Battery Life and heat issue shooting stills.

Mar 25, 2011
16,848
1,835
No, there is a rubber flap/piece on all Canon battery doors for a dummy battery wire. Hard to spot but it is there. Canon sells their own LP-E6 dummy battery and AC to DC supply, but it is really over priced.

I had a Case Relay too but it was very over priced and uses the same cheap dummy battery (exact same) you can buy for 20 bucks on Amazon, and it failed me any time I used it below 40 degrees or up above 12kft. I might have had a bad unit but their support was terrible when contacted, and said it could not do what I wanted even though their spec sheet said it was more than capable. Next, I got a dummy battery and made my own 8.2V regulator circuit for about 10 bucks that works better and has higher gauge wire. I use this for 8+ hours of high current shooting (time lapse in cold temps and high altitudes).

Lots of options if a battery grip is not enough for you is the bottom line, but you might have to put it together yourself.
I have the cheap Amazon dummy battery. I've used it on my 5D MK IV, and my R. I had a different one I used on my SL-2. All worked fine with the case relay. I originally bought it to provide continuous power for the Solar Eclipse, it worked great for that while connected to my USB battery pack.

I don't think I've used mine except in mild weather, I can't speak to low or high temperatures.
 
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Kiton

Too deep in Canon to list! :o
Jun 13, 2015
214
184
I have only had one full day of assignments where the R5 was on almost all day so far.

Following a march, shooting the speeches before hand etc, so most of the day, I left at 4pm to edit and file.

1000 stills and and about 17 minutes of video at 1920. 1920 is more than enough for my needs.

I have the viewfinder set to the faster refresh rate.
Auto image preview set to 4 seconds.
Power save after 4 minutes.
Mostly shooting 16-35 or 100-400
I do lightly tap the shutter often when I think something interesting may happen to wake the camera.
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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Why would anyone not have it on faster refresh? What's the downsides? Battery consumption?
It uses significantly more battery. It does not appear to affect overheat by much if any from the testing I've read about. For stills you don't need the fast refresh, but for fast moving objects it helps. I almost never shoot high speed moving subjects, so the longer battery life might be the best option for me.
 
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Nov 1, 2012
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It uses significantly more battery. It does not appear to affect overheat by much if any from the testing I've read about. For stills you don't need the fast refresh, but for fast moving objects it helps. I almost never shoot high speed moving subjects, so the longer battery life might be the best option for me.

I should start test lab who disassembled electronics and puts probes on every component power feed line. Then try all settings and get accurate value how much different settings impact battery life. Canon already knows all these but there's no really good reason why they should tell. Unless they have some great marketing claim, for example switch to even slower refresh and gain 4h+ more shooting time. Then they'd be touting that plenty.
 
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Kiton

Too deep in Canon to list! :o
Jun 13, 2015
214
184
It uses significantly more battery. It does not appear to affect overheat by much if any from the testing I've read about. For stills you don't need the fast refresh, but for fast moving objects it helps. I almost never shoot high speed moving subjects, so the longer battery life might be the best option for me.

I was at a march/protest, it went off very calmly, but wanted the faster refresh incase counter protesters showed up and it got heated.
 
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Battery Test of 7Dmk2 vs R5

Conditions: 80 Degrees, Intense sun at 6500 feet. Windy

Began test 11:35 am, Using interval timer on both cameras set to unlimited with 7 seconds between exposure.

7Dmk2, 40mm lens with AF on. Battery began test at 94%, it was an old battery with poor recharge performance, one square showing.
It ran for 2h09min before the battery died. 1015 shots.

R5 15-35mm lens with AF on, Battery was at 100 with 3 squares showing on the recharge performance. Brand new LP-E6NH, Electronic first curtain shutter, Rear LCD closed. Using only SD card, CF Express cards have not arrived.



It took 1145 shots before I it cut it off. It was showing 12 % battery at that point.

I then took 215 more shots in a several burst and 3 minutes of HD videos and checked several video formats for the time remaining. Total stills were 1360 plus 3 minutes of video
This is what was showing at that time.

FHD 29.97 IPB Rec time 7:42:56
FHS 58.94 All I Rec time 1:17:04
4k-u 29.97 All I Rec time 29:27
4k-u 29.97 IPB Rec time 01:55.39
4k u 59.94 IPB Rec Time 59:32
4k d 59.94 All-1 Rec time 29:05
8k-d 29.97 IPB Rec time 28:50

Other Formats were showing zero, I assume due to no CFexpress card.
At this point the Battery was showing 2%. I never saw a heat warning.

Knowing that I had a weak battery in the 7Dmk2 I was not surprised that it quit early. With a good battery it would easily get to 2k shots plus. My conclusion is that for me I should get 700-1000 shots with R5 on a good battery. I will be carrying 2 extras batteries not 1 when using the R5.
 
