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The battery is equipped with short circuit and overload protection and
integrated circuits which are used to monitor the battery power level and
can communicate this with the camera to give you an accurate battery
remaining percentage indicator.
You may have noticed that Panasonic have gone to great lengths to warn
you about the use of counterfeit or third party batteries because of
the
risk of fire or explosion within the camera and have introduced a method
of establishing if the inserted battery has the Panasonic safety check
mechanism warning you that “this battery cannot be used” if a non-
approved battery is inserted. It didn't take long for the third party
manufacturers to crack this code and offer fully compatible batteries for
the Panasonic Lumix FZ200.
Whether you use them or not is a decision that you will make alone, but
given the attractive price of these substitutes and the level of risk
involved I am sure a lot of you have used these batteries without
incident.
I am not advocating use either way, just be aware of the potential
consequences.
The battery itself comes only partially charged and requires a full
charging cycle to prepare it for use. Insert the battery in the charger unit
and plug the charger into the mains (or 12v power outlet in your vehicle if
using a third party charger with this facility). The green charging led will
illuminate and the battery will commence the charging process. It is
recommended to charge the battery at temperature of
between 10 and 30
degrees Centigrade (50 to 86 Fahrenheit). Once the battery has
completed the charge cycle the led will go out.
(Tip: if you allow the battery to cool for about 30 minutes and put it
back on charge you will get an extra few minutes of power as the
charge is temperature dependant)
If there is a problem with the battery the led will blink continuously. This
could be due to the fact that the battery temperature may be too high or
too cold to charge. Battery charging from completely exhausted can take
up to 140 minutes.
Although lithium-ion batteries do not suffer any “memory effect” if
charging is done from partially exhausted batteries, it is recommended to
allow the battery to have a complete discharge/charge cycle to keep the
battery condition optimal. Frequent, top up charges, has been cited as
bad for the battery formulation.
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