Sony A7IV Overheating in Menu and Video

I am sharing my experience concerning overheating with my Sony A 7 IV. My two issues were when setting up the camera in the menu system and with video. The video overheating was not a major surprise, but overheating while in the menus was.

I recently had a chance to use the EOS R6 and had no issues with overheating. However, that camera has had several major firmware updates to improve performance when concerning overheating. I expect the same for the Sony A7IV.

link to the Sony help page to change the settings

[JasonMorrisphotocinema]

I’m going to look into This and speak to Sony. I haven’t had any issues here in Australian summer. Concerning a lot of people are getting this yet I haven’t seen anything

[NDBAVIATION]

I was able to speak with Sony support today. There will be a follow up video for this but here is the basic info below.

1. Set the Auto Temp Off to High

2. The overheating in the menus issue is currently under investigation by Sony.

3. If you are experiencing overheating in video, this is what I was told in addition to setting auto off to high.
Lower file format resolution
Use a tripod instead of handheld
No direct sunlight
No steady shot
No wifi
CFexpress Type A card
Disable Proxy Recording

I was told if I wanted more information on future developments to utilize the Sony support website.
sony.com/support


I have done further testing and am compiling my data. I will include the data in the follow up video.

[mikey]

Same happened to me.
Was setting the camera up in a room at around 24°c, and after about maybe fifteen minutes of going through menus a temperature warning symbol popped up.

[socialbender]

Do you think using a dummy battery to a power bank would lower body heat ? Also do you think if I was to purchase a ninja v it would lower heat in the body ?

[NDBAVIATION]

I am doing more testing but I might be on to something concerning the over-temp in standard setting while in the menu system.

For those of you that have had the camera shut off while in the menus, was the camera being handheld?

I have done several tests and need to do more, but I am wondering if the IBIS system could be causing the camera to continue to generate heat while being handheld and if a firmware update that locks the IBIS in one place while in the menus would be a fix for this issue.

I am unable to replicate the auto off in the menus when the camera is stationary on a tripod or table. Handheld is different, around 20-30 minutes and then it shuts off. I plan to do several more tests.

Like I said, I have more tests to do and i could be way off on this hypothesis, but I will further test/document this in my down time.

[vazquezfoto]

Hi!!!. Same here. Quite quite dissapointed as this is not particulary cheap. 25 minutes only playing with the menus and the cammera went off. Absolutelly unusable for a job. Incredible this was not mentioned in any of the youbute reviews done before the launch. Hope this can be solved via firmware update. If not... it will go bach to the shop sadly. Kind regards

[nogerboher]

I am a long time Canon and Nikon user, so I'm used to high quality products and I just ordered (and paid for) the a7IV... This is my first time in the Sony world and I am kind of sketched out that a 2, 700 EUR camera has overheating issues and freezes... A lot of people had their a7IV freeze up for no reason whatsoever and a lot of people had it overheat... Kind of thinking about returning it as soon as I get the call that the camera arrived to the store, as I can't cancel the order at this point. Any suggestions?

[EnriqueSupreme]

Thanks for the video Joe. Experiencing the same issue and waiting for the firmware update (if any). The shutdown during menu nav is unacceptable.

[DeadBrokeBBQ]

I have 2 a7iv's and have about 2 hours of test clips 4k 30 and 60 at 8bit and 10bit plus around 250 photos on each camera. I also plugged in the USB-C to charger with without powering off the camera to see if it would overheat and it did not. I even had my 4K monitor plugged in via HDMI. The body was warm obviously near the battery but not hot enough to power down. Enjoy your new a7iv camera but out of the 10 Sony cameras that I have owned in the past 3 years I have immediately turned them ALL to high the minute they power up for the 1st time. Only once I had 1 shut off, it might have had something to do with having it only 3ft directly above an open fire BBQ pit but with that said it still filmed in 4k 30 for over 45 minutes before it finally when into cool down mode.

[photograffic]

Mine overheated in the menus. I can feel the camera heating up when holding it, and noticed both times it was in the video mode on the dial, no issue yet in photo mode.

[foxworth]

For those of you who overheated in the menus - were you in video mode at the time? It seems to me like that's part of this overheating bug. In photo mode, I didn't have this problem.

I can hear/feel the autofocus motor working on my lens when I'm using the menu in video mode, even though I can't see the preview because the menu is open. That says to me that the sensor is still reading data, and the IBIS is still running, and the AF motor is running, and all of that is generating heat even though I'm not looking at the preview. When it overheated on me the first time, I was accessing the menus (with the screen against the body) in handheld, and it makes sense that it would generate a lot of heat. I didn't think it would be an issue since I wasn't recording, but apparently with the screen closed, it's enough heat. Once I let the camera cool down, I started trying more real-world scenarios like having the camera on a tripod with the screen flipped out and I've managed to drain one battery so far without any overheating notification.

Seems to me Sony needs to find a way to disable the sensor while the video menu is open so it doesn't generate so much heat while we're changing settings, and in the meantime, keep it flipped out while using the camera in video mode, even if you're just using the menu.

[MadsGOlsen]

was the power plugged in? or did you charge the battery in camera right before setting it up?

[Tommmphotos]

Hey Joe, same thing has happened to me. I get about 10 min of recording time in 4K, Would you recommend exchange it, or also waiting for a firmware update? It now overheats rather quickly IMO. Thank!

[easterlingderek]

This really makes me remember Diy Perks rebuild of the Canon R5 heatsink. I figured this was going to happen ever since it was announced, because it has a plastic back. Which means it doesn’t have enough thermal capacity on the front of the camera. So the processor is so powerful, that when they remove the metal back panel in order to save money. They cut the cooling performance by half. Of course they can fix it in firmware, but doing that will reduce the speed of the camera. Just like that video from Linus tech tips of when apple fixed an overheating issue, by reducing the clock speed.

[IMDABROWN]

Thought this was fake news until it happened to me while setting up my custom button and FN menu. But I did have mine in the default setting I was just shocked that it would get hot with only menu navigations.

[eddieyan]

Have the same issue. Was going through Jason Morris configurations video... for about 8 minutes or so before it shutdown. I did turn on Wifi though. Going to turn-off wifi and see if that helps.

[andrewsaraceni]

I had the same thing happen to me as well - got an overheating warning while just setting it up poking through the menus in a room temperature environment. As a longer-term Sony user, setting the Auto Power Off Temp to High is pretty much a standard thing that most do, and that has shown to have little impact on the camera re: lifespan, record times, etc. over time. But, this model and how it handles heat dissipation and/or detects temperature seems to be a lot more finicky than many past ones.

[lightlinemedia]

Just set the auto power off temp to high. No issues doing so and never get any overheating warnings. But like you said, maybe a firmware update to fix it.

[RegalRey]

I was really worried about this as I was really enjoying my A7III but opted to get the Alpha 7IV and I heard a lot of individuals having overheating issues or it had issues with the ports. I just received mine today and it’s performed like a champ. No issues (knock on wood) so far. Hopefully Sony takes these issues seriously and sends a firmware update. I will continue to check back for any updates or will update as well if anything happens with mine. I also immediately changed the temp to high and I was using the Camera handheld the entire time to see if it would replicate the issue.

[rvg]

I have not had a overheating problem with my A7IV and I shoot down here in Florida outside in direct sun.