Interesting info regarding display quality and power.
TheEmrys wrote:
Okay, these are the numbers from Gary Friedman's excellent book, where he slapped on a voltmeter to the a7:
With LCD on: 235 mA
With EVF on: 252.5 mA
With both displays OFF:201.75 mA (not sure what this means, will e-mail Gary)
AF with FE lens: 360 mA (peak)
AF with A-mount lens (screwdriver blade): 360 mA (peak)
Display Quality Standard 312.2mA
Display Quality High 373.5 mA
Deactivate Monitor: No Power Savings
Airlplane Mode: No Meaningful difference when shooting
I believe the airplane mode belief comes in from those he keep their cell phone near their camera and NFC attempts to sync. Other than that, Airplane mode does nothing, because it doesn't "search" for a signal until it has been triggered.
There are more measurements in Gary's phenomenal book such as differences in LCD brightness. Get his book. Awesome resource....Show more →
I don't know about the mkII but on the A7r it was ridiculously over sensitive to being switched to EVF only by your chest or hand or whatever. This way you can actually control which is on without having to menu dive. That for me is a serious plus.
Yes, ALWAYS turn it off when not actively shooting, and you will save TONS of power.
This has never been more true since IBIS. If you generally walk around with the power on and lens cap off, your camera will try and stabilize your walking motion, full time. That sucks up a lot of power.
TheEmrys wrote:
Okay, these are the numbers from Gary Friedman's excellent book, where he slapped on a voltmeter to the a7:
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Deactivate Monitor: No Power Savings
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I think something may have been lost in translation here. How can there be zero power savings when the monitor is turned off? LCD screens require power, and the brighter the image the more power is being used. Even with the exposure info still shown, the rest of the screen is black.
Because unlike an OLED display, an LCD monitor draws constant power regardless of 'color' on the screen.
A screen powered and all black, versus screen covered with lots of stuff, will have exactly same power draw.
An OLED display is different. Black color pixels draw no power, while colored pixels draw more power than LCD (that's why OLED is more power draining, unless it powers off a portion of its image).
If the back screen was OLED, when camera is exposing and blanking out the screen, there would indeed be power savings.
And a note - Deactivate Monitor only blanks it out, doesn't power it off.
dandrewk wrote:
I think something may have been lost in translation here. How can there be zero power savings when the monitor is turned off? LCD screens require power, and the brighter the image the more power is being used. Even with the exposure info still shown, the rest of the screen is black.
TheEmrys wrote:
Correct. It is "displaying" a black screen rather than turning it off.
Which brings up a question I had since I got A7R ... why not power it off? Less heat generated, less battery drain ... what could possibly be the downside?
I suppose Sony would be the ultimate source of which one of these multiple theories is actually correct on the A7r2. The question for me is why would Sony put this capability for assigning a switch to turning off the monitor if it doesn't do anything. When I was using just the switch to disable the LCD there was always some setting information present on the bottom of the LCD screen. With this new approach there is absolutely no information of any kind which makes me believe there are two separate functions happening here. Like I said only Sony knows this for sure. It's probably wishful thinking on my part that this is the case.
Thanks for the tip! Now with the LCD switched off and the EVF also switching off when your eye is not close to it, the camera will appear like it's turned off, but it's not. This means you'll have to remember to actually turn it off, or else it'll remain on.
dandrewk wrote:
Yes, ALWAYS turn it off when not actively shooting, and you will save TONS of power.
This has never been more true since IBIS. If you generally walk around with the power on and lens cap off, your camera will try and stabilize your walking motion, full time. That sucks up a lot of power.
With the A7II, I get the impression that the IBIS is not always on, but only when you half press the shutter. But I may be wrong.
secondclaw wrote:
Because unlike an OLED display, an LCD monitor draws constant power regardless of 'color' on the screen.
A screen powered and all black, versus screen covered with lots of stuff, will have exactly same power draw.
An OLED display is different. Black color pixels draw no power, while colored pixels draw more power than LCD (that's why OLED is more power draining, unless it powers off a portion of its image).
If the back screen was OLED, when camera is exposing and blanking out the screen, there would indeed be power savings.
And a note - Deactivate Monitor only blanks it out, doesn't power it off.
Hmmm . . . when I deactivate the rear monitor on my A7RII the screen is absolutely dark - no light at all. When the monitor is on and showing black - you can see very low illumination. It looks to me that when I deactivate the monitor it is truly off. I can't say what the display electronics are doing - they may still be sending display information signals to the monitor which is simply not displaying them because it's de-powered.
jhinkey wrote:
Hmmm . . . when I deactivate the rear monitor on my A7RII the screen is absolutely dark - no light at all. When the monitor is on and showing black - you can see very low illumination. It looks to me that when I deactivate the monitor it is truly off. I can't say what the display electronics are doing - they may still be sending display information signals to the monitor which is simply not displaying them because it's de-powered.
It very well could be off. My post abo e was only for the a7/r and probably the s.
jhinkey wrote:
Hmmm . . . when I deactivate the rear monitor on my A7RII the screen is absolutely dark - no light at all. When the monitor is on and showing black - you can see very low illumination. It looks to me that when I deactivate the monitor it is truly off. I can't say what the display electronics are doing - they may still be sending display information signals to the monitor which is simply not displaying them because it's de-powered.
