Kastar 2 Pack Battery Replacement for Sony NP-F980 Pro NP-F960 NP-F970 CCD-TR415 CCD-TR416 CCD-TR425 CCD-TR427 CCD-TR500 CCD-TR511 CCD-TR512 CCD-TR515 CCD-TR516 CCD-TR517 CCD-TR555 TR57 CCD-TR67

These batteries are the foundation of my livestreaming gear. Yes, they work in the conventional way of plugging into an NPF-style slot to power my RGB panel lights and camera monitors. Yes, the battery life is good and still so (I get well over an hour with two of two batteries powering my lights at 100% after a year of consistent use).There are two areas these batteries have been exceptional. The first is how I recharge them. I plug them into a powered USB hub, which is great because I don't need an expensive multi-slot charger. The second is their USB port. I sometimes use my phone as a third camera and I can plug it into a battery for the power to record long videos -- no need for a cage or special adapter.Overall, I'm a fan and have picked up six more since my initial purchase of four.

These batteries have so far exceeded my initial expectations. Currently doing a test with one of them and it has been running in Record mode for one hour and forty-one minutes. At this point, the battery has not been in a charge mode for about a week, yet it showed four lights.As of now, it is showing 3 lights after recording for one hour and forty-six minutes.I don't see any issues with the construction as reported. My Sony cameras recognize them just fine, including remaining battery which now stands via the camera at 86%.I'd say that is a win, especially if they hold up.I am buying a few more for an upcoming expedition. Unless something causes me to adjust this review, these will be my Sony and light/accessory batteries going forward.

great.

Overall I do like these batteries, I have about ten of them. I use them mostly to run LED video lights (Neewer 660s and JinBei EFII-60). In general they work great, good battery life, the charge level gauge is nice.The problems I have had have come from what seems to be some quality control problems, and poor packaging.Two sets arrived damaged from Amazon, with cracks in the casing. This seemed to be from rough handling and the lack of padding in the packaging. Amazon replaced one set with no problems, but then fought me on the second set, claiming I never returned the faulty set.Anyways, the other problem I've had was with the contacts coming out of the casing. They're little tubes that slide over the pins in the battery bay. It seems Kastar doesn't really attach these to the casing very well, it seems to be just a pressure fit or maybe with a little glue.Either way, on a few occasions, when removing the battery from the light, I've had the battery's contacts start to come out of the casing, or come out entirely. Previously I've been able to just push them back in with my fingernail, but on the most recent occururence, the contact came all the way out and broke free of its internal wire. The picture I've attached shows this.I'm going to try to solder this and glue the contact back in, hopefully the battery still works afterwards.

Such a better solution than plugging batteries into a charger! It's well worth the few extra bucks to be able to plug into any USB outlet and not have to share a charger with multiple batteries. I can use 3 or 4 of these in the field on one video shoot to run my lights and then plug them all into a hub when I get back to the office. And since they double as power banks, I can charge up my USB devices in the field too.

Batteries work well and hold a charge. The LED charge indicators are nice but takes absolutely forever to charge with the USB port, better off with an external one.

convenient and reliable

I got these batteries thanks to a YouTube recommendation after purchasing Neewere NL660s. I bought three of them and my first thought was to move away from plugging them in every time I set up three point lighting! I ordered these and have used them every time I setup my lights. Even on one bar, yes the batteries have the charge status right there on the battery, my wife was able to get through a two hour shoot! I'm not super tech on things, but they work great and make my life easier by a mile! Definitely ordering two more sets as soon as I can to set all my lights up with them!