Aputure 672 battery usage

C

c0rpse

Member
Hi!

I bought 2 Aputure 672's last week and for the most part i've been happy with them. I'm coming up on my window to return them to the store so I want to be 100% sure. Today I charged the batteries on the unit and then just left it powered on at 99% to see how long it would last. Unfortunately, it only lasted about 40 minutes before it started to flicker. Like, really bad,weird flickering that would be totally unusable in a shooting environment. My question is... is this normal? I did read in another thread that people got more juice by using external battery chargers. Can anyone confirm or deny this? They're decent little lights but they still cost me 700$ (Canadian) so I just want to be sure everything is on the up and up and they're going to be right for now. If not, i'd much rather just use that money for a set of lights that won't act all screwy after 40 minutes. Granted, this is only in battery operation mode....but still!

Any help would be awesome. Thanks!
 
I did a battery run-down test shortly after I got my first HR672S (I have a second, flood model now), and it ran about 80 minutes at 100% power on the two batteries that came with it. As it happened, I wasn't in the room during the last five minutes it was on, but there was no noticeable flicker before that, just a slight dimming in the last few minutes.

So yours is only lasting about half as long -- I would consider that a problem, even though it might only be the batteries and not the light itself.

- Greg
 
Thanks for the reply, Greg!

Just to confirm that you're using the LED panel to charge the batteries and not any sort of external charger, correct?

Thanks!
 
Right, using the panel itself to charge the batteries. (I'm a Panasonic camera guy myself and don't have an external charger for the Sony-style batteries, although I may pick one up now that I have two of the Amaran lights.)

Your message inspired me to test the newer flood panel I just got last week as well, so I'm charging it up right now. I'll probably have results tomorrow.

- Greg
 
AFter the test last night I recharged the batteries but this time they lasted for 1h58 minutes. No flicker this time, it just went off when it died

Perhaps more troubling is I plugged it in over night. Instead of shutting off the charging when it was done when I woke up this morning (7.5 hours) the unit said it was STILL charging.

Based on what i'm reading and experiencing I think the units battery charger is just questionalbale.

But now I have to decide if I should return them and try something else, or get an external battery charger and go that route. Hmmmm....
 
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They're a darned good light for the money but it sounds like yours has a bad charging circuit. I always feel uncomfortable working with equipment that isn't behaving fully to specs, even if it doesn't directly affect the quality of the results. Since you're still within the return window on the light, I'd recommend trying to get it exchanged for a new identical unit, which hopefully will work right. Quality control variations are one of the expected downsides of keeping the cost down -- although I've had expensive cameras and lenses that had defects right out of the box as well, and the Aputure stuff generally seems well designed and built for what you pay.

- Greg
 
Those big batteries take a long time to charge and if you leave them on the panel when not charging they will drain the battery. Always tame them off when not in use.

Also the Watson NP-970 dont work on the 672 panel's. Good to know the Wasabi brand does.
 
Do you guys have any tips for defusing these guys? Homemade or otherwise? I've seen that ILED diffuser on amazon but I don't love how it attaches and covered up all the events etc. Interested in hearing any hacks you guys might have.
 
My HR672W (flood model, 5600°K) just ran 140 minutes (2:20) on batteries after charging overnight-and-then-some. Just another data point for your consideration.

It shut off abruptly at the end and did not flicker, nor did my calibrated eyeballs detect that it dimmed significantly. (Which is to say, I didn't use a light meter or camera to try and measure the output precisely.)

- Greg
 
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