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Archive 2017 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds

  
 
Frostefdflake
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


Just came back from an afternoon of shooting landscapes, sadly my batteries died after about 2 dozen shots. Temperature was -19 deg C, windchill of -33C. I normally keep spare batteries inside my down jacket, but even then they don't seem to last too long.

I don't really want to buy the grip for the camera and run 2 batteries as it means a new L bracket, so I'm looking for work arounds.......large capacity battery in my pocket and wired to the camera? hand warmers on the camera? Any other ideas?



Dec 14, 2017 at 03:27 PM
thrice
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


Does the camera eventually heat up? Are you using the RRS L-bracket which extends the battery housing door further away? could try putting some insulation on the inside of the battery door.


Dec 14, 2017 at 05:47 PM
MJKoski
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


Yo! Special trick: Take a wool sock, stuff USB-powerpack in there and also 1-2 chemical hand warmers. Then you just run the camera (R2, R3 etc. which can run on USB power) on USB power. Tape the sock to tripod for moving around easily. This way, -35C is doable for hours. Note that most lightweight USB cables freeze badly and may be damaged easily. So do not faceplant in the snow on every occasion.

Remember to wear warm enough gloves to avoid frostbite in the long run. Your Sony will most likely work longer than you do with this little preparation.



Dec 14, 2017 at 06:25 PM
Frostefdflake
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


MJ,


PERFECT!!!!!!!!

going to have to give this a try.



Dec 14, 2017 at 06:44 PM
MJKoski
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


Remember to get a powerpack which is able to run the camera. Not every cheap pack is able to provide the needed amperage. I do not remember the exact limit but I do think it was something like 2A at least. And you need to experiment a bit how many hand warmers is enough to keep your pack warm enough. Those warmers also need a bit of agitation to keep them warm in the long run.

And if your sock / whatever container is a bit loose, you can always tape the warmers directly onto the pack itself and stuff that into the container. Heavy mittens with thermal insulation are also good containers.



Dec 14, 2017 at 06:55 PM
thrice
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


The annoying part is you cannot use a remote trigger and power at the same time unless you use the Sony app. I have a timelapse controller which needs to be connected to both the motor and the camera


Dec 14, 2017 at 07:56 PM
SteveF
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


What MJ said. The chemical hand warmers are your friends. Put them on the batteries, on the back of your phone, your toes, in your mittens, etc. With a hand warmer inside a warm coat a battery will stay warm all day.


Dec 14, 2017 at 09:40 PM
DaveFP
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


MJKoski wrote:
Yo! Special trick: Take a wool sock, stuff USB-powerpack in there and also 1-2 chemical hand warmers. Then you just run the camera (R2, R3 etc. which can run on USB power) on USB power. Tape the sock to tripod for moving around easily. This way, -35C is doable for hours. Note that most lightweight USB cables freeze badly and may be damaged easily. So do not faceplant in the snow on every occasion.

Remember to wear warm enough gloves to avoid frostbite in the long run. Your Sony will most likely work longer than you do with this little preparation.


Great ! Which USB power supply?




Dec 14, 2017 at 09:49 PM
scrappydog
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


DaveFP wrote:
Great ! Which USB power supply?

I use the Goal Zero Venture 30. I haven't used it in hardcore cold conditions, but it has been reliable for charging my A7R2 in many other conditions. It has nice features built into it, too, such as built-in USB and microUSB connectors and high-speed charging ports (5V, 2.4A). There is a bigger version of this power supply called the Goal Zero Venture 70.



Dec 14, 2017 at 10:54 PM
MJKoski
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


DaveFP wrote:
Great ! Which USB power supply?



It is Sandstrøm branded device sold locally here in Scandinavia area. Nothing special and quite cheap, just able to support high speed phone charging. It is not very big, only 10 000mAh but works long enough when kept warm. Note to everyone who is going to use these in cold conditions: After connecting USB cable to camera body, tape it sealed shut around the USB port. Otherwise you will get hoarfrost in there and that is not very good thing.



