scotchtape Posted May 27, 2018 Share Posted May 27, 2018 Just wanted to start a thread on these for future reference so we can find some good battery brands, and post up on A7III overheating. Sony OEM was at 60% after 1hr recording. Temperature warning starting flashing on and off around 40 mins, then stayed on at 55 mins, and shutdown at 1:02 for me. After 20 minutes I restarted the test. Camera lasted for 34mins then shutdown again, warning light came on after 20mins. Battery at 30% after 1.5h. Purchased 4x DSTE brand NP-FZ100 from eBay in May 2018. These cause overheat warning during video recording at 40mins and shuts off at 45-50mins (tested several times). So basically they heat up 25% faster than OEM cells. Purchased 1x SmilePowo from Amazon in May 2018. This recorded for slightly longer than 2 hours. I believe Sony can go for 3 hours? So 2/3 the battery life of OEM. Also, the last 25 minutes recorded was with the meter showing 0%. They also weigh about 6g less than the OEM. Tested in 4K APS-C mode. Tested indoors on my desk. Ambient around 21C (guessing). Using 4K 100mbps in full frame. AF-C and IBIS on. Used Sony 16-35mm GM and Sony 18-105mm (aps-c). Temperature setting was normal and not the high mode. Anyone tried Wasabi? On the overheating side, using 4K in APS-C mode the camera lasts longer (I think, I was playing video games and didn't pay 100% attention to the test), but using the full frame for 4K it overheats at about an hour. 4 other YT clips show overheating around 1 hour to 1:20, and 30mins in direct sun. I'm assuming Max got his to "not overheat" by sneakily recording in 1080p. So I'm not really sure this camera has improved heat tolerance at all. Martin Cheung's video shows the A7III overheating around 1:20, whereas the A7rIII was fine. Anyone else have A7III that won't overheat during full frame 4K recording? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotchtape Posted May 28, 2018 Author Share Posted May 28, 2018 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfoundmass Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 So the SmilePowo didn't overheat or it took 2 hours to overheat? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotchtape Posted May 28, 2018 Author Share Posted May 28, 2018 Update: It might be the 16-35mm F2.8 GM lens + A7 III overheating. Which might mean certain lenses could lead to an overheat situation, which is really weird. I redid the test with Sony OEM battery and Sony 70-200mm F2.8 GM with no overheating, completely using the battery up recording for around 2:50. At 1:30 the battery was around 48%. At 2h, 28%, at 2:30 - 8%. I thought it might be because the 70-200mm is huge so a bigger heat sink, but the 18-105mm with the SmilePowo didn't OH either so... who knows. I will repeat with DSTE later. @newfoundmass The SmilePowo was done with the Sony 18-105mm F4 lens, so it probably would have caused an overheat with the 16-35mm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
no_connection Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 Question is, does powering it with a battery adapter cause it to overheat? And how much does it draw when recording. And with different lenses? Knowing how many W of power that will convert into heat is key here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Inazuma Posted May 28, 2018 Share Posted May 28, 2018 I bought this Dot Photo battery for £20 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07BQFRG5B/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Used it for 1-2 hours (not continuously) in about 22C weather. No problems with it so far. I think it was still at about 70% after that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotchtape Posted May 29, 2018 Author Share Posted May 29, 2018 DSTE Battery lasted 2:15 hours BUT it shut down and corrupted the last file. Not sure what the battery meter said when it shut down. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff CB Posted May 29, 2018 Share Posted May 29, 2018 21 hours ago, scotchtape said: Update: It might be the 16-35mm F2.8 GM lens + A7 III overheating. Which might mean certain lenses could lead to an overheat situation, which is really weird. I redid the test with Sony OEM battery and Sony 70-200mm F2.8 GM with no overheating, completely using the battery up recording for around 2:50. At 1:30 the battery was around 48%. At 2h, 28%, at 2:30 - 8%. I thought it might be because the 70-200mm is huge so a bigger heat sink, but the 18-105mm with the SmilePowo didn't OH either so... who knows. I will repeat with DSTE later. @newfoundmass The SmilePowo was done with the Sony 18-105mm F4 lens, so it probably would have caused an overheat with the 16-35mm. Turn off lens corrections, that extra processing power might be causing it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotchtape Posted June 8, 2018 Author Share Posted June 8, 2018 More tests: turned off lens compensation (shading, loca, distortion) - makes a huge difference. Before turning it off, the Tamron 28-75mm overheated at 45mins, turning it off and it lasted until battery exhaustion, but the warning light did flick on and off towards the end. From what I've read online, the distortion correction does work in video mode but I guess it takes too much processing power. Tested another one of the DSTE batteries I had because one was really bad at shutdown around 10% and corrupted the last file. The other DSTE ran down to 0%, but when it shut down also corrupted the last file. 80% - 0:30 | 67% - 1h | 49% - 1:30 | 31% - 2h | 0%: 2:20 I would suggest being careful with current gen aftermarket batts - basically change them early and expect about 2h recording life. If you don't change them early you risk corrupting the current recording. With my GH5 I usually change them early so I've never really tested the run down on those. For $22... I can live with the shortcomings, and I'm converting the really bad one to a dummy battery (the one that shuts down at 10%). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trek of Joy Posted July 3, 2018 Share Posted July 3, 2018 Bumping this back up as I just scored a deal on a a7III, any other experiences with 3rd party NP-FZ100's? Will be looking to test a few out myself. Cheers Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfoundmass Posted July 4, 2018 Share Posted July 4, 2018 I know Caleb Pike is in the process of working on a video that covers this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotchtape Posted July 5, 2018 Author Share Posted July 5, 2018 Currently the cheap ones are all about 2/3 the battery life of the OEM, but 1/4 the cost. I haven't tried any of the more expensive ones like wasabi. All of the no names on amazon.com are from the same factory, I've tried 2 so far with the exact same packaging but I'm assuming the rest are the same. Hopefully they get better soon. You can get them for under $25 each, don't pay the $30-$40 for them. Trek of Joy 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newfoundmass Posted July 10, 2018 Share Posted July 10, 2018 Might be helpful Trek of Joy and Robert Collins 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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