# 6D's Wifi Drain on Battery (?)



## MichaelTheMaven (Dec 8, 2012)

When I turn my GPS feature on in my 6D, the battery drains very quickly. I can turn the GPS on, set my camera down, come back in an hour and half the battery is gone. 

Are any other 6D owners seeing this?

M


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## hemidesign (Dec 8, 2012)

Might be.. looks like my PSP (Playstation portable) when the WI-FI is on.. drain all the battery, really fast.. I mean, twice's fast! :-\


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## scrup (Dec 8, 2012)

Same on a smartphone. GPS sucks alot of juice more than wifi. It's to be expected. Maybe a firmware update can change the way it works and has less frequent satellite requests.


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## Botts (Dec 8, 2012)

Most Panasonic Lumix's with GPS have a feature where the GPS turns off when the camera is powered down. They call it "Airplane Mode" strangely enough. When the camera is switched on, the GPS kicks back in.

If it's a warm-fix, the time delay is quite small, if you've moved a lot and caused it to have to do a cold-fix the time is quite a bit longer.

The 6D's GPS appears to pull location non-stop until the GPS receiver is turned off, not if the body is switched off. Therefore, if you are storing your 6D, you should turn off GPS before switching it off. I plan on testing mine for battery life in detail over the next few days.


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## Marsu42 (Dec 8, 2012)

MichaelTheMaven said:


> When I turn my GPS feature on in my 6D, the battery drains very quickly.



Sadly, that was to be expected - the gps feature probably is just a gimmick because they've got a combined wifi/gps chip, and the gps doesn't even record the camera direction.

Smartphones are bound to be more optimized than this, but for a dumb device you'd better turn gps off in difficult situations where the gps unit desperately tried so get a lock draining constant power - indoors, between skyscapers, in the woods on cloudy days... just get a $50 external gps tagger instead that is more precise and has a 24h battery.


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## daniela (Dec 8, 2012)

Of course, the GPS needs much power!

I tried the 6D with the Canon batterygrip. So, if you use the GPS (I did not, I only tried the WiFi function), you should fetch this BG. It is about 350$/270E. Or you wait until an chinese company will copy one.

With the WiFi funtion on, the power consumption is ok. 

Maybe you can tell me, how fast the GPS finds the position?


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## Botts (Dec 8, 2012)

Acquisition time is actually not bad. It's been within 30 seconds when I have been outside.

Prior to the 6D, I used my old blackberry with the cell-radio turned off as a GPS logger. I'm hoping I don't need to do this anymore, but I'll need to take a trip to Disneyland to really find out  Disneyland will really show how fast it regrabs GPS after leaving a building or ride.


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## Ryan_W (Dec 8, 2012)

Marsu42 said:


> MichaelTheMaven said:
> 
> 
> > When I turn my GPS feature on in my 6D, the battery drains very quickly.
> ...



It's been my experience that any GPS application is a rapid battery drain. Even an hour car trip on a top line Android with GPS enabled the entire time can drop you down to 50%.

The GPS feature on the 6D is kind of a bonus but I don't think I will use it. Maybe it would be useful to tag the first photo of a set to mark them, but in all honesty, it's just as easy to tag your own images and excepting industrial applications for Long/Lat in a consumer level camera, I don't see the point.

However I'm glad someone brought up the grip - It's my opinion that two batteries (one acting as a critical spare) is a bare minimum. Why not add the joystick plus the extra grip and add the option to use AA's?


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## Badger (Dec 10, 2012)

Got my 6D yesterday. Gave the battery a full charge then turned on GPS and WiFi. I have not used the camera much in 36 hours. Probably shot about 30 pictures, a five minute movie, then played with the iPhone EOS app, viewing, erasing, playing (thanks for the tutorial Mike). I have had to turn WiFi off to shoot movies, but I have always turned it right back on. 
So, 36 hours of very light playing and the GPS being constantly on in my bag, my battery life is showing about 75% available. I honestly had no idea that the GPS stayed on while the camera is turned off. While it doesn't seem to me that GPS is draining the battery quickly, its good to know for those of us who don't use their cameras everyday, we might need to recharge before using the camera next time (or just turn the damn thing off  )


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## Area256 (Dec 10, 2012)

Just tried turning on the GPS and left it on for an hour. I have the update frequency set to 30 seconds. The battery dropped by just 2% according to the camera. I'm inside a house, and for the first little bit it couldn't get a fix, but it locked on after a few minutes. (outside the time to lock is about 30 seconds, not sure yet how accurate it is.)

I haven't tested the WiFi battery life, but my experience has been that using it actively causes the camera to heat up a lot. Which explains why the 6D has more electrical shielding than other cameras in it's class.


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## Marsu42 (Dec 10, 2012)

Area256 said:


> I haven't tested the WiFi battery life, but my experience has been that using it actively causes the camera to heat up a lot. Which explains why the 6D has more electrical shielding than other cameras in it's class.



