Goethe
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So the other day I was hired to shoot four kids. Being that most of us here are photographers this isn't as horrible as it sound.
My primary camera is a Sony a7 and my backup is a NEX 7, so its clear I am firmly in the mirrorless camp. Have been for years. And for most of that time, on this forum and others, I have both read and responded to many posts decrying the horrible battery life of mirrorless cameras. It happened just a couple of days ago actually on this very forum. So I would like to use the opportunity of my previous weekends photo shoot to illustrate some points about mirrorless and battery life.
Let me first describe the conditions of the shoot. I met the family members on location around 7am, lead grey clouds obscuring any hint of direct sunlight. Since I am a natural light photographer I was rather pleased by this. I love overcast days. However we had a major storm the night before and all of my planned shooting area was soaked. There were full on puddles to be dodged as well as a thin layer of water all over the ground that was obscured by the grass. But believe me, it was there. My sodden boots and pants from the knees down were proof of that at the end of the shoot.
And it was cold. 40 degrees and dropping. And it was windy. Like sustained ten mile per hour wind with very frequent gusts up to about 30 or so. So NOT AT ALL ideal conditions to shoot four young children, two of whom were dressed in very, very nice fancy dresses with white hose and pretty dress shoes.
Hey mom, did you not understand the part where I said we would be shooting under a tree? In a field? On a cold morning after a minor monsoon?
Needless to say the logistics of the shoot that day were fairly challenging. We had to rotate the kids out of the warm vehicle we had standing by, having them walk across the wet ground in rain boots only to have them take off jackets and swap to nicer shoes once they were in front of the camera. But the ferocity of the cold, biting wind had them shivering in no time flat. Especially the girls in dresses, whose pretty white hose did NOTHING to mitigate the frigid air. On top of that I had brought out a wooden chair and book as a prop so that had to be dragged around to different positions as well.
My point in explaining all this, other then to give some backstory for the images I will post, is to point out that it was cold. And batteries dont like cold. And I did in fact notice a decrease in my normally battery life the day of the shoot because of this. The two batteries in my a7 exhausted themselves after only 630 shots. Far below the 800-900 I usually get out of two batteries.
But you know what happened as I was clicking away and suddenly my EVF popped up the message "BATTERY EXHAUSTED"?
I got up off my knees from the cold, drenched ground, looked at the mom and said "Batteries dead, take 5, put her coat back on". Then I trudged back thru the frigid muck to my camera bag that I had dropped about 25 yards away when we were shooting over there. I dug out my one spare battery and slipped it in the camera. At which point I trudged back over to the girl and ran about another 30 shots thru the camera. This was the last child in the last location we had decided earlier in the day to shoot so we wrapped up and headed home. I still could have drilled out another almost 300 shots if need be. But I had the shots I required, so we were done.
To put this in perspective, especially when facing all the challenging things that can happen on a photo shoot (including the youngest girl, only four and absolutely fed up with the cold wind, screaming that she wasnt taking anymore photos and wanted to go home) my point is that changing batteries is...
well...
... a non issue really. It entailed opening up the battery door, sliding out the tray, exchanging the battery, sliding it back in, and turning the camera back on. Including the time spent walking back over to my bag and then walking back over to the girl...I mean what? A minute and a half tops?
Mirrorless cameras dont have as good of a battery life due to usually having smaller batteries overall and also having to power an EVF. This situation will either be acceptable to you or it wont be. Each photographer will figure out if this makes mirrorless a tool they can use or not.
But it downright silly to criticize both the tool and the photographers who use them because one aspect of said tool doesnt meet YOUR requirements. Obviously there are those of us who have overcome the horrible appetites of our camera and work around it to simply...
...get the job done.
On that cold wet Sunday, freezing my butt off with a grumpy and screaming four year old and several other shivering kids the only time a battery entered my mind was when I needed to change it. So I freaking changed it. Like an adult. Then kept on working.
Had I needed more then 3 batteries I would have brought them. I have a car to carry them in, I have a bag to put them in. Heck...I have pockets to carry them in. They arent that big, and not heavy at all. So to all out there who may be reading this curious about mirrorless battery life.. it isnt the soul crushing human misery that some would have you believe it is. Its just a trade off for getting to use a super cool EVF, among other things. If you need more batteries, just carry them. Sorta like lenses, or filters, or extension tubes, or a rocket blower....
As promised, some photos from the shoot. All shots on a7 with either a Canon FL 55/1.2 or a Canon FDn 85/1.8. Hope you enjoy.
--
Straylightrun- "Are you for real?"
Goethe- "No, I'm a unicorn. Kudos for seeing thru the disguise."
