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.

[pawl]

Nobody has thus far suggested this, but each camera, despite the logic, appears to be reacting differently to the firmware update—videophan, your's seems almost no different than before, and obviously different than flip's. I'm waiting on mine being returned from service center.

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@videophan wrote:

filipb, I don't know how many different ways to say this. I turned the camera on, went to video mode, and battery level indicated a full battery. I shot about ten seconds of video, zoomed in and the red low battery light came on. I  zoomed out and continued shooting another 10-20 seconds of video with the red flashing low battery light.  When I zoomed in again (video still in progress) the video stopped, "recharge the battery" appeared, and camera shut itself off. The battery level sequence: full battery at start of video; one zoom low battery level flashing red; second zoom camera automatically stopped my video in progress. Exactly where was I supposed to know to replace/swap batteries before I started what appeared to be my last video for this battery?

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@filipb wrote:

For me the 1.0.2.0 gives me a battery warning when about 2/3 of the battery is drained, so about one bar left, as it should be, right?  So I can trust normally to still take some 10m of video (not too much zooming) before you really get into the danger zone.  If I can trust that, I don't think I will have much unpleasant surprise.

And when I am done with video, I can always power cycle to get the actual battery indication for still mode ...

This is the hypothesis I will be operating on the next 10 days, before final decision to return or not ...

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[videophan]

Sorry, Filipb, I depend on the battery indicator to let me know when I should think about swapping batteries. If I turn to movie mode and the battery level indicates 3bars-sufficient charge, I wouldn't think I would be in jeopardy of not completing a 2-minute video. I don't think I should be required to keep a diary of my usage since the last battery insert.

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@filipb wrote:

videophan, what do you mean with "full"  the indicator giving three bars?

But that's not full by any means.  It is full for current mode of usage: doing nothing! 😉

So, yes you need your memory to keep a bit of scoring ... I guess ...

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[filipb]

Something else:

Did anyone notice the soft "whoo" sound sometimes coming out of the camera?

It seems to do with the lens (not auto-focussing) - because when I slightly zoom the sound immediately stops.

But rather unpredictable when it would start (or stop by itself).

I just want to know if this is normal, or an indication of a (factory) fault?

[filipb]

videophan, I see your point and it makes me wonder how other cams do it?

So, let's go slow: is it ok for the battery indicator turning red when 1 bar is left?  Is that actually 1/3?

Or would you expect this indicator to be an absolute time: when it is on, let's say only 1 or 2 minutes guaranteed?

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@videophan wrote:

Sorry, Filipb, I depend on the battery indicator to let me know when I should think about swapping batteries. If I turn to movie mode and the battery level indicates 3bars-sufficient charge, I wouldn't think I would be in jeopardy of not completing a 2-minute video. I don't think I should be required to keep a diary of my usage since the last battery insert.

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@filipb wrote:

videophan, what do you mean with "full"  the indicator giving three bars?

But that's not full by any means.  It is full for current mode of usage: doing nothing! 😉

So, yes you need your memory to keep a bit of scoring ... I guess ...

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[videophan]

Pawl, I think the different reactions have much to do with the firmware version you had prior to updating. If you had 1.0.0.0 prior to 1.0.2.0, you saw some improvements. If you had 1.0.1.0 prior to update, not so much improvement. One of Gordon Laing's (Camera Labs) friends did the update from 1.0.0.0 to 1.0.2.0 and was excited at first but the excitement wore off soon.

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@pawl wrote:

Nobody has thus far suggested this, but each camera, despite the logic, appears to be reacting differently to the firmware update—videophan, your's seems almost no different than before, and obviously different than flip's. I'm waiting on mine being returned from service center.

