Does A700 with v4 use less power?

[bakubo]

I updated my A700 on the morning of 9/16 with a freshly charged battery. I have been using the camera a bit each day since then and in the late afternoon on 9/20 I noticed something strange. I haven't taken a lot of shots (only 31), but I have had the camera on quite a few times, shot a few, reviewed images, adjusted settings, deleted a few shots, walked around with it on, etc. In other words, I have used it like I normally do. Also, because of the problem with sleep mode I have discovered while walking around that the camera a few times had awoken and the LCD was on and it had been that way for a few minutes.

I have had my A700 with v3 since February so I have a pretty good feel for how fast the battery will go down even with light use like this. I would expect that the battery would probably be around 90-94% based on my usage the last few days. It was still at 100% though even after almost 5 days! Finally, a few minutes later it changed to 99%. I was beginning to worry that something was really wrong since it seemed to be stuck showing 100%.

I am not sure what firmware might do that would reduce power usage, but I can imagine that there might be some things that it could do with regards to power management under the covers.

Has anyone else noticed anything like this with v4? I fully realize that this may be an anomaly and I just think that with v3 it would be 90-94%, but with quite a bit of usage in the last 7 months I am almost certain that it wouldn't remain at 100% for such a long time. Of course, another possibility (I hope not!) is that there is some sort of bug in v4 that does not report the percentage properly (or that v3 had a bug and it did not report it properly.)

On 9/20 at about 5:00 PM my A700 showed 99%. I turned it off. I turned it back on 9/22 at 8:00 AM. It showed 88%. Somehow it had dropped from 99% to 88% while turned off for 39 hours. I have never seen this kind of weird behavior before and it started exactly when I updated to v4. Of course, I will keep watching it, but something is weird.

Anyone else seeing sort of strange behavior like this since updating to v4?

[Dr. Harout]

I'll be more attentive from now on though haven't noticed anything like yet, but will report if I do.
Interesting anyway. Logically, if you use much high ISO shots with NR off, it's quite probable the camera will drain less power... Let's see.

[Jonathan K]

HI there,

I didn't notice that, since I review so much on the camera LCD, which drains power like h.e.l.l. But on the other hand I noticed that the file size changed: I always hat 623 Jpeg + Raws on a 16GB card, now it is 642...
Not that it makes a huge difference. But welcome anyway.

Cheers Jonathan

[bakubo]

I didn't notice that, since I review so much on the camera LCD, which drains power like h.e.l.l. But on the other hand I noticed that the file size changed: I always hat 623 Jpeg + Raws on a 16GB card, now it is 642...
Not that it makes a huge difference. But welcome anyway.

Did you have the ISO set the same? If you change the ISO to a higher value the number of expected jpegs that get reported goes down.

[Jonathan K]

That wil be hard to check, now that I have upgraded. But I believe I remember that I had AUTO ISO before, so that should not have made a huge difference.
Thanks for the tip anyway.

Jonathan

[KevinBarrett]

I noticed this too! I shot a wedding Saturday, with and without the F56 flash for about three hours, about 400 exposures with 5 second review time... I used only half a battery!

[Javelin]

I was out for 3 hours in a park. I was trying to see if I could figure out Henry's eyestart problem but I can't say I noticed the camera using less power. but I didn't shoot very much while there. and I must say I didn't find Henry's problem either.

[bakubo]

I was out for 3 hours in a park. I was trying to see if I could figure out Henry's eyestart problem but I can't say I noticed the camera using less power. but I didn't shoot very much while there. and I must say I didn't find Henry's problem either.

I'm sorry to be so late in replying. I just noticed your response.

The behavior of the A700 when eyestart is turned off with regards to
sleep mode is strange and, I think, faulty. It causes my battery to
drain much faster than it should. For example, turn eyestart off, set
Info.disp.time to 5 sec, and Power save to 1 min because it will be
easier to see the problems.

The first problem is that the A700 continues to use the eye sensor and
that prevents the camera from going into sleep mode. While carrying
the camera on the neckstrap (around your neck or over your shoulder)
the eye sensor will often sense something close by and will keep the
camera awake. When eyestart is turned off then the eye sensor should
not be used to keep the camera awake. The eye sensor can still be
used to detect that the eye is close and turn off the LCD, but after
the 5 second time has elapsed *even* if something comes near the eye
sensor the 1 minute sleep timer (power save) should not get reset and
start over. This behavior is okay when eyestart is turned on, but
when eyestart is turned off the camera shouldn't be ruled by the eye
sensor. Also, even if I hold the camera by the lens very still for 5
seconds to allow the display to go off and start the countdown to go
into sleep mode I have found that outside in sunlight the eye sensor
sometimes seems to be detecting something (maybe just a passing a
shadow) and the LCD will not go off. By the way, if someone wants to
turn off eyestart but keep the LCD on for much longer then they can
select a longer time for Info.disp.time and/or Power save.