While I suppose I could be considered a natural light photographer I prefer to think I am a natural shadow photographer...
https://photolumiere.smugmug.com/
My primary camera is a Sony a7 and my backup is a NEX 7, so its clear I am firmly in the mirrorless camp. Have been for years. And for most of that time, on this forum and others, I have both read and responded to many posts decrying the horrible battery life of mirrorless cameras. It happened just a couple of days ago actually on this very forum. So I would like to use the opportunity of my previous weekends photo shoot to illustrate some points about mirrorless and battery life.
Let me first describe the conditions of the shoot. I met the family members on location around 7am, lead grey clouds obscuring any hint of direct sunlight. Since I am a natural light photographer I was rather pleased by this. I love overcast days. However we had a major storm the night before and all of my planned shooting area was soaked. There were full on puddles to be dodged as well as a thin layer of water all over the ground that was obscured by the grass. But believe me, it was there. My sodden boots and pants from the knees down were proof of that at the end of the shoot.
And it was cold. 40 degrees and dropping. And it was windy. Like sustained ten mile per hour wind with very frequent gusts up to about 30 or so. So NOT AT ALL ideal conditions to shoot four young children, two of whom were dressed in very, very nice fancy dresses with white hose and pretty dress shoes.
Hey mom, did you not understand the part where I said we would be shooting under a tree? In a field? On a cold morning after a minor monsoon?
Needless to say the logistics of the shoot that day were fairly challenging. We had to rotate the kids out of the warm vehicle we had standing by, having them walk across the wet ground in rain boots only to have them take off jackets and swap to nicer shoes once they were in front of the camera. But the ferocity of the cold, biting wind had them shivering in no time flat. Especially the girls in dresses, whose pretty white hose did NOTHING to mitigate the frigid air. On top of that I had brought out a wooden chair and book as a prop so that had to be dragged around to different positions as well.
My point in explaining all this, other then to give some backstory for the images I will post, is to point out that it was cold. And batteries dont like cold. And I did in fact notice a decrease in my normally battery life the day of the shoot because of this. The two batteries in my a7 exhausted themselves after only 630 shots. Far below the 800-900 I usually get out of two batteries.
But you know what happened as I was clicking away and suddenly my EVF popped up the message "BATTERY EXHAUSTED"?
I got up off my knees from the cold, drenched ground, looked at the mom and said "Batteries dead, take 5, put her coat back on". Then I trudged back thru the frigid muck to my camera bag that I had dropped about 25 yards away when we were shooting over there. I dug out my one spare battery and slipped it in the camera. At which point I trudged back over to the girl and ran about another 30 shots thru the camera. This was the last child in the last location we had decided earlier in the day to shoot so we wrapped up and headed home. I still could have drilled out another almost 300 shots if need be. But I had the shots I required, so we were done.
To put this in perspective, especially when facing all the challenging things that can happen on a photo shoot (including the youngest girl, only four and absolutely fed up with the cold wind, screaming that she wasnt taking anymore photos and wanted to go home) my point is that changing batteries is...
well...
... a non issue really. It entailed opening up the battery door, sliding out the tray, exchanging the battery, sliding it back in, and turning the camera back on. Including the time spent walking back over to my bag and then walking back over to the girl...I mean what? A minute and a half tops?
Mirrorless cameras dont have as good of a battery life due to usually having smaller batteries overall and also having to power an EVF. This situation will either be acceptable to you or it wont be. Each photographer will figure out if this makes mirrorless a tool they can use or not.
But it downright silly to criticize both the tool and the photographers who use them because one aspect of said tool doesnt meet YOUR requirements. Obviously there are those of us who have overcome the horrible appetites of our camera and work around it to simply...
...get the job done.
On that cold wet Sunday, freezing my butt off with a grumpy and screaming four year old and several other shivering kids the only time a battery entered my mind was when I needed to change it. So I freaking changed it. Like an adult. Then kept on working.
Had I needed more then 3 batteries I would have brought them. I have a car to carry them in, I have a bag to put them in. Heck...I have pockets to carry them in. They arent that big, and not heavy at all. So to all out there who may be reading this curious about mirrorless battery life.. it isnt the soul crushing human misery that some would have you believe it is. Its just a trade off for getting to use a super cool EVF, among other things. If you need more batteries, just carry them. Sorta like lenses, or filters, or extension tubes, or a rocket blower....
As promised, some photos from the shoot. All shots on a7 with either a Canon FL 55/1.2 or a Canon FDn 85/1.8. Hope you enjoy.
--
Straylightrun- "Are you for real?"
Goethe- "No, I'm a unicorn. Kudos for seeing thru the disguise."
While I suppose I could be considered a natural light photographer I prefer to think I am a natural shadow photographer...
https://photolumiere.smugmug.com/
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