I recently acquired a sony DCR-TRV730 camcorder and replaced ther battery for a NP-FM 50 which purports to give me about 70 mins of recording time . In fact I have used it a max of about 20- 30 mins and have a flat battery???Is short battery life normal with these things? At over £50 they are expensive things to replace although I noitice there are companies that make replacements which arent Sony but which presumably do the job. Does anyone know anything about these and could you please make suggestions for efficient battery use? Would an NP-FM91 (or equivalent) be a better idea?

What is particuilarly annoying is thast it takes about two and a half hours to recharge this thing so I 'm thinking that spares are a must but then again they can only be charged in the camcorder itself.

Yes Camcorder manufacturers are a little bit naughty when it comes to quoting battery life, the figure quoted is what you would get if you switched the camera to record and did not touch it again, - no stopping - no starting, no zooming (in or out) - no LCD screen - just straight record.

But as soon as you start zooming, starting and stopping or using the LCD screen battery life drops dramatically - depending on what you were doing then 20 - 30 minutes could be quite normal - especially if it was also a little cold - this is about what I get if doing a lot of zooming, pausing and restarting.

Spare batteries are essential - especially if you are going on holiday - although your battery may be designed to be charged on the camera there are third party manufacturers who sell battery chargers for charging the battery when not on the camera - have a look at http://www.keene.co.uk

Thanks for the advice Beejaycee I notice that it loses some power even when switched off so maybe removing batteryfrom the camcorder when not in use may be a good idea.

it'll still lose power - even if you take it off the camera - natural process

No way round that one then - leave it on and keep charging

There is no doubt in my mind that its worth taking the batteries out when not in use. I took it out last night andv there was no loss of power by the morning and yet after I replaced it within 4 hrs there was a discenible drop - about 10 mins.