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Generic batteries for GF1, GH1 & G1

pellicle

pellicle

New member
Jerry

jerryk said:
Apple has gone to internal batteries with it's portable devices and latest laptops. Battery swap is return for service.
Click to expand...
I think that is about the worst bit of news I've heard yet with regard to the making of a subscription industry out of owning gear.
 
pellicle

pellicle

New member
I find it annoying that people consider that if you buy after market batteries that you must buy only the sleazy 5 for a dollar stuff at some honkong back market.

Thinking more about the above statement I quoted by JerryK I feel more strongly that the proprietisation of battery is a threat to competition.

In the rechargable battery there is competition and known good players, people see brands they know (Ray-o-vac, YUASA ...) as well technical and or sales people can give you advice on which battery is good or bad.

with totally 0 choice we have no idea as to which camera company is providing what in which model so were stuck

People have little or no idea about the real issues of batterys and accordingly run around in either panic or oblivion on the issue reciting mantras along the lines of "I heard that a battery exploded..." or such like.

There is very little evidence to support that non-maker batteries dammage cameras and there is as much evidnce that maker specific batteries can dammage cameras.

in all cases its such a tiny portion of the cameras that you stand a better chance of making money buying a lottery ticket than you do of having your camera go poof.

but hey ... heaps of people feed the lottery ticket industry too ...
 
P

photoSmart42

New member
My G1 battery has lasted me for many hundreds of photos at a time (well over 500). It really depends on whether or not you're shooting using the EVF or the display. I use the EVF with the display closed, so that's prolly why my battery lasts so long. I only use the display to show others the photos I took. Otherwise I use the EVF for that as well.
 
A

Audii-Dudii

Active member
As a point of reference, I use my G1 with the LCD on and do a lot of chimping to tweak my compositions and fine-tune exposure, and my OEM batteries typically last long enough for me to fill one 2GB memory card (~94 raw/jpg combo images). My aftermarket batteries tend to last a bit longer, say, 1.5 2GB memory cards. As a result, I always carry at least two spare batteries with me every time I go out with the camera...
 
kwalsh

kwalsh

New member
Lupo said:
Does anyone know anything about this?

Battery for G1-GH1-GF1
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Awesome, thanks! I'm currently running the non-battery locking v1.4 firmware on my G1 and I have a 3rd party I got with a better charger for $18 combined. I purchased said battery completely with the knowledge that it might stop working on the next firmware upgrade, but I was also assuming that a reverse engineered battery would come out soon as well (just not in time for my trip). Hoped I'd be able to get an extra battery immediately that I might need to throw away and get a chipped one later all for less than the Panasonic. Looks like that'll be the case!

Thanks for the link!

Ken

P.S. Time will tell I guess how accurately they reverse engineered the thing and whether Panasonic will be able to lock them out in a future firmware.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
kwalsh said:
P.S. Time will tell I guess how accurately they reverse engineered the thing and whether Panasonic will be able to lock them out in a future firmware.
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That would make 2 strikes against Pana.
 
H

henningw

Member
kwalsh said:
P.S. Time will tell I guess how accurately they reverse engineered the thing and whether Panasonic will be able to lock them out in a future firmware.
Click to expand...
When I got my G1 in June, I immediately ordered an extra battery from an ebay seller not knowing about this issue, and found that it didn't work. I've been using 3rd party batteries on all digital cameras and wouldn't buy OEM batteries anymore until they are available for a price that's in line with what they are worth.

In any case, I found out that the battery I had bought was OK for cameras with firmware 1.1, but not 1.2. My camera of course had 1.2 installed. I then got batteries that are OK for 1.2 but will likely not work under newer firmware. I've not upgraded the firmware because the battery use has been more important to me than what the firmware upgrade offered.

So there has already been a back and forth between hackers and Panasonic, and this will likely continue. Brian has now sent me the hacked 1.4 firmware which I will install this weekend, and I'll again check the earlier battery. Thanks, Brian.
 
btrancho

btrancho

New member
I ordered a pair of generic DMW-BLB13 batteries from Rong Jin a few months ago and they wouldn't work with my G1 and the current firmware at that time (V 1.2?). I got busy and never returned them. Last night I updated to the 1.4 firmware that Brian posted. When I turned on the camera I got the same old message about the batteries not working with the camera. However, since shutting off and turning back on again the message has not returned.

I have cycled the G1 on and off a few dozen times and so far it looks good. If I can get out for some extended shooting over the next few days I'll report back how it goes.
 
K

Kevin_b1

Guest
Just got a third party battery from EBay from a seller in Hong Kong called buyitnowhk they said they had tested it in a GF1.

I now have the battery and it works fine in my GF1 and my G1, the make of the battery is SIDO who i have used before on other cameras and they are very good.

Regards

Kevin
 
V

Vivek

Guest
That is the name I pried of Hot here and use (this was prior to the new "upgrades" from Pana).

These do better than the "special" batts from Pana.
 
laptoprob

laptoprob

New member
Just received the batteries from BestBatt. Tried one immediately and it works. Now charging. Light comes on. Excellent!
The make is 'Multiple Power', from China. Where else?

Eat your heart out Panasonic!
 
K

koji

Guest
Kevin_b1 said:
Just got a third party battery from EBay from a seller in Hong Kong called buyitnowhk they said they had tested it in a GF1.

I now have the battery and it works fine in my GF1 and my G1, the make of the battery is SIDO who i have used before on other cameras and they are very good.

Regards

Kevin
Click to expand...
+10

Mine is the same battery, which works fine on GF1. It has bigger capacity
of 1,400 mAh instead of Pana's original battery with 1,250 mAh.
 
M

madmaxmedia

New member
pellicle said:
Jerry

I think that is about the worst bit of news I've heard yet with regard to the making of a subscription industry out of owning gear.
Click to expand...
At least with the Apple internal notebook batteries there is a point- significantly better battery life than the previous revisions with removable batteries, as well as much longer lifetime (1000 charge cycles instead of 500.) I think for many people that is a worthwhile tradeoff (though I understand not for everyone.)

The new MacBook Pro's get up to 7 hours on a single charge.
 
V

Vivek

Guest
laptoprob said:
Eat your heart out Panasonic!
Click to expand...

Yeah, piss off the users with more and more firmware upgrades to disable the non "special" batteries.:thumbdown:

One more such stunt, all my "Lumix"/"Panasonic" branded gear goes out for good.
 
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