This Battery Won't Die!

Odeo · Sep 25, 2003

In preparation for an upcoming event I want to photograph, I decided to conduct a very unscientific test of the battery lives for the camera and an external 550EX flash. I was amazed at the longevity of the standard BP-511 that comes with the camera; it seems that Canon may have been conservative in their estimates of the number of shots that can be expected.

Battery Pack BP-511 Longevity:
At least 875 shots (the 2GB CF filled). At that time, the battery charge
indicated "charge is low" but not "battery pack must be recharged" (i.e.,
charge remained).

No internal flash was used on the first 450 shots. 90% internal flash on remaining 425 shots. Most were main lighting source, rather than fill. While I did not review most of the pix in the LCD viewer, the default review time was set to 2 seconds.

550EX Flash with Rechargable 2100mAh Batteries Longevity:
Of the first 250 shots, about 200 used an external 550EX flash before the
flash batteries died. Most of these were flash fill.

Cheers,

Rob

RATPhoto · Sep 25, 2003

Odeo said:
In preparation for an upcoming event I want to photograph, I
decided to conduct a very unscientific test of the battery lives
for the camera and an external 550EX flash. I was amazed at the
longevity of the standard BP-511 that comes with the camera; it
seems that Canon may have been conservative in their estimates of
the number of shots that can be expected.

Battery Pack BP-511 Longevity:
At least 875 shots (the 2GB CF filled). At that time, the battery
charge
indicated "charge is low" but not "battery pack must be recharged"
(i.e.,
charge remained).
No internal flash was used on the first 450 shots. 90% internal
flash on remaining 425 shots. Most were main lighting source,
rather than fill. While I did not review most of the pix in the
LCD viewer, the default review time was set to 2 seconds.

550EX Flash with Rechargable 2100mAh Batteries Longevity:
Of the first 250 shots, about 200 used an external 550EX flash
before the
flash batteries died. Most of these were flash fill.

Cheers,

Rob

I got much less than that on my battery. I got around 300 pictures. However, I suspect the reason was a whole bunch of 30 sec exposures.

Internal flash I have probably used a grand total of 10 times or so.

--
For a small gallery of 300d pictures, see:
http://ratphoto.home.comcast.net/
They were taken with the EF-S 18-55 kit lens as well as a 70-200 F4L.

IkeT · Sep 25, 2003

BP-511 batteries are great!

Your numbers will change once you put on a lens with IS and use it or when heavy glass has to be moved.

Odeo said:
In preparation for an upcoming event I want to photograph, I
decided to conduct a very unscientific test of the battery lives
for the camera and an external 550EX flash. I was amazed at the
longevity of the standard BP-511 that comes with the camera; it
seems that Canon may have been conservative in their estimates of
the number of shots that can be expected.

Battery Pack BP-511 Longevity:
At least 875 shots (the 2GB CF filled). At that time, the battery
charge
indicated "charge is low" but not "battery pack must be recharged"
(i.e.,
charge remained).
No internal flash was used on the first 450 shots. 90% internal
flash on remaining 425 shots. Most were main lighting source,
rather than fill. While I did not review most of the pix in the
LCD viewer, the default review time was set to 2 seconds.

550EX Flash with Rechargable 2100mAh Batteries Longevity:
Of the first 250 shots, about 200 used an external 550EX flash
before the
flash batteries died. Most of these were flash fill.

Cheers,

Rob

--
Ike

Jonathan Reed · Sep 25, 2003

Great batteries. I'm over 500 shots now.

IkeT said:
Your numbers will change once you put on a lens with IS and use it
or when heavy glass has to be moved.

Odeo said:

In preparation for an upcoming event I want to photograph, I
decided to conduct a very unscientific test of the battery lives
for the camera and an external 550EX flash. I was amazed at the
longevity of the standard BP-511 that comes with the camera; it
seems that Canon may have been conservative in their estimates of
the number of shots that can be expected.

Battery Pack BP-511 Longevity:
At least 875 shots (the 2GB CF filled). At that time, the battery
charge
indicated "charge is low" but not "battery pack must be recharged"
(i.e.,
charge remained).
No internal flash was used on the first 450 shots. 90% internal
flash on remaining 425 shots. Most were main lighting source,
rather than fill. While I did not review most of the pix in the
LCD viewer, the default review time was set to 2 seconds.

550EX Flash with Rechargable 2100mAh Batteries Longevity:
Of the first 250 shots, about 200 used an external 550EX flash
before the
flash batteries died. Most of these were flash fill.

Cheers,

Rob

Click to expand...

--
Ike

padeye99656 · Sep 25, 2003

I used to think AA NiMH was the way to go. I think it is for pocket cameras but I've lived with the a dimage 7 for two years and have found it to be the most ravenous, battery sucking pig in the digicam world.

Jonathan Reed said:
IkeT said:

Your numbers will change once you put on a lens with IS and use it
or when heavy glass has to be moved.

