I’ve got A7iv replacing A7iii, and noticed one thing about the battery usage. With A7iii, a fully charged Sony battery was down to 70-80 percent after a few months of no use.
On the other hand, with A7iv, a fully charged new Sony battery was down to 50ish percent after a couple weeks of no use. It looks like the battery is getting drained even when it’s turned off.
Has anyone noticed a similar issue? Could it be a case of my battery is faulty? Thanks.
The battery does get drained some when the camera is off, on both cameras. There is an internal battery or capacitor (depending on specific camera) that powers the camera’s internal clock and may also power settings retention. This will get charged off the main battery even if the camera is off.
When a camera is new, it will slowly charge that battery, you always get faster drain of a sitting battery when the camera is new or has been left sitting with no main battery in it for long enough that the internal battery/capacitor fully drains.
The A7IV is already known to be thirstier than the A7III, I’d suggest monitoring this a while longer to see if it clears up, the A7IV has been out barely long enough for a new one to have sat around long enough for the internal battery to drain the main once or twice.
Now a faulty or aged battery is also possible. As batteries age their internal resistance increases and a higher internal resistant will increase self-discharge rates.
If you’re not going to use for a while, take out the battery. The A7iv has a Bluetooth mode that really doesn’t sleep. It works fantastically, but do note, camera doesn’t truly sleep.
My camera does not sit unused for very long but I will say the Sony A7iv does seem to use the battery more than my A9. I expect this is just down to settings .
Younjulius wrote:
I’ve got A7iv replacing A7iii, and noticed one thing about the battery usage. With A7iii, a fully charged Sony battery was down to 70-80 percent after a few months of no use.
On the other hand, with A7iv, a fully charged new Sony battery was down to 50ish percent after a couple weeks of no use. It looks like the battery is getting drained even when it’s turned off.
Has anyone noticed a similar issue? Could it be a case of my battery is faulty? Thanks.
I know this is an old thread. But was googling battery drain on the A7IV. My A7IV is now in the shop for other issues.
So I have an A7III as a backup. When I would go out with the A7IV and a fully charged 100% battery it would go from 100% to into the 30 percent range after only 100 or just over shots.
Yesterday I took the A7III out. And it was a bit chilly...25 degrees, warming up into the 40's in the 2 hours I was out. Battery was at 94% after setting up the camera again. I took 126 photos. Some were burst shots. Battery went from 94% to 75%.
On the A7IV, Bluetooth is off. Airplane mode on. Lens is the Sony 100-400. Sleep mode is set to 2 minutes. Some don't have this issue with battrey drain. Many seem to have this issue. I'm wondering if this is a mother board issue?
