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Powering GH3
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  • JspatzJspatz

    B&H just shipped my 2 spare batteries so it appears they are becoming available.

  • filmiwilliamfilmiwilliam

    Whats the best solution if I would like to use a V-mount battery? I have been using classic "ENG style" cameras and the GH3 will be my first "DSLR style" camera. I will put it on a rig with monitor, pro mics, XLR-mixer (beachtec) and Camera lights. Would be great to Power everything from one single battery!

  • karlkarl

    It's good to hear the GH3 makes efficient use of its powering.

    Regarding the very (and unusually) long charging time, you may want to try some universal LiIon/LiPoly charger, many of them charge at ~1A constant current (before the maximum voltage limit kicks in), so you should be able to charge the battery to ~90% in about 100 minutes.

    Regarding the "chipping": It would come as a huge surprise to me if Panasonic did not try to hinder people from using 3rd-party batteries. After all, in Europe, they are currently asking for 60 € per original GH3 battery, and that is such a huge factor more than the free market price of that material... this offer would not survive actual competition.

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    @Jspatz

    Yes I know about their ratings. They are known for bait and switch and that is in fact what they did. I am ok with that. If they deliver the off brand battery for $59 in 2 weeks then I will be satisfied. I am not counting on them doing that though.

    There are a couple interesting points about the GH3 battery in the manual.

    First, the GH3 battery does not appear to be chipped. The GH2 explicitly states that the battery is chipped. The GH3 manual does not.

    From the GH2 manual

    The camera has a function for distinguishing batteries which can be used safely. The dedicated battery (DMW-BLC12E) supports this function. The only batteries suitable for use with this unit are genuine Panasonic products and batteries manufactured by other companies and certified by Panasonic. (Batteries which do not support this function cannot be used.) Panasonic cannot in any way guarantee the quality, performance or safety of batteries which have been manufactured by other companies and are not genuine Panasonic products.

    The battery charge time for the GH3 is listed at 220 minutes in the manual. That is 3 hours and forty minutes. That is exactly what I saw when charging my camera this weekend.

    Here is the chart comparing battery life for the GH2 and GH3. This is a pretty big difference.

    GH3 = 500 pictures or 250 minutes of recording

    GH2 = 320 pictures or 160 minutes of recording

  • JspatzJspatz

    Have you checked mellodigital on resellerratings.com? Good luck.

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    Just ordered a second battery from MelloDigital.com for $59 including shipping. It is not an original Panasonic battery but the lady at MelloDigital claimed it has the chip and will show battery life on the display. She also claimed it was rated for a higher mAH.

    We shall see. It is supposed to be delivered in two weeks. I wonder if it will charge faster?

  • vicharrisvicharris

    @mpgxsvcd Good to hear.

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    @vicharris

    Yes the GH3 was designed to be "WAY more efficient than the 2" and they accomplished their goal.

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    @karl

    I charged the battery twice this weekend. Both times it was completely empty when it started to charge. The charge didn't take exactly four hours. However, it was something like 3 hours and 45 minutes one time and probably 3 hours and 30 minutes the second time.

    It takes forever to charge. Trust me on that.

    Yes I didn't mean to imply you could record video for 24 hours straight. However, I believe you could probably use it for 24 hours worth of shooting if you let it go to sleep after about 1-2 minutes of inactivity. I had it on pretty much all of Saturday trying the wireless out and I didn't need to charge it until Sunday.

    The battery life is OUTSTANDING on the GH3. The charging time is not quite so good.

  • vicharrisvicharris

    That doesn't seem to add up. I just used a 15000mAh battery for a shoot on my GH2 and in 5 hours, it was down to 50%. So that's roughly 7500mAh for 5 hours alone! That would mean the GH3 is WAY more efficient than the 2.

  • karlkarl

    @mpgxsvcd: The GH3 battery is specified to store 1860mAh at 7.2V. If that takes 4 hours to charge, it would mean an average charge current of only 465mA - that would be extremely low, for no obvious reason. What does the technical data on the charger read?

    With "last all day" you certainly don't mean 24 hours of continous video recording, right? (That would mean a power consumption of only 0.55 Watts - quite unlikely.)

  • mpgxsvcdmpgxsvcd

    This thing takes almost four hours to charge. However, it will last all day even while using wireless so that isn't that bad.

    I still want one extra battery though. I don't want the grip. That just makes the camera too big.

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