Nikon D850 battery drain

vinyasa · Oct 21, 2017

I bought Nikon D850 two weeks ago, after selling my D7100.

One EN-EL15a battery came with D850. And I have two EN-EL15 batteries that are 3 years old. Each of them was giving me approximately 250-300 shots in RAW format with AF-C.

I did all my initial settings on D850, took test shots and charged EN-EL15a. Both 15a and 15 drained much more quickly than l expected.

EN-EL15a: Approx 100 shots in 14 bit lossless compressed RAW.

I was on AF-C all the time (back button focusing).

No video taken.

Aeroplane mode was turned ON all the time.

LCD used once or twice.

Image review was OFF

15 minutes spent on watching/ checking menu etc.

With similar usage + 5 minutes transfering 35 photos to phone EN-EL15 gave approximately 40 shots.

PHXAZCRAIG · Oct 21, 2017

Major issue there, it sounds like.

theonetruepath · Oct 21, 2017

vinyasa said:
I bought Nikon D850 two weeks ago, after selling my D7100.

One EN-EL15a battery came with D850. And I have two EN-EL15 batteries that are 3 years old. Each of them was giving me approximately 250-300 shots in RAW format with AF-C.

I did all my initial settings on D850, took test shots and charged EN-EL15a. Both 15a and 15 drained much more quickly than l expected.

EN-EL15a: Approx 100 shots in 14 bit lossless compressed RAW.

I was on AF-C all the time (back button focusing).

No video taken.

Aeroplane mode was turned ON all the time.

LCD used once or twice.

Image review was OFF

15 minutes spent on watching/ checking menu etc.

With similar usage + 5 minutes transfering 35 photos to phone EN-EL15 gave approximately 40 shots.

You should expect the first charge of your battery to be significantly shorter due to charging the internal battery.

But this sounds much more than that... eg like the internal battery is faulty and draining the main battery.

ArthurMeursault · Oct 21, 2017

I left my 850 on overnight twice. No battery drain. Sound like you have a unique issue. Warranty time

Sandy27000 · Oct 21, 2017

A few days back I took more than 450 shots, 75% of them using live view. It drained about 60% of a fully charged battery that came with the camera. Looks like your camera has some issue that Nikon Service will have to sort out.

Massimo480 · Nov 1, 2017

vinyasa said:
I bought Nikon D850 two weeks ago, after selling my D7100.

One EN-EL15a battery came with D850. And I have two EN-EL15 batteries that are 3 years old. Each of them was giving me approximately 250-300 shots in RAW format with AF-C.

I did all my initial settings on D850, took test shots and charged EN-EL15a. Both 15a and 15 drained much more quickly than l expected.

EN-EL15a: Approx 100 shots in 14 bit lossless compressed RAW.

I was on AF-C all the time (back button focusing).

No video taken.

Aeroplane mode was turned ON all the time.

LCD used once or twice.

Image review was OFF

15 minutes spent on watching/ checking menu etc.

With similar usage + 5 minutes transfering 35 photos to phone EN-EL15 gave approximately 40 shots.

I've been getting the impression that my D850 is draining faster than it should too. Still gotta do more testing.

Any updates on your case?

Julian Vrieslander · Nov 1, 2017

I am wondering about battery drain, too. The battery status page in my D850 currently shows 44% charge left after 78 shots. On another cycle, I got about 200 shots before the charge level fell to 30%. I have two EN-EL15a batteries. Both have gone through several charge cycles, and both show this sort of drain rate. I tried running the batteries down to empty, thinking that might be necessary to calibrate the level indicator. No love.

Granted, since I am learning a new camera, I've been doing a fair amount of chimping and playing with the set up menus. But still - this experience seems far off from Nikon's claim of 1840 shots on a charge. Does anyone know what sort of shooting set up is assumed by that spec? I shoot RAW only. No exotic or long lenses.

Time to call Nikon, I guess.

Photo_AK · Nov 1, 2017

Very, very happy with the battery performance on my D850; almost 3000 shots on a single charge:

--
Robert Capa said 'You can never get close enough'. Well, he did ...

ArthurMeursault · Nov 1, 2017

Sheeeeeezzzz.....

Julian Vrieslander · Nov 1, 2017

ArthurMeursault said:
Sheeeeeezzzz.....

I've had Airplane Mode turned on since I first set up the camera, but I'm still seeing rapid battery drain.

