Anyone noticing a significant battery drain when not using the camera?
 

I've noticed that with the stock battery, the battery loses 20-30 minutes of charge overnight when the camera is in the OFF position. I had over an hour left of battery on Friday and went to pick up the camera tonight and found the battery completely dead. I haven't noticed this kind of drain on any of my other cameras.

Anyone else noticed this with the PMW-EX1? I'm wondering if it's an issue with the camera, the battery, or just the nature of the PMW-EX1...

Same here. My new SOP is to remove the battery when not in use (not an easy habit to start after all these years). Never an issue with any camera I've ever owned, but not a big deal.

Thanks Bill. Yeah, I was thinking about doing that as well. Only concern was how long the backup battery would last (the manual doesn't say) as I'd hate to lose the camera settings.

Bob reported the same experience. Possibly I have just now, but hadn't adequately noted how much charge was remaining last night (battery now on charge). Somewhere in the manual (but now I can't find where) it tells not to leave a battery charged more than x% if to be stored for more than 24 hours. Maybe this is a means of ensuring that!

Yes, I have noticed.

I'm in! Left he battery in last night and it started up 30% less.

Same here! I've noticed this strange occurrance. This means that even in a shoot, some battery usage is happening even whilst the camera is off. Or else these new batteries are not capable of storing power for a long period of time.

Yes, I've noticed this, and it is really getting on my nerves!

I'm not sure if it is the camera or the battery that has the issue. I've noticed this sort of draining going on when I've charged a battery and taken it off the charger and left it for a couple of days. Perhaps someone else can try this and let me know what happens to theirs.

I'm not sure if i've seen this with the battery removed from the camera. For sure with it in.

And this is very important to resolve, as we'd like to know whether its the camera draining current, or the battery not holding its charge...

Left on the camera I've flattened a battery in a few days. Off the camera they seem to be holding charge just fine, that's going by the indicator in the battery. Keep in mind it may take a few cycles of the battery for it to reach full capacity so don't panic too soon about battery life. It also seems that glorious LCD screen uses a lot of power.

But still, the discharging on the camera is interesting. There maybe a good explaination for it. The camera seems to do some housekeeping after you turn it off. All Sony cameras do drain the battery to some extent if you leave the battery on. The internal clock battery is recharged by the battery but there is some leakage even when the clock battery is fully charged. Certainly nowhere near as dramatic as what's happening with the EX1 though.

Same problem here, battery holds charge when not mounted on camera.

Chuck

I'm going to try mine again. Reason I mentioned it was because I once charged it up and took it off the charger, but didn't have a chance to use it for a few days. When I put it on the camera it was dead. I'll try again though.

I noticed the JVC HD100 does the same thing, just not quite as bad.
I'd say leaving the IDX battery in this camera for over a week it will almost exhaust the battery.
The EX1 one will completely exhaust the battery from full to nothing in 3 days.

My F350 will do it to any battery I leave attached for a few days. It's not the battery chemistry either, because I have NiCad, NMH, and LiIon batteries, all Anton Bauers.

-gb-

Has anyone heard anything new about the battery drain issue? Mine drains down in about 72 hours.

I was wondering if this is only an issue with the first batch of cameras, like the unbalanced light falloff, "Vignette" problem if you like. If so are any of you new adopters experiencing the battery drain issue?

Thanks

Simon

Simon I have the stock 30 and two extra 60 batteries and all three drain if I leave them in the camera. Now I keep them in the pack and only put them on the camera when I am shooting.

I have not timed how long it takes to drain.

I've only noticed the drain when leaving the camera in the battery. One weekend with the camera off but the battery left in took the charge from 70-80% down to 0.

Now I just keep the battery out unless I'm shooting.

I'm very seriously considering purchasing the EX1, so I'm asking a few questions here and there. I hope everyone forgives some very basic questions.
My SOP is to remove batteries after every shoot and leave them on the charger. I got into this habit with my Anton Bauer batteries, which, according to the manual, are happiest when living on their charger. They (Anton Bauer) suggest to not "drain the battery" and rather just let it sit on the charger when not in use.

Is SOP different for these little "DV" batteries?

heat build up?
 

So is some portion of the camera still actually on? Could there then be heat build-up in a non vented case?

The camera is ultra-low heat to begin with... I kept it in a shut bag overnight with the battery and didn't notice anything warm about it.

It is my understanding that the EX style batteries has new "fuel gauging" circuitry in them, similar to AB batteries. Is it possible that when you guys are talking of self discharging while on the camera, the actual mechanism is not that of loosing charge, but a glitch in the state of charge reporting? In other words, the battery is still full, but the display reports low state of charge? Did you try to actually run the camera?

Batteries will completely discharge (after a period of time) if left on the camera - if you try to turn the camera on, it won't power up and batteries read empty.