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Received my R5 last week friday. Went to a farm behind the Soutpansberg for the weekend to test the camera. It was the first time wegot out into the bush since lockdown began so in the end I did not do a lot of testing. Spent more time catching up with friends and enjoying the buch. But the battery did last the whole weekend (about 800 shots) with also a bit of video. And the little I used the camera impressed me so much that I got another R5 for my wife on Wednesday.
So yesterday we went to a nearby reserve to use, test and setup the cameras. Set them to auto off after 1 min, tried to use them as we would have our dslr's. She shot 360 photos for the day, no video and the battery is still 60% full even though we put and older battery in it. I shot 700 photos for the day and some 4k24hq and 4k120. We did spend a lot of time in the menus playing around with the settings to customise the cameras to our taste. And my battery was still at 24%. After some 20fps testing late in the day (19celcius) my R5 did not want to do 4k120. It said overheated. Was a bit shocked as the camera was really really not feeling hot in the hand. Still a lot of testing and setting up to do. I think this is my camera dreams come true. Here is a post from me on 10th Nov 2018, so yes I am very biased

"The jackpot for me personally would be the two combined. High fps crop mode (20mp) and 50mp full frame. With a 1.3 crop in between! I love my 7dii but many times I had to switch to the 6dii (now replaced by the R) early morning or late afternoon when the light was bad. It is not an action camera! But I could still get some shots, better than none with the 7dii. The 6dii I used for astro, mackro, landscapes etc. The flippy screen I could not live without, hence the 6dii and not 5div (wich i tried for a while). So if I could have those two bodies in one...... win win win for me. Did not use the R much but already love it."

This camera is all I asked for and a hell of a lot more. A photoghraphers dream. The autofocus is phenomenal. Animal eye auto focus works extremely well, just not on Zebras. I will post some more info (very biased I think, as I love this camera) here if anyone else is interested to know how it works under African conditions.
 
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SteveC

R5
CR Pro
Sep 3, 2019
2,678
2,592
This camera is all I asked for and a hell of a lot more. A photoghraphers dream. The autofocus is phenomenal. Animal eye auto focus works extremely well, just not on Zebras. I will post some more info (very biased I think, as I love this camera) here if anyone else is interested to know how it works under African conditions.

I'm going to guess South Africa in particular. I find it interesting the eye focus doesn't work with zebras. I wonder if the stripey pattern is confusing the software algorithm somehow? And buying one for the wife as well--excellent strategy!
 
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Michael Clark

Now we see through a glass, darkly...
Apr 5, 2016
4,722
2,655
Received my R5 last week friday. Went to a farm behind the Soutpansberg for the weekend to test the camera. It was the first time wegot out into the bush since lockdown began so in the end I did not do a lot of testing. Spent more time catching up with friends and enjoying the buch. But the battery did last the whole weekend (about 800 shots) with also a bit of video. And the little I used the camera impressed me so much that I got another R5 for my wife on Wednesday.
So yesterday we went to a nearby reserve to use, test and setup the cameras. Set them to auto off after 1 min, tried to use them as we would have our dslr's. She shot 360 photos for the day, no video and the battery is still 60% full even though we put and older battery in it. I shot 700 photos for the day and some 4k24hq and 4k120. We did spend a lot of time in the menus playing around with the settings to customise the cameras to our taste. And my battery was still at 24%. After some 20fps testing late in the day (19celcius) my R5 did not want to do 4k120. It said overheated. Was a bit shocked as the camera was really really not feeling hot in the hand. Still a lot of testing and setting up to do. I think this is my camera dreams come true. Here is a post from me on 10th Nov 2018, so yes I am very biased

"The jackpot for me personally would be the two combined. High fps crop mode (20mp) and 50mp full frame. With a 1.3 crop in between! I love my 7dii but many times I had to switch to the 6dii (now replaced by the R) early morning or late afternoon when the light was bad. It is not an action camera! But I could still get some shots, better than none with the 7dii. The 6dii I used for astro, mackro, landscapes etc. The flippy screen I could not live without, hence the 6dii and not 5div (wich i tried for a while). So if I could have those two bodies in one...... win win win for me. Did not use the R much but already love it."

This camera is all I asked for and a hell of a lot more. A photoghraphers dream. The autofocus is phenomenal. Animal eye auto focus works extremely well, just not on Zebras. I will post some more info (very biased I think, as I love this camera) here if anyone else is interested to know how it works under African conditions.

So apparently there's already no waiting list for an R5 in South Africa?
 
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RayValdez360

Soon to be the greatest.
Jun 6, 2012
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555
42
Philadelphia
When someone has real world data on the battery life on an R5 let me know. I am more concerned about battery life than overheating.
Has anyone heard of an issue with overheating while shooting stills? That would be a real issue for me.
It overheats after a few hundred photos in normal conditions like 70 degrees and basically you can still do every function but none of the new video modes will work. only the old ones.
 
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