A7sII Overheated at 1080p

H

hopkins802

Well-known member
Has anyone else ever had their A7sII overheat shooting in 1080p? I've only ever had it happen twice. Once was understandable, it was shooting 120fps under about 95 degrees F. Took awhile for it to cool down for sure.

The other was during a wedding, again on a hot day, probably 90 degrees F and under direct sunlight. I do have to mention that I was shooting some 4k broll just before the ceremony handheld so the cam was already warm. I started the ceremony on a monopod for the aisle walks, screen pulled away of course, and then ran to the back to throw it on the tripod right after. I think it was about 12 - 15 minutes in when it started to give me the overheat symbol. Keep in mind that the camera wasn't doing all that much, it was pretty much untouched on a tripod, screen pulled away, maybe a couple focus checks but that's it. Luckily I had 2 other cameras going so I turned it off for about 2 minutes, moved into the shade, I believed popped out one battery from the grip, and then kept going. It recorded fine for the remaining 25 minutes. It seems that direct sunlight may have a huge impact, especially with the deep black colored body?

Anyway, I never had the A7s overheat shooting 1080p, and I haven't ready of anyone online complaining of the A7sII overheating in extreme conditions. The firmware had just been updated to 2.00 and I have the Sony brand vertical grip. Just wondering if I'm the only one who has experienced this and if I should contact Sony?

Feel free to share your methods on reducing the chance of overheating during long recordings as well! Please don't tell me I have the wrong camera for the job, I only need to record longer segments for about 20% of my work.

Thanks so much!
-Dan
 
hopkins802 said:
Feel free to share your methods on reducing the chance of overheating during long recordings as well! Please don't tell me I have the wrong camera for the job, I only need to record longer segments for about 20% of my work.
Click to expand...

20% is a lot!

For work I want a workhorse, & any camera that repeatedly fails does not qualify. Hopefully this is an isolated issue that can be solved.

I dearly want to add a A7x but so far none have quite got me to bite.
 
Thanks for the response! I have to add that I always have the GH4 with me for longer shoots as a backup. I know they are more difficult to match in post, but the GH4 has yet to let me down in that regards. The A7sii doesn't fail repeatedly, as I mentioned only twice. I would like to add the FS700 and subtract the GH4, but as a solo wedding shooter, two smaller bodies is much easier to lug around.
 
hopkins802 said:
Has anyone else ever had their A7sII overheat shooting in 1080p? I've only ever had it happen twice. Once was understandable, it was shooting 120fps under about 95 degrees F. Took awhile for it to cool down for sure.

The other was during a wedding, again on a hot day, probably 90 degrees F and under direct sunlight. I do have to mention that I was shooting some 4k broll just before the ceremony handheld so the cam was already warm. I started the ceremony on a monopod for the aisle walks, screen pulled away of course, and then ran to the back to throw it on the tripod right after. I think it was about 12 - 15 minutes in when it started to give me the overheat symbol. Keep in mind that the camera wasn't doing all that much, it was pretty much untouched on a tripod, screen pulled away, maybe a couple focus checks but that's it. Luckily I had 2 other cameras going so I turned it off for about 2 minutes, moved into the shade, I believed popped out one battery from the grip, and then kept going. It recorded fine for the remaining 25 minutes. It seems that direct sunlight may have a huge impact, especially with the deep black colored body?

Anyway, I never had the A7s overheat shooting 1080p, and I haven't ready of anyone online complaining of the A7sII overheating in extreme conditions. The firmware had just been updated to 2.00 and I have the Sony brand vertical grip. Just wondering if I'm the only one who has experienced this and if I should contact Sony?

Feel free to share your methods on reducing the chance of overheating during long recordings as well! Please don't tell me I have the wrong camera for the job, I only need to record longer segments for about 20% of my work.

Thanks so much!
-Dan
Click to expand...

Yes - same thing, shooting long takes under the sun. Battery grip as well and the biggest culprit is the direct sunlight. Direct sunlight in 90F+ will eventually overheat it, even in 1080p.
 
