760D battery life - is it really only 440 shots?

I am considering the getting the 760D (or maybe 70D) as an upgrade from my 400D. But the figures for battery life are not great. I wondered what experience have owners got?
i.e. how many shots with just view finder, how many shot all with live view?

I have 2 genuine Canon batteries from my 350D & 400D plus 6 or 7 3rd party units - yes, they all get used from time to time. But I cant find 3rd party LP-E17 units - do they exist?

Amazon has a bunch.

Result of Amazon search

ebay has a lot too.

Result of ebay search

Battery life is appalling by normal Canon standards - especially if you leave the wifi on....

Cost of these new improved batteries is also alarmingly high, but 3rd party ones seem to be appearing now.

I own the 750 and after 5 cycles of a new battery I had 400 or so shots before I recharged. The battery meter still showed some life so I  would say 440 would have been easily attained. About 30 were with the flash but no video whatsoever.

I had wireless off the whole time.

For me this would easily handle a full day while on vacation or just walking around. IQ with a few tweaks is really exceptional. Especially with the 50mm 1.8 STM lens.

I haven't used it enough to see.  440 shots is plenty for me.  But the battery is small and light anyways and is only half as big as the others.

WSteveP wrote:

Amazon has a bunch.

Result of Amazon search

ebay has a lot too.

Result of ebay search

Thanks - I have found a few in the UK now.

With my 650D (LP-E8) batteries i found that during all day shooting and chimping on vacation i generally use 1½ batteries [except one time i used up both and i had to resort to the smartphone!] so i too have gotten around 550 shots per battery which includes of course powering the lens, i.e. auto-focussing, image stabilisation aa well as the odd flash and the LCD brightness high in daytime. But it's not only about the shooting but also stand-by/off time with the battery in the camera i didn't feel that it was draining any power. So when i saw that the 760/750D come with a smaller battery it did put me off and sway me to the 70D with the bigger LP-E6 batteries.

That being said i'm finding i'm having to charge the 70D's batteries far more often than the 650D's even though i haven't used it as much and i find this a little irritating. The spare battery i got for the 70D is the LP-E6N which i believe is a larger capacity version but this just seems to level it out similar to the 650D's LP-E8s.

I am of the opinion that it's the OVF that's causing a continuous drain on the 70D's battery and similarly with the 760D. I say this because when i switch off the 70D then remove the battery, full or exhausted, i can see the viewfinder go very dark which was a surprise when i first saw it as the 650D didn't do so, so i can only come to the conclusion that there is constant power to the viewfinder even though it's optical and not electronic - and i have notice the same effect in the shop with the 760D. I can only guess this is because they share similar OVF tech to display the information in the viewfinder - but why is it still powered even when the camera is off? This seems a bit wasteful to me and i don't like it, if i switch it off it should be off, period. Standby & still powered less of an issue. But why does it go dark? Does the information display plate in the 'finder block out so much light??

Also if there are Duracell brand third-party LP-E17s i suggest you avoid them as from experience their replacement cells have a poor life-span compared to Canon's and so not worth it in the long-run even if initially cheaper.

Thanks for the feeback guys.

SnappyChappie wrote:

With my 650D (LP-E8) batteries i found that during all day shooting and chimping on vacation i generally use 1½ batteries [except one time i used up both and i had to resort to the smartphone!] so i too have gotten around 550 shots per battery which includes of course powering the lens, i.e. auto-focussing, image stabilisation aa well as the odd flash and the LCD brightness high in daytime. But it's not only about the shooting but also stand-by/off time with the battery in the camera i didn't feel that it was draining any power. So when i saw that the 760/750D come with a smaller battery it did put me off and sway me to the 70D with the bigger LP-E6 batteries.

That being said i'm finding i'm having to charge the 70D's batteries far more often than the 650D's even though i haven't used it as much and i find this a little irritating. The spare battery i got for the 70D is the LP-E6N which i believe is a larger capacity version but this just seems to level it out similar to the 650D's LP-E8s.

I am of the opinion that it's the OVF that's causing a continuous drain on the 70D's battery and similarly with the 760D. I say this because when i switch off the 70D then remove the battery, full or exhausted, i can see the viewfinder go very dark which was a surprise when i first saw it as the 650D didn't do so, so i can only come to the conclusion that there is constant power to the viewfinder even though it's optical and not electronic - and i have notice the same effect in the shop with the 760D. I can only guess this is because they share similar OVF tech to display the information in the viewfinder - but why is it still powered even when the camera is off? This seems a bit wasteful to me and i don't like it, if i switch it off it should be off, period. Standby & still powered less of an issue. But why does it go dark? Does the information display plate in the 'finder block out so much light??

Also if there are Duracell brand third-party LP-E17s i suggest you avoid them as from experience their replacement cells have a poor life-span compared to Canon's and so not worth it in the long-run even if initially cheaper.

I believe it's because it's an intelligent viewfinder, it has a transmissive LCD screen giving it the ability to overlay information. This is why the screen looks dark or milky when the battery is removed. Indeed it does use a tiny bit of power.

http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/education/infobank/digital_camera_features/transmissive_lcd_viewfinders.do

http://www.learn.usa.canon.com/resources/articles/2013/eos1dx_intelligent_viewfinder_display.shtml

Wasabi has a pretty good reputation for 3rd party batteries.

Think I'll wait until they've decoded the chip enough to get battery life too. Or hope that the Canon ones drop a little below £40 before I buy another.