5d Mark 2 Battery Life

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Hey guys... this is geared for those who own 5d Mark 2's and those especially who own the 7D and 5D mark 2's... I have the 7D and loved most of all the wonderful battery life... I could shoot around 500-700 shots on one battery charge... It went on and on and on... I recently got the 5d Mark 2... when I got it, it came with a package including a vertical battery grip, an extra Canon OEM Battery amongst other things... So with the 2 genuine batteries and grip, I had an expectation that I could get a nice chunk of battery life... but even with the two batteries, when I checked the battery status option in camera, it said my 2 batteries, off of a full charge, were both around the 170 shot mark and were both around 40%... Granted, to be fair, the kit included the 24-105 IS L Lens, but does this camera and lens, really have this crappy of a battery life? The LCD review is only on like 3 seconds or something like that, shooting primarily through the VF with little to no Live View and for the most part, all photos, no video's... I'd love to hear your guy's feedback.
 
Jul 21, 2010
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Sounds short to me. Just had a look at mine (Canon BG-E6 and two Canon LP-E6), 101 and 103 shots on the batteries, 78% remaining on both. I get about the same number of shots on my 5DII as on my 7D (500-600 per battery). Mostly with IS lenses, my review is set to 2 s, standby time is 4 min.

Li-ion batteries have a lifespan determined both by number of charge cycles (1 cycle is a complete discharge and charge, even if it's small increments adding up to 100%) and battery age. Typically, 300-400 cycles or 3-4 years, whichever comes first. Shelf time counts. I know that for laptop batteries, some discounters sell older stock (bought in bulk from reputable dealers to clear old stock), and the life is unexpectedly poor. I'd assume there are camera gear dealers that do the same thing.
 
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neuroanatomist said:
Sounds short to me. Just had a look at mine (Canon BG-E6 and two Canon LP-E6), 101 and 103 shots on the batteries, 78% remaining on both. I get about the same number of shots on my 5DII as on my 7D (500-600 per battery). Mostly with IS lenses, my review is set to 2 s, standby time is 4 min.

Li-ion batteries have a lifespan determined both by number of charge cycles (1 cycle is a complete discharge and charge, even if it's small increments adding up to 100%) and battery age. Typically, 300-400 cycles or 3-4 years, whichever comes first. Shelf time counts. I know that for laptop batteries, some discounters sell older stock (bought in bulk from reputable dealers to clear old stock), and the life is unexpectedly poor. I'd assume there are camera gear dealers that do the same thing.

I got the gear from adorama... 1 battery came with the camera and the second Canon OEM (canon brand) battery came in original packing... Couldn't tell you if it was older stock or not, but I would say the canon 5d2 kit, given all the backorders we've seen around, would be somewhat newish stock and from what I could tell, it appears to have the same charge as the other battery... Thanks for your input... are there any other custom settings that may be effecting it other than standby/review/ and or useage of live view and LCD brightness?
 
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tron

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Nov 8, 2011
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My battery which is not new by the way since its quality is being reported with one bar less on my 5DmkII seems to behave very good. A few days ago I shot 355 shots of a friend's baby and the battery went from 100% down to 84%. Lenses were a mixture of 50mm f/1.8 I, 135mm f/2 L and 70-200 f2.8L IS II.

I am not in a position to know if this good behaviour would show if I continued to shoot and if this battery drain would be linear but I was satisfied. Keep in mind however that I was taking a few shots in succession (although in single shot mode) and I was not spending a lot of time watching the LCD or "playing" with the camera.

I do not watch my battery's behaviour in general. This was the only time I have done that.
 
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JR

Sep 22, 2011
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This is strange indeed. I have three batteries with my 5D mkII and they each give me approx 500 shots before needing to be recharged. This however will very a lot if I start shooting video which drains the batteries quickly as well as using the LCD display in the back to show pictures and video to friends. But if I simply shoot still picture with normal use of the LCD, I get 500 pictures per battery.
 
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Ryusui

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I'd put money on a bad battery or batteries.

I too just got my 5D2 but I have much better life than that. I had a job a couple of weeks ago where I came home with just over 400 images - and that's not including ones I deleted on site. I probably used live view 20% of the time and my image review is set to "Hold." I was using the 24-105 IS kit lens, and yes, image stabilization was on. My battery held up just fine throughout.
 
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May 12, 2011
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Ryusui said:
I'd put money on a bad battery or batteries.

I too just got my 5D2 but I have much better life than that. I had a job a couple of weeks ago where I came home with just over 400 images - and that's not including ones I deleted on site. I probably used live view 20% of the time and my image review is set to "Hold." I was using the 24-105 IS kit lens, and yes, image stabilization was on. My battery held up just fine throughout.

