Z5 ii Battery Consumption

[stuck_shutter_blown_HLs]

Hi. New member here. My new Z5 ii gobbles up 25% of a fully charged battery (EN-EL15C) in just one hour.

Nikkor 50 F1.8 S or 24-120 F4 S attached, with lens cap off. LCD left on the photo shooting screen throughout, and with brightness set to MINUS 2. Airplane mode ON. Energy Saving (photo mode) ON.

The camera is new. The cell is new and with fewer than 10 recharge cycles on it and in perfect condition per the camera.

When I explore the menus, it seems like the camera runs down the battery even faster.

Is it, and other Nikon Z models for that matter, supposed to be this power hungry, or I have a faulty camera?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

 

[SoCalAngler]

Hi. New member here. My new Z5 ii gobbles up 25% of a fully charged battery (EN-EL15C) in just one hour.

Nikkor 50 F1.8 S or 24-120 F4 S attached, with lens cap off. LCD left on the photo shooting screen throughout, and with brightness set to MINUS 2. Airplane mode ON. Energy Saving (photo mode) ON.

Do you have the standby timer (custom setting #c3) set to No Limit and thus the LCD is continuously on? That would cause a drain. Also Energy Saving doesn't do anything if the Standby Timer is set to No Limit or the delay is set to less than 30 seconds.

Do you have VR on. It is active if the LCD or EVF are active. VR affects battery life.

25% drain in an hour doesn't seem unusual to me if the LCD and/or EVF are active most of that time.

Is bluetooth on?. Even with Airplane Mode on there may be some bluetooth activity going on. I picked up a signal from my Z5 with a crude spectrum monitoring device with bluetooth on and airplane mode on. It went away when I set bluetooth to off.

The camera is new. The cell is new and with fewer than 10 recharge cycles on it and in perfect condition per the camera.

When I explore the menus, it seems like the camera runs down the battery even faster.

My experience with my two cameras (Z5 and Z50) is that extensive menu diving and navigating drains the battery at a higher rate than when the camera just sets idle. I have the i Menu, My Menu, and buttons customized in such a way that I rarely dive into the menus unless I do something outside of my standard photo tasks ( like setting up focus shift shooting or interval shooting).

Is it, and other Nikon Z models for that matter, supposed to be this power hungry, or I have a faulty camera?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Just about all mirrorless cameras are more power hungry than DSLRs. There is a lot going processing the signal from the sensor continuously so you can see it in the EVF and/or on the LCD.

--
If cameras and lenses can have autofocus then why can't I?

 

[NickZ2016]

That would be four hours per battery with the screen on. That doesn't sound bad.

 

[monte12345]

Especially for a new user. Because you are spending a lot of time poking thru all the menu settings and working to learning how to get all the camera settings at values that will fulfill your needs. Note, expect this to take at least 6 months before you get to the point where it's about 90% of the way you'll have it set up in a year or two. All that Menu surfing is why you are seeing the battery consumption so high.

Now for some tips in regards to Power Conservation.

• Turn that Energy Saving Mode OFF
  Because this mode is designed to slow down the Wake From Sleep function and ignore a light touch to the shutter release because that may have been an inadvertent touch. The end result is that if you seen something just starting that you want to photograph you will lose 10-15 seconds waiting for the camera to wake up and the viewfinder to clear. Note that is only if you press and HOLD the shutter release at that half step point. Give it a tap and the camera will NOT wake up. Note, I have been there done that.
• Also turn the Airplane mode OFF. Because at some point you are going to want to connect the camera to the Nikon Cloud service or use Snapbridge to provide a link to the camera for your phone. Having that Airplane mode On will have you walking in circles and talking to yourself trying to figure you why none of these features work.
• Finally, the above two settings have so LITTLE impact in Energy useage that they can best be described as a placebo, you know, a sugar pill that allows you to pretend you have doen something to cure your illness.

Now that that is squared away I can tell you that in 6 months you'll come to the conclusion that this camera is pretty good about battery life when all you are doing is taking pictures.

