Canon EOS R6 Battery Life Affecting Camera

Afternoon all,

I've been toying with the idea of getting an R6 and was about to pull the trigger, when I came across a post on a Facebook group, about issues with the battery, as per below:

"When using a new fully charged battery it runs like a dream. But once that battery gets half full. Focus slows. FPS slows"

Anyone else had issues like this. This has really messd with my thoughts now, as if you get issues all the time once a battery starts to drain. just how many batteries do you need to carry?

Thanks all

I have not noticed this issue, although I have seen the reports as well. I have run batteries to 1/2 charge but I do carry 2 spares with me. I use the High and low continuous more than the H+ which is the full 12 fps setting

Thanks for that Duckster

Maybe I just need to take a few spares with me and hope I don't get through them

Have to say I rarely get through a whole battery anyway, but who knows, with a new camera

I have been shooting track meets this spring. I have shot 5 meets so far and I changed the battery in 2 of those meets. I was just watching and when it seemed to get to 1/2 charge, I changed but not because I noticed something in the performance. I average between 750-1200 photos per meet. Those numbers are without using the electronic shutter mode.

I have been shooting college basketball among other sports with my R6 this week. I normally shoot between 700 and 1,300 images during a game using the electronic shutter. I am using converted EF lenses (24-70 L and 70-200 L). My battery typically has between 1/4 and 1/3 left and I have not noticed any impact on focus or FPS.

There are warnings about slowing of the mechanical shutter due to battery condition and other factors on page 430 of the R6 manual. The only sport that I have considered using the mechanical shutter is baseball as the electronic shutter produces some curved bats. Otherwise it is electronic for me.

I have been shooting basketball since about 1972. I would not have dreamed about a camera with these capabilities. It feels a lot like cheating. Photos of the ball on the tip of a shooters fingers are now normal. Amazing.

I'm shooting R5 but I understand that the two are similar enough that this applies to both.

No slow down in autofocus . It just does not work that way.

The drop in frame rate is real, but is still not an issue for most. If you absolutely must have 12FPS or more at all times on a mechanical shutter, your only options are 1Dx series. For my uses, even when lower battery slows down the R5, it's frame rate is till higher than my 5D4, and faster than my older 1D bodies ever were.

And then there is the 20 fps e shutter...

Track meets can last 5 hours or so, obviously a lot of that is down time. I tend to shut the camera off between races, maybe that is unnecessary but maybe it helps the battery life. Probably more wear/tear on the on/off switch.

Thanks everyone, for your replies.

It seems I'm worrying over nothing really then. That's really good to hear.

Out of interest, do you chaps use third party spare batteries and if so, which brand please?

Best answer to that is here;
https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1519188

I too like the Neewer batteries.

duckster wrote in post #19225872
Track meets can last 5 hours or so, obviously a lot of that is down time. I tend to shut the camera off between races, maybe that is unnecessary but maybe it helps the battery life. Probably more wear/tear on the on/off switch.

You can save the battery life while avoiding unnecessary wear and tear on the on/off switch by using the Auto Power Off mode in the Menu. You can set this mode to 30 sec., 1 min., 3 min., 5 min., or 10 min. period. The camera wakes up from this mode very quickly by pressing the shutter button half way. As you bring the EVF to your eye, it's ready to go. The Auto Power Off mode hardly discharges battery, almost the same as turning off the camera.

tuttifrutti wrote in post #19225802
Afternoon all,

I've been toying with the idea of getting an R6 and was about to pull the trigger, when I came across a post on a Facebook group, about issues with the battery, as per below:

"When using a new fully charged battery it runs like a dream. But once that battery gets half full. Focus slows. FPS slows"

Anyone else had issues like this. This has really messd with my thoughts now, as if you get issues all the time once a battery starts to drain. just how many batteries do you need to carry?

Thanks all

With the OEM LP-E6NH batteries, the fps goes down from 12 fps in Mechanical to 9.5 fps when the battery power remaining is about 60-50 % (some even reported around 40%) depending on the ambient temperature. Battery doesn't affect the AF speed. If you must have the max fps, then e-shutter is the answer. Having the grip certainly helps you to shoot in max fps twice as longer. You can also shoot a bit longer in max fps with Neewer LP-E6NH batteries with more mAh than the OEM by a few % point.

I have two Canon batteries and one Promaster battery

Thanks for that tip!

Again, thanks everyone for the tips and looks like others learned a new trick or two too, so that's good

I have some Neewer batteries that I use on my 6DmkII - anyone know if they are the same ones for the R6?

tuttifrutti wrote in post #19226562
I have some Neewer batteries that I use on my 6DmkII - anyone know if they are the same ones for the R6?

On the back of those Neewer batteries that you've been using for 6DMKII, it should read "LP-E6." You can use these for your R6, but their performance in two areas aren't going to be as good as those "LP-E6NH" kind: 1) "LP-E6" batteries do not give you the max fps indicated by Green H+ icon; rather, it displays White H icon that constantly flashes, indicating less than 5 fps. 2) these "LP-E6" by Neewer, however, come with higher mAh than the OEM counterpart, so while they should perform a bit better than the OEM, their performance will still suffer in a more battery power hungry cameras like the R6 and R5.