A7RM2 Battery Life, Chargers, the Nefarious Eye Sensor, and Mysteries

[eronald]

With punched cards, the worst part was when you didn't have a keyboard punch, and had to make up a card hole by hole.

Edmund

Holy Punch Card! I remember circa 1969 ~ 70 having a foray into Fortran, punch cards, and a vague recollection of paper tape. And, of course, the de-facto unnamed person(s) who 'rearranged the punch cards just before submitting' prank.
I am bowing in your direction- I am humbled. Porting over the code- You da Man!
And there was a guy I knew reasonably well who submitted a cardboard computer (about 1 foot on a side; well done, I might add) with a firecracker inside and a glow plug wired to a switch for his final project. The 'walls' were held together with elastic bands wrapped around said cracker. I witnessed the construction. He blew it up in class. When all our ears stopped ringing, the prof- completely unfazed- picked up a semi burned piece of cardboard, wrote 'F-' on it and handed it back to Patterson. Patterson then excused himself, saddled up his VW micro bus and left town (Boston).
And Sinclair! I remember touching one and the rest is a blur. It was the 70's...
Don't feel bad about not affording the 64- it was a Fortune 500 company that sent me to Toys R Us! I also know the company paid WAY more for the dot matrix printer than the computer. Accounting had a field day with the Toys R Us receipts- it was a 'first'.
Its amazing how an inelegant battery 'problem' ends up in a pleasant twist down memory lane.
Thanks!

[Herbc]

If you are driving, carry a $20 dc/120vac converter and charge in route.   good for 30watts.

[BJL]

Hehe, no, the Amiga started off with 3.5" floppies like the Mac. Of course those disks aren't really "floppy" in terms of handling.

First some nerdiness: those 3.5” things were diskettes; it is just that the name "floppy" was mistakenly carried over from the older PC-style floppy disks by the tech-illiterate!

Back on topic: I agree about the desirability of changing the "EVF wake-up" conditions, but also note that Sony exacerbates the issue by using the same rather small 1020mWh, 43g battery in its A7 models as in many far smaller NEX models. Even my diminuitive EM5 and old Olympus E620 (one of the smallest DSLRs ever) have larger capacity batteries.

On the other hand,  Sony ships the A7rii with two of them, so it seems to be suggesting what Telecaster and I do: carry a few spare batteries — and be grateful how much less weight, cost, and changing time this involves compared to film!

[bob162]

All true! On the punch cards, amen to that! Fortunately, I always had a keyboard 'handy'- all 200 pounds of it!
The 12 v to 120 inverter- the Watson charger has a 12 volt input and comes with the cable. It takes about 2-1/2 hours to 3-1/2 hours to charge a battery. My car shuts off all the 12v outlets when it's off. I can't leave it parked and charging. Sigh.
Yes, small size equals small batteries, and two with the A7RM2 helps ( I do have the grip). It's just the accursed charge time, especially in hotels. Invariably I get in late. Even with the dual Watson, I have to make sure I set the alarm to swap in the second two batteries (I have 4). So, I carry 2 more chargers- the one that came with the A7R2 (slooow) and a Sony BC-TRW. I just bought Sony's new one (the 90 minute) BC-QM1, but it's a monster- at least 2x to 3x the size of the BC-TRW's; not travel friendly. I thought of 2 Watsons, but with the 120 and 12 volt cables the package gets big real quick.
The tape thing really does help. Set the camera to 10 sec sleep and walk around with and without the tape. I find it's sleeps more reliably with the tape. Once again, I think it's low hanging fruit for Sony. I've tried the usual emails to support, but the trail goes dark quick.
I would bet the code change (based on some navel staring) is not tough, but I also realize the QC qualification time to be sure it didn't screw something else up is not trivial. I would venture a guess that's why they don't kill the backlight when blanking the display; it's easier to own up to it in the manual than QC it. Has to be a oversight. I just can't imagine any scenario where you would blank the display and not kill the power hog backlight. Anybody want to take a stab at that?