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New A7 batteries / Batteries and battery life

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stevo23

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Just got new A7 batteries from Best Buy. Some kind of quirk, they were $30 each (on sale). Now the sale is gone, so either I got lucky or they were blowing out some counterfeit.

Any pointers for judging authenticity? They each have a holographic serial number and all the fancy packaging you could ask for, but none of it looks like the fake or genuine ones from articles I've seen. They certainly charge like and drain like the original. I mean it is Best Buy, but even they can get scammed from time to time.

Also got the Watson Duo and I really like it. B&H had the best price on it. The dual charging is really nice and the LCD display tells you how much charge you have left. It also has a USB port so you can actually charge 3 batteries if you plug your camera in.

As for battery life, what's up with this camera? I can leave the batteries out and they drain a few percent a day. But leave them in the camera with the camera off in airplane mode etc. and it ends up eating 20% in a day with no activity. I can fire off 100 shots in the span of 30 minutes in 5 bracketed shots at a time and it will only use 4% of the battery. It's battery usage defies explanation. Maybe the battery is reporting it's life via microchip and the sampling is just sporadic?
 
I bought two Sony batteries a few weeks ago on Amazon for $30 a piece. They too have the hologram. Then I bought an a6000 to go with my a7, and the a6000 came with a battery that looks exactly like the ones from Amazon, hologram and all. So Sony either has different battery suppliers are perhaps they are changing the design since the a7 was released.

Neither my a7 or my a6000 lose 20% charge just sitting a day. I have Airplane mode on. They might drop a few %, but not 20%. I get at least 1000 images from each battery, and several hours of use. But I never use the EVF.

--
An astrophotography hobbyist and amateur radio instructor and examiner. Sony a7, Sony a6000, and Canon Powershot G1 X. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden/
 
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stevo23 said:
Just got new A7 batteries from Best Buy. Some kind of quirk, they were $30 each (on sale). Now the sale is gone, so either I got lucky or they were blowing out some counterfeit.

Any pointers for judging authenticity? They each have a holographic serial number and all the fancy packaging you could ask for, but none of it looks like the fake or genuine ones from articles I've seen. They certainly charge like and drain like the original. I mean it is Best Buy, but even they can get scammed from time to time.

Also got the Watson Duo and I really like it. B&H had the best price on it. The dual charging is really nice and the LCD display tells you how much charge you have left. It also has a USB port so you can actually charge 3 batteries if you plug your camera in.

As for battery life, what's up with this camera? I can leave the batteries out and they drain a few percent a day. But leave them in the camera with the camera off in airplane mode etc. and it ends up eating 20% in a day with no activity. I can fire off 100 shots in the span of 30 minutes in 5 bracketed shots at a time and it will only use 4% of the battery. It's battery usage defies explanation. Maybe the battery is reporting it's life via microchip and the sampling is just sporadic?
Click to expand...
For a counterfeit operator to go through the effort of packaging, hologram creatin and providing even a fake usable battery seems like a large expense for little return. It doesn't make sense to me that counterfeit batteries would be on the market vs. just selling them at a discount like Power 2000 or Wasabi. Also, how big of a market would there be for them? I would think most that bought a NEX would just use the one battery that came with the camera. There might be some packaging differences between runs? I noticed some fluctuations during the first few charges with my batteries whether they were Sony or third party. They seem to become more stable after a few charge/discharge cycles.
 
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I have used mirrorless cameras for a couple of years. I have always found that the batteries drain even when not in use and after about a week of non-use are practically dead.

The drain of mirrorless cameras happens mostly because when switched on either the LCD or EVF is active. Deactivating the LCD doesnt actually save meaningful power (according to the Friedman book) because it simply renders it black.

Friedman's book sets out the power consumption of the battery with various use.

LCD on 235ma

EVF on 252 ma

Autofcusing 360ma (peak)

LCD playback 312ma (standard)

He doesnt mention the power use when taking and processing a shot but I dont think it is significantly higher than when autofocusing. The Sony batteries are rated 1080ma although I doubt they reach that level after a few charges. Essentially what this means is that you will get 3 to 4 hours use out of a battery almost irrespective of the number of shots you take. I think you could easily take 1000 or end up with less than 100 from a battery.

