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A7II NP-FW50 dummy battery causes internal date and time to reset

SnikwaH

By SnikwaH,
in Sony Alpha Full Frame Cameras

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SnikwaH Newbie

SnikwaH

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I tried using a dummy battery to power my A7ii for a variety of uses, but whenever I switch from my regular battery to the dummy battery and vice versa, I am prompted to set the date and time.

I have 2 regular batteries and switching between them is completely normal.

Dummy Battery: it asks for 5V 2A or more.

I have tried my USB power bank, and my wall charger. both have the camera fully functioning, but both have it reset date and time.

The USB power bank outputs 5V 3A, 9V 2A, or 15V 1.2A. the wall charger outputs 5V 3A or 9V 2A.

Anyone have this issue or know what the problem might be? i have tried searching for others who have had this problem but i can only find 1 person in the reviews for this product who have experienced the same thing. would a 5V 2A charger maybe work better than the 5V 3A?

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VTC Rising Star

VTC

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Had the same problem but it wasn't the dummy. Mine FIRST started with the dummy but soon migrated to EVERY battery swapped out. Lived with that massive inconvenience for a year before I sent the camera in for repair of a wonkified menu system.

Though there's no user swappable memory battery there must be an internal one that keeps a wee amount of power keeping things charged when the battery flatlines.

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SnikwaH Newbie

SnikwaH

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interesting... maybe my a7ii was produced a while ago and since I bought it a bit less than a year ago its not holding its charge well?

I've seen lots of comments about peoples a7ii, a7rii, and a7sii not holding an internal charge with regular batteries when swapping.

might then ask about a replacement under warranty? I don't want to pay for it lol. I plan on getting the a7iv when it comes out anyways.

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XKAES Experienced

XKAES

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You should check your manual -- in the battery and troubleshooting sections.  These cameras have internal batteries to keep TIME and other details saved in memory.  Just like a computer when the CMOS battery is dead, you will have problems.

In my manual, it recommends leaving the camera OFF with a fully-charged battery (or AC adapter) overnight.  That MIGHT recharge the internal battery.  If it doesn't, it probably needs to be replaced.

So check your manual -- the FINE print.

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SnikwaH Newbie

SnikwaH

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9 minutes ago, XKAES said:

You should check your manual -- in the battery and troubleshooting sections.  These cameras have internal batteries to keep TIME and other details saved in memory.  Just like a computer when the CMOS battery is dead, you will have problems.

In my manual, it recommends leaving the camera OFF with a fully-charged battery (or AC adapter) overnight.  That MIGHT recharge the internal battery.  If it doesn't, it probably needs to be replaced.

So check your manual -- the FINE print.

i just went through the manual and i understand how it works. regular batteries keep the internal battery charged when swapping. but as soon as i plug in a dummy battery, the internal battery seems to discharge so it loses date and time.

i keep a full battery in my camera every night so i know the internal battery gets charged.

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SnikwaH Newbie

SnikwaH

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i have also just found that if i plug in USB power via the micro usb port, then insert the dummy battery and turn on the camera, the internal battery keeps its charge. i can then unplug the micro usb power and it will work normally. its then fine to swap to a regular battery.

so something about when plugging in a dummy battery by its self sets off the internal battery

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    • XKAES
      JPEG options?

      By XKAES · Posted

      I'd suggest you start by running a simple test.  Take pictures of a typical scene/subject and each of the JPEG settings your camera offers.  Then compare them in the output that you normally produce.  You may or may not see a difference.  I normally shoot at the highest JPEG level and save that file -- but make a smaller file (lower resolution) for normal/typical use. There's plenty of editing that you can do with JPEGs on your computer -- depending on your software -- and there are features in your camera that can help out, as well.  That depends on your camera.  Put them together, and it might meet your needs.  For example, your camera probably has several bracketing features that will take the same shot with different settings with one press of the button.  Then you can select the best JPEG to work with on your computer.  I frequently use this feature to control contrast.
    • Cameratose
      JPEG options?

      By Cameratose · Posted

      If you set up some basic presets in your processing software and use batch processing, you don't need jpeg at all. I shoot RAW only, use (free) Faststone Image Viewer which will view any type of image file to cull my shots, and batch process in Darktable. I can start with 2000-3000 shots and in a matter of a few hours have them culled, processed, and posted. A handful of shots, say a couple hundred from a photo walk, are done in minutes.  This saves card space, computer space, and upload time.  The results are very good for posting online. When someone wants to buy one or I decide to print it, I can then return to the RAW file and process it individually for optimum results.  I never delete a RAW file. Sometimes I'll return to an old shot I processed several years ago and reprocess it. I have been very surprised how much better they look as my processing skills improved.  
    • Pieter
      JPEG options?

      By Pieter · Posted

      If you're only publishing small-sized photo's or viewing on a phone / computer screen, 12-ish MP should be more than enough for your needs. Since with JPEG, the ability to 'fix' stuff on the computer is very limited anyway, you're not giving up much except the ability to crop/recompose after taking the shot. If you tend to crop often or might print large, shoot fine quality instead as JPEGs don't take up a lot of space anyway. I tend to shoot RAW+JPEG. After a trip/shoot, I download my photos to my computer and quickly scan through my JPEGs to select my keepers. The JPEGs are fine for 90% of my needs but at times there are one or two 'WOW'-shots that I might one day print large. I'll edit the RAW of these photos to my hearts content, generate a JPEG, then delete all RAWs to clear up space.

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