Panasonic DMW-BCG10 ID Secured Battery for Select Panasonic Cameras

Amazon recommended via email to me the Panasonic DMW BCF 10PP battery for the Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS5 camera I purchased from them about two weeks ago, but from the reviews it is very unlikely that the DMW BCF 10PP battery can be used. I need the DMW BCG 10 PP battery, but it does not appear that Amazon sells it or their partners sell it. Regardless whether it is Amazon or an Amazon partner selling the product I think Amazon should make sure their email recommendations to us are correct.

I bought the Panasonic Lumix DMZ-ZS5 in April 2010. I find this to be a great super-light "pocket" camera with an excellent feature-set. I consider myself an advanced user, and I like to experiment with several exposures for each composition (whether using this point-n-shoot, or my SLR) - so I always like to travel with (at least) a couple of spare, fully-charged batteries. The battery that came with the camera seems to work as advertised and I am happy with its performance.

Based on warnings from other reviewers (both here and elsewhere), I decided to buy TWO brand-new Panasonic replacement batteries. I checked that these were IDENTICAL to the one that came in the original box (DMW-BCG10pp). However, owing to work/travel commitments, I did not get a chance to test out these new batteries for over 3.5 months. Just recently, I took the batteries out of their packaging, charged them, and tried to use them. But the ZS5 refuses to recognize the battery, shutting down within 3-4 seconds with the message: "This battery cannot be used". I waited several hours, recharged the batteries, and tried again - with the same result. I looked online and found that this message results from ID-secure feature built into their cameras to identify non-Panasonic battery packs.

I then tried Panasonic's web-site, but found nothing related to either battery problems or firmware updates for the ZS5/ZS7. So, I called Panasonic's customer/tech support (U.S.), hoping for some sort of a firmware download or some other "re-setting" procedure that would let me over-ride the camera error-message. To my surprise (and after three phone-transfers), instead of helping me figure out why TWO, BRAND NEW, Panasonic batteries were being rejected by their own camera, the rep kept insisting that I bought the battery over 90-days ago, so they cannot help me! Now perhaps I am naive, but I consider a battery to be brand new (within a reasonable time-limit, of course), as long as it has not been abused or used before - so it should not matter whether I bought the batteries 90 days vs. 110 days previously (at the time I called them).

During our extensive online review prior to buying this camera, the battery issue never come up. But now when I type the exact camera-error message in Google, I get several hits on this subject (all pertaining to Panasonic Lumix cameras). I am now stuck abroad with only a single working battery, and TWO BRAND-NEW batteries that don't work! Yes, I could buy two more brand now ones here, and fork out an even higher price - but what if those don't work either? And what if the only working battery fails at some point?

So, I wanted to put this warning out there that in spite of Panasonic's advertised "stringent" standards that purportedly make their batteries so much better, their camera's failure tolerance seems to be so tight that many of their own batteries fall outside of it! So, the lessons learnt for me are: (1) Don't expect that the "Panasonic" brand implies a guarantee of quality or reasonable customer/technical support; (2) If you plan to buy any Panasonic Lumix camera, or any of their new ID-secured battery based cameras, check online for 'battery cannot be used' or 'battery failure' for that camera before purchasing; (3) Be prepared to go through the hassle of trying out several replacement batteries, EVEN if you buy Panasonic's own; and (4) Thoroughly test out any spare replacement batteries you buy within the first 90 days (I guess the last one's a "DUH!").

I have never bought a camera outside of Canon before, and will most likely go back to Canon after this - I am afraid I cannot trust Panasonic to "do the right thing" at this point.

I want to buy what I see. GOOD AS NEW ELECTRONICS delivered what it is.

OEM battery at a great price and it was delivered promptly. You definitely need a second battery, especially if you're taking a lot of pictures/video or out on vacation. Amazon is the way to go!

Disappointed that the battery life was so short. I recently went on vacation and was surprised by how quickly the battery "died" when compared to my friend's Canon. Be sure to buy an extra one or possibly two if you are going on vacation and don't want to miss out on a shot.