Have you recently bought the Sony Alpha 7C and want to know the quality of its battery life? Then you’ve come to the right place. The Sony A7C is one of the smallest full-frame interchangeable lens cameras out there, and its battery life stands out amongst its competitors. Below, we’ll take a look at how the Sony A7C battery life fares with both still images and video and ways that you can prolong the battery life on yours.
How Is Sony A7C Battery Life (CIPA)?
Here’s a table of the Sony A7C battery life in different states:
| ViewFinder/Screen | Shooting Type | Battery Life |
|---|---|---|
| ViewFinder | Actual shooting | 140 min. |
| Screen | Actual shooting | 140 min. |
| ViewFinder | Continuous shooting | 220 min. |
| Screen | Continuous shooting | 215 min. |
| ViewFinder | Still images | 680 images |
| Screen | Still images | 740 images |
What is CIPA?
CIPA stands for the Camera and Imaging Products Association and was established in Japan in 2002. It tests various cameras’ battery lives via structured methods.
To test how many stills images a camera’s battery can handle, it takes a photo every 30 seconds, and the camera is only turned off once every 10 shots.
To test how long a camera can continuously record and how long it can record in segments, the image quality is set to XAVC S HD 60p 50M / 50p 50M.
For recording in segments, the battery life is tested via repeated shooting, zooming, shooting standby, turning on/off, etc.
For continuous recording, no operations other than starting and ending shooting are performed.
How Long Can Sony A7C Shoot without Heating in Real Life?
For me, it’s totally ok to record in 4K for 90 minutes with no heating. This will especially be the case if each recording is longer and you don’t start and stop recording often.
The real-world battery performance of a camera is often better than its CIPA rating because the shooting methods CIPA uses, especially in its still images test, are quite different from how most photographers use their cameras. In addition, CIPA doesn’t tamper with the settings or other features to conserve power, unlike what many photographers do in their practice.
How to Prolong Sony A7C Battery Life?
A wide variety of things can affect your Sony A7C’s battery life, such as ambient temperature and the settings and tools you use on it. Below, I’ll discuss the factors that affect your A7C’s battery life and how you can prolong it in the context of these factors.
Power it off between shots
Continuously leaving your A7C powered on will definitely drain the battery over time. Make sure you power it off in between shots (unless, of course, you’re shooting continuous video).
Use EVF Rather than LCD Screen
Generally, both EVF and LCD screen drains battery power over time. But EVF drains more power than LCD. So conserving your use of the LCD will help conserve your A7C’s battery. And you should especially avoid using the EVF and LCD screen displays at the same time.
Turn off Power-draining Settings
Features like continuous autofocus and image stabilization (IS), wifi and Bluetooth connectivity, and GPS contribute to draining your A7C’s battery life. Turn off these features in your settings if you want to extend battery life, especially continuous autofocus and IS, as those are rarely needed.
Turning off Long Exposure Noise Reduction (NR) will also help prolong your A7C’s battery life. If necessary, you can accomplish what this setting does in a photo editing app.
Avoid Freezing Temperature
Cold temperatures significantly drain your camera’s battery life because the chemical reaction it relies on to sustain its power is slowed down in such temperatures.
If you’re shooting in the cold, don’t leave your A7C out in the open unprotected when it’s not in use. Keep it in a sealed bag or case. You can also wrap a hand warmer around your A7C, especially the part of it that contains the battery. This will warm the camera battery, thus improving its performance.
Store Your Battery Properly
Even when your A7C is powered off, if you always leave the battery in there, it will likely still use some power from the battery, which will shorten the battery’s maximum life.
So, if you won’t be using your A7C for an extended period of time (such as a week or more), it’s best to store its battery and any backup batteries in a cool, dry, enclosed environment.
Does the Sony A7C Support a Battery Grip?
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that there are any battery grips produced by either Sony or third-party companies for the A7C.
What Can Be Substituted for a Battery Grip?
The best substitute for a battery grip would be the following:
1. Put a cage on the camera
2. Attach a base plate to the bottom of the cage
3. Attach a battery pack to the base plate
And you can also assemble more accessories like in the video to enhance your camera.
Bottom Line
The Sony A7C battery life is impressive on its own. However, there are a variety of factors that impact its battery life, such as the settings you use and how you use its features, as well as ambient temperature and conditions. But taking these steps I suggest will definitely help you prolong Sony A7C’s battery life.