On 7 Jul 2001 19:16:08 -0700, teamhawaii@my-deja.com (SC) wrote:

>Hi ya folks. I just got a TRV30 and was testing the FM50 to see how
>long it will last on continuously recording with LCD open. Does these
>results sound short? So far I've only completed one FULL charge and
>the battery only lasted for about 35 minutes.
>
>Does this seem right??
>
>It is a brand new battery, however, will it last longer after a couple
>of charges?? To think I bought two of the 50's as I thought they
>would at least last an hour. Should I have gotten the 70's? Anyone
>else have any times they'd like to share with the FM50 battery?

The tiny batteries that come with camcorders appear to
have not only short run times (contrary to the ratings), but also
appear to "go downhill" faster than the larger ones. I've
had excellent results with the M70, and don't regret not
having the larger size (I use the M50s only for backup).
How quickly we forget, though, those big short-lived NiCads
of old - in those days, 35min run-time was great! ;-)
BTW, best run-time from these new batteries may be best
had by running them to "dead" in the camera (NOT really
drained to "0", but just low enough to not operate the
camera), then immediately giving them a full charge plus
one hour...