GH5 GH5 Battery Run-Down Tests...

T

TheDingo

Veteran
I am still getting used to shooting with my GH5, and one of the things that was bugging me was : How long does a fresh battery last ?

So I did a few tests to find out.

GH5 Set-Up

GH5 with Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 mk1 lens ( firmware 1.3 )
- LCD open and set to it's highest brightness level
- GH5 is set to dual-mode IS ( works great with the mark 1 lens )
- Natural camera profile with contrast and sharpness turned down to -5, noise-reduction -2, saturation -2
- 400 ISO
- Two Lexar 128GB Professional 1000x UHS-II SDXC Memory Cards (Class 10, UHS-II Speed Class 3)
- Focus was set to AFS
- Fresh Panasonic brand camera battery

Camera was set up for a static shot, so performance might be worse if you were shooting hand-held and the dual IS had more of a workout.


GH5 BATTERY RUN-DOWN TESTS

1080 HD 8-bit MP4 : 2 hours 26 minutes

4K UHD 8-bit MP4 : 2 hours 15 minutes

1080 HD 10-bit MP4 : 1 hour 56 minutes

4K UHD 10-bit MP4 : 1 hour 50 minutes


GH4 BATTERY RUN-DOWN TESTS

1080 HD 8-bit MP4 : 4 hours 4 minutes

4K UHD 8-bit MP4 : 2 hours 59 minutes


...So it looks like you get an extra 30 minutes of GH5 battery life if you shoot 8-bit instead of 10-bit, but I know I'm going to shoot almost everything in 10-bit. At least now I have some idea about how long a battery lasts when shooting 4K 10-bit, so from this point on I'm going to consider my GH5 batteries as 90+ minute batteries for my shoots, and I will definitely use the battery-grip at some point just to double this time limit.

I haven't bought the XLR audio adapter yet ( I'm putting the money into a Sound Devices MixPre6 instead ), but I'm sure you would kill your GH5 battery even faster if you had two weak-signal XLR mics connected to your GH5.
 
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Yeah, phantom power would probably make a big difference in run time, but I bet it still goes 60 minutes.
 
Yes. battery life diminished compared to GH4, but not as bad as originally thought. Just purchased one more battery to be sure of getting safely through the day. Loving the 10 bit image
 
I did not get as much as quoted in my tests though I was shooting UHD 60P and got about 1 hour 15 mins from a full battery. I had decided to get a Atomos Power Station that works really well for theatre shoots.
 
I haven't counted and recorded times but per my anecdotal experience shooting handheld with IBIS, in VFR modes, in 10-bit 422 4K and FHD, and never powering camera off, I seem to be getting 1.25-1.5 hours average run times. I leave LCD open at full bright and often tap it to bring the brightness back up when it auto dims after 30 seconds as well (they really need to allow us to turn that feature off in the next firmware! As well as update to allow VFR in FHD 10-bit 422)
 
Out of curiosity I tried repeating the 4K 10-bit test with the V-Log L profile, and the battery life was exactly the same as the Natural camera profile. ( just curious if V-log L was harder on the battery, and it turns out it wasn't )
 
Super helpful tests! Thanks!

I would opt for the battery grip 2x battery solution if it weren't for the fact that none of my GH4 / GH5 cages would fit.

I've looked at the Atomos Powerstation solution and it's tempting. I'm live streaming a 10-hour legal conference (on weed legalization in CA, so that'll be interesting) in a month and won't be able to switch out batteries, so I may go that route.

Or getting the Panasonic DC power adapters might be best for such long-term stationary work. I wish that they weren't so expensive for being just power adapters.

I output video from my GH4s / GH5s to external monitors via HDMI and I wonder if that adds to the power demands on the battery.
 
Benjobe said:
I would opt for the battery grip 2x battery solution if it weren't for the fact that none of my GH4 / GH5 cages would fit.
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I made the decision to sell my GH4 and it's excellent cage, as I don't think I am going to mix GH4 and GH5 footage. ( GH5 looks better to my eye, especially with color )

Benjobe said:
Or getting the Panasonic DC power adapters might be best for such long-term stationary work. I wish that they weren't so expensive for being just power adapters.
Click to expand...

