SX280 - battery life shooting video

[factoryguy]

UPDATED May 5:

I apologize to the forum for mixing two different problems.  They are unrelated.

Problem #1:  User error.  I thought I was using a class 6 SD card but I was wrong. The yellow "!" indicates a pathologically slow card.  Upgrading to a class 10 resolved this problem.

Problem #2: UNRESOLVED.  Red battery indicator comes on prematurely.  On a fresh charge, it'll turn red after recording for a couple of minutes.  On a partially drained battery, it turns red immediately upon entering movie mode or pressing the record button.  Turn the camera off and then right back on in "still" mode and it shows full charge and works fine ... until trying to shoot video.  I have not precisely measured recording times but it'll record for at least 20 (maybe 30?) minutes while flashing red.

[RCJ]

I've been a fan of the Lumixes, but the reviews I've read of image quality on the 30 have been pretty mixed. Also the new Lumixes don't have an external charger, if I understand correctly, which seems nuts. Especially given the price! Anxious to hear about it though.

[myasg]

SONY. WX300. Certainly not the best but a great camera. nonetheless. I will certainly give Canon another chance one day as I did LOVE THE PICS on the SX280. Remember I am a casual user and the SONY Is much more than adequate for me at a good price point and great pics also.

[dswansonil]

Anyone looking at the Sony Hx50? I can be a little flexible on the price if I can get the right mix of photo, video and battery life.

[tprevett]

Okay, so I bit the bullet and bought another SX280 because I simply couldn't find anything comparable.  My original has been sent back to Amazon, refund has been issued, so I picked up another one locally at Bestbuy.. I'm silver rewardszone, so I have 60 days to play..

First off, this new camera came with firmware version 1.01.  so before doing anyting I tried to shoot some video.. got 8:59 in before the Red Battery of Death appeared.  This is 8x longer then my original camera.. my original would blink red within a minute of attempting to record video.

I made the Best Buy guy let me look at each one they had and I made sure to get the one with the latest serial number.

I've just upgraded the firmware to 1.02 (yes I checked to make sure the s/n was calling for the update)

I'll report back as to if the firmware update fixes the issue on this particular camera.

[tprevett]

Update #2 - after firmware update, attempted to record, and even though battery read full (on the display) it almost immediately started blinking red. So I replaced the battery with a fresh factory battery fully charged and I got 18:39 of video before it started blinking red, with occasional zooms and such.

When the red camera stated blinking, I did not stop the camera, I let it run until 23:44 (4gb in size) when it stopped (isn't that the longest video segment this camera can record?), I then started recording again and got another 5:51 of recording time before the camera shutdown and displayed "Recharge Battery"

So it looks to be just over 1/2 hour with a fresh battery.. I think this is respectable for the size of the battery.

I should note that I NEVER got this much recording time with my original camera..

If it holds up like this I'll be happy..

[tprevett]

Okay.. another update.. So after the 1/2 hour of video recording, and the camera shutting down saying to recharge the battery, I began taking pictures.. I'm up to over 200 pictures on the same charge that I began with earlier in the evening, with the factory 1000maH battery. I keep trying to take more pictures, but I have run out of things to snap.. and I need to go to sleep... Whew.. I'll take some more in the morning..

[UnionStation]

For everyone keeping score, we now have a grand total of 3 people who seem satisfied with the sx280 firmware update.

[RCJ]

union: You're on the verge of troll status. Maybe get a new hobby. 

[filipb]

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@UnionStation wrote:
For everyone keeping score, we now have a grand total of 3 people who seem satisfied with the sx280 firmware update.

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I don't know who you are counting, but count me in!

I did the firmware update with a fresh battery (3m of power drain, how much?) and started shooting movies only in the garden, zooming like hell (really!) and got 15m of recording (3 movies) before the battery light started flashing.  Then I could shoot another 12m until my card was full and also the battery almost empty (after deleting stuff shooting a movie and zooming would shut it down).  That's 27 minutes - taken into account the 3m of firmware update and the frantic zooming, I'd say 30m of video shooting is a reasonable expectation here.  Flashing about after 20m is also to be expected.  So after 2/3.  Don't know how consistent this will be.

So I now learn to see the indicator as "what you are currently doing will give you 'soon' a drained battery".  Pitty the indicator does not adjust back upwards when you start doing something more calm!  That would be a great improvement.

Oh and the battery was warm, but the whole camera body also, because yesterday it was hot and sunny ...

So I think I am satisfied, especially when I expect mostly to shoot short clips.  The occasional longer sessions, I'll prepare myself and keep a spare battery ...

So I am happy with the update.

Of course there are still other ergonomic issues, but I am getting used to it.

The quality of the pictures is so fantastic that it's worth adapting ...

Regards,

Filip.

[RCJ]

Filipb: Good to hear. Your experience sounds like many other people's. I read the battery meter the same way. And it's nice to know that even after the battery is tapped out on video, it'll still shoot many, many still shots without trouble.