Photoclubalpha

Any solution to this?
I had a Duracell and it only charged to 50% in this A57's charger (it was returned and refunded) but I'm wondering if the same problem is out there for the other generic clones?

Or alternatively is there a suitable alternative for a charger to the Sony original one (if this solves the problem)

Thanks for any help

Barry I recently bought a Pearstone dual charger from B&H and it charges up the genuine M series on the 12v DC cig socket in the truck no problem, which is why I bought it, but it comes with the US AC wall socket cable so you have to get an adaptor if you want to use it on the mains, or go to Tandy or Radio Shack and get a replacement cable. (the most unexpected thing was that it was not supposed to be used on 240V AC according to the specifications on the web but on the back of the unit it has the usual 110-240V AC 50-60Hz notification so it must be like the Sony units, automatically sensing an switching, it has the same horizontal 8 style two pin socket for the wall cable, you could use the Sony cable in fact).
You can charge any camera battery I guess if you get the matching interchangeable adaptors, they slide on to the charger, a little too easily actually, (no positive lock button) they tend to come off the charger with the battery when removing them unless you hold a finger against the back edge of them.
It has an LCD screen for the readouts (percentage of charge as it charges) one readout for each charging location, the left hand readout tends to do some weird jumping and flickering because it seems to be stuck on the readout for the USB docking carge rate and doesn't automatically switch over to the battery readout if you put a battery on the left charging station.
Altogether a handy unit for me though as I now have a means of charging batteries when or if I'm on the other side of the black stump. I've already given it a test run, I had to charge up two new NPFM500H's I got to replace the two original NPFM55H's (now deceased) that came with the A100, it charged a camera battery up to 100% running off the car battery in a few hours and didn't seem to affect the car battery at all, it still started the truck as if nothing had happened.
I think you have to be careful with the Sony standard charger, I don't think it has much in the way of sensing and regulation for the camera battery, the more expensive Sony ones might be a better idea but Sony of course charges like a wounded bull for those.
As far as camera batteries are concerned I have never used non genuine ones, I have heard too many stories about how useless they are so I get the genuine jobs, I got two genuine NPFM500H's (along with a couple of other items) from B&H for about the same price as one genuine battery here in Oz, and that includes the airfreight charges.
Greg

I only buy genuine product, but lately I purchased on E-bay (or evil bay, as Pirate (member here) puts it) a car charger for FM500H. I'll let you know how it works on genuine Sony battery.
I have no "guts" to get experience on third party batteries.

Barry, I thought I had posted here when I bought them, but I got 3 batts real cheap about 1 1/2 years ago from ebay. One wouldn't fully charge right away, and they shipped me a free replacment, no questions asked, w/o wanted the old one returned.

Now another only charges to around 97%. However the other 2 still seem fine. I don't keep records as to which ones give me x vs y shots, because I rarely shoot a battery dry in the same way. I only have Sony chargers.

So, I'm happy because I got them for about $15 each, they fit perfectly, and worked w/ the 350s and 700.

At that price I'll not buy originals again. I'll see if I can dig up where I bought them from.

Interesting I have 2 original Sony ones but I'd like another and at £35 a pop they're a bit pricey for buying more.
Maybe the Duracell one was a dud I sent that back ebay might be worth a shot.

Evidently something has changed with the new charger so SLT folks might be able to chip in here!

bfitzgerald wrote:Evidently something has changed with the new charger so SLT folks might be able to chip in here!

Not much to add really...

My A100 charger will charge anything that I have tried.
My A77 charger will only charge genuine Sony batteries.
They look almost identical, but the model numbers differ. The old one is the BCVM10, and the new one is Sony BCVM10A.

Sony obviously sensed revenue seepage from their ridiculously expensive batteries so tried to plug the leak.

Barry,

The only 3rd party 500 I had was a Hama one. I threw it out as it didn't hold charge all that well and it made the A77 and a580 freeze. Press the shutter and it froze requiring the battery to be ejected to reset the camera.

I also bought a 3rd party charger off Ebay as I wanted a 12V capability. I go camping and wanted to be able to charge off a 12V leisure battery. It works great and I can charge 1 over night and another during the day. The A77 is power hungry and I can use 2 batteries a day.

Mike

In my desk at work I have one of the boxes from the batteries I bought. They are Power200 brand, part # ACD-751.

Amazon has them for $16, but I think I paid a bit less for them from e-bay.

As I said, one was bad at the start, the other is now not fully charging, but at the price, who cares?

I only have chargers from the a350 and a700, and both work fine with them.

Dusty

I think there is a reason an original battery cost what it cost (other than just manufacturers making a big profit on accessories...)
My old original Minolta NP400 are still working, but all the third party batteries I bought for the 7D last a little more than a year before they just die. Just one day. Like that. In the middle of a job...
I agree that Sony batteries are not specially cheap. But if they last more than double (3 years or more, instead of 18 months) they are actually not that expensive...

I bought a battery from Linkdelight.com when I got my A700, 3 years ago. Charges to 99% but still going.
After using the A77 for while I decided to buy 2 more last summer. These charged to 100%.
I have no complaints so far. Cost was only $10 each.

Cam