First problems...

Poitr, are you saying that your new batteries charge slowly in your old VX1 charger whereas your old batteries charge quickly? Or are you using the FS100 charger?

At the moment, it sounds like Sony have changed the design of the charger supplied with the FS100 (yes, much preferred the older ones supplied with the Z1s, which is why I liked the look of the Dual Gang Sony item).
 
No Matt - I mean the older V1 charger (which I have no more - sold along with the camera), and the Zooms back then, charged normally - while the current FS100 charger needs 24h to charge a new Zoom battery.

But I still suspect my battery is faulty, as it doesn't last too long on my FS100, either :(
 
Thanks Alex... this explains my slow charge as well.

I bought a batch of generic 970 batteries and one charger for each battery. If the batteries are depleted to the bottom each takes more than 20 hours to charge. My solution was to buy enough batteries to change out the TV Logic and camera at lunch time each day, with partial capacity remaining. This allows all batteries to be fully topped overnight, ready for the next day.
 
Thanks Alex... this explains my slow charge as well.

I bought a batch of generic 970 batteries and one charger for each battery. If the batteries are depleted to the bottom each takes more than 20 hours to charge. My solution was to buy enough batteries to change out the TV Logic and camera at lunch time each day, with partial capacity remaining. This allows all batteries to be fully topped overnight, ready for the next day.

Are these generic charges any faster on generic replacement batteries, than the FS100 kit charger?
 
Same game here with no name batteries - close to 24hrs.
But I use a v-mount battery 90% of the time.
So for the few times I run with the bare camera (stealth mode) I can live with that.

Frank
 
Are these generic charges any faster on generic replacement batteries, than the FS100 kit charger?

Actually, an answer to this question is quite important - because if such chargers are faster with non-Sony batteries, we're witnessing a change in Sony's strategy towards the replacement industry: previously, it was the cameras that refused to recognize them; now the FS100 apparently work OK with them, but the kit charger only treats them with what Alex called “trickle" charge...

Which would mean my Zoom may be just OK, and I need one of those cheap generic chargers for it, with the kit Sony for Sony batteries only.
 
Same game here with no name batteries - close to 24hrs.
But I use a v-mount battery 90% of the time.
So for the few times I run with the bare camera (stealth mode) I can live with that.

Frank

Frank,

I assume your V-mount is 14.4V - how do you transform to the 7.2V required? I'm also using a large battery (PAGlok) as my shouldemount counterweight, and with the EX1 it powered the camera - but with the FS100,I only was planning to use it for the nanoFlash, Z-finder EVF (and occasionally,a light).
 
Piotr,

The generic chargers, which I purchased on ebay, charge the generic batts at the same (slow) rate as the Sony OEM charger. My working solution has been a 1:1 ratio of batts to chargers, plus changing out batteries before each is fully depleted. This workflow yields fully charged batteries in less than 8-12 hours. Which means I can shoot multiple days in a row, with all charging occurring at night.

In practice, on a 10 hour "shoot day," one battery swap at lunch time is all that is needed.
 
Black Balance.

If you shoot a long exposure on a still camera, say 8 seconds, the camera will be inoperable for 16 seconds

the second 8 seconds it is recording 8 seconds of black

The two files are then put together in a manner that can be used to cancel out noise improving the SN ratio, because you 'know' the 'N' and can then calculate the 'S'

I guess the same thing is occuring in some manner

S
 
Black Balance.

If you shoot a long exposure on a still camera, say 8 seconds, the camera will be inoperable for 16 seconds

the second 8 seconds it is recording 8 seconds of black

The two files are then put together in a manner that can be used to cancel out noise improving the SN ratio, because you 'know' the 'N' and can then calculate the 'S'

I guess the same thing is occuring in some manner

S

This cannot be the case with the FS100 because there is no shutter to block light from the sensor, which is unlike the AF100 which does have a black balance shutter. My understanding is placing the cap on the front of the lens, which it tells you to do in the docs, and then using the black balance, allows the sensor to determine where black is. If any of the pixels are hotter than the others, or have an accumulation of internal noise on them, higher statistically than the other pixels, it could then know that and adjust those pixels accordingly.

I do not do this very often, I just never see a problem. If I had a bad pixel, I would of course do this to remap the pixel.
 
Indeed the same conceptual process, but I guess the black file is not made for every frame (my MFDB only makes a new black file for every frame for long exposures)

With the FS I guess the sensor characteristics change with ambient temperature etc so making a regular BB has a theoretically good effect that probably doesnt really show in daily use


S
 
Both the AF and the FS do not do this every frame, although I imagine when processing power gets faster and faster, I could see this as a positive feature.

And definitely, as the temperature gets higher on the sensor, noise is going to increase. Of course, that increase will be everywhere.

That said, it really is a matter of exposure times as well, as you've said. With my camera, long exposure is the only time I've had real problems with hot pixels, per say. With video, the times are generally 1/48 or less mostly (not that fast shot stuff or for effect isn't used, but is not really the norm).

With both the AF and FS, I never really needed to black balance. When I thought I did, I'd do it, look at the results, and didn't really see an appreciable change. Maybe looking at the footage 1:1 would be different, but it was certainly no night and day difference! :)
 
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