About "Voltage" and "mAh" of Camcorder Batteries.
Camcorder-battery-shop.com 2006-10-31
Q:What the heck is an mAh? I am looking for a back-up battery for my Panasonic PV-GS180(battery part number: PV-GS180) I was looking around in www.camcorder-battery-shop.com and have noticed different sellers having different mAh's. Does this affect the battery life in any way? and if it does, does this mean that the higher the mAh the longer the battery life? I really don't care if it's generic or not. As long as it gives me power for more than the time the original battery that the Camcorder came with.
Some say 1500 mAh and others say 3700 mAh and 2040 mAh and others. I am looking at the Panasonic PV-GS180 and some sellers sell different generic batteries with different mAh's. What is this? and Does this affect anything with the battery? Thanks..oh and here's the one i was looking at.
A:"mAh" is milliampere hour. It relates to the amount of power the battery will deliver. A larger number means the battery will run your camcorder longer (under the same conditions). That is assuming the seller is not exaggerating the battery capacity. Most manuals will have some rating of recording time on a fully charged battery for different model batteries.
Q:this does help me understand why i've seen a variety of prices on ebay for what appears to be the same battery, (based on the battery model number). could you tell me what you think the miniumum mAh number one should purchase?
A:I normally carry two Sony NP-FM50 batteries with me which are 1180 mAh each. Each one will give me more than over an hour of recording on my Sony TRV460 or Sony HC40. Those are the smallest batteries Sony normally sells. I have gotten up to 50 minutes of recording with the smaller NP-FM30 batteries which are 720 mAh. I have never used a generic battery.
Q:I reckon this is due to the voltage rating. I've noticed that most of the aftermarket batteries have a slightly reduced voltage e.g. 7.2V instead of 7.4V. I would expect the infolithium sensor to measure the output voltage of the battery under different battery loads (e.g. display only, tape mechanism on) to calculate the remaining battery capacity. If the output voltage is less than expected for the same remaining battery capacity, I suspect this will screw up the calculation.
A:There are a variety of chemical compositions used in Lithium-Ion batteries which the manufacturers try to keep to themselves. This may affect the open circuit voltage. Most camcorders are typically rated for 7.2 Volts to 7.9 Volts DC. It is common to see 7.2 and 7.4 batteries. The quality and performance of the battery will be how it's constructed not so much if it's 7.2 or 7.4 volts.
