a7R III normal battery depletion ?

My new a7R III battery seems to loose its power faster than other cameras that I have, is this normal ?'

From about an 80% full battery, one week later, it's dropped 18% with no use. Yes the battery has been in the camera. I normally leave the battery's in all of my cameras, a7R II, a6300, 5D IV, 6D, D810 with very little drop in available power.

The airplane mode is on, power switch is off. Do I look forward to a short battery life tomorrow (all day shooting) ? I was under the impression there was no power drain with the power switch off other than normal parasitic/leakage losses, and this new battery is supposed to last much longer than the old 50 series batterys.

Or do I just have maybe a weak battery ? After all, the camera had been sitting on the shelf a long time before I bought it. Yes, I did allow a full charge before I installed in into my camera.

Mike

My A7R2 was like that, but fortunately the new A7R4 is not like that at all. - Keeps the battery full charged for days without any change.

What lens, or adapter, are you using. Some adapters stay on after the camera has been shut off. This will drain that battery very quickly.

lacix said:

My A7R2 was like that, but fortunately the new A7R4 is not like that at all. - Keeps the battery full charged for days without any change.

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Yes, the A7R2 was notorious for that - it would flatten batteries rapidly. That was one of the joys of moving to the A7R3 - it does NOT flatten batteries like that (unless you have one of those evil adapters connected) - plus it's a much bigger battery.

AlephNull said:

lacix said:

My A7R2 was like that, but fortunately the new A7R4 is not like that at all. - Keeps the battery full charged for days without any change.

Click to expand...

Yes, the A7R2 was notorious for that - it would flatten batteries rapidly. That was one of the joys of moving to the A7R3 - it does NOT flatten batteries like that (unless you have one of those evil adapters connected) - plus it's a much bigger battery.

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cameras based on the FW50 battery are notorious for it , I noticed it first with the NEX5 original and yup, the NEX5N and NEX7 did it too as does my RX10 Mk3 and the R2 ...

What I found does help to a degree, especially with the RX10M3 is after using the camera, flip the battery out for a few seconds before storing, it still loses some but not as much..... weird thing is that the batteries themselves don`t lose much if any when stored out of the camera which is a blessing as all your batts would be flat after a week or two

I thought the FW50 curse had been cured with the R3`s new battery

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** Please ignore the Typos, I'm the world's worst Typist **

AlephNull said:

lacix said:

My A7R2 was like that, but fortunately the new A7R4 is not like that at all. - Keeps the battery full charged for days without any change.

Click to expand...

Yes, the A7R2 was notorious for that - it would flatten batteries rapidly. That was one of the joys of moving to the A7R3 - it does NOT flatten batteries like that (unless you have one of those evil adapters connected) - plus it's a much bigger battery.

Click to expand...

Mine must be defective. I can leave it lying around for a week and it loses maybe three percent.

My R3 batteries hold levels extremely well when not in use - in or out of camera. Are you using a real genuine Sony battery? (There are tons of fakes on the market.)

The older small batteries are horrible.

The newer large batteries are fantastic.

Mike - said:

My new a7R III battery seems to loose its power faster than other cameras that I have, is this normal ?'

From about an 80% full battery, one week later, it's dropped 18% with no use. Yes the battery has been in the camera. I normally leave the battery's in all of my cameras, a7R II, a6300, 5D IV, 6D, D810 with very little drop in available power.

The airplane mode is on, power switch is off. Do I look forward to a short battery life tomorrow (all day shooting) ? I was under the impression there was no power drain with the power switch off other than normal parasitic/leakage losses, and this new battery is supposed to last much longer than the old 50 series batterys.

Or do I just have maybe a weak battery ? After all, the camera had been sitting on the shelf a long time before I bought it. Yes, I did allow a full charge before I installed in into my camera.

Mike

Click to expand...

Every time I've found unusual phantom drain, it's usually been with third-party lenses or adapters. To facilitate rapid power on, if the lens is not detached, the body keeps it powered. The lens SHOULD enter deep sleep that consumes just enough power to refresh RAM, but some lenses don't do this well, and some adapters don't do it at all.

The problem can in theory happen with first-party lenses and adapters due to software bugs, but it's FAR more common with third-party adapters. Some adapters are highly notorious for having 0 power management/deep sleep support.

Quickly detaching/reattaching the lens or adapter after turning the switch on the camera to "OFF" will eliminate this possible cause. A full removal is not necessary, just a fraction of a turn and back (look at the distance between pins on the mount - just one pin offset will be more than enough.)

As to airplane mode - with the exception of the R4's new "wake-on-wlan" functionality, no one has EVER provided any evidence of the WLAN chip being active when the camera's switch is "off".

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Context is key. If I have quoted someone else's post when replying, please do not reply to something I say without reading text that I have quoted, and understanding the reason the quote function exists.

Factory Sony battery that came with the camera.

Yes, I do have a Metabones adapter with a Tamron lens. The adapter has a blue power light that goes off with the cameras power switch, so I didn't give that any credence, even though I did think about that. Did not and don't think the lens will draw power on it's own. Never had that problem on the R II version camera. Yea, even with the little battery.

Charged to full last night, we'll see what the camera says later. Will also leave it out of the camera during non-use and see what happens.

Thanks all.

Mike

Mike - said:

Factory Sony battery that came with the camera.

Yes, I do have a Metabones adapter with a Tamron lens. The adapter has a blue power light that goes off with the cameras power switch, so I didn't give that any credence, even though I did think about that. Did not and don't think the lens will draw power on it's own. Never had that problem on the R II version camera. Yea, even with the little battery.

Charged to full last night, we'll see what the camera says later. Will also leave it out of the camera during non-use and see what happens.

Thanks all.

Mike

Click to expand...

If you find it draining in-camera, but not out of camera, it might also be interesting to try leaving it in the camera, but with a body cap on instead of adapter or lens.

SQLGuy said:

Mike - said:

Factory Sony battery that came with the camera.

Yes, I do have a Metabones adapter with a Tamron lens. The adapter has a blue power light that goes off with the cameras power switch, so I didn't give that any credence, even though I did think about that. Did not and don't think the lens will draw power on it's own. Never had that problem on the R II version camera. Yea, even with the little battery.

Charged to full last night, we'll see what the camera says later. Will also leave it out of the camera during non-use and see what happens.

Thanks all.

Mike

Click to expand...

If you find it draining in-camera, but not out of camera, it might also be interesting to try leaving it in the camera, but with a body cap on instead of adapter or lens.

Click to expand...

You only need to do the quick disconnect/reconnect, not full removal of the lens. There are hardware interlocks (at least in older bodies for which service manuals are available) that guarantee that the lens is depowered if the LENS_XDETECT contact is disconnected. I have never seen a camera reapply power after this without the on/off switch being put into the on position.

After sitting the night, "out" of the camera, the battery was 100% when I installed it at the races. The battery was charged to full about 9pm the night before.

In use all day today, the battery held up fine. After a little over 200 pictures, I was still at 65%.

During the first half of the day, I worked the on-off switch pretty good. Then the second half of the day, I let the camera do its "sleeping" thing. The battery seemed to drop a little faster, but not by a huge amount.

The use was mostly without any viewing of the pictures because of the sun. Also mostly multiple drive (medium speed). I did do some picture checking (back screen viewing) later in the afternoon, but not a lot.

I'll double check the battery tonight, and put it away, give it a few days and see what happens. I'll recharge it to something less than 100%, do a lens disconnect, and try that too.

Thanks all for the info.

Mike

A7R4 - two days past, still 100%