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[mcasale16]

Filipino- is that why the timer turns red???? When my card is full? So if I have a 32 go sed hc card - how much video will it hold? I have erased all my test video

[mcasale16]

Filipd- was what I typed but my iPad auto corrects- sorry

[pawl]

Videophan, are you saying that you—or others who are displeased with the update—are getting the same results as tprevett on page 50 (30+ minutes of video and 200 photos, with no end in sight for stills), or mcasale on page 48 (48+ minutes of video plus a couple dozen flash photos)? Has anyone said they've seen all the results mentioned in this thread, good and bad? It may be that you see what you want to see, as the saying goes. And based on that, you report what you want to report. (human nature)

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videophan wrote:

Pawl, I think the different reactions have much to do with the firmware version you had prior to updating. If you had 1.0.0.0 prior to 1.0.2.0, you saw some improvements. If you had 1.0.1.0 prior to update, not so much improvement. One of Gordon Laing's (Camera Labs) friends did the update from 1.0.0.0 to 1.0.2.0 and was excited at first but the excitement wore off soon.

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pawl wrote:

Nobody has thus far suggested this, but each camera, despite the logic, appears to be reacting differently to the firmware update—videophan, your's seems almost no different than before, and obviously different than flip's. I'm waiting on mine being returned from service center.

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[myasg]

Hey guys. Gotta sign off for good now. Enough is enough. Loved the 280 until I returned it. Great pics great features sad issues. Will consider Canon again in the future. However I switched to the Sony WX300 and am quite content. Hope everything works out for u guys and I will catch you GOWIN' DOWN THE ROAD. See ya. PEACE

[videophan]

Pawl, I can say that with the update, I got eleven minutes of video spread over four videos as I remember with lots of zooming in and out during the videos before it shut itself down with a "recharge the battery" message. That is starting with a fully charged battery used only to format the memory card prior to shooting video. That probably is not a lot dfferent than what I got before the update changing from 1.0.1.0 to 1.0.2.0. There may have been some slight improvement but I am not sure. What changed was this...After a nominal amount of battery drain shooting videos and stills this occured:

1)With 1.0.1.0 (which my camera shipped with), if I turned the camera on in any still mode the battery level indicator would indicate suffcient charge, 3 bars if that is how you are interpreting the icon. When I went to movie mode, the battery level indicator would immediately start flashing red indicating a low battery. level....time to think about charging.

2) With 1.0.2.0, if I turned the camera on in any still mode, the battery would indicate sufiicient charge. When I went to movie mode, battery level indcator indicated sufficient charge. If I zoomed the lens without starting video capture, sufficent charge again. I thought I could use this as a test to see if zooming prior to video capture would give me some indcation of whether I would get in a critical state after video capture began, but I was wrong. What happened was once I zoomed, battery level became critical; second zoom shut down the camera when I had copious amounts of memory left.

So I viewed the update this way...the positive:I saw the blinking red light somewhat less during video capture; the negative: I get no warning even when a short video is initiated that the battery is about to give out. in that it goes from sufficent charge to camera shutdown with two zooms. As much as I hated to see the flashing red icon when trying to framet I would prefer  to have a premature warning than a warning when it's too late to turn things around.

I forget who conjectured this but the conjecture was that the dual battery perosnality was natural due to the increased demand in movie mode compared to still modes. If that is so, then the 1.0.2.0 update leveled that distinction for me.  In movie or still modes, battery level indicator was the same. It isonly when you started capturing video with some demands such as zooming that battery level changed quickly and dramatically.

I think another reason users are reporting different results and video lengths is how much zooming is done during the video. I probably could get very long video lengths if I recorded 3 15-minute videos and zoomed twice during each one. I use a camera like this for stills and video. When capturing video, I must be "invisible" and follow moving subjects whcih requires zooming to keep the subject at a reasonable size in the video. Most of the time, the camera is hand held. RCJ says he videos with the camera on a tripod and at a fixed focus most of the time. I do not doubt you can get copious amounts of video that way whether you have firmware 1.0.1.0 or 1.0.2.0 and you even may not run into the battery level issue that I did. The camera just did not satisfy my needs with the 1.0.2.0 firmware and  less than with the 1.0.1.0 firmware. I hope that your needs are staisfied when the camera is returned to you.