Small update about the upcoming new Sony products:
The vertical battery grip VG-C77AM will cost $299.99 US . And I have beent told the A77 will use the same battery as A700/A850/A900: The [shoplink 7956 ebay]NP-FM500H[/shoplink].
*Please also check your spam folder if you don't get the confirmation mail. And mark the mail as "non-spam" to see the future newsletter.
100 Responses
The a5xx and a450 also use this battery.
As do the a200 a300 a350 (a230 a330 a380 too?) and you can use it in the a100
No improvement on the battery department then … oh well, you can’t win them all
True, but battery life itself may have improved. Also a plus for basically anyone who owns a non-SLT and is considering upgrading.
“True, but battery life itself may have improved.”
How? If it’s the same battery model, then it will have the same lifetime.
@revenge,
your battery right now has X amount of power. Your current A700/850/900 uses that battery up with let’s say 500 shots.
With the new body, the processor may be more energy efficient, there may be less mechanical action (no mirror to flip up) – therefore your same battery from before may be able to provide enough power to take 700 shots with the new body because it uses less power. The battery still has the same amount of juice, it’s just being sucked out slower.
Not gonna happen, sorry.
The EVF system uses so much energy, that any other reduction of power usage won’t be noticeable.
Well it is an improvement looking towards the A33 and A55 for one time you aren’t forced to re buy stuff, plus having two of those should be enough, at least with the A700 i’ve never felt that battery life was a critical aspect.
Admin,
NP-FM500H for this VG-C77AM? how about the body do they use same battery as A700/AA850/A900?
it would be absolute nonsense if the grip uses other batteries.
Read the head line again, it says “A77 uses same A700 Battery”
so that’s the very reason why it’s 500 photos only he could take?
only 500? I currently reach 800+ shots on a single battery with the A700. Of course the EVF will use more battery power, but it’s still a rather good battery.
People who call “only 500shots” lame, should reconsider their style of photography.
Why on earth would you make 1000+ on a full-day wedding p.e.? I don’t…
Geert – maybe one would want 1000 shots so that he wouldn’t have to take the battery charger to every single trip.
Besides that – viewing the images often can eat your battery much more quickly than by making the 1000 shots. Using the EVF often also will eat your battery, regardless of amount of shots made. So the more power battery have, the better. Especially with EVF cameras.
If you work for professionals, in several events that last all day long, you will do more than 1000 photos…
If you do car racing, and other major event sports that last more than one morning, you will do more than 1000 photos…
Many many situations that this is useful!
Same battery but no CF? They’ve clearly lost it…
What does the battery have to do with the card slot?
They’re keeping the battery the same, when it almost would have made more sense to develope a new one seeing as the camera will use more power (more data, EVF). Yet it made more sense to keep CF slot and they removed it. Just doesn’t seem logical to me. That’s an electronics company for you I guess.
Agreed. The battery life would suffer greatly. I don’t see how we’ll get 500 shots from the A77, when the A700 is rated at 650.
A580 with the same battery can do 1050 shots.
True that, but still the same issue – with the EVF we will get shorter life. 500 shots is lame. Won’t stop me from buying the camera, but I would’ve expected that they would address this, rather than having some worthless (to me) battery consistency between models.
Maybe the fixed (not moving) mirror partly makes up for the extra battery drain of the evf. You know that electronically moving parts do cost a lot of energy….right?
@Atmosphere Was that sarcasm? This moving part you use it once per shot. The EVF will be used during framing, adjusting exposure, etc. And it drains huge amounts of power.
Again, the camera looks awesome, but 500 shots as per the rumours is half of what the competition offers. Not the end of the world, but worth a complaint.
newer procesors are quicker but use less power oled is brighter and quicker but uses less power. CF is dead nikon and canon havent included it for the last 18 months so effectivly your saying ALL camera manufacturers have lost it and you know the cost of adding small changes that make limited customer advantage better than all the major camera manufacturers. I bow to your all knowlage great one.
