Long storage for Sony cameras?

[pointreyes]

Should I remove the Z battery or leave the battery in and replace every month or so? The cameras will be stored in a dry and dark location with the rest of my gear that is being used. Storage for one of the cameras could be up to nine months and the other maybe only about one or two months at a time for the next nine months.

 

[garuda]

Try these links (two of them specific to camera bats):

Sony article
DP Review
White paper
database

 

[AlphaWorld]

If you remove the battery, your camera will lose its memory of all your settings in a while (might be a month or two). Before storage, copy your settings off to an SD card if your camera supports it.

This is better than leaving the battery in, because the camera will slowly drain the battery, and may damage the battery eventually.

 

[garuda]

If you remove the battery, your camera will lose its memory of all your settings in a while (might be a month or two). Before storage, copy your settings off to an SD card if your camera supports it. This is better than leaving the battery in, because the camera will slowly drain the battery, and may damage the battery eventually.

Tony, thanks for the reminder for us newer guys. Although losing settings during a battery change (or long-term removal) is rare -- it is possible. It must happen when the guy tending the in-camera battery takes a nap and his finger slips off the "Stay-ON" button. Below is a link to procedure you (Tony) are suggesting for Sony owners. Thanks for reminder Tony.

But as a personal side note --- I'm surprised this loss even happens rarely, since I thought internal digital settings (storage) worked like the data stored on SD cards or SSD. That is, if there's no intentional "instruction" to delete the info, the storage cells remain stable with the data originally stored there. But what do I know.... barely made it out high school.

Proc for saving cam settings

 

[Jeff A]

Tony, thanks for the reminder for us newer guys. Although losing settings during a battery change (or long-term removal) is rare -- it is possible. It must happen when the guy tending the in-camera battery takes a nap and his finger slips off the "Stay-ON" button. Below is a link to procedure you (Tony) are suggesting for Sony owners. Thanks for reminder Tony.

But as a personal side note --- I'm surprised this loss even happens rarely, since I thought internal digital settings (storage) worked like the data stored on SD cards or SSD. That is, if there's no intentional "instruction" to delete the info, the storage cells remain stable with the data originally stored there. But what do I know.... barely made it out high school.

Proc for saving cam settings

Thank you, Mike for posting a link to the procedure to backup the settings. I actually had a To-Do list item to go on a hyujnt to try and find such a procedure. You saved a a bunch of time, I'm sure.

 

[AlphaWorld]

Tony, thanks for the reminder for us newer guys. Although losing settings during a battery change (or long-term removal) is rare -- it is possible. It must happen when the guy tending the in-camera battery takes a nap and his finger slips off the "Stay-ON" button. Below is a link to procedure you (Tony) are suggesting for Sony owners. Thanks for reminder Tony.

But as a personal side note --- I'm surprised this loss even happens rarely, since I thought internal digital settings (storage) worked like the data stored on SD cards or SSD. That is, if there's no intentional "instruction" to delete the info, the storage cells remain stable with the data originally stored there. But what do I know.... barely made it out high school.

Proc for saving cam settings

The reason that it's like this is that the settings aren't stored in flash memory (the tech used by memory cards). They are stored in regular memory, which requires power to retain them. Older cameras contained a little coin battery to maintain the settings (often for up to 5 years), but newer cameras often use a supercapacitor which is charged up by the regular battery, and slowly discharges when there's no battery in the camera.

I think the reason they stopped using the coin batteries is that when those went flat people would get cameras which forgot their settings whenever the main battery was changed, and much anger ensued. I've changed one of those batteries, and it was a fiddly business. The supercapacitor solution has the advantage of not requiring replacement, just the presence of a charged battery every so often.

 

[garuda]

The reason that it's like this is that the settings aren't stored in flash memory (the tech used by memory cards). They are stored in regular memory, which requires power to retain them. Older cameras contained a little coin battery to maintain the settings (often for up to 5 years), but newer cameras often use a supercapacitor which is charged up by the regular battery, and slowly discharges when there's no battery in the camera.

I think the reason they stopped using the coin batteries is that when those went flat people would get cameras which forgot their settings whenever the main battery was changed, and much anger ensued. I've changed one of those batteries, and it was a fiddly business. The supercapacitor solution has the advantage of not requiring replacement, just the presence of a charged battery every so often.

Thanks again! We all learned something new; good to know because I have been lax by removing my batteries for long periods -- a flagrant abuse of best practices... I know.... I'll start inserting bats periodically to keep the supercap charged and avoid issues later. Thanks for heads up Tony!

 

[garuda]

I tried to dig a bit deeper into the claim that Sony is using supercaps as internal batteries in their late model cameras. Not that I doubt the claim, but I had difficulty finding any evidence from Sony to confirm this. However, below are some links I discovered in my research that may be of interest to a few of the Alpha owners.

Sony internal battery

Battery drain w camera OFF

Restore time-date

 

[pointreyes]

Thank you for the advice everyone. Greatly appreciate the responses. I was wondering about the battery drain. I knew to do this with my Godox (FlashPoint) flashes but was not sure about the alpha cameras. As of today, I no longer have the cameras - traded all them in for the A1 to pair up with my A7Siii. I also have the A7Riv which if the A1/A7Siii pair proves to be all that I need for normal light situations then the A7Riv will get converted to full spectrum IR.