DSLR battery heat

[raymo]

Does anyone know whether any tests have been carried out to find out
if the heat generated by a DSLR's battery during an imaging session is
sufficient to have any deleterious effects on the images, such as
increased noise?
raymo

[glend (Glen)]

Well I know they do generate heat, as they used to be warm when I removed them from the camera when they needed to be changed. I went to a battery eliminator and that does not generate any heat and never needs to be changed - but you do need to plug it into a 12V cig lighter power source. I figured the more heat I can remove the better the camera would perform but I did no testing until I cooled the camera.

[blink138 (Pat)]

yes raymo they have a severe effect on images especially in our warm climate
people here on iis have measured the sensor temperature through i think their BYEOS and there have been some scary high temperatures on sensors
pat

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

I used to get a bar across the bottom of my images. Until I used a plug in battery eliminator

[raymo]

Thank you , people. I do use 240v myself, just wondered if I was achieving anything besides not worrying about flat batteries.
raymo

[janoskiss (Steve H)]

After Glen raised the issue in another thread I checked my D3300, and sure enough the battery gets warm fairly quickly (after a dozen or so 10s exposures). Whether it's actually the battery that's the source of the heat or the electronics I have no way of knowing as yet. I was shooting in JPEG at full 24MP and using timer and scheduled multiple shots. Also using the LCD a bit. Once I better acquaint myself with the camera, shooting in RAW with LCD off, using bulb mode and preset (rather than auto) white balance should help a bit. But an external battery still couldn't hurt.

[jenchris (Jennifer)]

Live view is a killer too.

[glend (Glen)]

Don't shoot subs with Liveview turned on. While Liveview is essential for many people (who may not use BYEOS), it does reduce battery life (if a battery is used) and will build up heat in the camera. You can still use Liveview for focusing and framing if you must but just push the DSP button before you start your imaging run so that the screen is off and not producing heat or draining power during that time. Your interval meter or BYEOS will take care of the run timing and you can still turn Liveview back on (push the DSP button again) to check a sub if required. Another reason to turn Liveview off is the potential for light leaks generated by the screen.

The four major heat sources inside the camera will be the processor (or mulitple processors in some models), the battery, the Liveview screen, and the sensor. You can do something about the battery and the screen, and if you cold finger cool the sensor that is taken care of as well. Processor heat can be controlled somewhat by turning off functions that depend on it, like in camera dark generation, noise reduction processing, etc. BTW the EXIF temperature info is actually the processor temperature - that's where it is measured, there is no temperature sensor located on the CMOS sensor - unless you install one when you cool the camera.

[Camelopardalis (Dunk)]

raymo, I've not noticed it with my 1100D. I do usually use the DC coupler for convenience more than anything else, as it runs off my regular 12v supply to my other astro gear (with a step-down to 7.4v) and I don't then have to bother to change the batteries! Live view does heat things up, so I don't use that except for focusing.

IMO the 1100D is more tolerant with temperature than many of the other Canons...I find once the ambient temperature is down to around 10-12C the thermal noise in 5 minute subs (at ISO1600) is negligible, shy of any prominent hot pixels...both of which would be eliminated through stacking a decent collection of subs.

[raymo]

Thanks for the comments everyone; I only use Live view to focus, and once after a trial sub to make sure I have round stars.
raymo