The A77 has supposedly two processors. OLED doesn’t always use less power and in the case of the A77 you will be using a display for all of your shooting rather than an OVF. It makes perfect sense to develop a new battery to support all of this, especially on a high-end camera. Also, there are clear advantages to using CF cards and the fact that manufacturers leave them out doesn’t change that.
Last, but not least, you don’t need to be a cook so as to dislike the food.
The cameras you are referring to are not in the semi-pro/pro league. Do you wanna bet that we’ll see CFs on D800, D4, 5D MkIII, 7D MkII and so on?
Indeed.. It would have been way too good for them to do CF + SD. Maybe it would look too professional in their eyes.. 😀 who knows?
Great news.
Richard: why not use SD, it’s definitely cheaper
Cheaper? How do you work that one out? I’ve got probably close to £200 worth of CF cards. Buying MORE cards is clearly not cheaper.
So sony should use CF so YOU dont need to buy any new biger better mem cards BUT sony should use new battery so almost all other Sony usere have to buy new spares. are you not just a little selfish and hipocritical ?
omg…and just 500 photo shot using same battery as a580 (which can take 1050)
Hope the power is used to do something good then 😀
What? A small update? This is news for A700 users all over the world.
At least, if this is true, A700 users like me do not have to purchase spare batteries when we buy the A77.
I’ve already have 2 spares for my A700 and Sony originals don’t come cheap.
I have also invested in the Sony dual battery charger/adapter. So this is good news to users who have invested in Sony accessories.
The VG-C77AM is also very similar to the VG-C70AM in size and shape (I’ve done an overlay comparison of the two), so I have some hopes that the VG-C70AM will also fit the A77.
Would be handy if so. The prices on v-grips are extortionary.
Yes, that would be awesome. I own 3 of those already. Any info on that, Andrea?
Electronic viewfinder v.s optical, so sure A77 must use more power.
Also if 24MP is true, more data to process so more power even if the
new CPU and other has been more power efficient.
How long can the A77 or A55 stay in “standby”, camera on and
view in the viewfinder? Sometimes when shooting(photo) animals you can
have to wait a long time. You can turn of a camera with optical viewfinder
and still see through the viewfinder, but not so with an electronic
viewfinder only camera. Not a big point for me, but maybe for some
shooters?
yes you are perfectly right, but most bird shooters have their camera on a tripod and they can just look with their own eyes when something comes, then turn on camera, and snap away.
With this camera they won’t scare animals away either cause it won;t have the annoying mirror sound.
I would expect the EVF to have a proximity detector anyway so it could go into a low power state without needing to be turned off.
It would be awesome if the A700 grip would fit A77…
Indeed. When (and if…) I buy the A77, I will use my @700 as a backup body, so the grip will be almost useless.
Will the grip be the same as A55?
is there a Sony battery grip for A55?
i mean will the grip be able to fit A55 😡
No, wrong battery.
The A55 doesnt even have contacts for a grip
It’s the simple things like this that keep the flock together.
I don’t see the problem with an old battery if they make the new cameras energy efficient.
totally agree!
Without the grip 500 pics.
Do you know how many pics with the grip ?
simple just multiply it with 2, coz it contains 2 batteries. 😀
You mean multiply by three 😀
Maybe slighly less than that, I presume the grip will consume battery as well.
No, the battery must be removed from the body to be able to mount the grip. So you’re left with 2 batteries in the grip.
I see, never owned batt grip before. I’d rather carry spare battery in my pocket then.
If you don’t do portrait often, is there any other benefit of having batt grip?
The grip docks in the battery bay of the camera, so the 2 in the grip are the only batteries I believe.
the A77 battery pack/grip looks so similar to the A700 grip. Wonder if they will be interchangeable?
If batteries are the same then contacts are the same.
As long as the distance between battery and tripod screw are the same and the slight upturn on the one end coincides it should fit.
