no problems at all with the clone batteries. It will charge them just fine. I will probably pickup a true 970 as funds permit, but for now the 3, 970 clones are working just fine. They may take longer to charge but I can put two in the VQ1050D charger and let them charge up over night.

I might need to pick up a spare battery sometime soon... What knock off do you recommend/

The ones I got are labled MaximalPower (SONNP-F970/F950) I got them from an EBay store for $24.95 and $3.99 shipping.