GH3 GH3 Locks Up on Low Battery

B

Benjobe

Well-known member
I've been experiencing a strange malfunction with my GH3 while recording video. At some point after the battery indicator gets down to one bar the camera locks up, the live image on my external monitor will freeze, and the camera will not shut down. I've tried pressing the Record button several times. I've flipped the power switch and waited a couple minutes for the green power light to go out, but it never does. I've flipped the power switch on/off a few times and then waited, but the power light still remains lit. The only thing that works is to pull out the low battery and replace it with a fully charged battery.

Once this happened between takes and I didn't lose any footage. Another time it happened during a take and I lost that one video. In both cases the camera resets and I have to go into menus to setup the video recording settings.

I've been using a GH2 for years without any problem like this. When the GH2 battery gets too low it automatically stops recording, finishes writing the file, and shuts down. So why doesn't the GH3 do the same?

If it's just a low battery causing this problem then a simple fix is to keep an eye on the battery indicator and to stop recording and switch out batteries as soon as it gets down to one bar. Still it'd be nice if I didn't have to worry about it.

Anyone else experiencing this problem? Any ideas about what could be causing it?
 
I have run my battery pretty low when the battery indicator starts blinking red. The camera has continued working even during this blinking red condition. I have not gone all the way to cause the camera to shut down, nor has it ever froze like your description. Are you using OEM batteries? I recently bought a DSTE battery that appears to fool the camera into believing is OEM since the battery indicator appears to work. I have not used this DSTE battery until in runs out however... Al
 
It first happened three weeks ago, before the new firmware. It just happened again yesterday, with the new firmware installed.
 
I'm using OEM batteries. I have two of them. It's possible that the problem is related to one of the batteries and not the other. I will mark them and conduct some tests to see if the failure happens with one of them and not the other. Thanks for the insight.
 
yeah it could be a faulty battery. i too have run my gh3 down to red and it does what it should, tells you its out of juice, stop recording and shuts down. all with geniune batteries and old firmware.
 
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