BTW, if you do want to see how short you can make the battery life all you have to do is set the video to 10 bit 4K60 start recording and watch the battery get drained in perhaps an hour. You will also find the camera gets warm due to the energy needed to save all those images to memory. Tip concerning using this camera for Video. Think CLIPS only. Yes you can record the wedding vows from start to finish. Bad news is that 1/2 hour file will be HUGE and if you do have a 1 or 2 TB SD card to hold that data file it will take a lot of time to move the file from the SD card to your computer for editing.

 

[Richard B99]

Especially for a new user. Because you are spending a lot of time poking thru all the menu settings and working to learning how to get all the camera settings at values that will fulfill your needs. Note, expect this to take at least 6 months before you get to the point where it's about 90% of the way you'll have it set up in a year or two. All that Menu surfing is why you are seeing the battery consumption so high.

Above is probably the problem. I always find my new bodies have this battery problem and it magically disappears once I’m out just taking pictures!

 

[Pierre Lagarde]

Especially for a new user. Because you are spending a lot of time poking thru all the menu settings and working to learning how to get all the camera settings at values that will fulfill your needs. Note, expect this to take at least 6 months before you get to the point where it's about 90% of the way you'll have it set up in a year or two. All that Menu surfing is why you are seeing the battery consumption so high.

Now for some tips in regards to Power Conservation.

• Turn that Energy Saving Mode OFF
  Because this mode is designed to slow down the Wake From Sleep function and ignore a light touch to the shutter release because that may have been an inadvertent touch. The end result is that if you seen something just starting that you want to photograph you will lose 10-15 seconds waiting for the camera to wake up and the viewfinder to clear. Note that is only if you press and HOLD the shutter release at that half step point. Give it a tap and the camera will NOT wake up. Note, I have been there done that.

Sorry to contradict you, but maybe you have a specific setting that implies this behaviour - or maybe I'm missing something else - because I have Energy Saving ON on mine and it wakes up with half press within a second. On mine, Energy Saving mode should only reduce the standby time by 15s if this time is set to a value between 30s and 30m included, exactly as it is stated in the manual : https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/z5II/en/sum_energy_saving_photo_mode_344.html

BTW, I never had the Z5II making me lose 10-15 seconds to start in any situation. It's always under 1s, even if completely shut down by OFF/ON lever.

BTW, no mention of inadvertent touch management or a "Wake From Sleep" function are made in the manual.

• Also turn the Airplane mode OFF. Because at some point you are going to want to connect the camera to the Nikon Cloud service or use Snapbridge to provide a link to the camera for your phone. Having that Airplane mode On will have you walking in circles and talking to yourself trying to figure you why none of these features work.
• Finally, the above two settings have so LITTLE impact in Energy useage that they can best be described as a placebo, you know, a sugar pill that allows you to pretend you have doen something to cure your illness.

Sorry again, but most of the time there is no use for cloud or any air connection when shouting outside and, at least on mine, Airplane mode is ALWAYS ON, as I strictly never need my camera to connect to anything by air. On the other hand, I admit this has no effect by itself (not even LITTLE, then ) on power consumption as only air connection usage could have, of course. At least it avoids bluetooth or wifi to be set on inadvertently, and so drain the battery . So it's a kind of security to be sure to avoid that those functions drain the battery... inadvertently.

+++ having bluetooth and/or Wifi ON in the wild on a camera disturbs animals.

Anyway, as Airplane Mode setting is at the top of the "NETWORK MENU" and, when ON, directly greys out Wireless and Bluetooth options just below on the screen, I also wonder how you can be walking in circles to figure out why the subsequent features don't work : you just need to look at the screen .

 

[Pierre Lagarde]

Hi. New member here. My new Z5 ii gobbles up 25% of a fully charged battery (EN-EL15C) in just one hour.

Nikkor 50 F1.8 S or 24-120 F4 S attached, with lens cap off. LCD left on the photo shooting screen throughout, and with brightness set to MINUS 2. Airplane mode ON. Energy Saving (photo mode) ON.

The camera is new. The cell is new and with fewer than 10 recharge cycles on it and in perfect condition per the camera.

When I explore the menus, it seems like the camera runs down the battery even faster.

