Strange behaviour of genuine Sony NP-FM500H battery

[alphaomega]

Thanks for the suggestions.
Daniel, I looked at the 7dayshop.com battery and it is only a 7.2v 1500mAh lithium-ion battery, whereas the original Sony is 1650mAh so that might account for the inferior performance compared with the originals.
Does this battery show the % battery charge left on the back screen? The blurb does not state it is InfoLITHIUM.

[dkloi]

Just checked it, it does show the percentage on the rear screen. My impression is that the difference is greater than the 10% labelled difference in capacities. Actually, the ones I have are marked "7.2V 11.8Wh" which works out to roughly 1640mAh. The bottom line is that the ones I got work, but I wouldn't rely on them to match the performance of the genuine battery. But for 8 quid each, I'm not going to complain

Cheers,
Daniel.

[Aart Roest]

[quote="dkloi"]Just checked it, it does show the percentage on the rear screen. My impression is that the difference is greater than the 10% labelled difference in capacities. Actually, the ones I have are marked "7.2V 11.8Wh" which works out to roughly 1640mAh. The bottom line is that the ones I got work, but I wouldn't rely on them to match the performance of the genuine battery. But for 8 quid each, I'm not going to complain

Cheers,
Daniel.[/quote]


My buy of two orginial SONY packed FH500H batteries proved suspicious, when I discovered that my battery loader (the big SONY one with data-window) refused to show the expected reload time. Al my other batteries of the same type (bought one year ealier at three times the price) did so. In the camera they seem to work fine. But I did not yet leave them there for long. I will try this, having read the closing down experienced by others.

[alphaomega]

Aart Roest wrote

My buy of two orginial SONY packed FH500H batteries proved suspicious, when I discovered that my battery loader (the big SONY one with data-window) refused to show the expected reload time.

I now have three "original" Sony NP-FM500H batteries lying around. None of them work. Two just induces the A350/550 to tell me I should fit InfoLITHIUM batteries and then switches off and one won't even fit into the battery chamber. Got a full credit for the latter but the chap in Hong Kong selling me the first two is no longer on ebay and I discovered the problem too late. Then I have had another two lots of batteries. One did not work and another two were not InfoLithium and were returned without being opened. All three were given full credit. I have now got an EXPro from Amazon. It does show the battery remaining, but I am still to find out how quickly it drains. Looking at some of the "genuine" (claim) on sale here in the £30-50 range I am not convinced they really are genuine at all. My guess is that considering how good the faked packaging and batteries are (to look at), I am beginning to believe that the only real source of a genuine battery would be Sony Style and maybe a few trustworthy retailers. I will also try the 7dayshop.com battery as I am really only looking for back-ups at this stage.

[Aart Roest]

My newly bought SONY NP-FM500H batteries seem to work fine. They keep capacity while in the camera (A700). Now I can reveal that I bought them from AMAZON.co.uk at about BGP 24. The information on my elder (top) and this new battery (under) is accoumpanied in the enclosed picture. I hope I succeed in joining it to this piece.
Aart

[UrsaMajor]

Just checked it, it does show the percentage on the rear screen. My impression is that the difference is greater than the 10% labelled difference in capacities. Actually, the ones I have are marked "7.2V 11.8Wh" which works out to roughly 1640mAh. The bottom line is that the ones I got work, but I wouldn't rely on them to match the performance of the genuine battery. But for 8 quid each, I'm not going to complain

A couple of months after I purchased my A700, I bought two third-party batteries for it as a hedge against times when I may be unable to recharge for several days. I already had the battery that came with the A700 and a second Sony battery that I had bought when I purchased the A700.

My experience is that if I use either one of these third-party batteries in the body of the A700, everything seems to behave normally. However, if I attach the Vertical Grip to the A700 and use a third-party battery in the VG, I get an error message from the camera. It does not matter whether I am using two third-party batteries in the grip or one third-party battery and one Sony battery, the camera refuses to function if I attempt to use one or more non-Sony batteries in the grip. Using two Sony batteries in the grip works without any problems.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[Aart Roest]

Tom,
Does your tihrd party battery come from the Sony Company ? Does its bottom resemble one of th etiquettes I published before this ?

With my A700 the Amazon.CO.GB bought Sony 500H batteries prove to hold fine. They have been used for two full weeks now and have still lots of power left. I normally do not flash of review much. But I take a lot of pictures.

So what went wrong remains unsolved, but the batteries seem to work OK. The loader though still does not show the "action-time" already restored inside. .
Aart

[UrsaMajor]

Tom,
Does your tihrd party battery come from the Sony Company ? Does its bottom resemble one of th etiquettes I published before this ?

No, there was no pretense that the batteries came from Sony. The label just says essentially "Replacement for NP-FM500H".

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[alphaomega]

UrsaMajor wrote

My experience is that if I use either one of these third-party batteries in the body of the A700, everything seems to behave normally. However, if I attach the Vertical Grip to the A700 and use a third-party battery in the VG, I get an error message from the camera.

I recall reading on one of the third party Web sites that their "equivalents" to Sony's NP-FM500H battery would not work in the grip.
I am now also wary of buying "genuine" Sony batteries from anyone other than Sony Style or 100% reliable suppliers where there is no doubt that they get from Sony. I have three "genuine" batteries lying about. One was refunded without problem and two were lying about for too long before I discovered that they would not work. I am waiting for a battery from 7dayshop to see if they work.

[agorabasta]

The funniest part is that the most genuine Sony battery that came with the camera in a sealed box may still produce an "incompatible battery" warning.
It happens (only sometimes!!!) if one puts a battery that served a Nex into an SLT WITHOUT placing it first into the charger.

Seems like the Japanese engineers have finally 'outBritted' the Brit engineers so often blamed for over-engineering even the simplest things...