Future Sony batteries to be 40% greater capacity

[Andrew Smith]

Sony has been working on a sulphur-based battery technology to achieve a 40% run time increase over the current lithium technology. The expected date to see commercialised batteries of this technology in the market is 2020.

Slightly more details at:

Sony's Sulfur Batteries Promise Longer Runtimes, Will Arrive in 2020 | HotHardware

Andrew

[Mike Watson]

First off, more power in batteries is always better, but I gotta say... Starting with NP-1 batteries 20 years ago that would power a beta cam for a half hour or so - I shot yesterday with a U60 that powered my FS5 for an 8 hour day. Not sure how much more I need, although I gotta say if they came up with one that gave me 40% more at the same weight and cost - I'd switch over!

[Noa Put]

Sony always have made great batteries, I still have a few original npf 970's from the sony camera's I used to own and they now power some video lights like for ever though I have to say the Panasonic battery from my gh4 never seems to run empty either :)

[David Heath]

Originally Posted by Mike Watson

Starting with NP-1 batteries 20 years ago that would power a beta cam for a half hour or so - I shot yesterday with a U60 that powered my FS5 for an 8 hour day. Not sure how much more I need, ......

As far as cameras go I agree with you, but I think battery technology is going to be a critical area for R&D over the near future in two very different areas.

First is micro electronic devices - smartphones being most obvious. At present the battery is a major element of size, weight etc - make a battery 40% smaller with the same capacity and expect it to be popular. Second is the other end of the scale, with huge research going into batteries for electric cars - it's the size, weight, cost of batteries that are probably the main limiting factor on greater electric car uptake.

Make a big breakthrough with battery tech and the rewards could be very high. (Even if not through camera batteries! :-) )

[Mike Watson]

My new phone (Nexus 6) will go from almost empty to almost full in less than an hour. Thanks, USB-C! I don't feel the capacity is needed in phones, but in watches and other nano devices for sure - and the super-fast charging will be the next push IMHO.

[Doug Jensen]

Originally Posted by Noa Put

Sony always have made great batteries,

Not true! I depends on the model. I love my BPU series batteries and they keep runnning great year after year, but the GL series v-lock batteries are complete garbage. I have five of them that crapped out after about a year, while the 3rd party brand batteries I bought about the same time just keep on going strong year after year.

[J. Stephen McDonald]

I wonder what the explosive potential of sulphur batteries will be? Note that the word comes from the Indo-European root meaning, "to burn".

[David Heath]

Thinking back to chemistry lessons of many ears ago I remember burning sulphur and my memory is that it burnt quite slowly - far, far less flammable than Lithium! (I also remember being shown a small piece of lithium metal put in water!)