Canon Batteries

[raven]

Hello,
I realize my question will depend on how much you shoot but how long will a battery typically last? I'm wondering if I should have a second battery even though I shoot landscape and not every day. Thank you for any and all help.

Tin

 

[miuzi]

It really depends on how you use your camera. The published battery ratings don't really reflect real-world usage. In my R8, which has a small battery, it's rated for like 260 shots or something like that. But if I'm shooting bursts at an airshow or something, I'll crank out like a thousand frames in 90 minutes, and then swap in a fresh battery. If you're changing menu settings and tweaking your camera a lot, you're consuming battery charge doing this as well, so you would likely get far fewer than that. I generally find that my batteries are good for a couple of hours of sustained usage, whether that's shooting, image playback, tweaking settings, whatever.

You didn't specify what camera/battery you're using, but if you have any anxiety about it not lasting, get a spare. It's nice to know you have it even if you don't end up needing it, rather than to need it and not have it.

 

[Dean Wilson]

Yes. I shoot in your style as well.

The important factor is you never know when you are going to the location How Many photos you are going to take, how long in time you are going to use the View Screen, and what style you will end up using: Panorama, Focus Stacking, Multiple Exposure. This multiplied by the factor of you "believe" your battery is fully charged from two weeks ago.

 

[Bryan wilburn]

A backup battery is always a good item to have in the bag. I typically rotate mine.

Bryan

 

[raven]

It really depends on how you use your camera. The published battery ratings don't really reflect real-world usage. In my R8, which has a small battery, it's rated for like 260 shots or something like that. But if I'm shooting bursts at an airshow or something, I'll crank out like a thousand frames in 90 minutes, and then swap in a fresh battery. If you're changing menu settings and tweaking your camera a lot, you're consuming battery charge doing this as well, so you would likely get far fewer than that. I generally find that my batteries are good for a couple of hours of sustained usage, whether that's shooting, image playback, tweaking settings, whatever.

You didn't specify what camera/battery you're using, but if you have any anxiety about it not lasting, get a spare. It's nice to know you have it even if you don't end up needing it, rather than to need it and not have it.

I am going to shoot with a new camera, the r6 mkii. Thank you, your advice makes sense.
Tim

 

[raven]

Thank you everyone for taking the time to respond. It has been helpful and very much appreciated.
Tim

 

[ShipleyNW]

I always leave the house with a fully charged battery in the camera(s), a couple of spares in a pocket, and a couple more in the car.

If I'm going out for a full day of serious shooting, which might include landscapes, birds, architecture and any kind of interesting subjects and/or light I might run across, there's a good chance I'll need multiple batteries.

With my DSLRs, shooting sunrise to sunset, I'd usually drain one battery and part of a second. With my R5 and/or R7, it always takes 2 full charges and part of a 3rd.

It's hard to pin down how something like shutter counts affects battery life, but I'd say I'm getting something like 400-600 exposures from a fully-charged LP-E6xx battery in my mirrorless bodies.

As part of my workflow, I download the images from the card, do a first cull to make sure everything on the card is good, format the card in the camera, then put a fresh, fully-charged battery in the camera and the used batteries in a charger. The next time I'm ready to shoot, I'm ready to shoot.