The second problem is that even if the LCD goes off and 1 minute later
the camera does go to sleep it is too easy for it to awaken. In order
to awaken the eye sensor must detect something and the grip sensor
needs to be touched. I walk around and carry my camera a lot for
hours at a time (I do foreign travel photography) and because of the
weight I usually have the camera strap around my neck and I am holding
the camera in one hand to reduce the weight on my neck and to keep the
camera from swinging around too much. I cannot hold the camera with
my right hand because it will touch the grip sensor and the camera
will awaken. I am forced to only use my left hand to hold the lens
and it gets very tiresome to not be able to switch hands sometimes.
Also, I have noticed that sometimes just a slight brush of my hand on
the grip sensor while the camera is hanging from my neck will be
enough to awaken it. With eyestart off the A700 should require a
button to be pressed to awaken the camera.

By the way, the A700 designers themselves have set the precedent for
ignoring the eye sensor sometimes. Another bug is that if I hold the
camera to my eye and then change the ISO the LCD strangely lights up.
I am looking through the viewfinder and ISO is displayed in the
viewfinder. There is no reason to light up the LCD. That is a big
nuisance in a dark theater or other place to have the LCD light up for
no reason. The eye sensor is ignored which is strange.

I have owned and used several DSLRs from Canon, KM, and Sony. My
Canon 30D did not have an eye sensor and it required a button press to
awaken the camera (I usually just did a half-press of the shutter
button) and it would go to sleep after the time out without any weird
shenanigans like in the A700. I think that when eyestart is off the
A700 should behave the same way. There have been threads about this
subject on some of the digital camera discussion forums also.

I was hoping this would be fixed in the v4 firmware because it is my
only major issue with the A700. Otherwise it is my favorite of 5
DSLRs I own or have owned.

[bakubo]

The strange thing about this power issue is that after the initial weirdness it seems to be more or less back to normal. Here is a summary. The first 4 days the A700 still showed 100% and then finally went to 99%. Then the next time I turned the camera on it showed 88%. Since then it has been going down steadily as I would expect. It was sort of like a faulty auto gasoline gauge that is stuck on full even after driving 200 miles and then when you tap on it the needle suddenly drops down a bunch.

[Javelin]

This is the key information I didn;t get from all the threads I read.

if something comes near the eye
sensor the 1 minute sleep timer (power save) should not get reset and
start over. T

The sleep timer comming on is a very unobtrusinve thing. just a flash of the read/write light. I wasn't watching for that. I have my camera set to the settigs your describe and there were 2 things that would light it up (i'll try to refrane from saying wake it up because it looks like 2 diferent things now) I found that my shirt could catch and rotate the rear dial or a bounce could press or jossle the joystick button and either one would wake it up. Like I said before I don't normally carry it around my neck and did so just to see if I could figure this out. it seems to me they should have used the grip sensor to interlock the other things that could light the camera up bt it appears they didn't. What I'm saying is that without a grip sensor input none of the other buttons should light the camera up and those inputs should be ignored. That way accidental button presses wouldn't cause this and the sleep timer could progress normally. I'm not sure exactly what sleep mode shuts off though, because it seems to me the camera would wake up as if I just turned it on and not really any faster one way or the other. but I'll take your word for it that it will drain the battery faster.


The instances where I had it wake up I noticed right away because the camera would focus and I would notice my aperture changed or my focus point changed. thats how I figured out how I lit it up.

[maratrs13]

The second problem is that even if the LCD goes off and 1 minute later
the camera does go to sleep it is too easy for it to awaken. In order
to awaken the eye sensor must detect something and the grip sensor
needs to be touched. I walk around and carry my camera a lot for
hours at a time (I do foreign travel photography) and because of the
weight I usually have the camera strap around my neck and I am holding
the camera in one hand to reduce the weight on my neck and to keep the
camera from swinging around too much. I cannot hold the camera with
my right hand because it will touch the grip sensor and the camera
will awaken. I am forced to only use my left hand to hold the lens
and it gets very tiresome to not be able to switch hands sometimes.
Also, I have noticed that sometimes just a slight brush of my hand on
the grip sensor while the camera is hanging from my neck will be
enough to awaken it. With eyestart off the A700 should require a
button to be pressed to awaken the camera.

Why not turn off the camera completely instead? I think that the sleep mode was designed primarily for cases when the camera is switched on and left unattended rather than for cases when you walk a lot and yet take few shots. Switching the camera off and on again will be almost equal to pressing a button and it will save some energy too (not too much though) while you do not wait for it go to sleep...

By the way, the A700 designers themselves have set the precedent for
ignoring the eye sensor sometimes. Another bug is that if I hold the
camera to my eye and then change the ISO the LCD strangely lights up.
I am looking through the viewfinder and ISO is displayed in the
viewfinder. There is no reason to light up the LCD. That is a big
nuisance in a dark theater or other place to have the LCD light up for
no reason. The eye sensor is ignored which is strange.

Seems to be a leftover from the 7D's code - it acts in exactly the same way. And while it seems inconvenient it is not deprived of some logic though. Because when you look through the viewfinder the LCD is lit up not only when you press the ISO button but also when you press Drive and WB buttons. And if changing ISO is quite easy looking into viewfinder changing drive modes and especially WB is rather cumbersome when you look into viewfinder only. Even switching the LCD completely doesn't help - it is lit up whenever you press one of these buttons. Sure, quite inconvenient in a dark place but that's the way it is.

[Dr. Harout]

I totally agree with Maratrs13 for the first part. And as this was Maratrs13's 1st post we say a big welcome.