NP-F970 Early Shut-Off

[Gary Silverman]

I was using my Z5U tonight with the Sony NP-F970 battery. The camera was on continuously for about two hours and the battery indicator said it had 130 minutes left (I know that's never exact). Then all of a sudden, I got a on-screen low battery indicator and the camera shut off about two minutes later.

What's freaky is that without recharging, I put the battery back into the camera when I got home and it again showed 130 minutes left. It's now been running over an hour now without issue.

It would be one thing if the battery went dead, but the fact that it still has life left after shutdown worries me that maybe something inside the camera went wrong. I'm hoping it's just a battery that went haywire.

The battery is probably 2-3 years old, used approx. 150 times without issue. It's been a workhorse even in cold weather.

I'll never use this physical battery again, but has anybody ever experienced something like this?

[Leslie Wand]

thankfully not....

is it a genuine sony battery?

i have both genuine and some ebay ones. i find the ebay ones don't report life very well (they do however last for ages!), and usually cut out at 60 mins.

the sony ones are pretty old by now, but report life accurately, even if they don't work for as long as they used to.

i normally travel with min 4 batts (all fully charged before shoot) and work my way through them - changing either at flashing warning, or some point convenient when getting low.

maybe it was just one of those days?

try using it when you have the opportunity to change if necessary.

i also rotate my batteries, using them in an on camera led as well.

[Rob Morse]

It's age or use. I had the same problem on one of mine after a few years. It showed more time than I had and just quit on me. Hopefully, something important wasn't happening for you at the time. It was for me.

[Adam Gold]

My experience is the same. Many people report better luck with their batts but I find two or three years is the reliable life for me before they start acting wonky. Whenever I buy a new cam I get two new 970s with it and they get sold as a package with the cam when the cam goes.

[Gary Silverman]

My prior experience with the 970s (and before that 960) was that after a couple years of regular use they start to drain somewhat faster. When it becomes noticeable, I retire that battery from professional use.

This was different though because the battery hadn't shown any dramatic drop-off in performance. It just quit halfway through. But it certainly wasn't dead, because I got another 105 minutes out of it when I put it back in the camera last night.

That's what seemed so strange, a "dead" battery that wasn't anywhere close to dead and seemed to send some sort of false indicator to the camera.

I've got two new 970s coming my way though.

(To answer a earlier question, yes these are genuine Sony batteries, I've never used anything else)

[Rob Morse]

That's odd. That isn't the issue I've had in the past. Mine showed more time but was completely dead.

[Greg Laves]

I think the counterfeit "Genuine" Sony batteries seem to have more issues. I have 1 counterfeit battery and it has had some issues. When I am on a professional shoot, I just swap batteries when I get close to 100 minutes left. Another strange issue with the counterfeit is that it always worked well on my Z7 but it gave me a "hot battery" warning on a friend's FX1000 as soon as I put it on the camera.

[Reed Gidez]

Sorry for coming to this party a few months late...

I have a NPF 970 purchased just about a year ago from B&H. On my last shoot, I took it off the Sony Charger where it showed a full charge and put it on my Z5. The display on the Z5 said it had 113 minutes left and after a few minutes of run time, that dropped to 75 mins where it stayed for an hour or so. As I was just testing, I decided to leave it on the camera and about 30 minutes later, the camera started to flash low battery. It did that for the next 3 hours until it finally ran out. Mind you there was no tape running or any zooming but that battery kept going.

I plan on putting it through a few more tests before returning it to the battery rotation.

[Claire Buckley]

Solution:

Buy genuine batteries - Sony or Swit. Keep well away from eBay or special deals.
Purchase two for each camera you operate, plus a spare.
Rigorously rotate usage.
Change the battery when you see less than 100 minutes life left.

I have two Sony Z5/Nx5s and use six batteries - never had a problen, nor should I if I wish to continue providing a professional service to my clients.

:)

[Mark Goodsell]

I have a 960 battery that is 8 years old. Amazingly it performs great still. It astonishes me that it would last that long and still perform well. A couple years ago I had that problem with the Z5, it shut off, I thought the battery was dead when it should have had enough charge. Later when I turned the camera on again, it showed more charge. It was an isolated incident. Not sure if it was age, or just some quirk, or a sequence of my operating that 'tricked' the camera software into somehow not reporting accurately. Hasn't been a regular occurance. I plan to keep using the battery until it craps out. Of course I have back-ups.

[Reed Gidez]

Originally Posted by Claire Buckley

Solution:

Buy genuine batteries - Sony or Swit. Keep well away from eBay or special deals.


:)

I always buy NEW from B&H and use Sony Batteries. 3 Cameras, 4 batteries for each. Combination of 950s and 970s but mostly 970s.

They are labeled with date they are put in service and if I note anything peculiar, I add that info to the label.

[Taky Cheung]

We also have high quality NP-F970 compatible battery for sale

NP-F970 Sony Compatible Rechargeable Battery | L.A. Color Online