Of course not. There is a plethora of contacts in the grip, all of them must match, together with the electrical interface.
In 3 months after the A77 is released there will be a plethora of Chinese knock offs at $109.95 albeit with just shutter actuation
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Battery-Grip-IR-Remote-Sony-Alpha-A700-4X-NP-FM500H-/350456556334?pt=Batteries_Chargers&hash=item5198d6ab2e
Looks like the same six contacts as in the picture above to me.
There are even 3rd party battery grips for the A33/A55 and Sony make none.
Sony should’ve used the same battery for NEX too … makes another good reason to own both DSLT/R and NEX!
agree with u. I brought two battery for my A55. I really hope my next upgrade can use that battery.
This is really good news. So I can share the battery packs with my A850 😉 .
@Admin Andrea:
Does it mean that the A77 will also be use the NP-FM500H (not only valid for the function grip) or a different one with more mA/h, but is compatible from size and electronics to the stronger battery pack?
Any way it is good news to have compatible equipment. 😉
+1
Admin, do you have details about the A77 size?? how does it compare to the A700?
The way I measured it in Photoshop, it will be exactly the same size. I could be wrong though.
@Jennzhen, the vertical grip also makes holding the camera horizontally more comfortable, especially if you have larger hands. It gives your little finger a place to rest on.
http://atributos-1.blogspot.com/2011/08/sony-a77-esta-para-chegar.html
sony should create a new battrey with a long live power than before because a77 or a99 use a lot of power electric camera
I think they can, but the new battery won’t be compatible with the old camera.
Maybe Sony can make the camera slightly bigger, but holds 2 batteries?
I can shoot a lot of photos on one battery in my a850 with a power hungry lens.
I carry a spare at all times and use the two battery charger back in my shop
I don’t find the battey life to be a problem even have only one battery and if you keep a second one charged even better!
because your dslr 850 doesn’t have a live view and electric optical viewviender, if u do that your battrey will gone low fast, n i believe if u use internal flash to for strobb or what ever the battrey will gonna fast die ^^ thats why slt need a new battrey with long power live that before 🙂
As a A900 owner, I will be happy if A77 uses the same battery… it make sense as the video monitor also use the same type of battery.
Hope there will be more information soon.
What really make me concern is: I cannot find the flash sync port on the photo of the A77 body…
Will A77 support studio flashes? Or just as problematic as A55(I own one).
The transparent one has a sync port.
http://www.pocket-lint.com/news-gallery/38941/sony-see-through-camera-concept-hands-on/9
Thx, mate!
No problem, thought I’d seen the sync port. I am just concerned about the dark EVF problem when shooting with studio flash, having a sync port suggests they have maybe fixed it.
What is the button to the left of the Fn button?
I hope the battery is true. I own 4 already. Its why I went from a a200 to a500. So entry to mid to photo enthusiast (a77) 🙂
I guess it is the answer to the shortened 500 frames per charge news we had (as opposed to 1k life rumored before) Bigger battery weighs more, needs a different charger and won’t go into any other camera.
I’m happy with this decision. A77 will be able to do what my A850 can’t and it’s great to have cameras that use the same battery. 500 per charge seems reasonable
This is GOOD news. These batteries are really good. The a580 gets almost 1,000 shots from one battery. It’s more to do with the camera efficiency than the battery capacity.
500 shots from a battery is acceptable imo
Ditto. Good thinking by Sony. Now I can use my a300 battries for the a77.
Thanks Andrea for the good news 🙂
+1 😉
The VG looks identical to the A700 VG, apart from the Fn button being moved along with that other button. Now we have a rumour saying they use the same battery it would be nice if I could use the A700 grip on the A77 🙂
The SR5 rumour last week said that the battery will do “OVER” 500 photos. That will depend on a lot on how you use the A77 but it’s good news for those upgrading.
