# R5 battery life?



## Sorosuub (Aug 30, 2020)

Can we get some posts from R5 owners about what their real world battery life is like with the older LP-E6N and the newer LP-E6NH batteries? I've been hearing battery life reports that are all over the place. 

Ken Rockwell reported excellent battery life at 10,000 shots with a 3rd party LP-E6N Watson battery (seems unbelievable).
TechRadar reported excellent battery life at 2300+ shots with a LP-E6NH and EVF (unclear if 60 hz or 120 hz).
Random B&H review reported excellent battery life at 1800 shots with a LP-E6NH.
Random B&H review reported average battery life at 800 shots with a LP-E6NH.
Random Amazon review reported average battery life at 650 shots with a LP-E6NH, 120hz enabled, moderate chimping/menu usage.
PetaPixel reported poor battery life at 400 shots with a LP-E6NH and with GPS, WiFi, Dual Pixel, and AF Tracking turned off. 

Why the wide variation in battery life? Does firmware v. 1.1 improve battery life at all?

Battery life is the biggest issue that's keeping me on the fence so far. Primarily interested in R5 for 90% photography, 10% video, average chimping. 

Thanks!


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## SteveC (Aug 30, 2020)

Sorosuub said:


> Can we get some posts from R5 owners about what their real world battery life is like with the older LP-E6N and the newer LP-E6NH batteries? I've been hearing battery life reports that are all over the place.
> 
> Ken Rockwell reported excellent battery life at 10,000 shots with a 3rd party LP-E6N Watson battery (seems unbelievable).
> TechRadar reported excellent battery life at 2300+ shots with a LP-E6NH and EVF (unclear if 60 hz or 120 hz).
> ...



Time spent looking through the viewfinder will have an effect, unlike with a DSLR. The only test that would be meaningful to you would be from someone who looks through it as much as you do.


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## Joules (Aug 30, 2020)

Number of shots is not a great indicator of performance for these cameras. They are super fast and the main source of power drain is maintaining the EVF and / or LiveView. If you take a lot of bursts at 20 electronic, you'll get many more shots conpa9to somebody who spends a lot of time composing and only takes a picture occasionally. In both cases, I think the actual number of minutes spent using the camera would vary far less. 

I would also suspect that IBIS has a pretty big impact, though I did not look into it yet.


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## AlanF (Aug 30, 2020)

Joules said:


> Number of shots is not a great indicator of performance for these cameras. They are super fast and the main source of power drain is maintaining the EVF and / or LiveView. If you take a lot of bursts at 20 electronic, you'll get many more shots conpa9to somebody who spends a lot of time composing and only takes a picture occasionally. In both cases, I think the actual number of minutes spent using the camera would vary far less.
> 
> I would also suspect that IBIS has a pretty big impact, though I did not look into it yet.


I guarantee I will get less than anyone else - I get only a couple of hundred from a 5DIV as I use a battery draining 100-400mm II on it and stare down it while aiming and searching. On the other hand, if I get out my 90D and fire a 100 2s bursts at 10fps, it will hardly register on the battery meter. So, if I get only 200 on the R5 in non-high burst mode, I will not be surprised.


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## Canon-Chas (Aug 30, 2020)

Four hour session in my wildlife hide yesterday, 345 shots , no video , battery dead after 4 hours ! All max power saving options on, would be nice if I could even buy another battery !! Lens used 300mm f2.8 mkii on tripod, IS off, a fair bit of chimping which probably sucks the life out the battery


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## Sorosuub (Aug 30, 2020)

Canon-Chas said:


> Four hour session in my wildlife hide yesterday, 345 shots , no video , battery dead after 4 hours ! All max power saving options on, would be nice if I could even buy another battery !! Lens used 300mm f2.8 mkii on tripod, IS off, a fair bit of chimping which probably sucks the life out the battery



Only 345 shots!! That might be the lowest shot count I've seen. Was IBIS turned on?