Is it, and other Nikon Z models for that matter, supposed to be this power hungry, or I have a faulty camera?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

I'd say everything seems normal.

On the other hand, when new (the camera and you to it ), the tendency to explore menus more than usual is standard. That indeed drains the battery faster than when using it in the field, especially if it's set up to your hand and needs much less to explore menus, then.

In the condition you describe anyway, 25% for an hour with the screen always on + much menu digging, is also standard and nothing seems wrong.

What you can try though :

- "Limit monitor mode selection" to "Automatic display switch" and "Prioritise viewfinder (1)" : https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/z5II/en/sum_limit_monitor_mode_selection_319.html

Then you can use the button on the left of the viewfinder to toggle thru both states when needed (and then turn on or off the screen when you want) :

The Monitor Mode Button and the Eye Sensor

This will allow you to limit the use of the viewfinder or screen to your actual needs at the time, which is a good habit to get into in order to reduce energy consumption, because hitting the button while you don't have your eye to the viewfinder will directly turn both viewfinder and screen to standby (and hitting it again will turn the screen on).

(This, of course, if screen is turned outside).

Try it, and see if it's convenient to your usage anyway.

 

[ericbowles]

When you first get your camera, the first few battery cycles are also charging the camera's internal battery. This causes initial battery life to be reduced substantially, but after the first 2-3 cycles, battery life will be normal.

Think of battery life in terms of Active EVF and LCD time. If you are looking through the EVF or at the rear LCD, you are using the battery. Taking a photo uses almost no battery power. It makes minimal difference whether you push the shutter for one photo or a burst of 50. You typically get around two hours of active EVF/LCD time on a fully charged battery. This can be used for 2000+ photos over a high volume session of 3-4 hours or 600-800 photos over a full day. I rarely need a second battery with any of my Nikon Z cameras - Z6, Z7ii, Z8, or Z6iii.

I found the automatic switch between EVF and LCD caused poor battery life. When the camera was moving against my shirt it was constantly switching between the EVF and LCD rather than going to sleep. Turning on these displays repeatedly rather than sleeping used a lot of power. Switching the camera to EVF only resolved the issue.

There is a setting called Send While Off that wakes the camera to see if there are images to be transferred. Make sure this setting is turned Off.

I have Airplane Mode turned On. It's an extra layer of safety to make sure Bluetooth is not searching for a connection or needlessly communicating. I also make sure Bluetooth and WiFi are Off unless needed.

I usually have a couple of extra batteries available just in case. In practice, it's very rare for me to need a second battery in a day of photography. You have the option of charging in the camera with a PD power bank and a cable supporting PD. Make sure you have a lot of power in the power bank for fast charging - 35 watt output or higher. Not every power bank or cable will work. You can even charge your camera from your car with a suitable cable and depending on the port. When properly charging, there is a small light that shows up on your camera.

 

[jthomas39]

I have a Z6 iii.

If I expect to be out for 2 hours or less, I'll use just one fairly full battery. For longer, bring a second battery -- it's likely to stay in my pocket, but I like the security of having it.

~~

Timeouts

I'm now used to having a 30 second Standby timeout. I half press the shutter as i lift the camera up to shoot. It's ready right away. Any button press while operating the camera will extend the time another 30 seconds, of course.

Menu: "Power off delay ". (another somewhat confusing name, it never mentions "sleep" but the submenu does say "standby".)

I have Playback=1m, Menus=1m, Picture review=10s, Standby timer=30s. I don't like being distracted by the dimming before the displays shuts off, for playback or menus. I normally half press the shutter to get out of playback or menus before the 60s is finished. I mostly do my occasional picture review via the button, not the automatic popup.

I change the Standby timer often enough to put Power off delay in my My Menu for ease of finding it.

The Airplane mode didn't seem to make an obvious difference to me. But I don't normally transfer photos wirelessly. I do occasionally use the Location GPS photo tagging if I decide to have Snapbridge running on my phone -- I haven't tested it's battery usage. It should be small.

~~~

Limiting the rear monitor:

As mentioned in another post:

"Limit monitor mode selection" to "Automatic display switch" and "Prioritize viewfinder (1)"

"Prioritize viewfinder" would leave the rear screen off most of the time, and the EVF turns on from its eye dector sensor. I tried this briefly, but I use the monitor often, and this was distracting to me. It would save a lot of battery power, though.