Did you test the wifi range yet? That would be interesting esp. for outdoors, the stronger shielding (simply by the camera body) might decrease the range a lot. Maybe they should have added a plug for an external antenna


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## PeOR (Dec 29, 2012)

I have my GPS refresh on 5 minutes. At that setting the battery seems to last about a week. Since it is a button that starts/stops the GPS function but you have to access the menu, it actually does not feel like a well thought through solution. I am expecting a firmware option that powers the GPS down when the power is off. That is the only "solid" option. Except for that, the camera is truly awesome. I love it.

PeO.


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## prjkt (Dec 29, 2012)

Turn off the logging feature - that keeps track of your journey even if the camera is switched off.

As for accuracy, it showed me as 17m above sea level, while my feet were been lapped by waves at the beach


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## MintMark (Dec 29, 2012)

The elevation is the least accurate aspect of GPS in general and I think the manual does mention it.

Sea level is not an absolute concept either... are you sure they weren't 17m waves?


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## Heavyweight67 (Dec 30, 2012)

Have to agree with Marsu on this one, all those extras that manufacturers seem to add on for our convenience just draw that power that is essential for what this (Canon 6D ) is designed to do, that is take pictures...

Sometimes the gimmicks (added extras) may seem appealing but they soon loose their lustre, when you're walking back home without any photos...(at least you will have a track log so you can see where you didn't take photos)

As a light room user, I can download track logs from my GPS or smartphone, this is my workaround....


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## Don Haines (Dec 30, 2012)

Heavyweight67 said:


> As a light room user, I can download track logs from my GPS or smartphone, this is my workaround....


Did not know you could do this.... Will have to give it a try..... 

Always learning new things on this forum! Thanks!


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## Area256 (Dec 30, 2012)

I used the 6D for some travel photography last week. I found the GPS power drain (with update frequency of 30 seconds), to be quite acceptable. I shot about 200 pictures a day, left the GPS on for about 8 hours of the time, and the battery level would be around 60% by the end of the day.

WiFi on the other hand will eat through batter life fairly fast if you leave it on constantly connected to a Smartphone. However for the times it's needed, it comes in very handy, and it means I didn't need to take a remote release.


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## prjkt (Dec 30, 2012)

MintMark said:


> The elevation is the least accurate aspect of GPS in general and I think the manual does mention it.
> 
> Sea level is not an absolute concept either... are you sure they weren't 17m waves?


That's a good point, I didn't check the exact coords - might try that now, no the waves were at the tallest about 30-40cm - calm Port Philip Bay weather


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## Lord_Zeppelin (Jan 5, 2013)

I think my 6D may be defective. I have the GPS and Wifi off, and I've shot about a total of 19 photos on the current charge, and with the camera sitting off in my bag for 3 days, the battery is stone cold dead. I'm using the OEM battery that was included with the cam, and another Canon LP-E6 that I picked up from Amazon (not third party seller either, so it's a legit canon battery). 

I've had my Tamron 24-70 F2.8 on the camera the entire time. I've read where people have some issues with the 5D3 and third party lenses, so I hope that's not the case, as I love the lens and prefer to leave it on the body...

EDIT~ As an update to my original post, apparently there is a well-documented issue with the Tamron 24-70/2.8 and the newer Canon bodies, like the T4i and 6D, where the lens drains the battery even if the camera is off. Mine battery showed 98% charge, and then after sitting for roughly 2 hours, completely off, it's down to 91%. So I put my Canon 50mm/1.4 on it, and let it sit for 2 hours...and it's still at 91%. 

The POTN forum post I saw regarding the T4i said Tamron knows about it and will exchange the lens with one that doesn't drain the battery. I friggin hope so, cause I'm loving the quality on this lens.


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## oscaroo (Jan 19, 2013)

Lord_Zeppelin said:


> EDIT~ As an update to my original post, apparently there is a well-documented issue with the Tamron 24-70/2.8 and the newer Canon bodies, like the T4i and 6D, where the lens drains the battery even if the camera is off. Mine battery showed 98% charge, and then after sitting for roughly 2 hours, completely off, it's down to 91%. So I put my Canon 50mm/1.4 on it, and let it sit for 2 hours...and it's still at 91%.



Wow!
That's shoddy.

I was keen on that lens but now I'm staying away.


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## Marsu42 (Jan 19, 2013)

Lord_Zeppelin said:


> EDIT~ As an update to my original post, apparently there is a well-documented issue with the Tamron 24-70/2.8 and the newer Canon bodies, like the T4i and 6D, where the lens drains the battery even if the camera is off.



Doh - that's disappointing, but newer Canon bodies showing strange problems with 3rd party gear is somehow not unusual ...

... BUT the good news is that as far as other forum posts say *Tamron is aware of this fact, newer 24-70 versions with serial numbers 002xxx+ don't show this behavior and Tamron replaces lenses if there's a problem with the 6d* - that's 6 years warranty and good customer service for you.


