Overheating

[Peter Rush]

OK so I'l looking to downsize my gear and ditch the NEX-EA50 in order to get all my gear in one bag (I'm not getting any younger!) so am looking at using the A7s as my all day camera - there is mention in the manual however of overheating. Now the thought of the camera saying 'bye' during a wedding ceremony or speeches makes my blood run cold!

Have any of you used the A7s for extended periods and had any issues like this? for weddings it would be on pretty much all day.

I'm also thinking of a suitable all-round lens and was looking at Zeiss 24-70 f4 - even though it's F4 it should be fast enough on the A7s for dim churches, also the autofocus will be really handy for fast moving situations - thoughts?

Pete

[Chris Harding]

Hey Pete

Now you are doing the downsize thing ... I think the A7 is probably the only camera you can use for ceremonies in your dim Churches ... If you reset it after natural breaks in the service would that help the camera cool off??? otherwise you could use two in tandem on a tripod bracket and let them take turns during the ceremony however that does mean 3 cameras and not two. At this stage I'm hanging onto the EA-50's as two A7s cameras will stretch my budget too much! It will be interesting to see what you decide! You might as well wait for the new 4K model??

Chris

[Peter Rush]

I don't think another A7s is on the cards Chris - I'd be swapping my EA50 for 2 DSLRs - same bulk but more setup. My aim is to downsize here - lots of guys on the wedding forum shoot entirely using DSLRs and seem not to moan about overheating so maybe it's just Sony covering their butt by mentioning it in the manual.

I'm finding the amount of gear I lug about at weddings causes me a great deal of stress, both mental and physical. Don't get me wrong I love weddings but just need to downsize without affecting the quality of my product and the big/bulky EA50 is in my sights. Last wedding I was literally running from the church to my car with 2 camera bags, a tripod bag (containing 3 light stands and a tripod) and 2 sandbags!! If I lose the EA50 it will be one bag less - a good start.

I have an opportunity here to use the A7s as my main camera throughout the entire day with the right lens. For outdoors the kit lens that came with my EA50 is great - the autofocus is pretty snappy and the servo zoom works nicely. It's just a little slow for indoors and it puts the camera in APS-C mode which I'm pretty sure affects it's low light performance. I'm thinking that If I get that Zeiss 24-70 full frame lens it should do me all day and into the night - yes F4 but full frame and with the A7s low light performance it should be good enough - I've used my Canon 24-105 F4 with it in dim receptions and it's fine. Also being able to use the autofocus I'll be less reliant on having the CX730 round my neck for those gun-and-run situations.

Pete

[Chris Harding]

That sound good!

An A7S and 24-70 F4 here comes to over $5K ..ouch that's more than the EA-50 by a lot and also you still need to know if it can run an hour ceremony without dying of heat exhaustion? I must admit I have shot weddings here at 42 degrees and the cams were so hot I couldn't touch them yet they performed flawlessly.

Yes I need less to carry and two DSLR's are easier to lug around than two shoulder mount cameras! Why not run the A7S at home for an hour and see if the warning symbol comes up ..just check it every 15 minutes???

[Dave Sperling]

Not quite talking the same kind of shooting, but I did recently take my A7s along as a '2nd camera' to use on a corporate travel/interview job to use in tandem with my F3. We ended up wanting to do a lot of additional b-roll, and it was far more convenient to carry the A7s. I also ran it as a second (lock-off) angle for all the interviews.
I was not shooting in particularly hot climates, so external temp did not really heat up the camera, but I never had any issues with overheating. Some of the interviews ran close to an hour (and yes, I did need to stop/re-start recording on the A7s to avoid it shutting off at the 29:59 record limit) - during which time the camera was not turned off. Since the batteries last about an hour (I have seven of them) and I was working in single-battery configuration, the camera did get turned off briefly for battery changes. In a busy day I would end up recording over 5 hours of XAVC-S internally. No overheating warnings or issues. I know from having experienced it that in similar circumstances I would have had some significant heat issues/shutdowns with my old Canon DSLRs.
I don't know if this had any effect on cooling, but I was using Nikon lenses - particualrly the 28-70/2.8 - which thus puts some extra air space between the glass and the sensor.
Of course I'm thinking down the road that, although large, the Sony 28-135 would be a great 'everything' lens to have on the camera.

[Peter Rush]

Thanks Dave - I started to run a test this afternoon but kept forgetting about the 29 minute clip limit - I'm new to using DSLRs for such a long shot, I'm using my 18-200 Sony lens (came with my EA50) to test - I do like the look of that lens but it's way too pricey for me - probably great autofocus and parfocal to boot - nice to too much money, especially when my Canon 24 - 105 EF lens gives me great shots - pretty much parfocal but no autofocus - that's why I'm looking at the Zeiss 24 - 70 F4 I already have a Tamron 24-70 f2.8 but at parts of the wedding day I really need autofocus, hence I take 2 cameras - I need to get that down to one so I'm looking at lens choices now

Pete

[Matt Sharp]

I ran some tests when I first picked up the A7S. I ran it for 3 hours continuously, restarting every 28 minutes. Ambient temps were around 90 degrees. It had no trouble. I've been using it as a B-cam to my FS100 for 9 months now shooting ENG doc style, still not even a temp warning.

[Peter Rush]

Yes I've had it running over 3 hours without problem - that's good enough for me :)