Originally posted by Caat I hope not. Unless they've implemented fantastic power management which means its impact on battery life is minimal so I can just leave it on all the time. Lots of photograph doesn't need it on but its nice to have direct access to it with a button for those shots that do.
There is practically
NO DIFFERENCE in power consumption whether the SR is ON or OFF! So if you have been turning it off to save battery life, you don't need to do that any more and just leave it ON.
SR only starts to function the moment before the exposure, so in most cases, it only works for a fraction of a second. And because of its floating sensor design, you still need to use power to center the sensor when SR is OFF - and for the same duration of time. So in effect, you are using more or less the same amount of power (to center or move the sensor around) with SR OFF or ON; and there is almost no impact on battery life.