I have half of the AC solution ( the camera portion ), but the AC brick seems to be out of stock everywhere. It looks like any battery that can supply 8.4 volts at 2.4 amps to the camera-side adapter should work.
 
How long does a GH4 last for you (just for comparison to the GH5)? Also, is the GH5 hotter/more warm than the GH4 when continuously recording? I just got a GH5 and it's a lot hotter than I remember the GH4 ever getting. Not sure if mine is faulty.
 
AdobeCS said:
How long does a GH4 last for you (just for comparison to the GH5)?
Click to expand...

I'll test this in the next day or so, but generally I was getting 3+ hours with my GH4.

Yes, my GH5 runs hotter, which makes sense given that it's using up the battery significantly faster than the GH4 does.
 
TheDingo said:
I made the decision to sell my GH4 and it's excellent cage, as I don't think I am going to mix GH4 and GH5 footage. ( GH5 looks better to my eye, especially with color )



I have half of the AC solution ( the camera portion ), but the AC brick seems to be out of stock everywhere. It looks like any battery that can supply 8.4 volts at 2.4 amps to the camera-side adapter should work.
Click to expand...

Actually Panasonic carried their power lockout scheme from the earlier GH models, where if the voltage from the external power source is not about 8.9V, it will reject as incompatible.
 
adolgin said:
Actually Panasonic carried their power lockout scheme from the earlier GH models, where if the voltage from the external power source is not about 8.9V, it will reject as incompatible.
Click to expand...

Thanks Alex. I know that you would know about this better than anybody else.

I was basing the external power requirements on the Panasonic DMW-AC10 power "brick" for the GH4 / GH5, which outputs 8.4 volts at 2.5 amps, so I figured that any power source that could match this output would work.
 
Thank you Dingo, do not always believe the little stickers, especially when they play a cat and mouse game trying to lock out the non oem vendors :)
 
I sold my gh3 and got a gh5 with battery grip and audio adapter, also bought all new batteries x 4. My first shoot with it was a Bat Mitzvah, and the ceremony part is usually about two hours, I recorded UHDp60 and my results were a bit over 2 hours of battery life (didn't have the grip at the time). I was actually suprised by how low the battery was when compared to my gh3...darn things just ran forever. The camera was tripod mounted so turned off stabilization, but did have the monitor on. So I'm guessing that perhaps those getting 1.5 hours could be using older batteries?
 
adolgin said:
Thank you Dingo, do not always believe the little stickers, especially when they play a cat and mouse game trying to lock out the non oem vendors :)
Click to expand...

Hey Alex,

Can your Dolgin Engineering Power Plate adapter be used to power a GH5 camera ?

And can this be order to work with the older Panasonic CGA-D54 batteries ?

I have 5 Panasonic CGA-D54 batteries for my HPX-170 camera that are all in great shape, so being able to use these to power my GH5 all day would be extremely useful.
 
Hi Dingo, yes, BH has it on their website B&H # DOPPPCGRD54 MFR # PP-DV-7.2-GH2-PAN-CGR-D54 and we just got a confirmation from a customer who powers his GH5 using the Sony L flavor of the adapter. If you order through our website, you will have more options for customization like mounting.
 
...I finally ran the same test with my GH4 camera set-up the same as my GH5 camera. The results were kind of what I expected, with the GH4 battery lasting 33 percent longer than the GH5 when shooting 4K 8-bit and 66 percent longer when shooting 1080p 8-bit. ( over 4 hours of 1080p footage! )

I know that you can get even longer GH4 battery life if you use the low bit-rate AVCHD formats, but I don't use those formats any more.
 
Has anyone here run the GH5 off a battery adapter and a Vmount Battery yet, and if so, which dummy battery adapter did they use, and did they run it off Dtap or different voltage off the battery pinch?....can't seem to find any info re this online
 
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