The batteries do come with a detailed set of instructions. Reading them, especially the section on storage, might answer many questions and save you some money.
I'll admit I was a bit taken aback when I first read them and raised the issue with our business owner as we have a LOT of Li-Ion batteries. It seems these instructions are nothing new, Sony has always advised following these procedures for all of their Li-Ion batteries. It's only thanks to something Serena mentioned here that caused me to read the instructions. Lesson learned, no matter how trivial an item might seem if comes with detailed instructions, read them.
That said having to keep batteries in a less than fully charged state is a bit of a PIA if you want to be ready to rock and roll 24/7.

There's another very good reason for taking the battery off the camera BEFORE putting it in a case. It's very easy to not switch the camera off or switch it to Media by mistake. Putting the camera into a foam cocoon while it's On soon heats it up quite a lot. I've done this twice. I don't now how tolerant the EX1 is of getting overheated or what thermal protection it has but we've had a Z1 blow a fuse or two when this was done. I don't want this happening to my EX1, so now I remove the battery before I put it back in the case.

I have also noticed that the battery gets drained when left on the EX1. I've never had this problem with any of the 4 previous Sony cameras I've owned. I will add that I have not noticed this drain problem with the extra battery (BP-U60) that I ordered.... only the BP-U30 that shipped with the camera.

I haven't tested it out but i remove the battery when camera is not in use. I've noticed this same phenomenon with DP-170 earlier. Fully loaded high capacity battery which had been attached to camera for one day had only under one hour left when camera was turned on next time.

Really strange to me, as I can leave my V1E with half-empty 970 battery on for a couple of weeks, and it still read over 300 mins!

Many cameras now a days are drawing on the battery even when the camera is off. Panasonics P2 cameras keep the time code running.

Anton/Bauer has always recommended that batteries not be left on the camera overnight, but are returned to the charger to be topped off with a charge.

Scott Keyworth
Anton/Bauer

Bob Grant has made a great point. "Read the Instructions" they will answer a lot of the questions.

Scott,

Are we going to see an EX1 adapter for A/B batteries similar to what I have on my Canon XL H1. One Dionic powers that camera for 8-10 hours. It's awesome.

Vince

Ah, so that's where I read that! So of course the thing is to leave the fully charged-but-not-to-be-immediately-used battery in the camera until it discharges to 90%. Actually quite useful because otherwise I'll have to construct a device to do the job.

I just left my battery (the 30) in overnight and the button on the battery itself says it's on E but if I hit the battery info button on the camera, it says there's 60 minutes of charge left on it. (last night it was at 70 minutes)

In my case, it seems like the battery charge indicator and the camera's read of the status are different.

Sony is looking into it
 

My supplier tells me that Sony has been made aware of the problem and is running some tests. They say they will make an announcement if they can fix it with a firmware update.....

stay tuned.....

Sony, are you listening? PMW-EX1 excess battery drain
 

Hey Sony - if you're listening - you need to step up and give your PMW-EX1 customers a response on this issue.

My new PMW-EX1 does exactly the same thing. If I leave the fully charged battery on the cam at night, and turn the cam off, the battery is dead in the morning. At first I thought I was leaving the camera power switch on the "media" setting by mistake (that fiddly hard to use power switch is terrible) but it looks like we all have the same problem.

Ditto
 

Battery dies very fast (-U30); at first thought it was my keeping it in too cool room temperature when not in use. Began to store in insulated bag, not in camera - performed better. Glad to see I'm not alone, although unhappy others suffer, too... probably means a good fix is not soon coming, at least not just a new battery.

I never had this problem with PD-150, or GL-1 either, or JVC or Sony small DV cams, but different type batteries. Maybe the storing of settings causes drain? Maybe the battery fuel gauge is eating all the power! When dead, camera will not go on, and must recharge. Aggravation.

How can one keep settings desired for recurring shoots if batteries must be removed allways to protect power storage? Wish the EX had mem-stick slot to write settings to when camera is powered down. Just got mine, not familiar enough; maybe there is a good way someone knows?

I agree Power switch is too delicate - worst of any camera I've used, even little consumer cams. Ditto the roller-style menu selection wheel; always pressing to select, not rolling to new menu place under finger. It may "loosen up" with more use. I like the handgrip jogstick much better.

goodbye

Between the fiddly power switch and the battery drain I have a simple solution. Take the battery off the camera before putting it away.

As far as I know no settings are lost when the battery is removed. If that was a problem then we'd have the same problem when changing batteries. In the end I'm in one way glad I'm now forced to remove the battery as standard operating procedure. We've had a Z1 fried and another very nearly fried because they were put into their Pelican case powered up. Always removing the battery eliminates this possibility.

Again I would point users to the instructions for the batteries themselves. Sony does not recommend storing charged batteries. The camera provides a way to discharge the batteries gracefully.

How can one keep settings desired for recurring shoots if batteries must be removed allways to protect power storage? Wish the EX had mem-stick slot to write settings to when camera is powered down. Just got mine, not familiar enough; maybe there is a good way someone knows?

You can store the camera PP settings on the SxS card.

Todd, there is a separate battery that goes underneath the camera and this is what powers the memory for the camera setttings.