Recording time in 4K/100Mbps with Sony NP-FV100

[Barry J. Weckesser]

Yesterday, I was recording 4K with XAVC at 100Mbps and using NP-FV100 Sony batteries. I was really getting rapid drops in percentage of battery left and perhaps only 20-30 minutes recording time per battery. I did not use the LCD screen only the viewfinder and I would shut the camera off between shots. This happened with 2 batteries that had been charged up to the 98% level. A third battery started at 100% and seemed to drop much less quickly.

Anyone else have experience with these batteries and using 4K at 100Mbps?

[Nate Haustein]

Sounds like off-brand battery behavior. Are these the expensive Sony brand? Did you get them from a reputable source?

[Barry J. Weckesser]

They are purely Sonys - Sony is on the label and were bought from B&H PhotoVideo - they were the expensive variety not the $50 knockoffs. Same thing happened today - 20 minutes of video and battery went from 100% charge to 23% after about 20 minutes of video (20-30 second clips). this was a different battery than used yesterday. That is what the LCD screen showed upper left corner and also the battery portion of the "status check".

[Ron Evans]

Did you condition the batteries when you bought them ? I always leave my batteries on charge for a day when new. Something that was in the instructions , not sure it is there now. But any of my NP-V100 shooting XAVC-S HD will last for over 4 hours in either the AX100 or the AX53. I do not shoot UHD 30P so cannot tell you how long they will last. When UHD selected battery shows 3 hours. So about 75% of the HD time as a guide.

Just did some test for you. UHD 100Mbps 30P in AX53 and AX100. LCD screen open. 30 min recording on the AX53 depleted an NP-V70 battery by 30 mins as indicated, Start was 2h10m and 1h40m indicated left at end of 30min recording. Put another NP-V70 in my AX100 battery indicated 3h07m for XAVC_S HD and 2H16M when switched to 4K. Let that run for 30 mins. Same indications as the AX53. Battery indicator was accurate for the shooting time. Both batteries showed full as far as the icons are concerned. I will report back when I have a charged V100 battery to compare times

As a charge indicator my Sony charger AC-VQA10 will show charged but if indicator is pressed to show time to full will continue charging for over another 2 hours to indicate FULL for a NP-V100

Ron Evans

[Roland Schulz]

Ok, did a test with my X70 and an original Sony NP-FV100 battery (~1,5 years old, below 50 cycles). Recording format was 2160/30p @100Mbps, SteadyShot standard, no AF... An ECM-MS2 mic was also powered by the camera. Memorycard was Sony SFG1UX2 128GB.

It took 44mins. to drain the battery from 100% to 85%, so everything fine for me, estaminated complete running time would be 293min., nearly 5h continous recording time!

Maybe you got ripped of batteries?!?!

[Barry J. Weckesser]

Ron - thanks for the test report - not quite sure what is going on with my NP-FV100 batteries (3) and will do further tests with them when I get home - I'm not sure whether there is a difference between the AX100 and the X70 perhaps having to do with XAVC-S vs XAVC-L and perhaps why Sony delayed the 100Mbps for the X70 for so long. To be honest, I don't use the X70 that much except as backup for the FS7 in situations where guards or whomever start waving their hands and shouting "No Professional" (like at the Vatican) although on this go around a particularly nasty guard told me to put the X70 away even after I took off the handle/microphone assembly -my guide told me to ignore him and was able to complete St.Peters without problems from other guards. The videos turned out surprisingly good despite the fact I had to crank up the gain to 12-15db at times due to low light conditions .

Anyway, I digress too much - during the shooting in St Peters and Vatican Museums I was consistently getting about 20 minutes total time per battery even with shutting down the camera between shots and only using the viewfinder. Perhaps I have a bad batch of batteries. I will charge them up on the dual Sony charger for 24-48hours when I get home and do some test shots letting the camera record for an hour or 2 and see what happens - perhaps there could be a defect in the camera itself and the battery contacts.

[Barry J. Weckesser]

Originally Posted by Roland Schulz

Ok, did a test with my X70 and an original Sony NP-FV100 battery (~1,5 years old, below 50 cycles). Recording format was 2160/30p @100Mbps, SteadyShot standard, no AF... An ECM-MS2 mic was also powered by the camera. Memorycard was Sony SFG1UX2 128GB.

It took 44mins. to drain the battery from 100% to 85%, so everything fine for me, estaminated complete running time would be 293min., nearly 5h continous recording time!

Maybe you got ripped of batteries?!?!

Ripped off from B&H would be sort of unheard of especially since the bottom plate clearly has Sony NP-FV100 on it. My third battery did look good for about 10 minutes of shooting short clips getting down to 92% or so but then 5 minutes later and it is suddenly down to 40%. Does cranking the gain up to 12-15db affect battery time?

Same MIC - same memory card and manual focus only - clips are usually 15-30 seconds long - Steadyshot Active.

[Ron Evans]

Fully charged , 3 year old, NP-FV100 battery in my AX100. UHD 30P 100Mbps with LCD open. 18db of gain F3.4,1/60 starting battery indicated 4h29m I recorded for 15 mins and battery showed 15 mins less as with the other tests. So battery left was 4H14M then switched back to 60P XAVC-S HD at 50Mbps and battery now shows 5H29M remaining at this record setting. In play mode it shows 5H49M. I definitely think you have a bad batch of batteries If they are still in warranty get them replaced.

Ron Evans

[Mark Watson]

Order a new battery and see how it works. Batteries have been known to be counterfeited. If you want to post some pictures showing the labels on your battery, we could then compare to ours. Usually a fake will not be 100% accurate with the small details.

Mark