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## Canon-Chas (Aug 30, 2020)

Sorosuub said:


> Only 345 shots!! That might be the lowest shot count I've seen. Was IBIS turned on?


As in original post IS off via lens , not sure if IBIS can be turned off I think the lens IS off disables it ?? I was shooting RAW , big files , maybe that drains battery also ?


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## Bdbtoys (Aug 30, 2020)

Canon-Chas said:


> As in original post IS off via lens , not sure if IBIS can be turned off I think the lens IS off disables it ??



On an IS lens, turning off IS on the lens disables IBIS. On non-IS lens, there is a menu option for IBIS on/off.


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## Canon-Chas (Aug 30, 2020)

Canon-Chas said:


> As in original post IS off via lens , not sure if IBIS can be turned off I think the lens IS off disables it ?? I was shooting RAW , big files , maybe that drains battery also ?


I did shoot over 1000 images last week over two hours walking around the beach , plenty battery left, no chimping though


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## BeenThere (Aug 30, 2020)

Canon-Chas said:


> Four hour session in my wildlife hide yesterday, 345 shots , no video , battery dead after 4 hours ! All max power saving options on, would be nice if I could even buy another battery !! Lens used 300mm f2.8 mkii on tripod, IS off, a fair bit of chimping which probably sucks the life out the battery


Turning the camera off when nothing much is happening is a power saving option.


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## zim (Aug 30, 2020)

Canon-Chas said:


> Four hour session in my wildlife hide yesterday, 345 shots , no video , battery dead after 4 hours ! All max power saving options on, would be nice if I could even buy another battery !! Lens used 300mm f2.8 mkii on tripod, IS off, a fair bit of chimping which probably sucks the life out the battery


Was it dead because you had it on for four hrs or because you took 345+chimp shots which happened to take you four hrs  
I presume you had IBIS off if you had IS off?
With a grip i really wouldn't want to carry more than 4 batteries, two morning, two afternoon. (airshows) sounds tight then again maybe the accuracy of that AF allows you to break the chimp habit!


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## Canon-Chas (Aug 30, 2020)

zim said:


> Was it dead because you had it on for four hrs or because you took 345+chimp shots which happened to take you four hrs
> I presume you had IBIS off if you had IS off?
> With a grip i really wouldn't want to carry more than 4 batteries, two morning, two afternoon. (airshows) sounds tight then again maybe the accuracy of that AF allows you to break the chimp habit!


All power saving options were on, only powered up when taking shots , IS off via lens which = IBIS off


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## zim (Aug 30, 2020)

Canon-Chas said:


> I did shoot over 1000 images last week over two hours walking around the beach , plenty battery left, no chimping though


You posted while i was typing, that sounds so much better!


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## HenryL (Aug 30, 2020)

As others have already noted, this will vary greatly depending on usage. FWIW, my real-world sessions have mostly been with the 100-400 Mk II +1.4x III and I typically get 400-700 shots. I have had a few days were I got more, don't think I've ever had less. 

To clarify a bit, last weekend I got approx 450 on a fresh LP-E6NH, that was one of my lowest but still fairly typical. Not too many bursts of more then 3-4 frames, but I was in a kayak so even when I wasn't tracking a bird in flight, the IBIS and lens IS were working overtime ALWAYS! If I'm just walking around the park or on a trail, I'll get better numbers, a couple of times over 800 but closer to 600 is the norm. Those sessions tend to have more bursts plus I'm shooting from a far more stable platform. 

I shoot and review photos using the EVF, I've never enabled 120Hz mode, and the camera is still on ECO if that matters.

So, for me so far it's been variable but consistent enough where I'm getting an idea what to expect in different situations. Again, as has been said, YMMV.


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## Nelu (Aug 31, 2020)

HenryL said:


> ...but I was in a kayak...


In a kayak? With the R5 ???
You are brave, my friend!


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## Sorosuub (Aug 31, 2020)

HenryL said:


> As others have already noted, this will vary greatly depending on usage. FWIW, my real-world sessions have mostly been with the 100-400 Mk II +1.4x III and I typically get 400-700 shots. I have had a few days were I got more, don't think I've ever had less.
> 
> To clarify a bit, last weekend I got approx 450 on a fresh LP-E6NH, that was one of my lowest but still fairly typical. Not too many bursts of more then 3-4 frames, but I was in a kayak so even when I wasn't tracking a bird in flight, the IBIS and lens IS were working overtime ALWAYS! If I'm just walking around the park or on a trail, I'll get better numbers, a couple of times over 800 but closer to 600 is the norm. Those sessions tend to have more bursts plus I'm shooting from a far more stable platform.
> 
> ...



400-700 is really disappointing, when I can get 1000-2000 on my EOS-R with moderate chimping.


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## H. Jones (Aug 31, 2020)

I pulled off around 2800 images on a 70% battery before it died while covering a house fire at night. 120hz high speed display, and pretty high brightness. Mainly remembered to turn the camera off between shots unless there was a lot of action going on, and all were shot at 12 fps. The camera turns on by the time you pull it up to your eye, so I never had any issue with the camera not being ready if it had been turned off.

I haven't had any issues with the battery life overall, I mainly just remember to swap batteries after every single shoot and I bring two spare LP-E6NH and one LP-E6N everywhere just in case.

As a bonus, you can charge the R5 while in operation using a power delivery USB-C power bank, which easily fits in a belt pack or pocket and would be easy to connect to charge while in a car, or during lulls in action. A power bank is also super easy to hang off a tripod for timelapses.


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## koenkooi (Aug 31, 2020)

H. Jones said:


> [..]
> As a bonus, you can charge the R5 while in operation using a power delivery USB-C power bank, which easily fits in a belt pack or pocket and would be easy to connect to charge while in a car, or during lulls in action. A power bank is also super easy to hang off a tripod for timelapses.



From previous reports it seems that you can mostly power the R5 using PD while it's in use, but it will drain the battery a bit. It will only charge the battery while the camera is powered off.

If it can actually charge the battery while it's in use, that would be very nice.


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## [email protected] (Jan 5, 2021)

This just came out this morning:









Canon's LP-E6NH Battery Performance: Meh - Camnostic


[Update: This article has been superseded by a more comprehensive review of batteries and other power options for the R5 and R6 cameras that can be seen here.] There’s nothing wrong with Canon’s most recent battery model’s capacity. There’s not much better about it either. Camnostic tested 18 of...




camnostic.com





The upshot: the new LP-E6NH batteries don't give you much more capacity after initial wear (about 8 recharges). Benefit is all about communication with camera firmware in the new R5/R6.

-tig


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## Sorosuub (Jan 6, 2021)

I'm getting about 400-600 shots with the slower viewfinder refresh rate, airplane mode on, some chimping. WiFi quickly drains the battery. The R5 so far is so amazing that the battery life hasn't bothered me, but if I go on a trip I can see it becoming an issue. Guess I'll need to invest in some spares.


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## docsmith (Jan 6, 2021)

I am very consistently 1,200 to 1,800 shots per charge on the LP-6ENH batteries on the R5 at the lower, 60, refresh rate on the EVF.

Usage has been pets, backyard birds, astro and a few landscapes. I shoot mostly through the EVF. I am also using playback a fair amount, and was even seeing results in this range when playing with the menus. On my 5DIV, I was very typically 300-800 shots. So I have been pleasantly surprised by the battery life of the R5. But, I am also wondering if there is somehow an issue with my 5DIV as the battery drains to nothing in a few days when not in use.


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## Viggo (Jan 6, 2021)

Current charge : 203 shots , 69% left. I usually and average get around 350-450 shots.


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## AlanF (Jan 6, 2021)

I suspect some of us are getting a large number of shots per charge is because we are firing fast bursts, and it costs much less energy per shot than when just doing single shots. But, in practice I am discarding most and choosing just the best. So, in reality, the number of useful shots per charge is much less.


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## definedphotography (Jan 18, 2021)

I shot for the first time over the weekend with my R5. Outdoors, in the sun, shot for a couple hours. Got 780 shots and still had 3 bars (~70%) on the battery when I got home.
Slow refresh on the EVF. I may have turned the camera off for 10-15 mins total during that period.


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## JPAZ (Jan 18, 2021)

Over the past week, with an older LPE-6N, I've done 318 shots (155 with an RF 24-105 f/4 and 163 with an RF 70-200 f/2.8). IS has always been on. I'm not much of a "crimper" and usually turn the power off when I am not actively taking images. FWIW, the viewfinder shows 2 bars. I am betting that a newer battery, and the LPE-6NH can do better.


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## bernie_king (Jan 22, 2021)

On my last trip to Conowingo to shoot Bald Eagles I changed both batteries in my grip at 60% (FPS starts reducing at that point) at 1200 frames. I feel like I could've doubled that number had I run them down. This was with the LPE-6NH batteries


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## Kiton (Feb 5, 2021)

I shot an NHL hockey game last night, started with a freshly charged E6NH battery, finished the game on the same battery.

2167 frames
camera on and booted up for most 3 hours with the pregame ceremony. Maybe 3.5 with the pregame warmup skate too.

People say the new battery is not much better than the older versions, I find they are noticeably better. I do VERY little video, stills only.
I don't bother running tests, just tracking about the time and frames per charge. 
I have nothing to complain about with the batteries........I could really bitch about some other Canon issues......but not the battery.


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## BadBird (Feb 6, 2021)

Last week at the NWR, shooting steadily from 08:00 to 15:15 with battery grip and two freshly recharged LP-E6NH batteries, using 100-500 or 800 f11, GPS on externally (no wifi), and nothing disabled to save power: 650 CRAW shots taken (some deleted in camera), batteries finished day at 13% to 15% remaining, significantly lower than the pairs of E6Ns in my 7D or 5Ds used on similar shoots. When shooting intermittently from truck or while hiking, camera remained powered up (but EVF does time out - Display Off 1 min; Viewfinder Off 3 min; Power Off 5 min). I use the viewfinder more than the display due to sun glare, and occasionally for manual focusing. Note that I spent LOTS of time running AF while trying to acquire birds in brush, grass, trees, or while scanning in flocks of gulls/terns/geese/ducks for anything unusual (back button = Spot AF, * button = Animal Eye AF). IMHO, animal eye is almost useless except birds out in the open, or birds in flight against the sky.

When driving between shooting locations I normally turn the power off as I dismount it from the LensSack and set it on the backpack in the passenger seat. I never turned off my 7D or 5D like this, because the internal GPS needed to remain powered up to update. The R5 has to use the external GP-E2, which I leave powered up all day on its own AA battery.

I am satisfied if I can get a day of steady shooting out of a pair of batteries, and I have a spare set with me at all times. I think a third pair might even be wise.


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 6, 2021)

I leave Wi-fi and Bluetooth turned on while its on my desk, I automatically transfer photos wirelessly via FTP tp my computer when there are just a few, (40 or less). Wi- still running when the camera is off. My battery will be totally run down in a very few days, so I leave the camera plugged into the charger. If I turn off the radio's, I can take a lot of individual photos (no high speed shots, just one at a time) I can shoot about 1000-1500 over 4-5 hours and have some battery left. I carry a spare, but seldom need to use it.

I see no significant difference from my 2 year old LP-E6N as far as battery capacity.


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## Lusik (Feb 10, 2021)

1 LP-E6NH battery + 1.3 LP-E6N battery for 2300 shorts and 8 hours of shooting. No power saving used but I switched the camera off for a few minutes a few times.


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## JPAZ (Feb 13, 2021)

Resurrecting an old thread. Just did 1064 shots using an adapted EF 100-400 mkii with a 1.4x. Some chimping. Some high-speed shots but mostly single shots. Used an old LP-E6N (not NH) battery. 2 bars still showing and menu says 47% remaining.


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## AlanF (Feb 13, 2021)

I'm the odd man out here. My R5 works brilliantly but I get just the CIPA number of shots.


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## puffo25 (Feb 26, 2021)

Hi. I am lost about third parties batteries since of course I want to reach the H+ mode and 12fp/20fp speed.

I have found a Patona Platinum battery LP-E6NH 2250mAh 7,2V and a generic brand (DSTE), LP-E6N with 7,4V and 2600mAh. Question: which of the 2 batteries might provide best performances for the R5 and to get H+ and 12fp/20fp shutting speed?


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## [email protected] (Mar 2, 2021)

puffo25 said:


> Hi. I am lost about third parties batteries since of course I want to reach the H+ mode and 12fp/20fp speed.
> 
> I have found a Patona Platinum battery LP-E6NH 2250mAh 7,2V and a generic brand (DSTE), LP-E6N with 7,4V and 2600mAh. Question: which of the 2 batteries might provide best performances for the R5 and to get H+ and 12fp/20fp shutting speed?




Puffo, we just updated the battery story to include 4 third-party batteries. You can see that here...








Powering the EOS R5: Review of the LP-e6NH & Other Options - Camnostic







camnostic.com





... but we didn't know about Patona (DSTE isn't an NH-class battery, so we deliberately didn't include). It turns out we can't get that here in the U.S. Even the various stores in Europe that sell it won't deliver to the US (including the various Amazons). If anyone knows how to get one of those to US, please let me know. We do have a couple other brands that came out of the woodwork that we'll be testing to include in the bunch. 

To answer your specific question about which might provide the best performance relative to 12 FPS, it was clear that the Canon was about 2x as good for that particular goal. The Canon version was only 10-15 percent better in terms of raw power output, but it allowed 12 FPS all the way down to the battery reaching 35 percent, where the other batteries stopped typically around 75 percent.


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## puffo25 (Mar 2, 2021)

[email protected] said:


> Puffo, we just updated the battery story to include 4 third-party batteries. You can see that here...
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks @[email protected] ! Your feedback is very much appreciated and I have also visited your web site that provide great hints also about other tests and topics related to the Canon R5.

So by looking your feedback on the third part batteries vs the original Canon LP-E6NH, it seams that no matter what tech. specifications say on the third parties, in order to achieve best results with the R5 (ie. H+/real and constant 12 images/sec.) I must indeed buy only original Canon batteries. Correct?

Also, I own an original canon LP-E6. Question: am I able to get H+ 12 pictures/sec also with this battery?

...And, how can I test the real shutter continous speed for my R5?

About the battery charger, do you think any third party is working as good as the original Canon charger?

Thanks in advance if you will reply to me.


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## [email protected] (Mar 15, 2021)

Puffo, I'm very happy you found the site useful. The summary above of the battery article was not quite completely correct. You *CAN* get H+/12 FPS with third party batteries that represent themselves as "NH" class batteries. The Neewer ones are probably the better of the third-party lot. The only downsides with them are that they have about 10-15 percent less juice than the Canon ones, and that they go for about half as long before your 12 FPS turns into 9 FPS (about 30 percent of the battery can be used at the higher setting with the third-party ones, versus about 65 percent of the battery with the Canon one).

One warning: there are batteries being sold as "NH" batteries on Amazon and eBay, like the Duracell one we bought last week, but when they arrive, they're clearly marked as just an "N" battery, and of course will not provide 12 FPS.

As far as the question about the charger, we don't really have the test equipment to judge the differences. They're similar enough in effect that my impression is that they're all doing the same thing. I do know that there is more subtle logic that chargers can use to make the batteries last longer over time, often at the expense of taking longer to charge. For this reason, I tend to be biased toward the Canon chargers or certain third-party ones that are made by companies specializing in battery stuff, like Dolgin.

