Sony
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 4:29 pm
1
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Vivek wrote:Charlie I am sorry you're having this problem with one of their higher end bodies and lenses and I cannot be of help to you.
This (service) is one of the *major* reasons I am still with Canon and not with Sony or Nikon. I usually take two trips per year and photograph my daughters' swims on the weekend, so working gear is critical for me even though I am not a pro. Also, quick turnaround by competent technicians is also important for me. I can live without the lower noise at high ISO (although I would love the AF capabilities of the D850). If Sony and Nikon ever came up with something close to CPS that I can pay yearly to get reasonably good service, I will certainly evaluate other things regarding the switch to those platforms. Right now for me, CPS rules and has mostly been a very positive experience.
And yet I have been doing exactly that for 5 years all over the world from polar regions to equatorial regions, from deserts to rainforests, from calm sunny days to hurricanes...Charlie Woodrich wrote:I would not go on an expensive trip relying solely on the Sony gear. Last year I went to shoot polar bears just north of Churchill. My main gear was Canon but I also brought along a Sony a7M2 for landscapes. You leave your gear outside in a sheltered area so you are not constantly re-aclimating it; and you just pull out the batteries and cards. The second morning I go out to insert the batteries and cards, and when I turned on the Sony the menu came up and asked me what language to use! All of the settings were lost! The Canon, on the other hand was a relative tank. The battery life was good and it performed like it should. The Sony does produce nice images, but at this point they apparently lack the infrastructure to service their camera products.
I have the same problem with all four of my Sonys, the A7, A7II, A7RII and A6500. Even when they're stored in my office with a loaded battery grip I will have to re-charge the batteries once a week, else I lose all setting on them. So, the size of the battery does not seem to be a factor. Maybe it's a certain combination of settings that we use that makes the batteries drain. Can't think of any that could have this effect, though.E.J. Peiker wrote: As for your camera resetting itself, here is what likely happened, the a7R II uses the old tiny battery. Not only does this battery power the camera, it also charges the internal cell battery that is used to maintain info like your camera set-up, time, date, etc. Since you left it outside in cold conditions, and especially if that tiny battery wasn't freshly charged, the cold saps all the energy (not only from the main battery but also the tiny internal battery) so the next morning, all settings were lost. Your Canon has a much bigger battery so it was able to maintain charge in it's internal battery. The a7 III, a7R III, and a9 would not have this problem as they have much bigger batteries. But the lesson here is that if you are going to leave a camera outside in the cold, make sure that it has a fully charged fresh battery in it.
I have 15 NP-FW50 batteries, some brand new, some as old as 4 years and most of them in between. They all behave the same when in the camera. None of them drain when out of the camera or when in the battery grip when it is detached from the camera.Mike in O wrote:I have no trouble with my batteries draining even when accidentally leaving them on and letting them go in sleep mode...A mount, rx100, and nex 7. I think the battery may be on its last legs, do they drain when out of the camera?
This seems to be a very short time to have the batteries drain that quickly.Jens Peermann wrote:I have the same problem with all four of my Sonys, the A7, A7II, A7RII and A6500. Even when they're stored in my office with a loaded battery grip I will have to re-charge the batteries once a week, else I lose all setting on them. So, the size of the battery does not seem to be a factor. Maybe it's a certain combination of settings that we use that makes the batteries drain. Can't think of any that could have this effect, though.E.J. Peiker wrote: As for your camera resetting itself, here is what likely happened, the a7R II uses the old tiny battery. Not only does this battery power the camera, it also charges the internal cell battery that is used to maintain info like your camera set-up, time, date, etc. Since you left it outside in cold conditions, and especially if that tiny battery wasn't freshly charged, the cold saps all the energy (not only from the main battery but also the tiny internal battery) so the next morning, all settings were lost. Your Canon has a much bigger battery so it was able to maintain charge in it's internal battery. The a7 III, a7R III, and a9 would not have this problem as they have much bigger batteries. But the lesson here is that if you are going to leave a camera outside in the cold, make sure that it has a fully charged fresh battery in it.
