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by prairiewing on Thu May 31, 2018 2:24 am
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I'm sure I've inadvertently changed a setting somewhere but my A7r3 has started going through batteries at a much faster rate.  I've struggled though the menus and manual but can't get it back to wherever it was before.  Any suggested settings for increasing battery life
will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Pat Gerlach
 

by E.J. Peiker on Thu May 31, 2018 7:30 am
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Make sure Airplane Mode is set to on.  It's really hard to know without more info though.  Battery life in a mirrorless camera is very much dependent on the amount of LCD/EVF on time per shot.  So for example in a landscape photography situation where there is a lot of EVF or LCD time per shot, you might only get 600 shots off of a battery where in a wildlife or action or sports situation where you take many consecutive shots thus much less EVF/LCD time per shot, you might get 2000.  A DSLR doesn't have that phenomenon since it is an optical path that you look through.  So it may not be that the camera suddenly changed, it could be that you are shooting something different that results in more EVF/LCD time per photograph.

Or maybe you have a bad battery....
 

by WDCarrier on Thu May 31, 2018 5:08 pm
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I've been suffering battery drain on my RX10, sometimes up to 3 batteries a day. Just checked and noted Airplane mode was off so I changed it. Will be interested to see how this affects things.
[font=Helvetica, sans-serif]“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” MLK[/font]
 

by Charlie Woodrich on Mon Jun 04, 2018 12:52 pm
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I'm having the same issue with the a7R3.  It just started last week.  I purchased it new about three months ago.  I haven't changed any settings.  Both batteries are Sony (also new). The lens is native and the auto off is set to five minutes.  The LCD is set to off.  I only use it to review a shot.  I put a newly charged battery in yesterday and took about five shots with it, and then set it down.  I tried to use it this am and I received a message the battery was exhausted.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Mon Jun 04, 2018 5:38 pm
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Charlie Woodrich wrote:I'm having the same issue with the a7R3.  It just started last week.  I purchased it new about three months ago.  I haven't changed any settings.  Both batteries are Sony (also new). The lens is native and the auto off is set to five minutes.  The LCD is set to off.  I only use it to review a shot.  I put a newly charged battery in yesterday and took about five shots with it, and then set it down.  I tried to use it this am and I received a message the battery was exhausted.
It sounds like you have WiFi and/or bluetooth on and it is in constant communication with a device such as a phone, laptop, network, tablet...
Make sure you turn airplane mode ON and Bluetooth Function Off.
 

by Charlie Woodrich on Mon Jun 04, 2018 6:15 pm
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E.J. Peiker wrote: It sounds like you have WiFi and/or bluetooth on and it is in constant communication with a device such as a phone, laptop, network, tablet...
Make sure you turn airplane mode ON and Bluetooth Function Off
Thanks!  The settings are as you suggest.  It may be something like the battery isn't sitting right.  I'll keep digging.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Fri Jun 15, 2018 8:41 am
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Charlie Woodrich wrote:
E.J. Peiker wrote: It sounds like you have WiFi and/or bluetooth on and it is in constant communication with a device such as a phone, laptop, network, tablet...
Make sure you turn airplane mode ON and Bluetooth Function Off
Thanks!  The settings are as you suggest.  It may be something like the battery isn't sitting right.  I'll keep digging.
I just went a week on Lanai and took 741 landscape photos, so lots of viewfinder/LCD time per shot, and most shots being several seconds for shutter speed and did not exhaust my primary battery.  I never had to recharge or dip into the spare battery.  I am sure to have Airplane Mode on and all communication protocols turned off.  Quite often I would forget to turn the camera off and not resume shooting until I got to my next location which could be as much as an hour or more.  OSS was off the entire time and the lenses in use were the 16-35GM, 24-70GM, 100-400GM and Voigtlander 12mm. So based on that and what Charlie wrote here and on another forum, there is definitely something going on that is drawing power.  It would be interesting to see if that drain occurred with lens off or with just a specific lens as it might indicate a problem or some sort of power drain with a specific lens.
 

by Charlie Woodrich on Fri Jun 15, 2018 10:37 am
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E.J. Peiker wrote:
Charlie Woodrich wrote:
E.J. Peiker wrote: It sounds like you have WiFi and/or bluetooth on and it is in constant communication with a device such as a phone, laptop, network, tablet...
Make sure you turn airplane mode ON and Bluetooth Function Off
Thanks!  The settings are as you suggest.  It may be something like the battery isn't sitting right.  I'll keep digging.
I just went a week on Lanai and took 741 landscape photos, so lots of viewfinder/LCD time per shot, and most shots being several seconds for shutter speed and did not exhaust my primary battery.  I never had to recharge or dip into the spare battery.  I am sure to have Airplane Mode on and all communication protocols turned off.  Quite often I would forget to turn the camera off and not resume shooting until I got to my next location which could be as much as an hour or more.  OSS was off the entire time and the lenses in use were the 16-35GM, 24-70GM, 100-400GM and Voigtlander 12mm. So based on that and what Charlie wrote here and on another forum, there is definitely something going on that is drawing power.  It would be interesting to see if that drain occurred with lens off or with just a specific lens as it might indicate a problem or some sort of power drain with a specific lens.
The lens attached was a 100-400GM with a Sony 1.4 teleconverter.  I'm thinking it has something to do the the TC because there is no power drain with just the 100-400GM attached.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Fri Jun 15, 2018 11:26 am
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Aha, you are probably on to something.  I just checked to see if there is a FW update for the 1.4x and there isn't but there is a 100-400 FW update that was released late last year and a recent a7R III.  I'd definitely install those if you haven't already.  As I recently documented on the a7R III, the recent FW update fixed some bugs that they did not disclose.

Also look carefully at the TC mount on both sides to be sure there isn't something, anything, that is bridging the contacts.
 

by Charlie Woodrich on Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:36 pm
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Thanks! The camera is up to date, but I wouldn't have thought to look for a firmware update on a lens. The adapters; yes (once I learned that they were more than glorified extension tubes). Last week there was an episode where the lens just wouldn't AF. I hope this up date fixes that issue as well.
 

by E.J. Peiker on Fri Jun 15, 2018 1:05 pm
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Charlie Woodrich wrote:Thanks!  The camera is up to date, but I wouldn't have thought to look for a firmware update on a lens.  The adapters; yes (once I learned that they were more than glorified extension tubes).  Last week there was an episode where the lens just wouldn't AF.  I hope this up date fixes that issue as well.
Definitely clean the contacts on the lens, camera and TC.  Also, if you can't lock AF, try opening the aperture up, focusing and then stopping back down.  These cameras and AF systems, depending on how you have the camera configured, work quite different than a DSLR system where the lens is wide open 100% of the time except when you take the shot.
 

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