Cutting power while the camera is on?

I have an FZ1000 and an FZ300 that I have temporarily set up in an indoor video studio. I use them for fly fishing product and fly tying videos.

Both cameras have A/C battery adapters to enable them to be powered from the mains, which saves me worrying about battery life during a video shoot.

Each time I turn a camera off, it resets itself as it retracts the lens. This is a nuisance that wastes 10 to 15 minutes of setup time every time I use them.

The A/C adapters are plugged into a power bar.

So the question is: can these cameras be safely powered on and off via the power bar and retain their settings? The camera power switch would be left in the "ON" position.

I could experiment, but I don't want to fry anything, so looking to see if anyone has tried this before I turn one of my cameras into a guinea pig.

They do have a Zoom Resume option that should return the lens to where it was at when you turn the camera back on. I'm not sure it remembers where it was at when power is totally lost but you could easily test that. Same for MF focus position.

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Bruce
You learn something new every time you press the shutter

I am sure that you should know well the modern day camera is no difference from a set of mini computer. Have you been warned to avoid cutting power without the proper shut down procedure because you are risking to crash your system, and worse of all, hard crash the hard disk?

I think it might also crash your camera, the card mostly if you take out the battery during operation.

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Albert

pharles said:

I have an FZ1000 and an FZ300 that I have temporarily set up in an indoor video studio. I use them for fly fishing product and fly tying videos.
Both cameras have A/C battery adapters to enable them to be powered from the mains, which saves me worrying about battery life during a video shoot.
Each time I turn a camera off, it resets itself as it retracts the lens. This is a nuisance that wastes 10 to 15 minutes of setup time every time I use them.

Click to expand...

Don't turn off the camera then. Just keep it powered on for the full day.

pharles said:

The A/C adapters are plugged into a power bar.
So the question is: can these cameras be safely powered on and off via the power bar and retain their settings? The camera power switch would be left in the "ON" position.
I could experiment, but I don't want to fry anything, so looking to see if anyone has tried this before I turn one of my cameras into a guinea pig.

Click to expand...

Well it would be the equivalent of your battery running out of power (or removing the battery while it is working). I would imagine if you are writing something to the SD card, the file(s) being written will get corrupted. But otherwise it should be fine. I know I've taken the battery out of several cameras without realizing that the camera was turned on.

If your issue is the power bar might be turned off, you might want to think of a UPS-like solution. Tether Tools has their Case Relay Camera Power system, that includes a USB battery to keep the camera powered, and the USB battery reads USB power from a USB 5v/2.1a source to charge the USB battery.

• https://www.tethertools.com/product/case-relay-power-bundle/

Certainly inadvisable to just cut the power: lens will be left in whatever its current position but will retract when power is restored; SD card might be corrupted.

It is not clear, other than the zoom position, what settings you are using that couldn’t be saved for re-use on Custom setting, C1/C2, etc

Thanks for the replies.

Thanks for the Resume Zoom hint, I'll check that out.

I have a UPS, keeping them powered isn't a worry and I am concerned about improper shut down and start up. For example, the buffer will not flush properly if the power is cut which could lead to file damage. Any voltage surge on startup could damage the chips.

The FZ1000 just needs to maintain the zoom and the Resume Zoom should work for that.

The FZ300 however is mounted high up and needs to be accessed via a step stool. I need to maintain both zoom and focus (set to MF) and I also have it mounted on a macro focusing rail for precision. It's a major PITA every time I have to set up the FZ300.

Here's a recent video shot with these cameras:

Most current digicams have an internal battery which will retain settings, just as your computer retains its settings when power is off. To be conservative, you can observe all the cautions above - but should you forget, IMO it's very unlikely that you would damage your camera. All the *firm* settings you had before you unlinked power should be there when you return power.

THANK YOU Bruce!

Not only did Resume Zoom work for holding the zoom setting, on the FZ300, it held the MF setting as well. The MF fiddling has been a major pain - imagine standing on a step stool, reaching high up, while wiggling the focus dial and watching for the peaking to show up on an external monitor. With a small fly, I can spend ten minutes just fiddling to get that right.

Solved!

Resume Zoom even held the MF on the FZ300.

Thanks Bruce.

pharles said:

Solved!

Resume Zoom even held the MF on the FZ300.

Thanks Bruce.

Click to expand...

You're welcome - I'm glad it worked. My FZ200 has a Lens Resume submenu where both Zoom Resume and MF Resume can be independently set. But I couldn't find MF Resume for either of your models so I couldn't point you to it!

I guess it makes sense for the camera to leave focus where it's at when it powers on in MF mode. There's a better chance that the previous focus might be desirable over any other! My FZ200 with MF Resume enabled even remembers the MF setting when switching over to AF modes and returns to the previous MF position when switched back to MF mode. Perhaps your cameras do the same?

--
Bruce
You learn something new every time you press the shutter

pharles said:

THANK YOU Bruce!
Not only did Resume Zoom work for holding the zoom setting, on the FZ300, it held the MF setting as well. The MF fiddling has been a major pain - imagine standing on a step stool, reaching high up, while wiggling the focus dial and watching for the peaking to show up on an external monitor. With a small fly, I can spend ten minutes just fiddling to get that right.

Click to expand...

I don't have the FZ300 here but I'm pretty sure that if you configure the AFL/AEL button to "AF-On" in the menu and have the camera in MF mode, then tapping the AF/AE Lock button will cause a one-time autofocus.

That autofocus is generally very accurate and much easier than diddling with the focus dial. If you don't like the focus, just tap again.

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Sherm
Sherms flickr page

P900 album