Sony A7sii USB Charging

J

jakewolf1

New member
I was wondering if anyone has had success getting the A7sii camera to charge via USB while recording? I am trying to power the camera from my PIX-E5 monitor which has sufficient power output. I can get it to charge while the camera is off. I am wondering if it has to do with the confusing USB settings. Any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Jake
 
Hmmm. Further investigation revealed that it only has a problem charging with the PIX-E5 monitor. The camera sees it as a drive. Charging work fine with a rechargeable battery.
 
The A7s II doenst charge with the USB input while the camera is on. Put a full battery in and connect a USB battery and the camera will last for a very long time.
I got four hours of continues power this way. The internal battery slowly depletes. The majority of the power comes from the USB battery. My USB battery died and the internal one was at 42%. This is a very good way to run the a7s II.
 
My A7s and other Sony cameras only charge via the USB, they can't be powered by it when on.

I heard a rumor that future Sony cameras would get around this somehow, but I'm not sure how that would work since the 5V low amperage supplied by the average USB connection is actually less than the camera draws when in use- I just seems impossible to me. That's why currently it only works when the camera is off- it can tickle charge the battery when not being used.

Meanwhile, if you want to power your camera externally, you need to feed it 8.4v into the battery compartment. There's a little rubber window on the battery door that can pop out so a dummy battery with a wire can be put in. That wire can then be connected to an AC adapter or DC power supply of the appropriate voltage. I persoanlly use Sony camcorder batteries because they are the same voltage and a lot larger capacity (also, almost everything from LED lights to external recorders use them these days). I made my own adapter that attaches to my tripod leg when I want to run light, or it can be attached to my cage when rigging it up.

a7sbattery.jpg
 
Erik Naso said:
The A7s II doenst charge with the USB input while the camera is on. Put a full battery in and connect a USB battery and the camera will last for a very long time.
I got four hours of continues power this way. The internal battery slowly depletes. The majority of the power comes from the USB battery. My USB battery died and the internal one was at 42%. This is a very good way to run the a7s II.
Click to expand...

Ah, this must be how they do it. On the A7S original, it doesn't do anything at all when the power is on. On the new II versions, I guess they let it trickle charge while the battery runs down, so it extends the life but still eventually depletes it- just slower. Probably does horrible things to the battery for the future though! I know the best way to kill a cell phone battery is to leave it on a dinky 0.5a charger while drawing power faster than it can charge (perfect storm: Using WAZE to navigate while using a very cheap chinese car charger- the thing depletes faster than it can charge and your battery heats up shortening the overall length of it in the long-term!).
 
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