Odeo said:

In preparation for an upcoming event I want to photograph, I
decided to conduct a very unscientific test of the battery lives
for the camera and an external 550EX flash. I was amazed at the
longevity of the standard BP-511 that comes with the camera; it
seems that Canon may have been conservative in their estimates of
the number of shots that can be expected.

Battery Pack BP-511 Longevity:
At least 875 shots (the 2GB CF filled). At that time, the battery
charge
indicated "charge is low" but not "battery pack must be recharged"
(i.e.,
charge remained).
No internal flash was used on the first 450 shots. 90% internal
flash on remaining 425 shots. Most were main lighting source,
rather than fill. While I did not review most of the pix in the
LCD viewer, the default review time was set to 2 seconds.

550EX Flash with Rechargable 2100mAh Batteries Longevity:
Of the first 250 shots, about 200 used an external 550EX flash
before the
flash batteries died. Most of these were flash fill.

Cheers,

Rob

Click to expand...

--
Ike

Click to expand...

Odeo · Sep 25, 2003

Oops, I should have added that the shots were taken with a Canon 28-135 f 3.5-5.6 USM with IS.

IkeT said:
Your numbers will change once you put on a lens with IS and use it
or when heavy glass has to be moved.

Odeo said:

In preparation for an upcoming event I want to photograph, I
decided to conduct a very unscientific test of the battery lives
for the camera and an external 550EX flash. I was amazed at the
longevity of the standard BP-511 that comes with the camera; it
seems that Canon may have been conservative in their estimates of
the number of shots that can be expected.

Battery Pack BP-511 Longevity:
At least 875 shots (the 2GB CF filled). At that time, the battery
charge
indicated "charge is low" but not "battery pack must be recharged"
(i.e.,
charge remained).
No internal flash was used on the first 450 shots. 90% internal
flash on remaining 425 shots. Most were main lighting source,
rather than fill. While I did not review most of the pix in the
LCD viewer, the default review time was set to 2 seconds.

550EX Flash with Rechargable 2100mAh Batteries Longevity:
Of the first 250 shots, about 200 used an external 550EX flash
before the
flash batteries died. Most of these were flash fill.

Cheers,

Rob

Click to expand...

--
Ike

Peter K Wagner · Sep 25, 2003

IkeT said:
Your numbers will change once you put on a lens with IS and use it
or when heavy glass has to be moved.

Yeah, I get "only" about 200 shots with my 100-400 L IS lens.

Odeo · Sep 25, 2003

Sheesh, that's a dramatic decrease! While my 28-135 wasn't as heavy, I also manually focus much of the time.

I guess as long as you know your own equipment/habits, then you can predict your battery longevity.

Peter K Wagner said:
IkeT said:

Your numbers will change once you put on a lens with IS and use it
or when heavy glass has to be moved.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I get "only" about 200 shots with my 100-400 L IS lens.

waterwagen23 · Sep 25, 2003

but I did a lot of playback on my first battery charge, reviewing images and zooming in on them, so that probably drained a lot of power.

RATPhoto said:
Odeo said:

In preparation for an upcoming event I want to photograph, I
decided to conduct a very unscientific test of the battery lives
for the camera and an external 550EX flash. I was amazed at the
longevity of the standard BP-511 that comes with the camera; it
seems that Canon may have been conservative in their estimates of
the number of shots that can be expected.

Battery Pack BP-511 Longevity:
At least 875 shots (the 2GB CF filled). At that time, the battery
charge
indicated "charge is low" but not "battery pack must be recharged"
(i.e.,
charge remained).
No internal flash was used on the first 450 shots. 90% internal
flash on remaining 425 shots. Most were main lighting source,
rather than fill. While I did not review most of the pix in the
LCD viewer, the default review time was set to 2 seconds.

550EX Flash with Rechargable 2100mAh Batteries Longevity:
Of the first 250 shots, about 200 used an external 550EX flash
before the
flash batteries died. Most of these were flash fill.

Cheers,

Rob

Click to expand...

I got much less than that on my battery. I got around 300 pictures.
However, I suspect the reason was a whole bunch of 30 sec exposures.

Internal flash I have probably used a grand total of 10 times or so.

--
For a small gallery of 300d pictures, see:
http://ratphoto.home.comcast.net/
They were taken with the EF-S 18-55 kit lens as well as a 70-200 F4L.

--
http://www.vwvortex.com

Trogdooooooooooooooor! Burninating the countryside!

log · Sep 25, 2003

...at least if my experience with a G1 and G3 is anything to go by.

I got so used to thinking "this battery won't die", I got out of the habit of re-charging it whenever I got home, just whenever I remembered. That caused no problems for months, until that one time I really really wanted to take a hundred or so shots and found I couldn't....

What a mean, nasty trick for a battery to play....

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This Battery Won't Die!

Odeo

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RATPhoto

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IkeT

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Jonathan Reed

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padeye99656

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Odeo

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Peter K Wagner

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Odeo

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waterwagen23

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log

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