5D MKII Battery life

Just curious as to what others are getting..

I noticed that my battery life really stinks..

So far on this particular charge, I am at 250 shots with only 2 real short (20 sec or so) video clips.. Battery is at 45%..

Is this normal?

Do you use liveview a lot, because that sucks battery pretty quickly...?

How old are the batteries. Alas, li-ion batteries ages a lot. Often 15-20% lost capacity every year. More loss if stored in an warm environment. Less if left half-charged in the fridge between use.

I usually get about 1100-1200 shots

Battery lasts forever - at least 1200 shots. I do not use Liveview much though and don't shoot video at all.

Video uses up a lot of power. The same with long exposures especially if NR is set (which requires a second shot of equal duration). Live View and Mirror Lockup use more power, too. Really anything during which the mirror is held up and/or the shutter held open will continuously draw power and run the battery down faster.

Playback of images on the rear LCD screen also uses a lot of power.

5DII doesn't have a built-in flash.... that's another heavy power consumer on cameras that have one.

Shorter exposures, metering, normal image processing/storage and IS don't use a lot of power.

The more recent model cameras wake up so quickly at the touch of a button (the 10D and earlier were sloooowwww), you can conserve a lot of power by setting set the camera to go into sleep mode after only a minute or two.... whatever the shortest possible. Also it will help to set it so that image playback isn't automatic... so that it's "on demand" only.

Consider a battery grip to double the number of batteries and/or get some spares. Fortunately, LP-E6 have come way down in price. The 5DII was the first camera to use the battery and when the model was new, OEM batts were all that was available, they were in really short supply, and commonly sold for twice what they do now (more than list price). There are decent, usable 3rd party batts now too, that cost even less than the OEM and give the same performance. Check the major online retailers such as Adorama, B&H, Sterlingtek.

Very limited use of Live View.. Really only to shoot a small clip (only 2 short 20sec. clips)
No IS
Battery is about 2 weeks old..

**Edit**
NR is off.. only about 5 Long exposure shots.. (15-30Sec each..)

Possibly take a ride to LCS to see if they can swap my battery..

ItsMike wrote in post #14976924
.. .. Battery is about 2 weeks old..
... .

Maybe the battery just needs a few full charge / discharge cycles before it reaches it's peak perfomance

Look at the battery stats in the 5d2 menu.

1st stat is battery life
2nd stat is battery recycle or how well it will hold a charge. A new battery will show 3 bars. If the battery is only showing 1 bar then it probably needs to be replaced because it isn't holding a charge.

It sounds like you get much less performance than what is expected from a new battery. But consider giving it a couple of cycles and see what happens.

I think I have managed closer to 3k shots with two new batteries in the grip. But with bracketing etc, not all have been with review on the display.

ItsMike wrote in post #14976924
Battery is about 2 weeks old.

Perfect_10 wrote in post #14977170
Maybe the battery just needs a few full charge / discharge cycles before it reaches it's peak perfomance

Mine is three weeks old and the performance has improved significantly with subsequent charges. Live view and video wreck battery life, as many have mentioned. Great camera isn't it?

I love this camera!!!

Just opened the box to my 70-300VC Tamron.. in the process of Importing into LR as I type...

Amazes me every time I hit the shutter...

ItsMike wrote in post #14975918
Just curious as to what others are getting..

I noticed that my battery life really stinks..

So far on this particular charge, I am at 250 shots with only 2 real short (20 sec or so) video clips.. Battery is at 45%..

Is this normal?

Weird, my 60D has the same battery as yours (and 7D) LP-E6 i think.. or is it B?
Anyway.. around 2000 shots over the course of a week and it's still around 15-25% capacity.

You might have a mailfunction battery?

Going to wait and see what happens.. About

41%
310 Shots
3 green Bars...

Going to charge it soon, see what I get next time.. then head on over to LCS..

Perfect_10 said

.

That was the case with a new battery I purchased this summer, prior to an Alaska cruise. The initial life was so short I really thought it defective. By the time the trip rolled around I had charged it perhaps three times and it seemed to be normal (500 shots at maybe 50%).