Sony Reviews

This battery, although it has an impresive capacity its bulky and heavy, which makes it inconvenient for small cameras such as DCR-TRV19/22/33 models... (makes you feel the frame of the camera becomes kind of flimsy at times..)

I purchased this as an accessorry for my Sony DCR-TRV38 camcorder. It's got a long life and a neat battery check function on it. However, it is on the bulky side and extends the overall length of the camcorder when attached. One nice thing is that the viewfinder on the camcorder extends to accommodate the longer length. Sony really should have made this standard, as the included battery is woefully inadequate. It may be of interest to note that I needed to purchase a separate charger ($100) to take advantage of the quick charge function.

I can't say enought about Sony, if it has the name Sony on it its great. The battery holds up very very well, I've had one for a very long time and wouldn't change to any other name.

An additional large capacity battery is an essential purchase to replace the inadequate batteries supplied with most mini-DV camcorders. This battery is the best of the bunch, providing great battery life without being too bulky or pricey. Sony's other batteries are either too large (e.g. the QM91D) or don't last long enough to be worth the additional expense (e.g. the FM30 or FM50).

Moreover, if you are willing to pay an additional $150 for the Sony AC-SQ950 Quick Charger, this battery can be charged in under an hour! Highly recommended.

Notes: (1) Don't confuse this with the older QM71. The "D" is important (no on-battery power indication or Quick Charge without it). (2) Be sure your device takes an "M Series" battery. Sony has several lettered infoLithium battery "series" (e.g., the super small "C Series" for compact digital cameras) that all tend to look alike in unscaled online product photos, but batteries from different series are NOT interchangeable.

Apparently a lot of users have problems with this battery.
I own a Sony DSC-P1 digital camera, and always use the simple power connector to reload the camera. A friend also owns a DSC-P1 and has exactly the same problems: the display will say the battery is full (>90 minutes left), but when you start using it, it will stop after < 10 minutes of use. This really sucks.
I've searched the Internet all over for solutions for this problem, and there seems to be none. Apart from Sony denying there's anything wrong with the batteries (or the camera!), I've found some 'workarounds' (including advice from Sony) that don't really work.
- Fully discharge the battery. Keep turning your camera on 'till the battery is completely empty. (Doesn't work).
- Check the connections (Sony advice) Clean the connectors of the AC powercord (Doesn't work).
The only thing I didn't test, is a very expensive Sony quickcharger. I've used them occasionaly, and they seemed to recharge the battery very well (giving cause for a camera malfunction/flaw scenario). Does anyone have experience with the -far too expensive- quickcharger?
I used to be a real Sony fan (2 VAIO's, VCR, LCD-monitor, digital camera, Digital Video camera) but now I really hate their attitude.
They charge WAY too much for accesoires and spare parts. I paid 40 euro for a simple I-link cable; my video LCD broke down (cat-chase fly-drop camera) and it will cost me about 400 euro to repair it; a quickcharger will cost you about 200 euro.
This really insults my intelligence! I hope they'll switch to a different marketing strategy very soon, or they'll lose me forever.

I've had exactly the same problems as everyone else... I have two InfoLithium NPFS11 batteries which have been apparently less and less able to hold a charge as time goes on. I reached the point where I wouldn't even bother to take my Sony DSC-P1 out with me anymore! The batteries would last for two or three pictures then the camera would shut itself off. Thank goodness I found these reviews! I was about to buy two new replacements, having no idea that EVERYONE has the same problem with these batteries. I followed the prevailing advice and sure enough the results are a spectacular reversal of fortunes - a saving of almost $100! I killed one battery by taking picture after picture with the flash . I eventually got to 114 pictures at 640 pixel resolution, having to switch the camera on again (probably 8 or 9 times) when the "battery life" indicator came on and powered down the camera. Ignoring what the camera's telling you will mean that you will continue taking pictures for a long time. The camera actually gets HOT it's being used so much! Eventually the camera goes REALLY dead and the lens won't retract. Now I'm recharging the battery, pretty confident that the old battery will be rejuvinated to it's formerly effective self. This is exactly the advice given in the other reviews. HOWEVER... for the second battery, rather than trying to quickly start taking photos BEFORE the battery life is calculated by the camera/battery, I let the calculation go ahead first. The camera indicated that the battery life was 80 minutes. I immediately started taking pictures and got up to 190 pictures (using the flash). Again, the camera got quite hot in the time it took to take all those pictures. And even after all that time and all those pictures the camera showed that this second battery STILL had 45 minutes left in it! Odd. What I'm thinking is that it MIGHT not be entirely necessary to "kill" your battery in order to make it work properly. Maybe what you need to do - to kick your battery in the pants - is just take picture after picture for a few minutes as soon as you turn the camera on and it'll reset the INFO part of the battery! Worth a try. Obviously, you might need to do this every 6-8 months or when you notice the performance dropping off. Already this second battery is behaving like it used to - even without killing it.

I have a hypothesis about the problem and why this "treatment" of your battery might breath new life into it. We tend to use our cameras in a very specific way that may be foiling the functionality of the InfoLithium system. We turn on the camera in preparation for taking pictures but it could be several minutes before we take a single picture. And we tend not to take pictures in rapid succession once we start. I think this cycle of switching the camera on, then doing little or nothing with it makes the battery go into some kind of "info-coma" after repeating this pattern for a long time! I wonder if the way this technology was developed failed to take this real-world factor into consideration. I speculate that the laboratory testing of this device probably involved discharging the battery immediately after the battery life indication had been calculated. Maybe that process is what the battery needs to calibrate itself. After months of never receiving that treatment it's possible that the battery no longer "knows" what the hell's going on!! I'd be curious to know if other people have the same results as I have. Email me if you like at nowis@sbcglobal.net

OK, I came to Amazon hoping to just buy a replacement battery for my DSC-P1 and found that everyone here has the same problem I had. So I took someone's advice below and set out to drain the battery before the InfoLithium computer kicked in and stopped my fun. What I found though is that resetting the battery is a lot easier.

I took about 15 pictures before the battery indicator appeared. I then realized that I was taking huge pictures and running out of memory stick space, so I paused. The battery indicator kicked in and showed 80 minutes. As I took more pictures and connected the camera to my Mac for awhile, the indicator showed nominal battery drainage and seems to be back in sync. This was a battery that seemed to be unable to hold a charge for more than three or four photos, with or without flash.

So before giving up on your battery, try a quick refresh! I gave this 3 stars because it's lame that the problem kept me from using this camera for more than a year, but it was easily fixed once I knew what to do.