DeepThought 0 #1 April 18, 2006 I currently have a Sony HC-42, and need some spare batteries (they just dont last long enough). I have found some NP-FP50 (the only size that fits in my helmet) equivelent bateries by a company called Inov8 for about 1/3 of the price of genuine Sony's. I have done a search in the forums and seen that other replacment types do not last very long, or last at all in the cold. Has any one had any experience of this make? Or can anyone recomend a good value for money make. Is it best to spend the extra mony and get genuine Sony? An advice or expericnce would be greatly appreciated. -------------------------------------------------- You only have one life, make the most of it. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lurch 0 #2 April 21, 2006 Honestly? Heres a place where you don't want to cheap out, I'd suggest overkill in the other direction-suck it up and prepare to pay 100$ for the genuine Sony. I would say modify your helmet to accept a Sony fp-71 hybrid battery. Its exactly 2x the size of a fp-50 but delivers 4x the life or more. In my hc-42 it delivers around 280 minutes of use, even with a lot of off/on cycling rewinding and playing on the lcd. If you forget and leave the camera on in between jumps, sleep mode eventually shuts it down, and in time to preserve most of the charge. Its simply the last word in dead battery prevention for this camera. Throw money at this problem and it will go away once and for all and you'll never worry about dead battery again. I've gone periods of using the camera intermittently for days while travelling overseas without charging it, and where the factory battery would have had me nervous about having a bad timing battery death shutdown any time now, I look and this battery still has another 3 hours left in it. Simply the best battery mileage I've ever seen in a camera...sony did this one RIGHT.Live and learn... or die, and teach by example. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites