Canon 1DX II Battery Life

[PureClassA]

Some months ago on another post, I was discussing the battery life of the 1DX and how many images I can get in a single charge during dance recital weekend. The key is that all your shots come in close succession. Obviously the longer interval between each shot, the fewer total shots you'll get on that single charge.

This weekend I had the new 1DX II from the guys at LensRentals and TWO of the new batteries.

And For those who wonder what you can rip on a single battery charge, I give you this! Did it yesterday over the course of about 6 hours of dance recitals. Lens attached was the 70-200 f2.8 IS Mk II in AI Servo AF with tracking cases 4 and 6. Recitals were at 3pm and 7pm and about 2.5 to 3 hours each. I disengaged the battery between shows (about a 1 hour break).

That 9% remaining would have probably gotten me another 1000 frames or so.

 

[Click]

Thanks for sharing this information.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi PureClassA.
All I can say is wow, you must be good at culling and post processing, and it's a good job you are not paying based on the mileage!
Hopefully that information may be of interest to me one day, probably when the 1DX V is new!

Cheers, Graham.

Some months ago on another post, I was discussing the battery life of the 1DX and how many images I can get in a single charge during dance recital weekend. The key is that all your shots come in close succession. Obviously the longer interval between each shot, the fewer total shots you'll get on that single charge.

This weekend I had the new 1DX II from the guys at LensRentals and TWO of the new batteries.

And For those who wonder what you can rip on a single battery charge, I give you this! Did it yesterday over the course of about 6 hours of dance recitals. Lens attached was the 70-200 f2.8 IS Mk II in AI Servo AF with tracking cases 4 and 6. Recitals were at 3pm and 7pm and about 2.5 to 3 hours each. I disengaged the battery between shows (about a 1 hour break).

That 9% remaining would have probably gotten me another 1000 frames or so.

 

[IglooEater]

Very interesting- thanks for sharing! Love canon's battery life in general, it's the number 1 reason mirrorless doesn't interest me -yet. Took two batteries on vacation two months ago and didn't charge either once; in fact, the 1st one was still in the camera despite close to 2000 shots. (60D here)

 

[pwp]

Those numbers are fantastic. Though a lot depends on how you use your camera. I rarely check the images on the screen beyond the odd glance when they display automatically for 1 second as I'm completely confident in what I'm shooting. Chimping happens very very rarely, occasionally to show shots to a client. Deleting shots on the job doesn't happen either, it's time wasting and battery depleting. So with my gripped 7D MkII shooting Track & Field Athletics last week I shot just over 4000 frames and the battery indicator still hadn't dropped even one bar. I get similar numbers from a recently retired 1D MkIV.

So for this and dozens of other more relevant reasons I'm really looking forward to a 1DX-II.

-pw

 

[expatinasia]

10,356 pictures in just 6 hours?! Wow, that's a lot. I do not even take a third of that at all day, almost non-stop, sporting events.

But yes, the 1D series does have excellent battery life when shooting stills. Video is a different matter, the 1DX eats through battery when shooting video like I get through a bag of Salt 'n Vinegar crisps - fast! The 1D X Mark II with its 4K must be even quicker.

I do not envy you having to go through 10,356 pictures. That's mad! Good luck.

 

[pwp]

10,356 pictures in just 6 hours?! Wow, that's a lot....
...I do not envy you having to go through 10,356 pictures. That's mad! Good luck.

You're not kidding that's a crazy huge day. Hopefully just working with one body. There could be another few K on a second body.
Working fast it takes me a good 60-90 minutes to do selections from a 3000 click shoot. You'd have to be a highly intuitive, ruthless editor, seeing only the peak shots and not being distracted by the "maybes".

-pw

 

[PureClassA]

That was two of 4 recitals. Over 400 dancers. 30-40 dance numbers per recital.... Do the math. Of course there is a lot of spray and pray involved here to an extent and some very difficult lighting conditions. Rarely if ever am I looking at the LCD while a recital is happening so that alone saves a lot of life.

I catalog and edit myself over several weeks at nighttime. This is not my full time work. Once I organize everything by dance/song it actually is very easy, granted very time consuming. Step one is to toss all the "Absolute Trash" Step two is weeding out duplicates and "not the best of the bunch" shots.

LR makes it easy to Sync Edits on a group of images, so once I get White Balance corrected for one, I can generally correct the entire set.

When you have THAT many dance numbers, with THAT many different students in different numbers and different costumes each time... and you have FOUR shows .... yeah you can crack off an average of 4500 per show. The whole weekend I cracked off 18,000. By the time I weed through, there will likely be about 8000 shots posted. That amounts to about 100 - 150 shots average per dance routine.

It's not as if you have time to prepare and compose great shots. Some are little 4 year olds (that's easy) but many are lightning fast national competition type teenagers that move like cheetahs ... that's where you just thank God for a great AF system and say a few prayers.

 

[PureClassA]

The lighting makes it difficult and you don't have time to check between shots to see if you're locking on a dancer or some of the bat$h!t crazy lighting going on. Last year they had a 12 foot tall 30 foot wide LED wall instead of those curtains you see here.... You have no idea how rough that was : ;D Oh... and let's not forget the fog they constantly have misting the stage so the LEDs can create those lovely beams ....