I agree, mine last forever. Then again I do have a battery grip, so I guess with 2 batteries you really have to use it nonstop all day for it to die.
 
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Jul 21, 2010
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awinphoto said:
I got the gear from adorama...

That shady fly-by-night outfit? :p

awinphoto said:
are there any other custom settings that may be effecting it other than standby/review/ and or useage of live view and LCD brightness?

Nothing that I can think of... Some lenses do draw more power than others for IS and AF, but I wouldn't think that would make much of a difference. ???
 
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willrobb

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Sounds very short indeed, I would think it's battery issues.

With two batteries in my grip I can go out and shoot 2-3000 shots a day no problem and have about half the battery power left. My body and mind gives up for the day before my batteries do.

I rarely use live view and only review manually which helps I guess. Also, I don't use IS on my lenses so much.
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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When I fire off shots quickly, over a two hour hour period, I often get 800-900 shots with my 5D MK II with a new battery. Less if I leave it on and in the sleep mode for a week or two.

The one thiing i noted, is that the battery starts losing capacity after 1-2 years. My two original batteries are now three years old, and show two bars rather than three, while two of my 1 + year old batteries show three bars.
 
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92101media

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For the time being, just to troubleshoot, try ditching the grip & shooting with each of the batteries individually in the normal (non-grip) battery compartment. Doing this, you may be able to determine that one of the batteries is bad or has poor capacity. I'm not sure how the electronics in the battery grip works i.e. drains one battery & then the other, but if, as is more likely, the 2 batteries are hooked in parallel & drained simultaneously, if one of the batteries is bad or near the end of its life, it may be dragging the overall capacity combined with the other battery down with it.

If you test the functioning & number of shots vs. battery depletion rate for the following, it may provide you with some answers:

- battery 1 in normal compartment
- battery 2 in normal compartment
- battery 1 in grip (other battery slot empty)
- battery 2 in grip (other battery slot empty)
- both batteries in battery grip
 
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Sounds odd. Battery life on my 5DII is stellar. I have it with original Canon batteries and the Canon grip. Just checked it: 430 + 411 exposures with 25% each left. So it should be in the neighborhood of 900-1000 clicks per double battery charge. Haven't noticed any difference in lenses with respect to battery life.

Could of course be an issue with the camera or with the battery/batteries. One thing I heard is that there are a lot of fake ones out there and that the packaging looks extremely real on some. I only buy mine from Canon authorized dealers, which it appears you did as well.
 
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Mar 25, 2011
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awinphoto said:
Hey guys... this is geared for those who own 5d Mark 2's and those especially who own the 7D and 5D mark 2's... I have the 7D and loved most of all the wonderful battery life... I could shoot around 500-700 shots on one battery charge... It went on and on and on... I recently got the 5d Mark 2... when I got it, it came with a package including a vertical battery grip, an extra Canon OEM Battery amongst other things... So with the 2 genuine batteries and grip, I had an expectation that I could get a nice chunk of battery life... but even with the two batteries, when I checked the battery status option in camera, it said my 2 batteries, off of a full charge, were both around the 170 shot mark and were both around 40%... Granted, to be fair, the kit included the 24-105 IS L Lens, but does this camera and lens, really have this crappy of a battery life? The LCD review is only on like 3 seconds or something like that, shooting primarily through the VF with little to no Live View and for the most part, all photos, no video's... I'd love to hear your guy's feedback.

What is the date on your batteries? Canon started putting dates on them well over a year ago. When you put one fully charged battery in the camera, how many green bars show?
 
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TimKaldas

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All these responses seem incredibly low to me. I shoot weddings and a single charge easily lasts around 2500 shots. I've had batteries go 2700+ shots on a single charge. I don't use a grip and I use Sandisk Extremes in my bodies. I shoot all primes so I don't have IS on any of my lenses. I suppose that would drain the battery a bit faster. I guess I'm just very surprised by how low some of the responses have been.
 
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Jul 21, 2010
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TimKaldas said:
All these responses seem incredibly low to me. I shoot weddings and a single charge easily lasts around 2500 shots. I've had batteries go 2700+ shots on a single charge. I don't use a grip and I use Sandisk Extremes in my bodies. I shoot all primes so I don't have IS on any of my lenses. I suppose that would drain the battery a bit faster. I guess I'm just very surprised by how low some of the responses have been.

Impressive! The non-IS lenses likely make a difference, but even more, I'm guessing you're not doing much - if any - or using the LCD to change settings, and the LCD uses a lot of power, relatively speaking.
 
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