Ah gotycha. Guess I need to decide whether or not I need to learn how to roll with the punches, or figure out another solution. It's been the perfect wedding videography camera other than during ceremonies. I'd hate to sell it for the FS700 and lose several features that I love, just because I have to troubleshoot during ceremonies.

I did a bit more research and I came across some solutions that people have used with RED cameras. Sounds like the other models overheated quite a bit. People's solutions were simple..Just rigging up a small umbrella. Some used cloth covered ice packs and held them to the camera body. Has anyone used these solutions when shooting with Sony's A7 series cameras? I do not care about shooting 4K for 30 minutes straight, but would like to prevent it from overheating at 1080p ever again.

Are there others out there that shoot weddings with this camera that have run into my issue? I only do about 5 a year and am a full-time editor, but I'd like to be as prepared as possible this season.

Thanks!
 
hopkins802 said:
Ah gotycha. Guess I need to decide whether or not I need to learn how to roll with the punches, or figure out another solution. It's been the perfect wedding videography camera other than during ceremonies. I'd hate to sell it for the FS700 and lose several features that I love, just because I have to troubleshoot during ceremonies.

I did a bit more research and I came across some solutions that people have used with RED cameras. Sounds like the other models overheated quite a bit. People's solutions were simple..Just rigging up a small umbrella. Some used cloth covered ice packs and held them to the camera body. Has anyone used these solutions when shooting with Sony's A7 series cameras? I do not care about shooting 4K for 30 minutes straight, but would like to prevent it from overheating at 1080p ever again.

Are there others out there that shoot weddings with this camera that have run into my issue? I only do about 5 a year and am a full-time editor, but I'd like to be as prepared as possible this season.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

If you have a freezer nearby, just keep towels in the freezer and rub the top of your camera(careful with humidity though). If i was next to a river i would just put my hands in the river till they were pretty cold, then i would hold my camera. Pretty much any trick will help, but the most important of course is to keep the camera under shade.
 
firehawk said:
Darn. I thought they fixed this after the update
Click to expand...

Its better then before - but if your shooting outdoors at 90f/30c++, dont leave under the sun at any moment.

Another trick is to change the battery and memory cards frequently, we had a shoot in india with temps above 100F and that helped.
 
Yeah, when mine overheated, swapping the battery and moving to the shade did the trick. Thank god for the solid Gh4 as the backup cam... And yeah the update def. makes it better. Would not recommend shooting 4k during long takes of anything live that cannot be re-shot though.
 
I bought mine about a month ago. Is that the best firmware?
I'm also interested in ideas for an umbrella/cover. But concerned about it catching wind.

How about powering the A7sii from external power? Would that help the overheating?
 
You should have the most up to date firmware yes. I believe it is 2.2 now. You can check in your camera which version it's running.

Good call on the umbrella catching wind. I guess if you're right near the tripod you can hold it down though.

Powering the A7sii externally could help, but wouldn't solve the problem. The only thing I've heard that would stop the issue is using an external recorder, like an Atmos. But then you have to worry about that clunky setup and your SSD's working properly. I would just be careful shooting long takes, and have a back-up cam.
 
Thank you, hopkins802.

Good idea on the flag, Bern.

That should catch less wind. Block less sun too, but is adjustable so as long as you got it adjusted right and kept an eye on it as the sunlight moved with time, it might work pretty well.
 
My solution to this problem is to put dry ice in a baggie and put it between the lcd and the body of the camera. Never had a problem with OH
 
EDRAKEL said:
My solution to this problem is to put dry ice in a baggie and put it between the lcd and the body of the camera. Never had a problem with OH
Click to expand...

Nice, thanks man. Do you do this with the a7sii specifically, or another camera? does this solution introduce any condensation?
 
Doesn't powering it with external power (such as atomos power station) and using an external recorder to record instead recording internally greatly help with overheating?
 
Yes, greatly, but it's not perfect...I was able to get about an hour of non-stop 4K rolling via Flame/Shogun before the symbol popped on. That's the worst case scenario.

With clips that run seconds or a few takes here and there with breaks, I can shoot all day without any issues.

It's just the long-format stuff like one-take interviews or long presentations (keynotes, multiple speakers, etc.) that are risky.
 
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