Emagix · Nov 1, 2017

With airplane mode on I get about 400 shots out of 1 charge now. I don't use live view, but I've been playing with menu options while shooting, so I take some extra battery drain because of that. I hope the number of shots will go up till at least 800 soon...

vinyasa · Nov 2, 2017

Massimo480 said:
vinyasa said:

I bought Nikon D850 two weeks ago, after selling my D7100.

One EN-EL15a battery came with D850. And I have two EN-EL15 batteries that are 3 years old. Each of them was giving me approximately 250-300 shots in RAW format with AF-C.

I did all my initial settings on D850, took test shots and charged EN-EL15a. Both 15a and 15 drained much more quickly than l expected.

EN-EL15a: Approx 100 shots in 14 bit lossless compressed RAW.

I was on AF-C all the time (back button focusing).

No video taken.

Aeroplane mode was turned ON all the time.

LCD used once or twice.

Image review was OFF

15 minutes spent on watching/ checking menu etc.

With similar usage + 5 minutes transfering 35 photos to phone EN-EL15 gave approximately 40 shots.

Click to expand...

I've been getting the impression that my D850 is draining faster than it should too. Still gotta do more testing.

Any updates on your case?

I decided to test charging 4-5 times. Unfortunately I did not get enough time as I was sick. I could only take few hundred shots recently. I think touch screen consumes more battery. During last two days I clicked around 250-270 shots, all in 14 bit compressed RAW and AF-C was ON (back button auto focusing) all the time. I did not used Live View. Image Preview was ON. I used 300 mbps UHS-II SD card (not XQD). Aeroplane mode was ON all the time. 50% of the charge is consumed. Though it is less compared to what Nikon claims, it is much better than earlier for me. I will do more testing.

Leonard Shepherd · Nov 2, 2017

Photo_AK said:

+1

Starting with a fully charged battery, which should show 100%, you can track how much power is used for X shots shooting Y way.

The option shown above is in Setup Menu - Battery information.

You can check regularly to work out if the battery is showing fully charged when inserted, how many shots you are getting for x percentage photos etc.

If the battery shows 75% used after 100 shots with minimal use of Liveview even a retailer is likely to accept something is not working right.

I find downloading 200 images via an XQD card via the supplied USB cable can consume 3%, and Liveview quickly uses battery capacity.

--
Leonard Shepherd
In lots of ways good photography is much more about how equipment is used rather than the equipment being used.

Dishary Khan · Feb 27, 2018

I got my Nikon D850 same problem.nikon released there new update for Nikon 850.is it helpful?

Massimo480 · Feb 27, 2018

Dishary Khan said:
I got my Nikon D850 same problem.nikon released there new update for Nikon 850.is it helpful?

The firmware update does not mention anything about battery life as far as I know. I contacted Nikon, and they sent me a new battery for free

Dishary Khan · Feb 28, 2018

thanks for your replay nikon shop change my battery also but still same problem.is that problem related with body?

primeshooter · Feb 28, 2018

Photo_AK said:
Very, very happy with the battery performance on my D850; almost 3000 shots on a single charge:

--
Robert Capa said 'You can never get close enough'. Well, he did ...

Hi, does this include much reviewing on the back of the LCD? Much zooming in to check focus? Because I am getting no where near this, not even close. Then again, with the D810 I don't get anything like the figures either. I like to check focus, not on every shot though. Don't use liveview really.

vinyasa · Mar 13, 2018

Dishary Khan said:
I got my Nikon D850 same problem.nikon released there new update for Nikon 850.is it helpful?

Hi,

After a month of use, I could able to get more number of shots, around 500-600 shots using EN-EL15a & 200-300 shots with EN-EL15.

I will take the camera to the service centre next week and see if anything else can be done.

calson · Mar 15, 2018

According to Thom Hogan the D850 will drain the battery at a steady rate even with all the communications functions turned off. He recommends removing the battery when the camera is not in use.

I have the D850 and a D500 and if both are left unused for a week the D500 will have more than double the remaining charge shown on the D850. So there is some kind of parasitic load on the battery taking place.

vinyasa · Mar 15, 2018

calson said:
According to Thom Hogan the D850 will drain the battery at a steady rate even with all the communications functions turned off. He recommends removing the battery when the camera is not in use.

I have the D850 and a D500 and if both are left unused for a week the D500 will have more than double the remaining charge shown on the D850. So there is some kind of parasitic load on the battery taking place.

Nikon D850 battery drain

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