This is pretty similar to my EM1 although its battery life is somewhat better.

--
http://www.flickr.com/photos/robcoll/
 
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W5JCK said:
I bought two Sony batteries a few weeks ago on Amazon for $30 a piece. They too have the hologram. Then I bought an a6000 to go with my a7, and the a6000 came with a battery that looks exactly like the ones from Amazon, hologram and all. So Sony either has different battery suppliers are perhaps they are changing the design since the a7 was released.
Click to expand...
OK, that's good to hear. Thanks!
W5JCK said:
Neither my a7 or my a6000 lose 20% charge just sitting a day. I have Airplane mode on. They might drop a few %, but not 20%. I get at least 1000 images from each battery, and several hours of use. But I never use the EVF.
Click to expand...
You never use the EVF or never use the LCD?
 
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PVCdroid said:
stevo23 said:
Just got new A7 batteries from Best Buy. Some kind of quirk, they were $30 each (on sale). Now the sale is gone, so either I got lucky or they were blowing out some counterfeit.

Any pointers for judging authenticity? They each have a holographic serial number and all the fancy packaging you could ask for, but none of it looks like the fake or genuine ones from articles I've seen. They certainly charge like and drain like the original. I mean it is Best Buy, but even they can get scammed from time to time.

Also got the Watson Duo and I really like it. B&H had the best price on it. The dual charging is really nice and the LCD display tells you how much charge you have left. It also has a USB port so you can actually charge 3 batteries if you plug your camera in.

As for battery life, what's up with this camera? I can leave the batteries out and they drain a few percent a day. But leave them in the camera with the camera off in airplane mode etc. and it ends up eating 20% in a day with no activity. I can fire off 100 shots in the span of 30 minutes in 5 bracketed shots at a time and it will only use 4% of the battery. It's battery usage defies explanation. Maybe the battery is reporting it's life via microchip and the sampling is just sporadic?
Click to expand...
For a counterfeit operator to go through the effort of packaging, hologram creatin and providing even a fake usable battery seems like a large expense for little return. It doesn't make sense to me that counterfeit batteries would be on the market vs. just selling them at a discount like Power 2000 or Wasabi. Also, how big of a market would there be for them?
Click to expand...
I tend to agree. But there have been a few articles on the internet about it as well as YouTube videos. Maybe they are just conspiracy nuts? I hadn't thought of that.
 
I can think of two things that can deplete a battery rather quickly. WiFi always on and continuous AF mode. I leave Airplane mode turned on and usually use MF, so battery life is fairly good in my case. Also, I think if you turn the a6000 off, remove the battery, then replace the battery, the camera will be really OFF. If you simply turn the switch off then the camera is only in sleep mode. The camera will awake quickly in sleep mode, but it takes a while to boot up from OFF. Try turning it OFF by removing the battery and reinserting it, then see if the battery drains slower than in sleep mode.

--
An astrophotography hobbyist and amateur radio instructor and examiner. Sony a7, Sony a6000, and Canon Powershot G1 X. https://www.flickr.com/photos/jackswinden/
 
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W5JCK said:
I can think of two things that can deplete a battery rather quickly. WiFi always on and continuous AF mode. I leave Airplane mode turned on and usually use MF, so battery life is fairly good in my case. Also, I think if you turn the a6000 off, remove the battery, then replace the battery, the camera will be really OFF. If you simply turn the switch off then the camera is only in sleep mode. The camera will awake quickly in sleep mode, but it takes a while to boot up from OFF. Try turning it OFF by removing the battery and reinserting it, then see if the battery drains slower than in sleep mode.
Click to expand...
 
W5JCK said:
I can think of two things that can deplete a battery rather quickly. WiFi always on and continuous AF mode. I leave Airplane mode turned on and usually use MF, so battery life is fairly good in my case. Also, I think if you turn the a6000 off, remove the battery, then replace the battery, the camera will be really OFF. If you simply turn the switch off then the camera is only in sleep mode. The camera will awake quickly in sleep mode, but it takes a while to boot up from OFF. Try turning it OFF by removing the battery and reinserting it, then see if the battery drains slower than in sleep mode.
Click to expand...
I think you're right about sleep mode. When I take my cameras into the backcountry, I usually remove the batteries after dark. The DSLRs don't care, but my mirrorless have.
 
