Home > Consumer Reviews > Maximal Power DB PAN DMW-BCG10 Secured Digital Camera Replacement Battery for Panasonic DMW-BCG10 (Black)

It is true that this battery will NOT work in the Lumix ZS3 camera as advertised. The reason is simple. Panasonic has ENCODED the Firmware to prevent 3rd party companies from manufacturing a functioning non encoded battery. If you check your Menu under Version Disp., you will see that the Firmware Version is 1.2. This Firmware version contains the exclusive Panasonic sabotaging software to permit only official and VERY EXPENSIVE Panasonic branded batteries to work with this camera. Too bad that Panasonic engages in this knid of corporate gouging of it's customers. The previous firmware Version 1.0 DID allow third party batteries to work. That's why you get conflicting customer reviews. Check your Firmware and let's complain to Panasonic. In the meantime, Amazon can WARN us of this incorrect representation of a working battery. Please remove it from the sight so as not to put everybody through a lot of needless aggravation and shipping hassle.Maximal Power DB PAN DMW-BCG10 Secured Digital Camera Replacement Battery for Panasonic DMW-BCG10 (Black)g.

This battery works very well with ZS3. It has Japanese cells and has insurance coverage about 1 million dollars. The battery is quality built. The only thing you need to do is to downgrade firmware from 1.2 to 1.1. You can google out the step-by-step instruction. It took me about 5 minutes to downgrade. Currently, Panasonic brand ZS3 batteries are sold out in US. And even if it is available, the MSRP is $60. Go figure!

I charged this battery as instructed. After inserting each of the 2 batteries I ordered, a message appears on the screen informing me this battery cannot be used and the camera turns itself off. I am returning the batteries as they are useless with my new Lumix camera. I gave it a 1 star only because I was prompted to give it a rating and zero star was unavailable.

I have downgraded the firmware to ver. 1.1 and these batteries worked great. I then upgraded back up to ver. 1.2 and the camera still worked great. So obviously I then downgraded back to ver. 1.1...As such I see absolutely no downside to changing from 1.2 to 1.1. Even if something went wrong, camera malfunctions regarding firmware changes DO NOT void the warranty.

If a major problem gets corrected in a future upgrade then I'll deal with that then.

These batteries have a higher rating and indeed seem to last longer. To really verify one would have to conduct very controlled tests, not just random shooting. As such I don't plan on conducting such tests as this battery has already accomplished the task as being a formidable backup for half the price...

UPDATE: 11-4-09

I did a battery test taking a video using my Panny ZS3 with exactly 10 complete zoom in/out functions and this battery lasted 90 minutes...Not bad considering my old Canon HG20 camcorder could barely match that with a 2100 maH battery...Also if the past holds true the more cycles the better usage so maybe I can expect a little more...

This battery is an excellent replacement for the original batteries from Lumix. HOWEVER bare in mind, that choosing this battery you are going to be stuck with firmware 1.1. If you get the latest 1.2 firmware with your camera you will NOT be able to use this battery unless you downgrade. Downgrading process is really easy, however costs you extra few minutes of reading/downloading and a little stress while you're modifying your brand new shiny camera firmware. The disadventage though is, that if Panasonic publishes some fixes/features in say 1.3 firmware - you won't be able to use it unless sacrificing batteries bought already.