What sort of life span are you getting from your camera batteries?

12 years 4 months ago #164317 by Mah and PaH
I just ordered some new batteries from B&H and after thinking about this I realized I've only had these 2 batteries for about a year. About a year ago I picked up 2 new batteries and I'm getting new ones because it seems they aren't holding a good charge these days. After a 1-2 hours of shooting it's time to replace new battery into camera.

I asked a girl friend of mine who does a lot of weddings and she said she's getting years out of her batteries. I'm wondering what others are getting in terms of life span. If everyone is getting "years" then I'm wondering if something in my camera might be screwed up to cause the batteries to drain so quickly?


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12 years 4 months ago #164342 by Ed Pray
I am getting about 3yrs out of my batteries.


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12 years 4 months ago #164343 by IGH78
I believe the charge from batteries all depends on the brand you buy, how hard you use the batteries, if you let the battery drain all the way down or not before you charge it etc..


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12 years 4 months ago - 12 years 4 months ago #164348 by Baydream
I am still using the original batteries that came with my Canon XT (2006) and Xsi (about 2009) so am getting years of heavy use from them. In the early years with the XT, I shot everything in Auto modes (focus, ISO, and IS on my 70-300) so I pretty much maxed out the usage. For the XSi, I added a grip/battery holder and additional Canon battery and seem to be able to shoot forever between charges on they keep on giving.

Non-OEM batteries may not have the life expectancy of OEM and the price difference spread over years is not that great. Most newer batteries do not have that "storage memory" that requires the battery to be run way down before recharging like earlier units..

Storage in extreme conditions (heat) can affect battery life.

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12 years 4 months ago #164419 by Mayo
Are you letting your batteries drain down 100% before charging them? If not this is why you may not be getting good batter life.

Canon 5D - Canon 50mm f/1.4 | Canon 17-55mm f/2.8 | Canon 70-200 f/4L
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12 years 4 months ago #164581 by geoffellis

Mayo wrote: Are you letting your batteries drain down 100% before charging them? If not this is why you may not be getting good batter life.


This is bad advice. He shoots a D80 and D300. These cameras use a Lithium-Ion battery. This means that discharging 100% can actually cause problems. You may not be able to charge a fully discharged lithium-ion battery (theres a feature on most batteries that actually disable the battery if the internal voltage drops too low)

In fact, the best way to store them is at 40-60% charge. You can also charge as many times as you want. charging at 50% does not reduce battery life in any way. they have a fixed life cycle. charging at 50% 2 days in a row is still considered 1 charge cycle. same as if you charged at 80% 5 days in a row... its cumulative.

I myself use a D80 - and i have the same battery that i got with the camera i bought in early 2008, so im going up on 4 years of use. I dont have a ton of time, nor am i a professional, so i dont do any serious days of shooting more than once a month usually (although a single day ive been known to do 1200 shooting an event). In between use though i leave the battery in the camera. i wont usually wont even charge it before my next use if its still half full unless i plan on a very heavy day of shooting. otherwise i can spend a day shooting 600 photos with a half full battery and still have more than enough juice that im not even worried. this is if its a normal day... if its a really cold day (which can happen in canada lol) then its more of an issue. heck in march in Vancouver they have a week long celtic celebration... on a single charge i can photograph the entire weeks events (3k photos avg) on the same charge.

but anyways, ive shot about 25,000 photos in just under 4 years and the battery still performs wonderfully. no noticeable loss in performance... although depending on storage you can lose between 2-30% performance per year (2% is best case scenario, you cant avoid it, 30% if you treat the battery horrible).
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12 years 4 months ago #164584 by Eddy

geoffellis wrote:

Mayo wrote: Are you letting your batteries drain down 100% before charging them? If not this is why you may not be getting good batter life.


This is bad advice. He shoots a D80 and D300. These cameras use a Lithium-Ion battery. This means that discharging 100% can actually cause problems. You may not be able to charge a fully discharged lithium-ion battery (theres a feature on most batteries that actually disable the battery if the internal voltage drops too low)

In fact, the best way to store them is at 40-60% charge. You can also charge as many times as you want. charging at 50% does not reduce battery life in any way. they have a fixed life cycle. charging at 50% 2 days in a row is still considered 1 charge cycle. same as if you charged at 80% 5 days in a row... its cumulative.

I myself use a D80 - and i have the same battery that i got with the camera i bought in early 2008, so im going up on 4 years of use. I dont have a ton of time, nor am i a professional, so i dont do any serious days of shooting more than once a month usually (although a single day ive been known to do 1200 shooting an event). In between use though i leave the battery in the camera. i wont usually wont even charge it before my next use if its still half full unless i plan on a very heavy day of shooting. otherwise i can spend a day shooting 600 photos with a half full battery and still have more than enough juice that im not even worried. this is if its a normal day... if its a really cold day (which can happen in canada lol) then its more of an issue. heck in march in Vancouver they have a week long celtic celebration... on a single charge i can photograph the entire weeks events (3k photos avg) on the same charge.

but anyways, ive shot about 25,000 photos in just under 4 years and the battery still performs wonderfully. no noticeable loss in performance... although depending on storage you can lose between 2-30% performance per year (2% is best case scenario, you cant avoid it, 30% if you treat the battery horrible).



:agree: good post


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12 years 4 months ago #164939 by Janos
Never had a battery go bad


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