camcorder battery suggestions

[LekiaHall]

Hi All,

I need camcorder memory/battery help! I recently bought a starter camcorder (Panasonic HDC-TM15P) with 16GB of internal memory. From what I’ve read in the manual, that’s about 3-4 hours of stop/start recording. Battery life is about 50 minutes. This is our first camcorder so I’m not sure how much we’ll use it (but I’m sure hubby will be delighted with new toy and will use it incessantly!).

Should I buy an extra battery? If so, what kind? How much life should I look to get before the battery needs to be recharged?

Also, memory…in your experience, is 16GB enough? We'll be in Disney for 9 days and I won’t have a laptop to transfer the video from the camera so it will all be stored until we return home. Should I buy another SDHC card? If so, what capacity?

Thanks in advance for any help. I’m clueless about this sort of thing! :confused:

[mom2rtk]

Replacement batteries are cheap on ebay. Take the original one out of the camcorder and find the model number. You should be able to find it easily on ebay. Many of the non OEM batteries come from overseas, so leave plenty of time for delivery.

As for memory, it's cheap these days. I'd pick up an extra card just to be on the safe side.

[skiingfast]

If you look on ebay you need to find one that is new, used batteries may be worthless as their charge discharge ability changes. You can find a lot on amazon, memory cards too.

If you are bringing another camera you may be fine with only the 16gig memory card. If you plan to take continuous video of each parade, show resturaunt, and ride for nine day it will get used up quick.

I beleive in HD video 16 gigs will give you 5-6 hours of video.

[LekiaHall]

Unfortunately (or fortunately!! :banana:) we leave on Saturday, so no time for eBay bid. This was a last-minute purchase...wish I'd gotten all this together beforehand! Looks like Amazon has what I need if I do 2-day shipping. There goes another $120! :rolleyes1

Thanks very much for replies/feedback!

[Daisy14'sDH]

You can never have too much memory... remember the days when the camera would say "Tape Full"... it always happened right before what you wanted to tape in the first place happened!

[lovetheprincesses]

I have a Sony handycam DCR-DVD100 that still works and is fine for us. I need a new battery. Can someone suggest a good one? I don't want to spend a fortune, as the camcorder itself is so old. Thank you!!

[ukcatfan]

Check on Buy.com and Newegg.com to see if they have any that fit it. Knowing the model number of the battery would help.

[lovetheprincesses]

ok thanks. it is the NP-FM50 "M" lithium