One of the main drawbacks to shooting video with DSLR’s is limited record time or degraded image quality due to overheating. When the camera heats up, the image becomes noisier and if it overheats, the camera will shut down until it has cooled sufficiently.

We shot an entire season of Let’s Go Youngstown, and numerous live events with these cameras and in many cases ran them continuously. Here are some tips I’ve picked up along the way, followed by some hypothesis on some hacks that may help.

1. Turn off the camera, (or at least turn off live view) whenever you’re not recording.

2. If you’re shooting a concert in the summer heat, don’t expect to capture the whole concert. Settle for a few songs at a time. Come up with a game plan to make sure you are rolling when it really counts. Make sure the rest of your team is on the same page if this is a multicam shoot.

3. Use a battery grip or an external power supply (like an AB or V-mount power pinch) some of the heat comes from the battery, so removing the battery also removes a source of heat. I’m actually not so sure about the battery grip anymore, see below:

Hypothesis for further reducing battery/power heat:

The camera has an internal voltage regulator or DC-DC converter. It’s most likely a highly efficient DC-DC converter that generates very little heat, but I would like to do some tests to see if feeding the camera an externally regulated 7.2 volts will eliminate any additional heat that may be cause by the camera’s internal voltage regulation. A normal battery usually supplies something like 8.4 volts, but 7.2 is all that is needed. This extra voltage may be generating some small amount of heat that could be eliminated.

Below is a picture of the mainboard from the Canon 7D (this is the camera I use the most)

I can feel quite a bit of heat coming from right under where my thumb rests on the back of the body near the start/stop button. If you look at the mainboard you can see that this is approximately right on top of one of the processors. Which brings me to tip number 4:

4. Keep your hands off the camera. There is no active cooling system in the camera, not even a fan, so the heat simply dissipates through the body. If your hands are wrapped around the body, they will act as an insulator and prevent the heat from escaping.  If you want to shoot handheld, use some sort of rig with handles so that you aren’t actually holding the camera in your hands (this will also help with stability)

5. Use an external monitor. Some of  the heat is also generated by the LCD screen’s backlight. If you don’t have an external monitor, simply lowering the backlight brightness should also help. (this can also extend battery life and since the battery will discharge more slowly, it should generate less heat from the battery compartment as well)

I’m going to test regulated vs. battery power heat and update this post soon. Please share your thoughts or any additional tips you may have in the comments below.