Battery run time

[Randy Johnson]

What kind of run time do you get out of yours batteries?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Randy

Hard to tell as even the 750's that come with the cameras have never dropped below 60% for me and that's shooting a wedding from mid-day right thru to the end of the reception!

If you need a really long run time then grab a couple of F950's they seem to last for ever!!

It obviously depends on how much on-time your camera has and obviously how much shoot time...my A-Cam runs the entire ceremony (up to an hour non stop) and also the entire speeches (again nearly an hour) and there is still plenty of life left in the battery. I'm not sure if the "% remaining/used" is accurate as I have never recorded more than probably 70 minutes at a time but the batteries are pretty good!

Chris

[Randy Johnson]

The reason I ask is I have a double booking coming up and I wasnt going to throw the new Sony into the frey jut yet but I have to. and since my lights now use the same batteries as my new camera I am running thin. I have one 77 and one 55 (I think ) for each kit. I dont know if that will get me through or not. Also do they make a l type dummy battery that I can power the camera off a anton/bauer d-tap? That would be the perfect solution.

[Chris Harding]

Hi Randy

Sorry my mistake ..the cam comes with the 770 and the optional is the 970 ... the 550 will work but won't charge on the charger according to the manual. I have a bunch of 550's for my lights too. You should have at least another 770 battery for back to back weddings!

Chris

[Don Bloom]

Forgive me for this but instead of worrying about how long they'll run just pick up 1 or 2 more.

Amazon sells Wasabi batteries for a very low price and I've never had a problem with them. I've got a bunch of Sony 970 type for my lights and 4 of them cost me about what 1 real Sony cost. I used to use them for my PD170s as well but now, they're just for my LEDs. If you do that then you've got the real Sony's for the camera.

I've had Sony batteries blow cells which shortens their usage tremendously and you don't know it until you put it on the camera so why take the chance.

[Chris Harding]

Hey Don

Better than sound advice! I wouldn't even contemplate a wedding knowing I only had one battery per camera! What happens if a battery fails?? For my two EA50's I have 5 batteries all charged and I would prefer to have at least 6!! It's much the same as taking just one SD Card to shoot a wedding !! You have to have a backup for everything and then a backup for each backup

Chris

[Dmitri Zigany]

Maybe my favourite "feature" of the EA50 is that the batteries last forever! I only have the battery that came with the camera... I could make it through a 12 hour shoot with just that once. And in -3˚C to boot! At that shoot I ried to shut the camera down and also charge the battery during the few breaks though.

I recently were camera assistant on a shoot using Canon D5 (MkII and III) and they had to change batteries all the time! ;)

I wish you could by the FP770 because the FP970 seems redundant to me. Rather pay less...

[Don Bloom]

I understand the run time but the thing is batteries do fail. I've had 3 or 4 over the years of using my PD series camera (about 12 years) that have failed. Cell go bad. For the little money a battery cost's isn't the piece of mind worth it?
Remember if it hasn't happened to you yet, you just haven't been around long enough! ;-)

[Steven Digges]

Hey Don,

When mine fail I just blow hot air into them!

I popped for the big one for my backup. True Sony. I start out with the small one on a gig and if it runs out, which it hasn't I no I have plenty of power to spare. I could not imagine going out on a run-n-gun shoot without back up power!

When I was working with the whole Canon XL series of cameras I bought a bunch of the e-bay cheapies. They worked OK but on one of them the case separated at the mount within two outings.

Do any of the Sony knock offs have the "info" chip or do you have to fly blind?

Steve

[Randy Johnson]

I am going to get more batteries but like I said I had not intended to put this camera into full service yet so I got caught by surprise. 1. I dont know if I have time to get batteries in and 2. I use anton bauer for the lights and wieless and maybe it would be better to get (if they make it) a dummy Sony battery that I can plug into my d-tap and run the camera off the anton/bauer.

[Randy Johnson]

I ordered a couple Wassabe 977s I hope I get them in time. I tried a test with my 570 battery I put it on and let it run after an hour I was down to %75 so I thought great I should get close to 4 hours out of this. Then I came back 30 min later and it was dead and off.

[Don Bloom]

When I ordered mine from Amazon I had them within 3 or 4 days.
Yeah, batteries are like that especially if they're older. They look good then BAM! and you're left holding the bag. Smart move getting an extra or 2!

Steven,
The Wasabi always "talked" to my PD series camera as far as run time so I guess they had "the chip".

[Steven Digges]

Randy,

Make sure you turn off all unnecessary features like gps and stabilization if you don't need them.

Steve

[Chris Harding]

Hi Steve

I have the same LED lights as Don has and they also come with not the same battery as the EA-50 but the 550 ...it's, of course, a knock off (the light PLUS the battery and all extras is under $100) However I did try one of the batteries in an EA-50 is it seems to show the remaining battery % but I didn't run it down any as the manual says the 550 is "unsuitable" ???

My rule for generic batteries is don't use them for stuff like wedding ceremonies or speeches where it's a non reshootable event .... I leave mine as backups for the backups and if they did fail at a wedding I want it to be on general footage like the guests dancing so if the cam did die at that stage no-one would notice and I could simply carry on after a battery change.

However there is no reason why you cannot quietly charge exhausted batteries at a venue just for safety's sake. The generics tend also to be inaccurate! My Panny camera batteries used to tell me they had 51 minutes left and then die 5 minutes later but they were still OK for the first hour!

Chris

[Steven Digges]

I totally agree Chris,

I have had the knock offs, but in the camera there is nothing like the security of the real thing.

Steve