A700 battery life

[Grendo]

I get about 300 raw+jpeg shots per battery charge on my A700 (v4) cam. I'd be curious to compare this against what others are finding... I typically shoot AP, AF set to single, drive set to continuous/low, eye-start off with flash used on maybe 1/3 of the shots at -1 to -2 comp. I'm always at, or over ISO 800 as most of my shots are low-light handheld and I typically shoot with a 50/1.7 or occasionally 28/2.8. This is somewhat acceptable to me as that's about how many shots I take on a typical evening outing, but it means that I always need to remember to keep my main or spare fully charged beforehand.

[Dr. Harout]

Grendo, welcome to the forum.
If you are referring to 300 shots per session, then I think it's a bit low, except if you have the A700 with grip sensor (because even if the eye-start is switched off, the grip sensor still activates the camera as long as you're holding it).
Or I might find another explanation such as using the flash in big ceremonial halls (where it is used at maximum power).
Probably there are other explanations too

[Grendo]

Thanks for the feedback. I think 300 is a bit low too. Interesting idea about the grip sensor... I looked in my menu and noticed that eye start was turned off, but the "w/grip" option was switched on in the menu. I've now disabled it--will this change the behavior you mention?

[Dr. Harout]

It will disable the eye start from the grip sensor, but not disable the grip sensor.
But if you don't touch the grip sensor till the camera enters sleep mode, than as far as I remember touching it afterward will not reactivate the camera, thus not draining battery.
I have found the best solution for my use: just shut down the camera.

[lattiboy]

I recently went to Portland for the weekend and was able to get 800 shots with a LOT of deleting and reviewing. Variable ISOs w/ NR off and AF-A enabled. No eye-start.

[Grendo]

Wow, that's quite a span of shots. I'm shooting low-light candids at cosplay events so turning off the camera isn't optimal as I need to be ready to quickly snap off a shot should a subject do something interesting. I typically let the cam dangle on the neck strap or carry it by the grip--although it now sounds like the grip sensor might be part of my problem so I may rethink the latter. Perhaps I'll try disabling the LCD to conserve power and see how that works out, although the idea of not being able to spot check the histogram makes me nervous. In the end, though, switching batteries is pretty quick so I may just leave well enough alone.

[kysham]

Hi Grendo, may I know what lens you are using most of the time? I found out that the Sigma 70-200 with built in HSM do use a lot more battery than the conventional screw drive lenses. My friends who were using SSM driven lenses, such as the CZ 24-70 also reports a big jump in battery consumption compared to conventional lenses.

[Grendo]

I have the 50/1.7 on the cam about 1/2 the time. The remaining is split between my 28/2.8 and the kit lens if I need to shoot wide.

[Grendo]

I shot for about 3 hours tonight at an event and paid careful attention to the LCD--yes, indeed I confirmed that it's being activated frequently as it bounces against my chest. Looks like that's where all my battery power is going =(.