We just have to live with short battery life. Sony really screwed up when they made a bigger camera with the same toy batteries a an NEX. We could have had a bigger better grip along with a bigger battery.
 
dave said:
We just have to live with short battery life. Sony really screwed up when they made a bigger camera with the same toy batteries a an NEX. We could have had a bigger better grip along with a bigger battery.
Click to expand...
 
stevo23 said:
Just got new A7 batteries from Best Buy. Some kind of quirk, they were $30 each (on sale). Now the sale is gone, so either I got lucky or they were blowing out some counterfeit.

Any pointers for judging authenticity? They each have a holographic serial number and all the fancy packaging you could ask for, but none of it looks like the fake or genuine ones from articles I've seen. They certainly charge like and drain like the original. I mean it is Best Buy, but even they can get scammed from time to time.

Also got the Watson Duo and I really like it. B&H had the best price on it. The dual charging is really nice and the LCD display tells you how much charge you have left. It also has a USB port so you can actually charge 3 batteries if you plug your camera in.

As for battery life, what's up with this camera? I can leave the batteries out and they drain a few percent a day. But leave them in the camera with the camera off in airplane mode etc. and it ends up eating 20% in a day with no activity. I can fire off 100 shots in the span of 30 minutes in 5 bracketed shots at a time and it will only use 4% of the battery. It's battery usage defies explanation. Maybe the battery is reporting it's life via microchip and the sampling is just sporadic?
Click to expand...
I was looking at Sony's parts site and found this page regarding counterfeit batteries. The NP-FW50 battery is listed. Darn. The page provides some general information on what to look for:

Loading…

esupport.sony.com
 
PVCdroid said:
stevo23 said:
Just got new A7 batteries from Best Buy. Some kind of quirk, they were $30 each (on sale). Now the sale is gone, so either I got lucky or they were blowing out some counterfeit.

Any pointers for judging authenticity? They each have a holographic serial number and all the fancy packaging you could ask for, but none of it looks like the fake or genuine ones from articles I've seen. They certainly charge like and drain like the original. I mean it is Best Buy, but even they can get scammed from time to time.

Also got the Watson Duo and I really like it. B&H had the best price on it. The dual charging is really nice and the LCD display tells you how much charge you have left. It also has a USB port so you can actually charge 3 batteries if you plug your camera in.

As for battery life, what's up with this camera? I can leave the batteries out and they drain a few percent a day. But leave them in the camera with the camera off in airplane mode etc. and it ends up eating 20% in a day with no activity. I can fire off 100 shots in the span of 30 minutes in 5 bracketed shots at a time and it will only use 4% of the battery. It's battery usage defies explanation. Maybe the battery is reporting it's life via microchip and the sampling is just sporadic?
Click to expand...
I was looking at Sony's parts site and found this page regarding counterfeit batteries. The NP-FW50 battery is listed. Darn. The page provides some general information on what to look for:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/p/support-info.pl?info_id=1501&mdl=NEX7
Click to expand...
Well, that confirms that my batteries aren't counterfeit. Thanks for sharing!
 
At least the Sony batteries aren't chipped. If you buy some Panasonic cameras, aftermarket batteries often won't work at all!
 
Poagao said:
stevo23 said:
captura said:
At least the Sony batteries aren't chipped. If you buy some Panasonic cameras, aftermarket batteries often won't work at all!
Click to expand...
The FW50 is chipped, but some makers have figured it out.
Click to expand...
I just got an extra battery and charger from the Sony store, and I realized that the battery with the hologram they sold me is noticeably lighter than the batteries that came with the camera. Now I'm wondering if the shop where I got the camera sold me counterfeit batteries. Even the new chargers are bigger. Or did Sony just develop new, smaller and lighter batteries months after the A7's first came out?
Click to expand...
Yes, the lighter cheaper replacements may be OK but may run down in your camera, even if you're not using it. In about 3 weeks, I found. Might be because of the chip that's missing.
 
The "Hahnel" battery I bought from Henry's will not hold a charge for more than a couple of weeks, if it's left in the camera. I don't know why they sell them.
 
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