Dear all, the mentioned 500 shots is in ‘LCD-Mode’ . So if you use the OLED-EVF the lifetime could much longer!
This is a big plus for me – I own about 6 of those batteries 🙂
Great news for me, too. I also have 6 of these batteries 😀
Very interesting. Been bracing for the switch from A700 to A77, and the vertical grip and batteries was one factor that had me concerned.
With the announcement that it is basically just going to be MS and SD, I’ve been looking at UHS-I SDXC cards and Delkin is the only supplier of 600X range cards(95MB/sec read and 80MB/sec write). If the A77 can fully utilize the UHS-I bus, I’ve no complaints. Though given the price of the cards, I may opt to go one notch down and go with SanDisk’s 45MB/45MB cards. There are the 95MB/25MB cards out there, but given the size of the images, the quicker they get dumped out of buffer to the card, the happier I am. So we’ll see how that goes. (Yes, there are 2-3 other 95MB/80MB UHS-I cards out there… but they are only for sale in Asia/Japan markets).
If this rumor pans out and the batteries used are the same as in the A700, that will help offset the cost of switching to the A77 and needing to buy SD cards: I can continue to use my set of batteries. And yes… they cost a bit for the official batteries. Still not as pricey as it will be to replace my memory card sets. 😐
I’m also an owner of 6 batteries. Seems like that is the magic number. ^_-
Well when you buy a A77, you will own 7 batteries.
7 is THE magic number 😉
No complaints here 🙂
Maybe Sony will come out with a newer battery with higher power BUT it still can take-in the old battery? Food for thought.
Awesome I love the battery grip on my a700, I won’t think twice to buy the battery grip on the a77. Glad it uses the same battery, I can keep that money in the bank.
I know that there are a lot of Sony purists who will jump on me for saying this but there are a number of compatible batteries available for as little as $9US. One could buy four or five of these batteries for the price of one Sony battery if your budget is real tight.
I wont jump on you as I’ve got a third party battery and it works just as well as the Sony.
Would be awesome if the grip would fit on my A700 as well. Those things are expensive enough as it is. (+ i could not find the vg-c70AM anywhere )
To me the high ISO performance is by far the most important feature of the A77.
If Sony has sacreficed this to the 24 Mp AGAIN…(like with the A900)…they’re plain stupid…and i dont think they are!
And to the people that think that the A77 new features MUST all be more ‘battery draining’ than the A700: Have you thought about the fact that both the top LCD AND the (to a lesser extent) EVF will absolutely mean FAR less use of the huge and therefore immensely battery-hungry back LCD?…and the (earlier mentioned) fact that the mirror does not have to be moved at all anymore? What do you think moving a glass mirror EVERY SINGLE SHOT costs?
If I remember right, in the case of the A55, the EVF actually draws more power than the back LCD. So, if you use the EVF only, you can take lesser number of shots than you would be able to do if you were using the rear LCD only.
Maybe they would have optimized the OLED EVF in the A77, but you never know.
Moving the mirror for a fraction of a second costs extremely little energy compared to the blaring screens.
Mmmm….they’re both colour LCD’S (the evf and the back LCD)…but the evf is MUCH smaller. How can it ever draw more power?
And furthermore : A small monochromatic TOP lcd ALWAYS means less battery drain ….does’nt it?
What is the button to the left of the Fn button? Anybody?
smart teleconverter button
Thank you, being an A700 user I was puzzled by what the new button symbol meant. Pity if they have removed the C button and replaced it with a smart tele-converter button. I use the C button a lot!
Whats with all the fuss over battery power? Ive never had any issues at all with sony dslr’s and battery power why would it get any worse with SLT. On top of that third party batteries work just as good in my experience ive bought two extras around $10 each cad. its doesnt affect your photos opticaly so just ebay some extras and not worry about it.
Same with SD cards i own a few CF cause i have to, but when i need to buy more memory i always wish i could take advantage of all the SD card deals everywhere.