Battery depletion when using GPS on Canon 5D Mark IV

[jclin10]

Greetings

How much more quickly does the camera battery get depleted when using GPS? I have a trip soon and wanted to figure out if I need to bring extra batteries.

John

 

[Phil Shaw]

Sorry to be flippant, but it depends on how long you leave it on. Note that turning the camera power switch to OFF, does not switch off the GPS. You can register the GPS in My MENU and more conveniently turn it on and off there. If you just leave the GPS switched on, it does drain the battery unnecessarily.

 

[jpegman]

I don't have a 5DMk4, but, I do have a 6D and the drain is substantial.

Phil is dead on with the recommendation to use My Menu to quickly turn on the GPS when getting ready to take pictures and shut it off when finished.

Since GPS initialization takes several minutes, Canon decided to have it always on - even when the power is shut off - so it's immediately ready. I wish they gave you an option to have it shut down when the power is down, but, they didn't.

In answer to your question, if I left it on (with the power off) and minimum sampling and logging times, in 2-3 days the battery would be dead. What I do is use the My Menu approach and turn it on when I go out to shoot, and leave it on all day while shooting, and then disable the internal GPS when I put the camera back in the bag for the night. If I miss the first few shots GPS coordinates, Lightroom will let me easily add those missing GPS coordinates later using the one's that were recorded nearby.

Never hurts to have spare batteries when I go out even if I never use them.

Jpegman

 

[Landscapeforfun]

Not sure about the 5div but the 6DII has two modes, always on and only on when the power switch is set to on. With the only when on mode my power drain is fairly minimal. You can also set the increment it updates from every 10 seconds to every 10 minutes which also changes the drain

 

[jpegman]

With the 6D2 having two power-on modes, it is definitely an improvement over the 6D!

 

[CameraCarl]

Regardless of whether or not I use the GPS I always take along extra batteries!

 

[gimp_dad]

Not sure about the 5div but the 6DII has two modes, always on and only on when the power switch is set to on. With the only when on mode my power drain is fairly minimal. You can also set the increment it updates from every 10 seconds to every 10 minutes which also changes the drain

 

[Reza Raquib]

Sorry to be flippant, but it depends on how long you leave it on. Note that turning the camera power switch to OFF, does not switch off the GPS. You can register the GPS in My MENU and more conveniently turn it on and off there. If you just leave the GPS switched on, it does drain the battery unnecessarily.

GPS Mode 2 actually turns off GPS when the camera is off.

 

[Pr0grammed]

Since I got the 6D2 I leave my GPS on all the time in mode 2

 

[jclin10]

Thanks everyone

I'm basically trying to understand if Mode 2 depletes the battery like 10-20% faster, or something more significant like 50-60% faster. For those who have used it, is it more like 10-20% or more like 50-60% faster?

 

[Reza Raquib]

Thanks everyone

I'm basically trying to understand if Mode 2 depletes the battery like 10-20% faster, or something more significant like 50-60% faster. For those who have used it, is it more like 10-20% or more like 50-60% faster?

I have my mode 2 set at update every 5 minutes. I have not noticed any significant battery loss.

 

[marona]

5dmk IV: i spent a week in greece without gps switched on and i got about 450 shots. 1 weeks shooting on one battery still had one bar left.

just spent a week in cornwall with gps switched on (mode 2) update every 5 mins. got about 350 shots before battery died. just less than a week.

i normally leave my camera on most of the time, ie it goes to sleep but with gps switched on on i did remember to switch it off when i wasn't using it.

gps is nice to have, but is a bit of a battery drain.

 

[Daverock]

Thanks everyone

I'm basically trying to understand if Mode 2 depletes the battery like 10-20% faster, or something more significant like 50-60% faster. For those who have used it, is it more like 10-20% or more like 50-60% faster?

I have my mode 2 set at update every 5 minutes. I have not noticed any significant battery loss.

I can leave my 5d4 in mode 2 updating every minute and I notice no significant impact. I just leave auto power off after one minute.

I did find shutting the camera down fully and switching back on was a bigger drain. Also slower to locate gps.

 

[jclin10]

Very helpful, thanks!

 

[riknash]

Thanks everyone

I'm basically trying to understand if Mode 2 depletes the battery like 10-20% faster, or something more significant like 50-60% faster. For those who have used it, is it more like 10-20% or more like 50-60% faster?

I've had the battery deplete in half a day without using it and sometimes good for several days. I speculate that current draw by GPS is also dependent upon how good a signal lock on the satellite the GPS unit has. Poorer lock means its probably having to expend energy receiving and decoding poor signals and needs to be receiving at full power more often, thus depleting the battery faster. I've decided the best method for me is simply remove the battery when camera is not being used for many hours. That way there is no battery drain. One should always check their camera before a shoot and make sure it has a battery installed and that the battery indicator shows a full charge.

When shooting, the GPS drain on the battery is minimal compared to the rest of the shooting operation including shot review on the rear LCD. Keep the LCD time as short as possible.

 

[Alben]

I only turn GPS, Wi-Fi on if I think it maybe useful, they will drain power very quickly.

Alan

 

[MarshallG]

The process of constantly checking your battery level to measure the depletion caused by the GPS will itself deplete your battery.

 

[MaxCh]

Greetings

How much more quickly does the camera battery get depleted when using GPS? I have a trip soon and wanted to figure out if I need to bring extra batteries.

John

According to my experience, using GPS does not seem to have a major impact on on the battery performance. It certainly has some, however it is it is not easy to quantify it because so many other factors impact the performance. For example, the type of mode you use (i.e burst mode vs. single-shot) has a much more significant impact on your battery performance. I can easily get many thousands of shots in burst mode vs. only few several thousands in single-mode.

I always have 2-3 extra original Canon batteries with me and always keep the GPS on.

 

[TheGnomeAtHome]

Hi, just looking for advice.

Bought my 5DIV a couple of months ago, off a professional photographer. Everything seems good and camera was in excellent condition.

However I came to use a speedlight flash on it and noticed that as soon as it did its pre-flash, the menu locked up and had to switch it off and on again to preview. Reset all settings etc and still the same.

I have noticed:

a. One of the hotshoe contacts is discoloured and seems to be scratched.

b. The power drain on the battery life is ridiculous.

Using the camera with No GPS/WIFI, single shot. I manage to get between 80 and a hundred shots per battery. This is with a genuine canon battery.

The question is do I send it to Canon repair centre? It's perfectly useable without the speedlight with the exception of the battery life and i do have spare batteries. As its not under warranty, I am just worried in case the price of the repair makes it not worth bothering with.

Also does anyone think that the two problems could be related or seperate issues?

Many thanks.

Paul

 

[Graham Meale]

Paul, you'd be better off starting a new thread, rather than exhuming a two-year-old one that's only slightly relevant.

I have a 5D IV but can't really help, as I never use flash.