Overcoming NEX 5N overheating. a cheap and real fix!

I also like to have the camera on and walk around shooting, and my nex works great for that. You just can't shoot one single long take, it has to be lots of small takes.
The good thing about these cameras is that, unlike my old canon t2i, they don't generate much heat while they're on standby. The bad thing is, when they are recording, they get hot really fast.
The heatsinks make a difference, but don't solve the problem completely, by far. In sunny and warm Spain, I don't think I ever got 10 minutes of straight video with the NEX-5N. But I hardly ever need that anyway. I can go around shooting for a full day on a single battery, getting maybe an hour of footage in total, with no overheating warnings whatsoever. But my longest take will probably be less than one minute.


Actually, a couple of pages back I said:
Samuel H said:
My 5N overheats real quickly while recording, even with the copper heatsinks. Luckily, unlike the canons, it doesn't overheat at all if it's on but not recording, and this kind of behavior fits my needs quite nicely (I hardly ever shoot takes of more than 3 or 4 minutes, which is all my 5N can manage in current Spanish summer weather).
Click to expand...
 
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Hi, I made a little bit different fix. I tried to get contact between CPU and back plate, for better cooling.

1) Dissambly NEX 5N and put on the main CPU thermal conductive tape (1,5mm thickness) e.g. Alphacool Warm Conductive Pad 15x15x1,5mm

2) Put thermal paste on the secondary chip (on the left)

IMG_20140214_144135s.jpg

3) Remove back plate sticker, to release ventilation holes.

IMG_20140214_180624s.jpg

When you need stronger cooling, put small (VRAM 15x15mm is enough) cooler on main CPU.

IMG_20140214_180159s.jpg



But remember, NEX has some software procedure to control movie recording. After first 29m50s video recording you are forced to wait 5 minutes (or record 2 blocks of 2m05s) to "cool down" NEX, even if it is completely cool. After that period you can continue in recording for another 29m50s.
 
Hi! Thanks for this informative thread.

I have the NEX 5R.


Unfortunately there are no ventilation holes to expose at the back. Has anyone tried an *internal* fix for the 5R? I don't dare to open up mine at least until i hear from those who are more experienced than me. If putting heatsinks (or a fan) on the backplate isn't helping enough, i might have to dig *inside* the camera itself...

Thanks beforehand for any replies!
 
does that one have overheating issues too? I know they solved them in a later model, not sure which one it was
 
Nah, it's not "solved". It's somewhat improved but there are still issues. 2 models came after the 5N. The 5R & 5T. The 5T is almost exactly the same as the 5R except for added NFC.

But yeah, 1st hand experience, i couldn't record past 6-11 minutes without a shutdown :(
 
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Well, then it's much better (I never got past 5min I think) but not solved.

Just FYI: I'm not sure I got longer recording times by putting these heatsinks in the back (which I did without peeling or opening anything); what I surely got was a quicker healing time (after it overheats, I don't have to wait as much to shoot again).
 
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