Burning smell from FS700 ?

C

CinematicFanatic

Active member
Should I be worried? Done a lot of FS700 slo mo today at a gig, leaving the FS700 in "standby" in high speed waiting for good opportunities (both 200fps and 400fps). This is when during two incidents the camcorder let off a nasty burning smell.

I should clarify it hasn't effected footage or caused any visible damage. Just let off a dirty electronic burning smell ....

It's got me very worried as I don't want the camcorder to fail in two weeks time when I have a 12 hour shoot.

A few things I noticed. The camcorder gets very hot and it absolutely DRINKS the battery life in high speed mode, went through 2 pre-owned genuine sony F770 batteries and half of a third one. These are things I haven't really noticed until now because today was the first time I was doing nothing but slo mo the majority of the time during a 6 hour shoot.

Anybody else have a similar experience or have any insight in to what it could be?

I'm justifying the smell by telling myself it's a very CPU intensive job doing slo mo ... I mean you try using Twixtor on your footage in any NLE and it takes a lot longer to render, so you can imagine how difficult it is for the FS700 doing it on the fly so to speak.
 
CinematicFanatic said:
Should I be worried? Done a lot of FS700 slo mo today at a gig, leaving the FS700 in "standby" in high speed waiting for good opportunities (both 200fps and 400fps). This is when during two incidents the camcorder let off a nasty burning smell.

I should clarify it hasn't effected footage or caused any visible damage. Just let off a dirty electronic burning smell ....

It's got me very worried as I don't want the camcorder to fail in two weeks time when I have a 12 hour shoot.

A few things I noticed. The camcorder gets very hot and it absolutely DRINKS the battery life in high speed mode, went through 2 pre-owned genuine sony F770 batteries and half of a third one. These are things I haven't really noticed until now because today was the first time I was doing nothing but slo mo the majority of the time during a 6 hour shoot.

Anybody else have a similar experience or have any insight in to what it could be?

I'm justifying the smell by telling myself it's a very CPU intensive job doing slo mo ... I mean you try using Twixtor on your footage in any NLE and it takes a lot longer to render, so you can imagine how difficult it is for the FS700 doing it on the fly so to speak.
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The FS700 capturing 240fps is nothing like Twixtor running on a computer. That said, if you were using End Trigger mode, it is constantly writing to the buffer which can shorten battery life.

But a burning smell? I would get it looked at if you can. My FS700's operating time currently clocks in at 570 hours, and I've never noticed a burning smell. And I've shot a lot of 240fps in weather ranging from -20ºF to desert heat in Utah and our humid summers here in Minnesota.

Get it into a shop if you can.
 
Yes the camcorder was constantly on End Trigger mode. Mine has only got 50 hours on the clock. The smell was evident at least twice in that 6 hours. Otherwise it was operating hot, and cooled down as soon as I got out of high speed mode. It was used on a manfrotto monopod with a manual lens, so was constantly under my nose, may be that's why any smell the camcorder was letting off was more evident than usual ??? I don't know.

In regards to the event in 2 weeks time, I have a backup camcorder that I always use locked off, just not another S35 FS700. So it's not the end of the world should it mess up as I can still capture the remainder of the event with my backup which is more than capable, just won't have a lot of shallow depth of field or have that pro body of the FS700. I guess i'll just have to see what happens. My FS700 is insured for loss/damage so I can't see why I should waste time sending it into Sony as I doubt a local camera shop will be able to diagnose anything for free either.

I was just hoping someone else may have had a similar experience.
 
CinematicFanatic said:
Yes the camcorder was constantly on End Trigger mode. Mine has only got 50 hours on the clock. The smell was evident at least twice in that 6 hours. Otherwise it was operating hot, and cooled down as soon as I got out of high speed mode. It was used on a manfrotto monopod with a manual lens, so was constantly under my nose, may be that's why any smell the camcorder was letting off was more evident than usual ??? I don't know.

In regards to the event in 2 weeks time, I have a backup camcorder that I always use locked off, just not another S35 FS700. So it's not the end of the world should it mess up as I can still capture the remainder of the event with my backup which is more than capable, just won't have a lot of shallow depth of field or have that pro body of the FS700. I guess i'll just have to see what happens. My FS700 is insured for loss/damage so I can't see why I should waste time sending it into Sony as I doubt a local camera shop will be able to diagnose anything for free either.

I was just hoping someone else may have had a similar experience.
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what kind of smell was it? metal and plastic like you'd get with new kit? and how strong was it? I believe the FS700 is limited to only a short duration of high speed capture due primarily to heat reasons. Maybe yours was getting so hot as it was in end trigger mode for so long? I'd have thought there would be a thermal cutout though at a certain temperature - and maybe some form of overheat warning like I've seen on other cameras. Not sure if the 700 has this though. Certainly worth a call to Sony Prime Support though.
 
Good call Paul. Will drop Prime Support an email for an opinion.

I can't really put the smell in to words, but it's definitely a smell related to over heating or even a faulty battery may be? it was coming from the camera but difficult to identify exactly what it was.

EDIT: I should add there was a lot of heat being emitted from the right hand side rear end. Just above the area where the FMU drive sits (i don't have a drive attached though).
 
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I've had this happen too, whenever I capture a beautiful slow-mo shot the footage is so hot it heats up the camera. Only solution is take a poorer shot!
 
Matt Filmic said:
I've had this happen too, whenever I capture a beautiful slow-mo shot the footage is so hot it heats up the camera. Only solution is take a poorer shot!
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Lol ... joking aside. I'm surprised no one has genuinely had this problem.

If something goes wrong with my FS700 my insurance company isn't going to be happy. I guess i'll just have to wait and see what happens, or if it happens again.
 
Why not just replicate the settings/rigging (etc) that caused the smell? Run it next to you and see what happens. Better that you can do a dry run before you get to your gig.
 
A genuine F770 was used. It might be the battery as I said the smell was coming from the right hand side / top, rear. Which is also the side where the two pins are that connect to the battery.

I will just have to see if it happens again.

Through the 6 hour shoot this happened at, it was after 3-4 hours so I still continued making video for another 3 hours afterwards.

Today, I just left the camcorder running in 400fps slo motion with end trigger for over 30 minutes .... no smell. Mind you I used a after market NP-F970 today as I haven't got round to charging the F770's I used.
 
While I don't really know what may have happened here, it is possible that this was your "burning in" some of the electronics with some high powered operation. It takes more horsepower to shoot slow-mo, and it also activates the memory buffer circuit. I liken this to the time I tortured a new set of brakes on a winding mountain road and discovered smoke pouring off them when I got to a rest stop. You may have simply cooked off some dust that got into the camera.
 
Mitch you might be on to something.

I just remembered this particular genuine battery hadn't been used in a very long time (and I mean YEARS). It belonged to an old camera my dad had and when I discovered it was a NP-F battery I took it and threw it into my bag with all my other batteries and gear after a quick test. I just happened to randomly pick this one up after using up one of my other batteries and this is when the smell was prominent. Everything worked fine. But that burning smell was there ...

It's the only logical explanation I guess.
 
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