~~~

Power usage

I informally tested my old Z6.

Rear monitor on; sitting on a shelf.

Approximately 30% battery per hour.

Sleeping, with the on/off switch turned on: less than 1% battery per hour.

~~~~

Z6 iii burst shooting

A recent test to post in another battery thread:

My Z6 iii, at 20 fps continuous, (which is electronic shutter) holding down the AF-On too.

Almost 60 seconds of shooting. 1136 raw files. Approx 1% battery usage.

It's hard to get a good high speed shooting battery usage test. It takes a long time!

A second test: 1797 raws, taking about 90 seconds. Battery went from 54% to 52%=2% battery. that's 48,000 MB!

I'd really want more than 10% battery usage to get a good test. That would need almost 8 minutes of 20 fps! "You're going to need a bigger card..." Cue the Jaws theme...

 

[Thom Hogan]

Hi. New member here. My new Z5 ii gobbles up 25% of a fully charged battery (EN-EL15C) in just one hour.

Assuming you're actually using the camera during that time, that would be somewhat better than normal. The CIPA measurement for a Z5II is 330 images worst case, which implies 115 minutes of constant use (CIPA measurements are done keeping the camera 100% active and taking a new photo every 30 seconds).

The others responding to this post have given reasonable advice about how to maximize battery performance.

 

[dodfr]

Hi. New member here. My new Z5 ii gobbles up 25% of a fully charged battery (EN-EL15C) in just one hour.

Nikkor 50 F1.8 S or 24-120 F4 S attached, with lens cap off. LCD left on the photo shooting screen throughout, and with brightness set to MINUS 2. Airplane mode ON. Energy Saving (photo mode) ON.

The camera is new. The cell is new and with fewer than 10 recharge cycles on it and in perfect condition per the camera.

When I explore the menus, it seems like the camera runs down the battery even faster.

Is it, and other Nikon Z models for that matter, supposed to be this power hungry, or I have a faulty camera?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

I do not have an answer to your question about the why but if this is a probelm to you and you don't want to spend money in extra batteries I recommend you to use a small USB power bank you keep in your ocketor backpack and connect it to the camera so when camera is on it will pump from powerbank and when camera is off it will reload camera battery. This what I do with my own camera when I go hiking so I never have to stress myself about this problem as I don't want to pay $70 for extra battery.

--
Mainly proxy and nature http://www.flickr.com/photos/39835936@N07/

 

[stuck_shutter_blown_HLs]

Thank you for the detailed breakdown, SoCalAngler.

I maxed out the screen timer (actually all the other timers as well) to keep the LCD on. It was on purpose for the test.

IBIS was on, but I laid the camera on a table.

BT was off and so were the other options in that submenu.

It's reassuring to hear from your experience, particulary regarding menu diving, that my camera is more than likely fine. It's shocking to me how inefficient the EVF and LCD monitors still are despite how efficient cellphone screens have become.

I'm also wondering how much juice the light meter uses up. It's on all the time, even when the camera isn't actively focusing.

 

[stuck_shutter_blown_HLs]

That's what I'd think as well if I was more optimistic. Given the typical discharge behavior of this style of li-ion, it'll probably get fewer than 4 hours. Keep in mind I also turned down the monitor brightness to minus 2. For shooting outside under the sun, I'll have to set it back to 0 if not higher, so definitely fewer than 4 hours. I guess I was hoping for better, given how efficient our phone screens have become. Whenever it is I'll get the chance to spend a full day outside with this camera, I'll know. Thank you for responding.

 

[monte12345]

Sorry to contradict you, but maybe you have a specific setting that implies this behaviour - or maybe I'm missing something else - because I have Energy Saving ON on mine and it wakes up with half press within a second. On mine, Energy Saving mode should only reduce the standby time by 15s if this time is set to a value between 30s and 30m included, exactly as it is stated in the manual : https://onlinemanual.nikonimglib.com/z5II/en/sum_energy_saving_photo_mode_344.html

