Battery life on 1DsMkII

[Longwatcher]

I wish I could figure out how to do a poll right now.

Do I have a pair of exceptional batteries or camera or am I doing something that everyone else isn't.

I continue to get about 2500-3000 images per charge on my Canon NP-E3 batteries, but I keep reading about people fnding them to be better then ever at the, to them, great amount of 700-1000 images on a charge. Why am I getting about 2.5 to 3 times what everyone else seems to be getting with the same camera and battries?

Just curious; approximately on average how many images are you getting with your 1DsMkII?

Thanks for any replies.

[Belmondo]

Tim:

I've never tried to figure out how many shots I've gottten per charge because I rarely take more than 100 photos on any given day. I carry a spare battery, and when the one in the camera dies, I just swap it out. I've only had to do that once in the field, so your numbers are probably pretty accurate.

[lostdoggy]

So at about 40 cycles of each battery your 1DSMKII will have reach its duty cycle???

[CyberDyneSystems]

Longwatcher.. I know i've gotten over 1,600 shots in one charge on my MkII

I did NONE fo the conditiooning stuff people say you should do.. and only once have "refreshed"
I never wait for the battery to die.. rather at some point after the indicator goes down to "not full" I swap...

So.. I may very well able to get over 2K shots if I refreshed/conditioned and allowed the thing to run down.

One last thing.. I use IS lenses a lot.. they have a serious impact on battery life.

[Longwatcher]

Maybe IS is the factor, since in studio I turn IS off if using a lens with IS (Like my 70-200/2.8L IS), but I still use IS a lot outside of the studio and still get a lot of shots on one battery charge. Maybe it is the amount of time I take holding down shutter half way (I keep it down just long enough to auto-focus or have IS kick-in if using those). I have also suspected the rate I take pictures has an effect on the quantity I can take also. I take a lot of pictures in batches. If I was only getting 700-1000 images per charge, I would have needed at least one more if not two more batteries by now.

Anyway thanks for the input.

[lomond]

I chimp, I use IS lenses a lot, I change the menu settings a lot, auto-power off at 2 minutes.
I get around 700 shots per charge.
I'm very happy with that.

What I am not impressed with is the size of the manual.
It is 1/3 the size of the 10D manual for a camera that is 3 times the price and probably three times as complex.

[Longwatcher]

What I am not impressed with is the size of the manual.
It is 1/3 the size of the 10D manual for a camera that is 3 times the price and probably three times as complex.

Manual, I don't need no stinkin manual.... Oh wait, I seem to remember I needed it just to figure out how to put the batteries in the camera in the first place. :)

I actually like the smaller size of the manual as I can take in the smaller backpack easier then the 10D manual. Although the quick foldout they also provided was more useful for the first couple of months.

As to complexity, I actually think the 1DsMkII is only slightly more complex then the 10D (call it 10-20% more complex) from a user perspective. It only has a few capabilties that are not available with the 10D, but the features are harder to get to (which is not always a bad thing).

And I don't do a lot of chimping. I do check histogram occasionally just to confirm exposure, but I don't check frequently unless conditions change a lot.

Just my opinion,

[lomond]

I take back everything I said.
My apologies I missed the small "s"and that makes a huge difference.
I was referring to the 1DMK II .

[lomond]

While we're on the subject of manuals.
If I am spending £2400 or $4500 on a pice of kit, I want a ******* big, in depth, manual so that I dont have to trawl the internet to get answers to more detailed questions.

I got a bigger manual with the last pair of hicking boot I bought.
Not quite but you know what I mean.

The small abridged manual supplied would be good for carrying with you in your bag.

[MDJAK]

There's even a smaller manual available for different models. It's called the Photo Bert Cheat Sheet. It is an 8.5x11 sheet of laminated paper, costs 10 bucks from B&H:


http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?ci=1&sb=ps&pn=1&sq=desc&InitialSearch=yes&O=SearchBar&A=search&Q=*&shs=photobert+cheat+sheet