One of our contributors does have a battery device that shows power draw, and I suppose we could test to see how much logic is used by each charger, but I don't think we'd be qualified to know what was optimal. When you mix in third party batteries, it gets pretty complicated, as they likely use slightly different battery chemistries, so the optimal charger behavior would likely be slightly differently. That said, I doubt the third party manufacturers are spending a lot of time subtly matching charger programming to their battery chemistries. They're more likely sourcing chargers to the cheapest bidder. You can see how all of this becomes cloudy, and therefore not a productive area of inquiry for us.


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## puffo25 (Mar 15, 2021)

[email protected] said:


> Puffo, I'm very happy you found the site useful. The summary above of the battery article was not quite completely correct. You *CAN* get H+/12 FPS with third party batteries that represent themselves as "NH" class batteries. The Neewer ones are probably the better of the third-party lot. The only downsides with them are that they have about 10-15 percent less juice than the Canon ones, and that they go for about half as long before your 12 FPS turns into 9 FPS (about 30 percent of the battery can be used at the higher setting with the third-party ones, versus about 65 percent of the battery with the Canon one).
> 
> One warning: there are batteries being sold as "NH" batteries on Amazon and eBay, like the Duracell one we bought last week, but when they arrive, they're clearly marked as just an "N" battery, and of course will not provide 12 FPS.
> 
> ...


Thanks. I will test what I got so far. I got for my R5 2 (supposed to be genuine) Canon NH batteries and also 2 German made Patona NH. Those Patona are actually sold as premium battery, meaning they should not loose capacity even on very severe weather. I hope that paying more for a higher battery standards/specs might result also on a more perfomence battery overall. I will keep you posted. I have to find the time to test them and I will report to you.

Out of the blue: any news on when Canon will release the new firmware update for the R5? Canonrumors predictions was wrong...:-(


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## TMT (Oct 13, 2021)

Bought the two-pack of the Neewer LP-E6NH batteries - $30 on Amazon. Slow-charged them using my Canon charger (I am leery of quick chargers). Took three batteries out into the field (the third being the OEM Canon LP-E6NH) with my R5 and 100-500. In the first hour, the first Neewer battery took 241 shots before going red. Virtually the results with the second Neewer. The Canon kept shooting over the weekend. In each instance, the R5 was on airplane mode. 

I will recharge the Neewers and try it again. Not sure what they are putting into the Canon batteries but the results are longer lasting.


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## stevelee (Oct 13, 2021)

My ignorant question for the day: I get a general idea from context, but exactly what are you referring to (and not referring to) when you say “chimping”?


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## definedphotography (Oct 13, 2021)

stevelee said:


> what are you referring to (and not referring to) when you say “chimping”?



Looking at the screen on the back of the camera after every shot or almost every shot.


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## stevelee (Oct 13, 2021)

definedphotography said:


> Looking at the screen on the back of the camera after every shot or almost every shot.


Thanks.


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## YuengLinger (Oct 14, 2021)

As long as we are back on batteries, I'm sure that I get the worst drain when I have Screen/Viewfinder Display set to Auto2. That's because if the EVF is against my shirt or a strap while walking around, the EVF just stays on. And on and on and on.

So when walking around I set Screen/Viewfinder Display to Screen, and I use the Movie Shooting button on top of the body to switch back and forth. (If I ever start shooting video a lot, I'll figure something else out.)

This can double my battery life, and I can walk around and shoot for hours on one battery. Of course I had to get used to mashing the Movie Shooting button as I bring the camera to my eye, but it's second nature now.

In my studio, I just go back to Auto2, and I also turn off ECO mode so the body isn't timing out too often.

This is an old thread, so if what I've just written has already been gone over, well, here it is fresh, and from personal experience.


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## koenkooi (Oct 14, 2021)

definedphotography said:


> Looking at the screen on the back of the camera after every shot or almost every shot.


The EVF makes it easier to hide chimping, just press the playback button with your thumb, look at the picture in the EVF and pretend to be taking pictures


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