 

[kaptainkatsu]

I shot from 9am to 4:30pm, GPS on, 2441 shots with 44% left over.

 

[RustyTheGeek]

All I can say is WOW. That is a LOT of work!

Those are some great shots. Some folks are very fortunate to have you taking care of them. My guess is that it's more volunteer than profit. (Most of these organizations don't flow with tons of cash.)

Your benefit is likely building some great experience and skill for yourself.

With regard to the 18K of images... this is a perfect example of how easy it is to fire off a lot of images with a camera that can shoot at 14 fps. It's both a blessing and a curse! You have an abundance of images to choose a great shot from but you also need a massive collection of CF Cards, massive storage on your computer and all the other things associated with large amounts of data. (Backup capacity, online website, etc.)

Thanks for sharing and please share more of the dancers. I can't think of a better way to show off good photography than graceful dancers in interesting and complimentary colors on a stage. Fun stuff when it works! Tough when it doesn't! 8)

 

[PureClassA]

Rusty you just nailed it completely. The only revenue I make from this particular project is whatever sales I get once I post images on my website for order. I spend $300 renting the 1DX (now the 1DX2 this year) and If I make $1000 I'm happy.

Both my daughters dance at this school, so I'm at all these recitals anyway.

I'll also note that last year I became the studio's official photographer, replacing their guy who did the album/program pictures for 10+ years. That's hundreds of school picture packages I sell each year and gross around $16k from those two weekends of shoots in March.

This year I also did a dedicated cover shoot for the recital program, which they had never done before. Didn't charge for that either... however I wound up selling a beautiful 24x36 gallery wrapped canvas print of one of the shots (see below the black backed/low key shot) to the girl's parents for $1000.

Then there are the parents who ask me to do Senior Pictures, Family Pictures, and private shoots with their dancer kids. So the revenue gets generated elsewhere. The recital shoot madhouse is really just a promotional thing.

I usually work out something each year to where I dont have to pay my two kid's dance tuition either.

So here's some of the studio shots (the money makers), the first is one of the cover shoot images (didn't use this one for the cover) and the second two are the kind I shoot for the recital programs and sell print packages of

All I can say is WOW. That is a LOT of work!

Those are some great shots. Some folks are very fortunate to have you taking care of them. My guess is that it's more volunteer than profit. (Most of these organizations don't flow with tons of cash.)

Your benefit is likely building some great experience and skill for yourself.

With regard to the 18K of images... this is a perfect example of how easy it is to fire off a lot of images with a camera that can shoot at 14 fps. It's both a blessing and a curse! You have an abundance of images to choose a great shot from but you also need a massive collection of CF Cards, massive storage on your computer and all the other things associated with large amounts of data. (Backup capacity, online website, etc.)

Thanks for sharing and please share more of the dancers. I can't think of a better way to show off good photography than graceful dancers in interesting and complimentary colors on a stage. Fun stuff when it works! Tough when it doesn't! 8)

 

[SalAlexander]

These photos are really amazing!

 

[RustyTheGeek]

I bet that group shot was fun. Turned out GREAT!

But... D'Oh! You blinked! Oops! You looked the wrong way! Rats! Sarah fell over! And so on..... ;D

 

[PureClassA]

Those girls are pros and can hold those poses longer than you can believe. It's the little ones (ages 2-6) that are REAL challenge LOL

 

[Click]

I really like your pictures, PureClassA. Great shots.

 

[PureClassA]

Thanks guys! Amazing what you can do 3 pieces of 24-10 foot white vinyl :

 

[RustyTheGeek]

Do you run some cool music to keep everyone pumped and minimize impatience?

 

[PureClassA]

Do you run some cool music to keep everyone pumped and minimize impatience?

We shoot everything at the dance school. The staff creates the basic poses before I get there, so they are mostly ready to roll. These older girls are all business (with a decent bit of goofing off to keep things light).

All these were done with my 5D3, not the 1DX2 btw.

Battery life I get one on LPE6 is uaually around 350-400 shots in situations like these. It's tethered to my MacPro here. No LCD activity or writing to a card.

 

[Valvebounce]

Hi PureClassA.
Some lovely shots you have there, seems that the labour that might be deemed above and beyond the call of duty actually works out really well in the long run. I'm curious about the last shot you posted, I'm seeing coloured vertical banding mostly on the skin and hair, is that some kind of upload artefact, some sort of lighting artefact or deliberate "watermarking" to make the image less appealing to download illegitimately? Either way, it is a nice shot of some relaxed subjects.

Cheers, Graham.

We shoot everything at the dance school. The staff creates the basic poses before I get there, so they are mostly ready to roll. These older girls are all business (with a decent bit of goofing off to keep things light).

All these were done with my 5D3, not the 1DX2 btw.

Battery life I get one on LPE6 is uaually around 350-400 shots in situations like these. It's tethered to my MacPro here. No LCD activity or writing to a card.