shooting a long wedding day

I have done a few wedding so far this year but i just talked to teh bride last night and her upcoming wedding she wants me there for 10 hrs.

12noon - getting ready shots

2p -3p ceremony

5p formals

6p-10p - reception

nothing special but my concern is battery life over the whole day. i plan to rent a second body (5d2 or 6d) and i have two batteries for my 5d2, do i need more? how many? do i bring charger(s)? ( there will be some shooting downtime between the major events for travel and setup).

the wedding is still two months away but i just want to be ready.

That seems to be a typical day for me. I don't have the same camera as you, nor do I have any experience with it or it's battery life, so I will only offer up the following advice. If you have even the slightest bit of doubt, get more batteries. Small investment for a LOT of piece of mind. Always be prepared with more then you will need. In the past, I have used opportunities of down time while waiting for the wedding party to arrive at the reception to charge batteries briefly, but those times or opportunities do not always present themselves.

Same deal as CF cards, have more then you need.

You can never have too many. You can always have too few. I carry 8 for my 2 5DIII all up and 6 for the Sonys.

90% of my wedding stress went away when I bought handfuls of aftermarket batteries and chargers. The other 10% disappears if I put the addresses in my GPS the night before. Buy more batteries.

I agree with the others, extra is always the best plan.

With that said, I've never used a full battery for a 8-10 hour wedding day. I do use 2 bodies, which probably helps reduce the power usage of each. Or maybe it's because I'm not shooting 5000+ images.

But I'm prepared with a backup battery for each camera. The 5DIII and 6D use the same batteries...which helps simplify the process.

obviously I'm buying more batteries i just need to have a good idea how many is would be too many.

That depends on your shooting style. Are you a careful planner that waits for the right shot, or do you motor drive and pick the best later in post? If you normally shoot less than ten hour long weddings and have never had the need for a second battery per body, then I think having an extra for each should suffice. If that still doesn't make you comfortable, have a back up for each, plus one more, just in case.

Edit:

Much like extra memory cards, I don't think there is a such thing as, "Too many." LOL.

My typical 10-12 hour wedding loadout would be 8 LP-E6s and 3 LP-E4ns. I only burn though 75% capacity on both my gripped 6D and 1dx throughout the day (unless im shooting video) but its nice to know there's backups of backups.

If we're talking about batteries for flash, then that's where my real stress starts. You can only pop them so much before the juice runs out and you have to run to each one to do a quick swap. I bring a bucket of eneloops with me, but I should really invest in an external battery pack (as cumbersome as they are)

Like others have stated. i also use a battery grips with 2 battery's on each for 2 cameras. ive done weddings that average about 10hr days and have had plenty of juice left at the end of the day on both cameras.

It also depends on how much you use the LCD. I use the LCDs effectively as EVFs (using Liveview all the time) so I go through batteries faster than most.

For a ten hour wedding with my D700s I have two batteries in grips in each of two cameras. I don't remember ever having to change batteries in those cameras, but I have two more spare.

I also take something like 60AA cells for my four flashes, including four 8 cell battery packs and around 8 spare cells. That's plus the Vagabond mini lithium and doesn't include my second's equipment.

The amazon deal for 2 lp-e6 and charger is good enough you should buy whatever makes you comfortable. Honestly its possiboe you get the through the day on your first set but it never hurts to be over prepared

tim wrote in post #17675661
For a ten hour wedding with my D700s I have two batteries in grips in each of two cameras. I don't remember ever having to change batteries in those cameras, but I have two more spare.

On this note, i carry a tons of AA for my speedlights as well, anyone have experience with eneloops and how they compare to traditional disposable batteries?

i have 4 speed lights (one on camera, the rest popped remotely on stands (in different combinations). I'm looking to go eneloop but not sure have many i'll need to buy.

speedlights are 4AA triggers are 2AA. the trigger seem to last a full day or more without switching, the speedlights i swap often especially the on camera to keep recycle times down ( i also shoot higher ISO to keep the flash power down)

Use a grip and have some backups charged and ready. when you switch, throw the other ones on a charger. Or just get 3 sets of batteries. Wasabi isnt a bad 3rd party brand. The wasabi chargers usually come with a car adapter too.

mike_311 wrote in post #17676100
On this note, i carry a tons of AA for my speedlights as well, anyone have experience with eneloops and how they compare to traditional disposable batteries?

i have 4 speed lights (one on camera, the rest popped remotely on stands (in different combinations). I'm looking to go eneloop but not sure have many i'll need to buy.

speedlights are 4AA triggers are 2AA. the trigger seem to last a full day or more without switching, the speedlights i swap often especially the on camera to keep recycle times down ( i also shoot higher ISO to keep the flash power down)

Personally, I think they are fantastic. They hold their charge too. Very well. I can usually fire off roughly 400+ images with my 580EXII before needing to switch to fresh batteries. And it's not liek the Eneloops are dead, I just need a quicker refresh rate by that time.