Showing posts with label batteries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label batteries. Show all posts

Sunday, 29 October 2017

One Step Forward...

I finally managed to save the cash needed to buy the additional propriatory batteries required to run the Fuji X-T2's PoweGrip...


This really opens up my moviemaking and offers me new challenges. Although I could film in 4K before the limitations of just having one battery meant some very short outings (which very soon became a bit of a pain). The prospect of some longer experiments and learning sessions is quite exciting.

Ironically, while it's taken me quite a while to save up for these two extra Fuji batteries I had no sooner congratulated myself than I heard that Duracell has produced what are rumoured to be good quality alternatives to the Fuji NP-W126S shielded batteries at just £20 a piece!

Ah, well...I wouldn't be happy buying these alternatives until I read first-hand reports about their performance anyway. Still...Typical!

Thursday, 1 December 2016

Fujifilm X-T2 battery & overheating tests

Zed ProMedia have done an interesting video test of the X-T2's battery longevity when filming 4k video. It's the sort of methodical technical test that I find interesting so I am posting it up for reference...


When you start reading about mirrorless cameras and 4k video - whether they be Panasonic, Sony or whatever - it won't be long before you start hearing about overheating issues and the length of time that you can film before the camera cuts off. In fact, one of the criticisms that was levelled at the X-T2's specs was that it could only shoot 10 minutes of 4k video at a time (by adding the booster grip you can increase this to 30 minutes).

That this is being seen as a major issue by some people seems a little funny to me, as I rarely shoot sequences that go beyond a few minutes at a time, even when interviewing. Of course, there are times you may want to keep on rolling, but for very long sequences - certainly beyond 10 minutes - I prefer to use a video cam with an internal hard drive.

Anyway, that's an argument for another time...

What is pertinent - however you prefer to shoot - is battery longevity and whether overheating is a serious and persistent issue with the X-T2. This video seems to conclude that overheating isn't, but that there are some glitches with using multiple batteries together via the booster grip (hopefully, this will be addressed in a firmware update).

As for me, I am restricted to just the one battery at the moment (spares are at the top of my wish list), and until I buy a couple more using the booster grip isn't possible, so I can't confirm or replicate the findings of this video test. But what I will say is that during my recent tests with the X-T2, I have found it positively eats battery capacity, especially when you make use of the WiFi facility.