[chromo]

hi all,
Just wondering how long the battery will last if I set up for time lapse of say 1 shot every 30 seconds and keeping it running until the battery is flat ?

[rawr]

Well, 980 shots CIPA battery capacity for the K-5 (without flash) / 2 shots per minute = ... about 490 minutes.

Turn off the top LCD panel illumination, the AF focus assist LED, turn off the 'Instant review' chimping display on the rear LCD and a few other things and it may last even longer.

[RonHendriks1966]

When changing to jpg (when that is an option) I guess witth all things out (also SR) you could even get to 2000 I think.

[interested_observer]

You could get a grip and the original Pentax I think provides for 2 additional batteries while third party ones only have a single battery. The camera body also has a DC in 8.3 volts connection for an external power supply if you have a wall plug somewhere.

• https://www.google.com/search?q=pentax+k5+grip&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=or...ient=firefox-a
• https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5/209225-external-power-supply.html

and I think that this will also work...

• Pentax K-AC50 AC Adapter Kit 39364 B&H Photo Video

[chromo]

Of course we're not just talking photo count, but also the fact that the camera is continuously on.

[grhazelton]

You could get a grip and the original Pentax I think provides for 2 additional batteries while third party ones only have a single battery. The camera body also has a DC in 8.3 volts connection for an external power supply if you have a wall plug somewhere.

• https://www.google.com/search?q=pentax+k5+grip&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=or...ient=firefox-a
• https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-k-5/209225-external-power-supply.html

and I think that this will also work...

• Pentax K-AC50 AC Adapter Kit 39364 B&H Photo Video

Sorry, the original Pentax grip holds only one additional battery.

[siamthai]

Interesting, tell us when you've done this I think that the optimal will be as earlier said with displays and SR turned off and a grip with lithium batteries and off course the Pentax battery in the camera. The camera will automatically change to the grip when the battery in the camera don't have any power left.

[rawr]

Of course we're not just talking photo count, but also the fact that the camera is continuously on.

Well, if you feel like getting Excel out, you could do a chart showing the rate of camera battery depletion per shot taken. Axis X might be 'Battery Voltage', Axis Y might be ' Number of shots'.

Try a short run of say 100 shots on the self-timer, shooting just JPG's and with all battery optimisations enabled (top LCD off etc). Then open the starting JPG and each subsequent JPG (or 1 in 5 JPG's, whatever) in EXIFTOOL, and average the value of the entries (there are usually 4) for "Body Battery Voltage" in the image EXIF. Put the values for all shot images into Excel and produce a chart showing the rate of battery depletion from shot 1 to shot 100.

Then extrapolate out the rate of battery depletion shown in the voltage drop for those 100 shots in order to get an estimate of how long the camera will take before it dies, assuming it stops working at 0 volts.

The EXIF also has a simpler reading for "Body Battery State", which seems to just have text values like 'Close to Full' that may not be very useful in Excel but which may also give you a simpler way of reading the battery state (I guess) from image 1 to image 100.

[chromo]

Is that "EXIFTOOL" just a command line program ?

[chromo]

Oh yeah, I see how it works now.

[walter]

Taking 30 second exposures every 32 seconds with the built-in intervalometer, shooting RAW, my K-5 usually goes about 4 to 4.5 hours before the battery runs out. I'm usually shooting near or below freezing so it should be better with warmer weather.

I also seem to get much better battery life using an external intervalometer so you might give that a try. I haven't done any controlled tests and I can't imagine why it would make such significant difference, but it does seem help a lot.

[chromo]

Taking 30 second exposures every 32 seconds with the built-in intervalometer, shooting RAW, my K-5 usually goes about 4 to 4.5 hours before the battery runs out. I'm usually shooting near or below freezing so it should be better with warmer weather.

I also seem to get much better battery life using an external intervalometer so you might give that a try. I haven't done any controlled tests and I can't imagine why it would make such significant difference, but it does seem help a lot.

Excellent, thanks for that.
since I'll be shooting in daylight, say 100th sec, fully manual, low resolution, no shake reduction or auto focus or top lcd etc., I should be able to get a fair bit more than 4 or 5 hours then.
I'm about to have a garage built and though I might make a time lapsed video of it.

Cheers