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Phase One battery life

J

jamesdfloyd

Member
Disclaimer; this might seem as an incredibly dumb question, but here goes.

Other than me standing around my camera for 2-hours or so while it works, does anyone have any experience with the battery charge life on the "standard", and new, Phase One battery used with the P45+? By this I mean, how long in minutes can you run down a battery from 100% to 0%?

The issue; I have 8-batteries, all mixed in aged, and while none of them seems to "run out" any faster over the past few years, I would like to get an understanding of their "run down" life. In particular, I want to start using my P45+ to do very low-light, or astrophotography, and I know the exposure time (writing to the back) is 2x - meaning one time to expose, and one time to do a black shot. I only do landscape work, so while I am not constantly "pulling" a charge out of the battery doing rapid shots, my back tends to stay on for long periods between shots, and therefore I have no real experience with timing the run down.

Now I can, and will do a test soon where I shot a subject for 60-mintues, at ISO 800, and then of course let the back do the black shot for 60-minutes. Then time/watch the process to see if the battery runs down before the 2-hour task as completed.

Any thoughts, or experiences?
 
MomentsForZen

MomentsForZen

New member
Hi there.

You stirred my curiosity about using a CCD digital back for long exposure astrophotography. This seemed to be an oxymoron from my knowledge of how easily CCD backs overheat with longer exposures.

Anyway, I came across the following which has relevance for your question ...

----------
" ... Of the Phase backs, the P45+ to me is still the best for long exposures. Phase did a very nice job on this back, and you can easily get to a 1 hour exposure. There are some considerations:

1. The P45+ long exposure must be accompanied by a corresponding dark frame exposure of the same time. So if you just exposed for 45 minutes, the back has to take another 45 minute exposure. Failure to allow this, will ruin the first exposure. So battery life becomes important. You can expect to get maybe 4 45 minute exposures (and that is a with a new 3400 milliamp battery), so 2 actual shots.

2. The actual outdoor temperature needs to be at 69 degree F or lower for full 1 hour exposures. You also don't want to use the back for a long exposure in time of high humidity.

3. The best long exposures from the P45+ are taken at 50 ISO, so for astrophotography, this can limit your capabilities depending your conditions.
4. There is no way to turn off the dark frame on the P45+.

The P45+ can do a very good job, right up to 1 hour, it's not a great back for stacking (which is what I do now) for several reasons, no intervalometer support and the dark frame requirement. But if the conditions the results can be very rewarding. The files will still hold up with good color saturation and details. ... "

http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=109852.20

----------

:) ... MomentsForZen (Richard)
 
G

gerald.d

Well-known member
jamesdfloyd said:
Disclaimer; this might seem as an incredibly dumb question, but here goes.

Other than me standing around my camera for 2-hours or so while it works, does anyone have any experience with the battery charge life on the "standard", and new, Phase One battery used with the P45+? By this I mean, how long in minutes can you run down a battery from 100% to 0%?

The issue; I have 8-batteries, all mixed in aged, and while none of them seems to "run out" any faster over the past few years, I would like to get an understanding of their "run down" life. In particular, I want to start using my P45+ to do very low-light, or astrophotography, and I know the exposure time (writing to the back) is 2x - meaning one time to expose, and one time to do a black shot. I only do landscape work, so while I am not constantly "pulling" a charge out of the battery doing rapid shots, my back tends to stay on for long periods between shots, and therefore I have no real experience with timing the run down.

Now I can, and will do a test soon where I shot a subject for 60-mintues, at ISO 800, and then of course let the back do the black shot for 60-minutes. Then time/watch the process to see if the battery runs down before the 2-hour task as completed.

Any thoughts, or experiences?
Click to expand...
One option you could look into is to get a custom battery solution to power the back off any v-lock battery. I had one made for timelapsing. Basically you use a dummy battery in the back with a wire coming out of it terminating in a d-tap. Then just put connect the d-tap to a Paglink V-mount and battery. Works like a charm.

https://www.paguk.com/catalog/75 can supply everything.

Kind regards,


Gerald.
 
GrahamWelland

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
When I used to shoot astro with my P25+ I used the Canon CH-910 adapter with battery plate and a couple of the huge Canon VCR batteries on it. Worked great!

Maybe a little tricky to find these days. If you're interested I have one sitting around at home that I'd be prepared to sell since I no longer have any P+ backs.
 
J

jamesdfloyd

Member
GrahamWelland said:
When I used to shoot astro with my P25+ I used the Canon CH-910 adapter with battery plate and a couple of the huge Canon VCR batteries on it. Worked great!

Maybe a little tricky to find these days. If you're interested I have one sitting around at home that I'd be prepared to sell since I no longer have any P+ backs.
Click to expand...

O.K., this sounds interesting. I did a Google search, and saw what they look like; but how does it work? Or more precisely, how did you get it to work?

J.D.
 
J

jamesdfloyd

Member
gerald.d said:
One option you could look into is to get a custom battery solution to power the back off any v-lock battery. I had one made for timelapsing. Basically you use a dummy battery in the back with a wire coming out of it terminating in a d-tap. Then just put connect the d-tap to a Paglink V-mount and battery. Works like a charm.

https://www.paguk.com/catalog/75 can supply everything.

Kind regards,


Gerald.
Click to expand...
Thanks! Do you have a picture of the setup, and/or the model number(s)?

J.D.
 
GrahamWelland

GrahamWelland

Subscriber & Workshop Member
jamesdfloyd said:
O.K., this sounds interesting. I did a Google search, and saw what they look like; but how does it work? Or more precisely, how did you get it to work?

J.D.
Click to expand...
You need the ch-910 along with the battery plate adapter. This slides into the battery compartment of the P+ back and connects to the CH-910 with its dual batteries.

Dsf3186 C17 - GetDPI Image Gallery
 

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G

gerald.d

Well-known member
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