AtticusLake
Well-known member
Just ran a quick and easy battery test -- camera on a tripod pointing at itself in a mirror (so I could record the battery gauge behaviour). Just straight recording from fully charged, no standby, no mic attached. Results:
Sony NP-F970:
Time Reading Actual
0:00:00 100 100.00%
0:34:05 90 89.70%
1:04:37 80 80.48%
1:34:25 70 71.48%
2:03:59 60 62.54%
2:33:03 50 53.76%
3:01:54 40 45.05%
3:30:37 30 36.37%
3:59:05 20 27.77%
4:27:19 10 19.24%
4:41:26 5 14.97%
4:57:58 0 9.98%
5:31:00 off 0.00%
TorchLED "TL-F970" (came with a light):
Time Reading Actual
0:00:00 95 100.00%
0:34:59 90 89.16%
1:47:01 80 66.83%
2:59:10 70 44.47%
4:11:12 60 22.14%
4:47:17 55 10.96%
5:03:41 0 5.88%
5:22:39 off 0.00%
So both batteries gave about the same life, well over 5 hours -- which seems pretty darned good to me! The third-party drawback is obviously that it doesn't have a gas gauge chip inside, so the battery readings are lousy; the last reading was 53%, then it went straight to "zero". In both cases there's a pretty decent reserve after the "zero" point. Accounting for this reserve, Sony's gauge gives remarkably reliable readings.
[edit]
Note that continuous recording like this should be the worst case scenario. Normally the camera will spend time on standby, which of course uses less power; and battery capacity is generally reduced by drawing power at a higher rate, so using less power will actually get more total power out of the battery.
Sony NP-F970:
Time Reading Actual
0:00:00 100 100.00%
0:34:05 90 89.70%
1:04:37 80 80.48%
1:34:25 70 71.48%
2:03:59 60 62.54%
2:33:03 50 53.76%
3:01:54 40 45.05%
3:30:37 30 36.37%
3:59:05 20 27.77%
4:27:19 10 19.24%
4:41:26 5 14.97%
4:57:58 0 9.98%
5:31:00 off 0.00%
TorchLED "TL-F970" (came with a light):
Time Reading Actual
0:00:00 95 100.00%
0:34:59 90 89.16%
1:47:01 80 66.83%
2:59:10 70 44.47%
4:11:12 60 22.14%
4:47:17 55 10.96%
5:03:41 0 5.88%
5:22:39 off 0.00%
So both batteries gave about the same life, well over 5 hours -- which seems pretty darned good to me! The third-party drawback is obviously that it doesn't have a gas gauge chip inside, so the battery readings are lousy; the last reading was 53%, then it went straight to "zero". In both cases there's a pretty decent reserve after the "zero" point. Accounting for this reserve, Sony's gauge gives remarkably reliable readings.
[edit]
Note that continuous recording like this should be the worst case scenario. Normally the camera will spend time on standby, which of course uses less power; and battery capacity is generally reduced by drawing power at a higher rate, so using less power will actually get more total power out of the battery.
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