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## wellfedCanuck (Jan 19, 2013)

I usually disable wifi, enabling it only when I'm using my phone to remote-shoot or email images. Same for the GPS. Also, I have the tracklog set to 5 minutes- unless you're shooting from a moving vehicle- you don't need anything with more update frequency- you can't move around fast enough on foot to make a signficant difference to your track position. 

If I forget to disable the GPS I'll lose a half-charge over 2 days with the camera switched off. The GPS will continue to update which they should fix with firmware. Why track-log if the camera is shut off? This doesn't make sense unless you're using a Lojack-type where-the-hell-is-my-camera system...


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## Marsu42 (Jan 19, 2013)

wellfedCanuck said:


> you don't need anything with more update frequency- you can't move around fast enough on foot to make a signficant difference to your track position.



I've been carrying around a small gps logger with my 60d for years now, and I'd tend to disagree - when doing documentary shots it can be very important to see where exactly you were standing, and I can move a lot in 5 minutes, even in 1 minute. But on the bright side, the gps drain on the 6d battery seems to be lower than I feared when I first read about this feature.


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## wellfedCanuck (Jan 19, 2013)

Marsu42 said:


> wellfedCanuck said:
> 
> 
> > you don't need anything with more update frequency- you can't move around fast enough on foot to make a signficant difference to your track position.
> ...


Interesting. Ordinary GPS is seldom accurate enough to get you within 30 feet, I would have thought that'd be good enough for most photographers. If you're talking accurate camera-shot line-ups- GPS ain't gonna get you there without survey-grade enhancement.


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## Marsu42 (Jan 19, 2013)

wellfedCanuck said:


> If you're talking accurate camera-shot line-ups- GPS ain't gonna get you there without survey-grade enhancement.



That's correct, 10m (or less on signal reflection/occlusion) is about the precision of my gps unit and it's certainly not usable for professional surveys - but my point is that I can move 10m in 5 minutes, so the low battery drain in this scenario wouldn't be realistic for me since I'd have to set a faster update interval.


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## Don Haines (Jan 20, 2013)

wellfedCanuck said:


> Marsu42 said:
> 
> 
> > wellfedCanuck said:
> ...



GPS accuracy is highly dependant on the number of satelites visible in the sky.... best case accuracy for commercial handheld is 2 meters X-Y plane and about 10 meters vertically. Some of the satellites are in polar orbits and some in geosynchronous orbit, plus a bunch of fairly recent LEO's (LEO is Low Earth Orbit, just added two more into the tracking system at work on Thursday). All of the recently launched SARSATs (Search And Rescue SATelites) are also GPS transmitters. Depending on when and where you are, you can see as many as 30 in the sky or in some cases (deep valleys, north side of mountain at high lattitude) you might only see them intermittently. I'm at roughly 46 degrees north and we have five fixed dishes tracking geosynchronous satellites ( all less than 25 degrees above horizon) and eight dishes tracking the moving orbits.... some passes last for three or four hours, some for just a few minutes. In other words, the number of satellites you can see is constantly changing and so is the accuracy of your GPS unit.

Your signal strength is affected by heavy cloud cover (thunderstorms and the like), foliage, buildings, and electromagnetic noise. When using portable GPS in an urban setting it is not unusual to only see two or three satellites, yet 10 meters away you can see six or seven. With just 3 or 4 satellites visible your X Y accuracy can fall to 40 meters and Z location MAY be indeterminate.

There is a good article on GPS at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPS_signals


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## Don Haines (Jan 20, 2013)

Marsu42 said:


> Sadly, that was to be expected - the gps feature probably is just a gimmick because they've got a combined wifi/gps chip, and the gps doesn't even record the camera direction.



GPS gives you position, but not direction. When you are moving, the unit can say "I was there and now I am here" and calculate from that the speed and direction you are moving, but it still will not be able to tell you which way the camera is pointing.

The direction the device is pointing usually comes from sensing the direction of the earth's magnetic field and gives you a direction based on magnetic north. Better devices, particularly those that know location, apply a magnetic declination value to the sensor and calculate a direction based on true north. The best devices also use accelerometers and inclinometers to give you a more accurate direction, plus angle.


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## Marsu42 (Jan 20, 2013)

Don Haines said:


> The direction the device is pointing usually comes from sensing the direction of the earth's magnetic field and gives you a direction based on magnetic north.



I know, but since Canon's external gps unit contains an electronic compass I don't think it would have been impossible to also put it into the 6d camera - they managed to squeeze in gps and wifi after all... just the location information simply is underwhelming to me since imho an external logger is better for this.


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## Don Haines (Jan 20, 2013)

Marsu42 said:


> I know, but since Canon's external gps unit contains an electronic compass I don't think it would have been impossible to also put it into the 6d camera - they managed to squeeze in gps and wifi after all... just the location information simply is underwhelming to me since imho an external logger is better for this.



I never cease to be amazed at what features get included and which are left out..... And not just with Canon.


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