AC90: Simple question about battery life.

[Fluoro]

Apologies for my ignorance- I searched with no luck. I have a last minute shoot tomorrow with an AC-90 that only has one battery and I need to record about 4-5 hours of footage. If I just use the evf how close will I get to that do you think? All the info I could find did not specify it was with lcd or evf. Mostly it says 4 hours for battery life but I imagine with evf it's much more?

How much record time do you get with one battery and evf?

Thanks for any advice.

[jamedia.uk]

It's not a simple question. What is the condition of the battery? Depending on age and prior usage no two batteries may last the same length of time.

Would it be possible to run the camera off mains power? OR if it is not 5 hours continuous would there be breaks when you could charge the battery?

[Fluoro]

Oh my bad- It's a brand new Panasonic battery- the one that comes with the camera. No chance of mains power.

[jamedia.uk]

4-5 hours is pushing it. Test it before hand but it depends on how much zooming and other thing you do. You need a back up battery anyway. I always buy a spare battery with any camera.

[Ashton Lamont]

On the one occasion that I measured it I got in excess of 6 hours. That was with using a genuine Panasonic battery (that had been recharged many times - not sure if that affects it), and the LCD all the time. Drains such as zooming and playback were minimal.

I would be nervous without a 2nd battery but quietly confident.

Pete

[Fluoro]

On the one occasion that I measured it I got in excess of 6 hours. That was with using a genuine Panasonic battery (that had been recharged many times - not sure if that affects it), and the LCD all the time. Drains such as zooming and playback were minimal.

I would be nervous without a 2nd battery but quietly confident.

Pete

Thanks. I actually didn't see this till after the shoot and you were bang on. Ended up only shooting about 2.5 hrs but still had 3 of the 4 battery usage bars left! That was with just the evf but with constant zooming.

Amazing battery saves the day.

[jamedia.uk]

[QUOTE=Fluoro;1986458651 shooting about 2.5 hrs but still had 3 of the 4 battery usage bars left!.[/QUOTE]


The time to number of bars is not always linear and tends to get worse as the batteries get older A lot of things can affect battery life:
Age, number of cycles and if it gets reconditioned when charging. Also temperature, what the camera is doing. The drain is not constant.

A spare battery is always a good idea as is carrying a charger with a mains and car adaptor. I have yet to see a film crew man pack all the kit for a shoot :-)

Does any one do a car adaptor for the AC90 batteries?