Canon R6 I Battery Life

[Photomanray]

Hi everyone

I have just moved from a 5Diii to an R6 and I'm shocked at the short battery life. Fortunately the batteries I have from my 5D can be used in the R6 because I had to take every battery I have to a wedding this week. The battery supplied with the R6 died after just short of 200 images and it takes 2.5 hours to fully recharge. I have tried everything I know to use as little power as possible. I have turned off the image review, do not use the screen whilst shooting and use all the power saving settings. The supplied battery is not the problem as the other batteries have similar short working lives before giving up the ghost.

Any advice welcome.

Ray

 

[Ferenc MÓGOR]

Sad to hear your case with the short battery life. Please also make sure to put the camera to Airplane mode (wifi and BT can be battery hogs). Also disable Continuous AF, if you haven't done so yet. Hope this helps.

 

[JustUs7]

The back screen uses less battery than the EVF. OLED uses more power than the LCD.

 

[Photomanray]

Sad to hear your case with the short battery life. Please also make sure to put the camera to Airplane mode (wifi and BT can be battery hogs). Also disable Continuous AF, if you haven't done so yet. Hope this helps.

Thank you for your quick reply. I have tried all suggestions with no effect sadly.

 

[Dean Wilson]

Gone are the days when the only thing a battery was responsible for was the light meter.

 

[MikeZ]

Gone are the days when the only thing a battery was responsible for was the light meter.

Exactly. Bear in mind that the EVF consumes power at feverish pace as does the LCD screen, so we need to expect shorter battery life. That's the price we pay for those features, so it might be worth investing in a spare battery.

 

[tpatana]

Sad to hear your case with the short battery life. Please also make sure to put the camera to Airplane mode (wifi and BT can be battery hogs). Also disable Continuous AF, if you haven't done so yet. Hope this helps.

Exactly items I was planning to mention too.

200 sounds low though even with those enabled. On my R5 I have 2 batteries in the grip and I can usually go 6-8 hours and 3000-4000 pics on those before swapping fresh ones. I'm airplane mode and disabled continuous AF. Usually few times (3-10) I turn wifi on briefly to upload few good shots to my phone, and then back to airplane mode.

 

[JackC]

Exactly items I was planning to mention too.

200 sounds low though even with those enabled. On my R5 I have 2 batteries in the grip and I can usually go 6-8 hours and 3000-4000 pics on those before swapping fresh ones. I'm airplane mode and disabled continuous AF. Usually few times (3-10) I turn wifi on briefly to upload few good shots to my phone, and then back to airplane mode.

I was wondering what you mean by "disabled continuous AF". I have the Canon R7. Do you mean Servo? Or is there something else I am missing? When reading the manual if I search continuous AF all I see is One Shot and Servo.

 

[Ferenc MÓGOR]

I was wondering what you mean by "disabled continuous AF". I have the Canon R7. Do you mean Servo? Or is there something else I am missing? When reading the manual if I search continuous AF all I see is One Shot and Servo.

Continuous AF was a term use for EoS R6 MK1. For the R7 it has been renamed to Preview AF.

 

[JackC]

Continuous AF was a term use for EoS R6 MK1. For the R7 it has been renamed to Preview AF.

Thank You Ferenc MOGOR. I see it now. I am not having any battery issues but was just confused by that term. Wishing you good light and interesting subjects.

 

[Ferenc MÓGOR]

Thank You Ferenc MOGOR. I see it now. I am not having any battery issues but was just confused by that term. Wishing you good light and interesting subjects.

Not at all. Enjoy your R7 with good light.

 

[JayAy]

I set the following on my R5, (R6 settings should be the same) if I'm looking for longest battery life usage balance for me - Just the settings that have a clear impact on power use, they all will have an effect obviously, but you also need to be able to use the computer (sorry camera) to take the pictures that you want too.

Shoot3: Lens aberration correction: Peripheral illum corr: OFF
Shoot3: Lens aberration correction: Distortion correction: OFF
Shoot3: Lens aberration correction: Digital Lens Optimizer: OFF
Shoot3: Lens aberration correction: Chromatic aberr corr: OFF
Shoot3: Lens aberration correction: Diffraction correction: OFF
Shoot7: Image review: off
Shoot7: High Speed Display: off
Shoot7: Metring Timer: 8 sec
Shoot8: Disp. performance: Power saving
AF1: Continuous AF: Disable
Network1: Airplane mode: On
Set Up2: Power Saving: Display off: 1min
Set Up2: Power Saving: Auto power off: 3min
Set Up2: Power Saving: Viewfinder off: 1min
Set Up3: Screen/viewfinder display: Auto 1 (only screen) AUTO1
Set Up3: Screen brightness: 4
Set Up3: Viewfinder brightness: AUTO

I usually have the battery grip installed, work most of the time in manual mode and with triple back button focus and have no problems with getting 2500+ on full batteries.

 

[Kwazy]

200 Seems way less than most people are getting. I usually get over a 1000 shots on a single battery, but still own 6 batteries total. Definitely a must, especially if you shoot weddings...

Could Image Stabilization be the reason? It's a huge drain on the battery, and perhaps yours is set to be "always on"?

 

[Grahamk]

As many have commented, 200 seems very low. At a Silverstone sports car meeting earlier this year with my new R6 Mk2 I took 422 images (Large jpg + small RAW) using occasional slow speed continuous drive and still had 55% battery life left at the end of the day.

 

[mimigamez]

Is it the battery itself or the camera? You might have some bad cells on that battery. Have you tried a different battery? When my husband bought a new camcorder it came with a bad battery. After replacing the battery it was better.

 

[MrSparks999]

Agree with above, sounds like a bad battery. I sometimes shoot 500-600 a day and still power available.