Do you leave WiFi/Bluetooth on. If so go into the menus and turn airplane mode to OnJens Peermann wrote:I have the same problem with all four of my Sonys, the A7, A7II, A7RII and A6500. Even when they're stored in my office with a loaded battery grip I will have to re-charge the batteries once a week, else I lose all setting on them. So, the size of the battery does not seem to be a factor. Maybe it's a certain combination of settings that we use that makes the batteries drain. Can't think of any that could have this effect, though.E.J. Peiker wrote: As for your camera resetting itself, here is what likely happened, the a7R II uses the old tiny battery. Not only does this battery power the camera, it also charges the internal cell battery that is used to maintain info like your camera set-up, time, date, etc. Since you left it outside in cold conditions, and especially if that tiny battery wasn't freshly charged, the cold saps all the energy (not only from the main battery but also the tiny internal battery) so the next morning, all settings were lost. Your Canon has a much bigger battery so it was able to maintain charge in it's internal battery. The a7 III, a7R III, and a9 would not have this problem as they have much bigger batteries. But the lesson here is that if you are going to leave a camera outside in the cold, make sure that it has a fully charged fresh battery in it.
- Sorry but the fully draining the battery before recharging on Lithium Ion batteries is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Repeated full drainings on this battery technology will severely reduce the life span. your advice was sound in the days of NiCad and NiMH batteries but is not correct for LiIon. Maximum battery longevity is achieved if you recharge them in the 30-40% remaining range but it doesn't hurt to recharge them even at 90%. What does hurt is repeated deep discharges over and over.signgrap wrote:This seems to be a very short time to have the batteries drain that quickly.Jens Peermann wrote:I have the same problem with all four of my Sonys, the A7, A7II, A7RII and A6500. Even when they're stored in my office with a loaded battery grip I will have to re-charge the batteries once a week, else I lose all setting on them. So, the size of the battery does not seem to be a factor. Maybe it's a certain combination of settings that we use that makes the batteries drain. Can't think of any that could have this effect, though.E.J. Peiker wrote: As for your camera resetting itself, here is what likely happened, the a7R II uses the old tiny battery. Not only does this battery power the camera, it also charges the internal cell battery that is used to maintain info like your camera set-up, time, date, etc. Since you left it outside in cold conditions, and especially if that tiny battery wasn't freshly charged, the cold saps all the energy (not only from the main battery but also the tiny internal battery) so the next morning, all settings were lost. Your Canon has a much bigger battery so it was able to maintain charge in it's internal battery. The a7 III, a7R III, and a9 would not have this problem as they have much bigger batteries. But the lesson here is that if you are going to leave a camera outside in the cold, make sure that it has a fully charged fresh battery in it.
- A contributor to battery drain is not exhausting the battery charge before re-charging. Always use up the battery's entire charge till it won't function any more in camera before re-charging.
- Make sure all cameras have the latest firmware.
- Are the batteries Sony OEM or Chinese knock off? While Sony batteries are more expensive they are much more dependable.
- Have the batteries always drained this quickly or is this a more recent problem? If it's a recent problem, the batteries may be at the end of their useful life as every re-charging shortens the batteries life by a little. If some of your batteries date back to 2014 (a7) this may be the cause of some of problems. See if all your batteries are draining at the same rate; if not mark the ones losing charge and only use the batteries that are holding charge (assuming there's a difference).
- Not having turned on airplane mode is the # 1 reason for battery draw down in a Sony camera's when powered on.
- Is WiFi and NFC turned off? These drain power when camera is powered on
- Note even with the batteries stored outside the camera the batteries do slowly lose charge - a % or two a week, newer batteries holding charge better than older batteries.
This may give you additional insight into the problem:
https://blog.kasson.com/the-last-word/s ... w-summary/
I have the same Sony cameras as you with the exception of the a6500 and none of my Sony's discharge anywhere as quickly as you cameras are being drained.
Being that the tiny internal battery suffers from the cold, I'm sure that if you left one of the bigger batteries in it to keep the internal battery charged you would not have had that problem.[table][tr][td]Charlie Woodrich wrote:
I would not go on an expensive trip relying solely on the Sony gear. Last year I went to shoot polar bears just north of Churchill. My main gear was Canon but I also brought along a Sony a7M2 for landscapes. You leave your gear outside in a sheltered area so you are not constantly re-aclimating it; and you just pull out the batteries and cards. The second morning I go out to insert the batteries and cards, and when I turned on the Sony the menu came up and asked me what language to use! All of the settings were lost! The Canon, on the other hand was a relative tank. The battery life was good and it performed like it should. The Sony does produce nice images, but at this point they apparently lack the infrastructure to service their camera products.[/td]
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