Dec 15, 2017 at 06:05 AM
Frostefdflake
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


Mj, thanks for the heads up on the amperage. I have a 10000 mah battery that puts out 2 amps. If it works, great , if not then I'll picknup one of the Goal Zero.


Dec 15, 2017 at 06:53 AM
DaveFP
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


MJKoski wrote:
It is Sandstrøm branded device sold locally here in Scandinavia area. Nothing special and quite cheap, just able to support high speed phone charging. It is not very big, only 10 000mAh but works long enough when kept warm. Note to everyone who is going to use these in cold conditions: After connecting USB cable to camera body, tape it sealed shut around the USB port. Otherwise you will get hoarfrost in there and that is not very good thing.


Thanks ! I have an Anker charger for my iPhone. Any chance it can burn out the camera? Anyone have specs for the maximum power output?





Dec 15, 2017 at 08:15 AM
Gary Clennan
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


Just to clarify - which Sony do you own?


Dec 15, 2017 at 12:24 PM
BlueBomberTurbo
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


MJKoski wrote:
It is Sandstrøm branded device sold locally here in Scandinavia area. Nothing special and quite cheap, just able to support high speed phone charging. It is not very big, only 10 000mAh but works long enough when kept warm.


Does this fully power the camera, or will the internal battery still drain? I've used a couple batteries already that can't fully power the camera, despite being able to quick charge phones. Of course, the battery life is still extended, but not by more than 50% or so.




Dec 16, 2017 at 07:55 PM
MJKoski
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


Last time I used that in the cold the session lasted about 4 hours (camera not powered on at all times, just when composing and taking an exposure) and R2 did not shut down once on its own EXCEPT that the NP-FW50 inserted in camera will have its output voltage dropped due to cold. It returns back to almost full when warmed up later.

I tried all kinds of weird things to power up R2 in 2016 when I started the "Torture Test" -thread. Even backup car starter lead acid battery which also had USB port. But it weighted 11kg so not very good for long hikes...

One of the nasties of cold usage is that if you have a pocketload of NP-FW50 batteries and swap them in the cold you will loose time/date and also some other setup settings if you are too slow. It is matter of seconds between battery swaps.



Dec 17, 2017 at 04:05 PM
HelenaN
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


MJKoski wrote:
One of the nasties of cold usage is that if you have a pocketload of NP-FW50 batteries and swap them in the cold you will loose time/date and also some other setup settings if you are too slow. It is matter of seconds between battery swaps.


Thank you for all the useful tips!

Also have to thank you for bringing up the time/date thing. I had never seen anyone else mentioning that so I thought it was just my camera, especially since the A7 doesn't do it, just the A7II. It's seriously annoying! Like you say one has to swap the battery within a few seconds and to do that I have to take off the gloves, which is a very bad thing to do when it's cold. Then if I'm still not quick enough I have to spend even more valuable time setting the time again or else the photos will be incorrectly sorted in Lightroom and other places.




Dec 18, 2017 at 04:55 AM
MJKoski
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


Yes, it is something Sony did with MK2 series of A7 camera. A7r1 did not loose its settings in cold as you experienced with your A7. Maybe the internal backup battery for settings was swapped to smaller one. Who knows...

Maybe that is fixed with R3?



Dec 18, 2017 at 10:10 AM
Gary Clennan
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


MJKoski wrote:
Yes, it is something Sony did with MK2 series of A7 camera. A7r1 did not loose its settings in cold as you experienced with your A7. Maybe the internal backup battery for settings was swapped to smaller one. Who knows...

Maybe that is fixed with R3?


I will be testing this out all winter.



Dec 18, 2017 at 11:30 AM
MJKoski
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


You got R3? I will be most interested to hear how the larger battery works compared to NP-FW50.


Dec 18, 2017 at 02:27 PM
Gary Clennan
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Battery Life in the Cold - Workarounds


Well it finally got a bit chilly last night and I tried out the A7RIII in -30C weather for about 1.5hrs. Absolutely no problems and I still had about 40% battery life left (out in the cold). When I came inside, it shot up to 70%. Pretty impressed. Still, I need to test for a whole day in the cold...







Dec 26, 2017 at 05:34 PM
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