Photoclubalpha

I know I've slated the poor battery life of the Sony SLT and A7series but yesterday I spent a day at the local airport and blasted away with my treasured A99. I believe the officially stated battery life is 550 frames. I know that's about as accurate a measure as manufacturers specified car fuel consumption however I thought I had to show that it's not all bad news as raw figures might suggest.

Using A99 on AF-C, continuous HI frame rate, EVF only, no chimping and my trusty 70-400G, I took 724 frames with an indicated 25% remaining on a single battery. This is probably the best scenario in terms of battery usage. Very little refocussing, no camera sitting in standby as after I shot a sequence I switched it off. I will say that I have had occasions where 1 battery lasted only 350 frames but then I was wandering round with it on all the time, some 6-8 hours taking occasional single shots and doing a lot of chimping.

For those of you drooling over the A7Rii, if only it shows a similar characteristic......but then again I expect them to be used very differently from my type of usage.

Mike

A lot depends on how you use a camera if you are taking action sequences with rapid shots in quick successions you'll get more than the CIPA tests but if you are doing reviewing on the screen more single shots the situation is different. I tend to get about 600 out of the A77 and a bit more out of the A57 during for me "normal use". It's not much different to the KM5d battery wise I'd get a similar number

The more up to date DSLR's can exceed 1000 easily with that kind of use though. Can't really comment on the A99 battery I suppose the FF sensor will suck more power, A77II seemed less than the A77 when I used one maybe the newer rear LCD draws more power. I am not unhappy with the SLT power for real world shots I've been pretty unimpressed with the CSC's I've used they are about half the SLT's for shots that is simply too low.

It's the EVF.

Those of us who choose high definition EVF mirror less/hybrid cameras will just have to adjust and plan accordingly.

I have 5 batteries that are available between my A77 and A77II at any one time... more than enough for almost any type of shoot. I also use a VG so that helps.

But with the current EVF technology, we have to adjust our expectations of battery performance.

Cholly,

I know I'm probably in the minority but if I continue with my hobby in the current mode which involves periods with no access to recharging facilities (up to 5 days) and all that Sony offer is 300 frames on a battery (no future SLT versions), I will be adjusting my expectations over to Canikon.

I can manage with the current A77, A99 consumption though it would be nice to have better but on Saturday I got over 700 frames out of my A99 with some power remaining so I can live with that. I have 7 batteries between 2 cameras so would expect to have power for 4-5 days on a shoot. 2 came with the cameras, 1 was bought new and the rest were acquired second hand for around £30 each.

I cannot live with half what I have now, I would need 14 batteries at £65 each (current new price at WEX) that's over £800 with postage!!! It will be bye-bye Sony, plain and simple.

mikeriach wrote:Cholly,

I know I'm probably in the minority but if I continue with my hobby in the current mode which involves periods with no access to recharging facilities (up to 5 days) and all that Sony offer is 300 frames on a battery (no future SLT versions), I will be adjusting my expectations over to Canikon.

Mike, ever think of a solar charger? You might want to look into one.

Dusty

Mike, what about Pentax, you can use both the lithium Iron battery supplied and/or AA cells, which you could carry a large pack of.

Just a thought
Pete

What I've noticed is "battery drain" with the cameras off. Quite a bit sometimes more than I would expect
The Pentax ones I had (K-r) didn't have the AA holder you had to buy it I used to get more out of the AA's than the weedy lithium cell

It was quite a good idea though. I also used to like being able to use AA's in the grip on the Nikon's I had

Yes, I put a newly charged battery in the A77 2 weeks ago and when I got it out to take a few snaps it was on 80%.
Probably the GPS.

Mike