[awatson]

Ignoring the absolutely ridiculous price of Panasonic batteries, are there any advantages to purchasing a VBT380 instead of two VBT190's (for a Panasonic HC-VX870 camcorder)?

The most obvious is not having to carry an extra battery. Of course, with two VBT190's you have a backup if one of the batteries quits holding a charge. Two VBT190's also let you use one battery while the other is charging.

In theory, the VBT380 should have the same running time as two VBT190's. But I'm curious if this plays out in the real world.

 

[Terfyn]

The 190 is quite a common battery having been used on the 720 and later models. This means that a search will find the cheapest offer at the time. With the 360 and 180, used on the HC-V700, the 360 does give better than twice the performance of the 180.

 

[Sookgoo Shin]

Wasabi Power told me that they are working on replacement batteries for these ones- can't wait for them to appear in market soon!

 

[Ungermann]

What, Panasonic switched their battery design for the third time since 2006? Amazing that no one initiated class action against them.

Aside of being able to shoot for 3 hours straight I do not see any benefits to bigger battery. Well, there is one: weight distribution. If you put a heavy attachment on the front of the camera, then a larger can balance the camera. I use a large battery when I am putting on a wide-angle adapter.

 

[awatson]

Aside of being able to shoot for 3 hours straight I do not see any benefits to bigger battery.

The longer shoot time would be nice, but I can't bring myself to spend $130 on something the size of a couple fig newtons. With no real alternative, I bought the smaller VBT190 battery for $64 so I have at least one backup battery. They're small enough that it's easy to toss an extra battery in my pocket.

I also picked up a Wasabi charger for $12 so I can recharge one battery while using the other one. It will also let me charge a battery in the car while traveling if needed.

As an experiment, I also ordered an Anker 13000mah external battery pack. It will be interesting to see if it will charge the camcorder battery if I am off-grid somewhere. Or maybe power the camcorder directly.

Hopefully this will hold me over till Wasabi or some other company can develop a cheaper alternative. Unfortunately, this battery has already been around a couple years and there are no generic options yet. I won't get my hopes up until I actually see something for sale.

 

[Ungermann]

The longer shoot time would be nice, but I can't bring myself to spend $130 on something the size of a couple fig newtons.

I wonder how much a diamond the size of a couple fig newtons would cost.

When the generics become available, Panasonic will switch to another battery type, this is the sad cycle it put itself and its customers into.

I have several older Panasonic cams that use older battery type, and generics are cheap. Being several years behind the newest and greatest allows saving on the cameras and the batteries. But if you want the latest 4K from Panasonic, well... BTW, in 2007 the small - not the large one! - VBG130 was sold for $120. Then it went down to $90, then to $60, then the generics appeared for around $20.

 

[Sookgoo Shin]

The longer shoot time would be nice, but I can't bring myself to spend $130 on something the size of a couple fig newtons. With no real alternative, I bought the smaller VBT190 battery for $64 so I have at least one backup battery. They're small enough that it's easy to toss an extra battery in my pocket.

I also picked up a Wasabi charger for $12 so I can recharge one battery while using the other one. It will also let me charge a battery in the car while traveling if needed.

As an experiment, I also ordered an Anker 13000mah external battery pack. It will be interesting to see if it will charge the camcorder battery if I am off-grid somewhere. Or maybe power the camcorder directly.

Hopefully this will hold me over till Wasabi or some other company can develop a cheaper alternative. Unfortunately, this battery has already been around a couple years and there are no generic options yet. I won't get my hopes up until I actually see something for sale.

I use my external battery pack to power the camcorder and charge the battery at the same time. I just attach the power pack to my monopod and have been very happy with it. You could shoot it for hours with you Anker power pack. This is one of the reasons I chose VX870 over AX33 which doesn't allow external power source.

 

[awatson]

I use my external battery pack to power the camcorder and charge the battery at the same time. I just attach the power pack to my monopod and have been very happy with it.

Can you tell me how you attached your battery pack to your monopod? That is basically what I would like to do but haven't seen any convenient way to mount the pack. I suppose I could resort to zip-ties or something, but that is kind of crude.

 

[Terfyn]

Can you tell me how you attached your battery pack to your monopod? That is basically what I would like to do but haven't seen any convenient way to mount the pack. I suppose I could resort to zip-ties or something, but that is kind of crude.

Sticky backed Velcro - no home should be without some. For spare connections, Panasonic Support sell the charger lead as
DC CABLE K2GHYYS00002 £3.59 in UK
In the same store the VBT190 is £55 and the 380 £88.99

 

[Ungermann]

I used to use a 9000 mAh battery for the HDC-SD1. Now this battery collects dust in the closet. I even lost the charger. Your battery will sit in closet as well after the third party batteries appear.

 

[Sookgoo Shin]

Can you tell me how you attached your battery pack to your monopod? That is basically what I would like to do but haven't seen any convenient way to mount the pack. I suppose I could resort to zip-ties or something, but that is kind of crude.

I haven't found a perfect way to attach to the monopod yet- I just tie the pouch containing the pack to the head handle. It gets in the way somewhat but I was able to manage to live with it considering the power I get from it. If you find the better method, please let me know!

 

[Sookgoo Shin]

Sticky backed Velcro - no home should be without some. For spare connections, Panasonic Support sell the charger lead as
DC CABLE K2GHYYS00002 £3.59 in UK
In the same store the VBT190 is £55 and the 380 £88.99

Thanks for the helpful tip!

As for the charging cable, I found that the original cable was long enough for my use.

 

[Terfyn]

Thanks for the helpful tip!

As for the charging cable, I found that the original cable was long enough for my use.

No quite the point!! If you lose or damage the original, it is good to know that replacements are available. I ordered three, one stays with the mains charger, one in the car with the car charger and one with my original V700 as it takes the same fitting and a 5V charge voltage.