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A7Rii Overheating Problem Solved


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So where does this leave us? An otherwise great camera crippled by overheat issues. That ursa mini is seeming a more logical choice right now. Of course there are potentially the usual helping of blackmagic bugs to look forward to.

I'm sorry, but this keeps coming up in other topics: what bugs? The black spots, which the Alexa also has and take one second to fix in Resolve? The white orbs, which were solved with a free company calibration and only affected the first batch of cameras? Because neither is a bug, and both only affected the Pocket to my knowledge. 

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I know this is a bit of an obvious point, but there's something a little frustrating about this thread - if you're buying a camera for a run and gun project, can I suggest not getting ANY stills camera, period. The A7RII is a STILLS camera, not a video camera. When Canon started this movement it was for people like journalists who needed video no matter what and happened to be holding something with a nice sensor. If you intend on using it as a full rig, then it should be bought with external gear anyway, thus fixing the problem. 

I'd be much more worried if this overheating issue applied to still photography on the other hand....does it?

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I'd be much more worried if this overheating issue applied to still photography on the other hand....does it?

During long exposures it is not causing shutdowns but instead you end up with excessive noise and reduced dynamic range. 

Exposures shorter than 10 second do not seem to have any problem. 

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During long exposures it is not causing shutdowns but instead you end up with excessive noise and reduced dynamic range. 

Exposures shorter than 10 second do not seem to have any problem. 

 

How much are we talking though? If I'm coming from a Fuji XT1 or a Canon 7D I'd expect a little bit, and that 'little bit' for me might be 'a lot' for people used to Full Frame sensors...?

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How much are we talking though? If I'm coming from a Fuji XT1 or a Canon 7D I'd expect a little bit, and that 'little bit' for me might be 'a lot' for people used to Full Frame sensors...?

Well I can't tell you how much is too much since each one has its own thresholds. 

Head over to the dpreview forums, there are plenty of examples so you can see if you can handle it. 

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"How often do you record continuous takes one after the other of 30 min+"
It's a perennial conundrum. How Long a 'Take' should a capture system accommodate?
The answer depends on the context of the situation.
- Well planned interviews (except ones of incessant talkers) should warn the interviewee of roughly how much time they have for an answer. I keep my questions short and one point per question. At most, I've pushed the interviewees into 20 minute answers on one question.
- Documentaries are notorious for running into longish takes. Particularly if the subject is an event with multiple subsections flowing continuously like a parade for an hour or more. In such cases, multicams and continuous audio are the solution.
- For TVC, Feature film etc. somewhere between 10 seconds and 5 minutes max for a take.

If you're shooting politicians talking, you might want to use a camera that can accommodate an hour take or more ;)

 

 

 

There should be a camera with Samsung's processor know-how, Sony's sensor know-how and Olympus' IBIS know-how :d

I woould have rephrased that as : Samsung H.265 CODEC, Sony Sensor and Olympus IBIS :)

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"How often do you record continuous takes one after the other of 30 min+"
It's a perennial conundrum. How Long a 'Take' should a capture system accommodate?

There are various ways to view this. Historically all feature films until about 2002 were limited by 1000 ft. film magazines, which translated to 11 minutes maximum shot length. From that standpoint a 30-40 min. 4k continuous recording limit doesn't seem bad.

I've shot hundreds of interviews for various documentary projects, and don't recollect one over 30 min per take, and usually not over 30 min total. Normally you wouldn't even use 4k on an interview, or a public speaker -- it's just not needed and burdens post production with more data.

That said, 4k gives new capabilities and allows us to approach tasks differently. E.g, I shot an interview last week with the A7RII and intentionally used 4k to frame it looser, giving the editor final control over composition. You could hypothetically shoot a two-person interview in 4k, simulating two separate cameras. In very dark conditions (e.g, some concerts or plays) you might have to use 4k/Super35 whether you need the resolution or not -- simply because that's the most sensitive high ISO mode. 4k has such good resolution it encourages longer-duration wide covering shots which can be cropped/zoomed in post. Also Super35 gives a 1.5x effective zoom, so even if you don't need 4k this might be used for the extra reach.

Even if you never plan on distributing 4k material, shooting in 4k has such compelling features that you start using it in new situations. This in turn makes the 4k thermal recording limit on the A7RII more troublesome than it may first appear.

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  • 5 weeks later...

I used used the RX10 ii on one paid shoot so far.

it didn't shut down through overheating but I noticed some incredibly noisey footage in HFR mode, which I assume was due to heat build up from me running about shooting at all kinds of frame rates. I also noticed the camera get warm.

indeed you can't use full brightness with HFR, 4K high bitrate or 100p, which I assumed was due to drain on the battery being too great. But perhaps it's a heat issue too?

Sony are very preoccupied with size, and unfortunately they will continue to invite these problems unless they make larger bodies with better heat dissipation, or think of some clever method for cooling.

the C100 was fine all shoot, but it only does 1080 25p and has a fan!!

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Sony are very preoccupied with size, and unfortunately they will continue to invite these problems unless they make larger bodies with better heat dissipation, or think of some clever method for cooling.

the C100 was fine all shoot, but it only does 1080 25p and has a fan!!

True, my xc10 is roughly the size of an rx10ii, same sensor size, shots a substantially higher bitrate. No over heating.

Reason: Fan

It seems to me that they simply aren't very good at heat disposal. Maybe there is a patent issue involved.

An example is my Sony Z3 phone. When you record 4k video a warning shows up that says you can only record a few minutes then it will need to shut of and cool. This is how its intended to work (or not work).

My LG on the other hand, which is known as a phone that easily gets hot, does not have such a warning nor problem. It can even record 4k in 200Mbps and doesnt heat up nearly as quick as the Sony.

Just a theory.

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True, my xc10 is roughly the size of an rx10ii, same sensor size, shots a substantially higher bitrate. No over heating.

Reason: Fan

It seems to me that they simply aren't very good at heat disposal. Maybe there is a patent issue involved.

An example is my Sony Z3 phone. When you record 4k video a warning shows up that says you can only record a few minutes then it will need to shut of and cool. This is how its intended to work (or not work).

My LG on the other hand, which is known as a phone that easily gets hot, does not have such a warning nor problem. It can even record 4k in 200Mbps and doesnt heat up nearly as quick as the Sony.

Just a theory.

Ok, so why not do a fan mod if you are a videographer and leave the bearbones version to the photographers (the intended market) - talking about a7rII, RX100II does not shutdown AFAIK?

Your Z3 is waterproof (to an extent) while your LG is not. Heat dissipation is a compromise made for this - my GF has a Z3 compact and she never recorded 4K until is would overheat and I doubt many phone clips are really long. Sony's betting that a working phone is better than a water-damaged 4K-forever-filming phone. But then again, you would probably learn about this reading any review of the phone before buying.

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It's not the cards. It's Sony packing tech into cute little packages that can't adequately dissipate the heat. They knew what would happen, but after crunching the numbers, determined that it's still a win for them. I think the question a lot of us are curios to know is if A7sii do the same?

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