Batteries

[bdp]

From speaking to owners and reading the forums it seems most Hasselblad owners have several battery grips, either because they don't last all day, or they die after 12-18 months. This means they have $1000 or more worth of batteries!

Wouldn't it be better to have a CR-123A grip and use rechargeables in this? Seems like it would be cheaper. Or do these batteries not last very long either? My Contax chews through rechargeable AA's so I use a DC adapter or those expensive Lithium batteries that last days.

Just trying to decide whether I should fork out for multiple battery grips like most people, or buy a DC grip for studio use (which means another annoying cable going to the camera) or the CR-123A grip.

[NickT]

G'day Ben
Forget the 123s they are just not powerful enough and are expensive, can you even get rechargeable ones?
When you are tethered the batteries hardly get any use at all as the camera pulls power from the fire wire, I swap mine out about once a week at the most. You'll be fine with the rechargeable (note they take a few cycles to come up to full capacity)

What did you end up buying btw?

Cheers
Nick-T

[bdp]

Hi Nick,

Ah that's good, thanks. I was under the impression that the back was powered by the firewire cable when tethered but the camera still used the battery for it's own mechanics (focussing, shutter etc). But if yours lasts a week that is great.

I have found 900mAh rechargeable CR123s here: http://www.fenixtactical.com/tenergy-rcr123a-battery.html

I've ordered a new H4D-40.... should be in my hot little hands soon!

[Drchevalier]

I concur with Nick, Ben.  Tethering takes most of the battery pain away.  When I field shoot I have gotten well over 200 images and still had charge in the battery.  I do have three in total and rotate them.  One from time to time fails to show its status properly but a quick connection to the charger and it works again.  Like most digital camera batteries they have some "extra" intelligence that sometimes loses its mind.

Ross

[bdp]

Thanks Ross. I'll still need to get some sort of second battery so I need to decide the best thing to get.

On another possibly related note, do any of you who shoot tethered find that you need to disconnect and reconnect the battery after firing the camera from the computer because the camera freezes sometimes? A colleague of mine with a H3D-31 says it happens to him several times a day!

Ben

[meshuggener]

Hi BDP,
it happened to me last day. For me the problem was coming from the firewire cable, a Lindy one. But I know why, it was because I cut the plastic too much around the connection (it was too broad to fit in the camera firewire port), so when I was moving around, the cable seemed to be a bit loose. But it can come from the battery too, maybe his battery is too old, or the pins are not clean enough. Some alcohol and it's done.

I'm waiting the next generation batteries for the H5D, 2900mAh, some says that it won't work, some says it'll work... wait and see ! 

[bdp]

Thanks. I'll let him know what it might be.

I have heard about firewire power issues affecting the reliability of the connection to the camera before, and a suggested solution was a Lindy powered firewire repeater. So I have bought a 5m powered extension so that I can have 10m of cable once I plug in the Hassy cable, and hopefully more reliability. I've lent it to my colleague until I get my camera, so we'll see if it eliminates his problem.

As far as batteries go, it could also be the problem, because out of his 3 batteries, one is dead and won't charge, so maybe the one he was using is on its death bed too. He has tried the battery reset suggested by Nick in the tips and tricks section. So he could spend $330 on a fourth battery or $440 on a DC adapter