This is what happened with my Z7 II which was my first mirrorless Nikon. One of the first outings to try the camera out was at the Detroit Zoo (a very NON Photographer Zoo I won't visit again). Anyhow it is a 3 mile walk and as I was having issues with AFIB at that time I expect it to be a 2-3 hour outing. So I put the camera into the power saving mode because I had forgotten to grab a spare battery and only had my small 6L waist bag. At one point I was on a bridge that crosses a small lake and spotted a large formation of Canada Geese on their final approach. Had the right lens and what should have been the right camera So I pick up my Z7 II with the Tamron 70-300 mounted and put the camera to my eye to find a black viewfinder. Tried tapping the shutter release with no joy at all then held the shutter release at the half step. Completely and totally missed that flock hitting the water in unison and it sounded like a spectacular event, didn't get to even see it because I had my eye to a BLACK VIEWFINDER. Lesson learned and I will not EVER use the Power Saving mode with any of my cameras. So that behavior may be improved with my Zf or Z50II but I won't ever know because I learned that lesson once and it is well embedded.

BTW, I never had the Z5II making me lose 10-15 seconds to start in any situation. It's always under 1s, even if completely shut down by OFF/ON lever.

BTW, no mention of inadvertent touch management or a "Wake From Sleep" function are made in the manual.

• Also turn the Airplane mode OFF. Because at some point you are going to want to connect the camera to the Nikon Cloud service or use Snapbridge to provide a link to the camera for your phone. Having that Airplane mode On will have you walking in circles and talking to yourself trying to figure you why none of these features work.
• Finally, the above two settings have so LITTLE impact in Energy useage that they can best be described as a placebo, you know, a sugar pill that allows you to pretend you have doen something to cure your illness.

I like to use Snapbridge to provide GPS locations for my images. BTW this app has taught me that Nikon has not a single clue as to how to use WIFI with any resemblance of reliability. As a result I expect that using the Airplane mode will have a tall heap of unintended consequences.

 

[stuck_shutter_blown_HLs]

Thank you for the detailed suggestions and reassurance, Monte12345.

I come from shooting the a6700, so I was able to set up the Z5 very quickly, with the help of the online manual. Keeping the screen on and menu diving on the a6700 also draw down the battery, but not as dramatically as on the Z5, so it surprised me, to the point I was concerned it was malfunctioning. Also, turning airplane mode ON on the a6700 makes a difference, but I think you're correct that it doesn't on the Z5, as all the other indepedent connection settings/options can be turned OFF (and they are OFF) separately. I don't use wifi and BT at all, as I don't upload my photos to the ether.

 

[stuck_shutter_blown_HLs]

Thanks for the reassurance. I've got it set up just as you describe, and I've set all the Power Off Delay categories to 20 seconds or shorter. I once tested the camera with the switch ON but the monitor and evf OFF, and it used up only 2% of the battery after 48 hours. That's a good sign.

 

[stuck_shutter_blown_HLs]

Thank you for the detailed suggestions, ericbowles. By coincidence, I just discovered the Send While Off setting and have turned it off. I don't think it was doing anything before, because I had Airplane mode ON. For switching between the EVF and Monitor, I, too, just use that button by the EVF rather than having it on auto, after discovering that putting the camera into my bag triggers the EVF.

 

[stuck_shutter_blown_HLs]

Thank you for sharing your settings and test results, jthomas39.

I'm more stingy. Hahahaha. I've set the power off delays to 20s for all, except for picture review, which is at 2s. I wish it could be 1s.

Assuming you used a 15C cell for your Z6, the Z5 ii is relatively more efficient. That's good to know.

I also read about how people got WAAAAY more than the CIPA ratings when doing bursts.

 

[stuck_shutter_blown_HLs]

I left the camera On on a table. I imagine if I had also been shooting with it the battery drain would have been higher.

 

[stuck_shutter_blown_HLs]

Thanks for the suggestion. I've got it covered: I have a spare cell and powerbanks. But this yearning for better efficiency is making me consider getting a used DSLR. I shot with one recently and really enjoyed using the OVF. Hated the weight though.