Batteries For Full Day Of Shooting Video (A7s-A6000)

J

jayhawk30

Member
I'm headed to Guatemala in a few weeks and plan to use my new A7s and A6000 for my wife and I to shoot video. We will be doing some filming for a non-profit and will most likely be shooting all day. I haven't used these cameras enough to know how fast they roll through batteries in a day.

I was planning to take 8 batteries and a few charges. Do you all think 4 is enough for each? I should have access to outlets most days but I want to be prepared.

Thanks!
 
I got through a 2 hour show (including break though) mostly filming but at parts just taking pictures or being on standby with one battery with my A7s the other day. If you're not shooting continuously and have access to power, 4 batteries should be enough.
 
Agreed. Went through only 2 on a commercial shoot the other day. Granted I could keep it turned off between setups, but still I think 4 plus a charger for each camera will be fine.
 
Sony A7/A6000/A5100 video battery consumption

Sony A7/A6000/A5100 video battery consumption

jayhawk30 said:
Guatemala to use my new A7s and A6000 to shoot video doing some filming shooting all day. 8 batteries and a few chargers
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It depends on how much are you recording. Here is the rule of thumb: 1 minute video consumes 1% of battery. 8 batteries 800 minutes total recording time. A year ago I was shooting still/video on a Carnival from 10AM till 2AM in the night with my A7, 4 batteries were enough, but I had to start charging after replacing a battery: by the end of the day I consumed a total of 6 battery-charges with the 4 batteries; I recorded concerts, street life, a hell lot of videos and about 1000 photos (often bursts). Recharging 8 exhausted batteries in the hotel room might require a smart charger/charging strategy. I love that Sony uses the same battery type for all cameras. I buy the Patona 2-battery+charger packs.
Be prepared that the A6000 will overheat after 16-20 minutes of video, you can restart in about 20 seconds, but then you will be able to shoot 5 - 6 minutes and it stops again because of overheating. The A7 never overheated upon me.
 
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My a7S battery life and overheating test:

Samuel H said:
Sony battery, new, from bag: 90 minutes of continuous recording to go from 100% to 8%
Cheap ebay battery, 2-years-old, from bag: 47 minutes of continuous recording to go from 89% to auto-switch-off.

Sony battery, 2-years-old, just charged: 82 minutes of continuous recording to go from 100% to auto-switch-off.
Cheap ebay battery, new, just charged: 89 minutes of continuous recording to go from 100% to auto-switch-off.

"from the bag" means the battery was fully charged a month ago
"continuous recording" means it stopped after 30 minutes and I hit record again

Temperatures after 80 minutes recording:
Room 24.5ºC
Table 23.5ºC
Camera 33.5ºC
Camera, below LCD 40.0ºC

That's a total of 5 hours recorded this afternoon. This camera doesn't have overheating issues.
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I would go with 5. Dang camera eats them bats up fast! Also the Watson dual charger is AWSOME! Lets you know exactly how low a battery is and how far charged it is while charging.
I have three of them and with the swappable plates it makes charging different batteries a breeze.
 
I have 4.
Two came with the camera, and two are $15 generic ones I bought off a guy locally who sells a lot of batteries.
As long as I have access to power, I can run all day (continuous) on those 4 batteries, for sure (with 1 charger, the one that came with the a7s)

I haven't had to run all day with no access to power with it yet. If I did though, I would imagine I would want 10+ batteries (this is assuming non-stop recording for 10-15 hours) I would be fine using the $15 generic batteriens. In my experience I get nearly the same performance out of them as the sony batteries included with the camera.

In comparison, I have 3 batteries for my C100 to run all day with no access to power.
Also in comparison, the batteries for the C100 cost significantly more than for the A7s.
 
"non-stop recording for 10-15 hours" --> just the thought of having to edit all that gives me the shivers

I go all day with two batteries, but I've never shot more than 90 minutes of footage in one day.
 
Yeah I don't think we will be going non-stop all day. With the little experience I have with the camera it seems to suck battery faster when not recording than my other cameras.

Samuel an Erik - thanks for reminding me about chargers! I will definitely pick up one of the Watsons.
 
jayhawk30 said:
Yeah I don't think we will be going non-stop all day. With the little experience I have with the camera it seems to suck battery faster when not recording than my other cameras.

Samuel an Erik - thanks for reminding me about chargers! I will definitely pick up one of the Watsons.
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If you get the Watson or Person Dual Charger also order a couple plates for another battery type. The plates are only $2 each so it's worth ordering them at the same time.
 
jayhawk30 said:
Yeah I don't think we will be going non-stop all day. With the little experience I have with the camera it seems to suck battery faster when not recording than my other cameras.
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Make sure you're in airplane mode and you shut off the camera when not shooting or framing a shot, saves a lot of juice. My standby is set to one minute as well, if I'm not rolling I don't want to drain the battery. I have 6 or 7 batteries now - a few Sony and a few Wasabi - and I've never been through all of them on very heavy days of shooting. I haven't had any of the battery drain issues others are reporting with the camera off either - just pulled my A7s out after 2-weeks of sitting and both batteries in the grip show 100%. YMMV.
 
Sony bats revisited

I'm considering an A7s for a very remote location project in July and August, maybe as much as a week without access to AC. I'll probably rent one of those little Honda 'suit-case' generators but I won't be able to charge until night. I've always found the NP-FW50's remarkably anemic (at least compared to GH4 batts) and its one of the reasons I've been so hesitant about the A7/nex series for paid work in the locations I work and the amount I need to run cameras in a day. SO. . .any new developments on the power side? Is anyone making an external solution for A7s that would take some sort of common 12v pack?
 
An update to my battery life comments:

Samuel H said:
I just made a not-so-quick test:

Sony battery, new, from bag: 90 minutes of continuous recording to go from 100% to 8%
Cheap ebay battery, 2-years-old, from bag: 47 minutes of continuous recording to go from 89% to auto-switch-off.

Sony battery, 2-years-old, just charged: 82 minutes of continuous recording to go from 100% to auto-switch-off.
Cheap ebay battery, new, just charged: 89 minutes of continuous recording to go from 100% to auto-switch-off.

"from the bag" means the battery was fully charged a month ago
"continuous recording" means it stopped after 30 minutes and I hit record again
Click to expand...

Samuel H said:
I go all day with two batteries, but I've never shot more than 90 minutes of footage in one day.
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Yesterday I had my busiest shooting day to date. 13 very busy hours on location, 93 minutes of video in the can, four and a half batteries in total (plus two and a half on the N4000).

The battery seems to last half as much as in my controlled measurements if I use electronic lenses (instead of my usual vintage glass) and set the screen to max brightness (which is my new default setting, since changing this is so time consuming).
 
LyleGorch said:
Sony bats revisited

I'm considering an A7s for a very remote location project in July and August, maybe as much as a week without access to AC. I'll probably rent one of those little Honda 'suit-case' generators but I won't be able to charge until night. I've always found the NP-FW50's remarkably anemic (at least compared to GH4 batts) and its one of the reasons I've been so hesitant about the A7/nex series for paid work in the locations I work and the amount I need to run cameras in a day. SO. . .any new developments on the power side? Is anyone making an external solution for A7s that would take some sort of common 12v pack?
Click to expand...

Just FYI we offer several solutions for extended power needs. HTH
 
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