Abysmal battery life of GH2

[NigelC]

Could it just be my GH2 is faulty? The battery life is terrible and I hardly use the LCD, only the EVF. I have 2 batteries but I think if I was using it intensively for a weekend and had no opportunity to recharge would need more. Certainly I think I need to get a third battery for travelling - and they are not cheap! Even my LX3 has a far better battery performance and the 5D2 is immeasurably better.

Anyone else finding this a problem?

[Christopher Sanderson]

I typically need two batteries for a full day of shooting - and I carry a third. This is a mix of video & stills shooting.

That does not seem unreasonable although it is not as good as the 7D I had before.

I have never had to go to the third battery except when shooting video continuously for twelve hours when recording a tutorial.

[Yakim Peled]

Ouch. That brings back bad memories from my 1D, which was similar in that regard. Are there any 3rd party options?

[rothberg]

Yep the battery life is really short.  Batteries are very rare to non-existent.
I have a 3rd party battery from B&H that doesn't display battery life remaining on the camera and lasts about an hour in moderate usage.
I really am very fond of the camera but am getting really frustrated.

[Christopher Sanderson]

Let's dig a little further into this issue since I do not seem to be experiencing such poor performance and I wonder if certain use/lens combinations are leading to this.

I generally use the 14-140 with IS on and manual focus only in a 50/50 mix of stills & video. I switch the camera off if I anticipate it being unused for more than an hour but otherwise allow the camera to sleep after 10/15 seconds. I review very little.

[rothberg]

I am using either the 14-140 or the 100-300 with IS on, 50/50 mix of auto-focus and manual focus. 75% of the time I have the 100-300 mounted as I am photographing sports. I review maybe 10% of my stills (I rarely shoot video) but very briefly (less than a minute. A typical shoot is 2-4 hours and maybe 500 frames.  I have begun to turn the camera off between events to extend battery life. That will put me one to two bars down on the Panasonic battery and exhaust the 3rd party battery (which we can dismiss as basically useless).  I really can live with the battery life if I could acquire maybe two more OEM batteries to get me though a whole day. OEM batteries for this camera are backorderd every where I have looked (the usual suspects, my local dealer, B&H, Adorama, Panasonic web site).

[leuallen]

GH2 batteries show as in stock at Unique Photo. Purchased my gear from them, legitimate.

Larry

[rothberg]

Thank you

Ordered and shipped

[Schewe]

GH2 batteries show as in stock at Unique Photo. Purchased my gear from them, legitimate.

Me too...got 3 of them. Thanks (also order the camera with a 14-140 lens from them too).