Forgot Password
Pentax Camera Forums Home
 

Reply
Show Printable Version Search this Thread
08-02-2014, 03:33 AM   #31
Loyal Site Supporter
Loyal Site Supporter




Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Gladys, Virginia
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 27,603
QuoteOriginally posted by kkoether Quote
One has to wonder if some of the variances are due to the amount of time elapsed verses the number of shots. It seems like we are getting a large amount of exposures all in one day but if you spread in out longer you may get less shots per charge.
Perhaps. I think the biggest drains on the battery are (a) using the LCD screen and (b) using live view/video. I don't use on camera flash, but I suppose that would drain battery as well.

08-02-2014, 06:42 AM   #32
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Long Island, NY
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 593
I think power drainage is related as much to how much time the camera is turned on and being used, as it is to how many shots a person takes.

Running time-lapse with instant preview on, the K3 would go steadily for 3-4 hours, 3,000-4,000 shots before needing a battery change. The K5-II and K5-IIs can go a little longer, another hour or so. Shooting in a more normal way, like on a weekend in the city, I'd easily only need one battery (though I do always carry a spare).

Personally, I think battery performance on the K5, K5-II/s and K3 Pentax cameras is outstanding, which is one of the reasons I like them. I wish mirrorless would catch up in this regard... it's one of my only complaints about the Fuji cameras – the comparatively poor battery performance.
08-02-2014, 07:31 AM   #33
Veteran Member




Join Date: Nov 2013
Posts: 4,854
QuoteOriginally posted by DRabbit Quote
I think power drainage is related as much to how much time the camera is turned on and being used, as it is to how many shots a person takes.

Running time-lapse with instant preview on, the K3 would go steadily for 3-4 hours, 3,000-4,000 shots before needing a battery change. The K5-II and K5-IIs can go a little longer, another hour or so. Shooting in a more normal way, like on a weekend in the city, I'd easily only need one battery (though I do always carry a spare).

Personally, I think battery performance on the K5, K5-II/s and K3 Pentax cameras is outstanding, which is one of the reasons I like them. I wish mirrorless would catch up in this regard... it's one of my only complaints about the Fuji cameras – the comparatively poor battery performance.
Reflex do not need power to display the viewfinder...
08-02-2014, 08:00 AM   #34
Site Supporter
Site Supporter




Join Date: Nov 2010
Location: Long Island, NY
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 593
QuoteOriginally posted by Nicolas06 Quote
Reflex do not need power to display the viewfinder...
I'm aware of that.

08-02-2014, 08:06 AM   #35
Otis Memorial Pentaxian
stevebrot's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Vancouver (USA)
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 42,007
The title for this thread asks about realistic shots per charge and the original post adds a few qualifiers (no live view and limited chimping). I have been following and reading most of the comments and think I can summarize our user's experience in a few points:
  • Thousands of shots per charge are possible
  • Several contributors to this thread get less than 1000 shots per charge
  • Frequent use of the rear LCD will severely reduce the number of shots per charge
  • To stretch the amount of usage:
    • Turn off the info display
    • Turn off instant review
    • Don't use live view
    • Don't chimp
A few other factors that are sort of a given:
  • Video is power hungry
  • The on-board flash is power hungry
One thing that did not come up in the discussion is whether frequent AF use (say tracking moving objects in AF-C mode) may decrease the shots per charge. I think it safe to assume that the answer is yes.


Steve
08-02-2014, 09:18 AM   #36
Pentaxian
kkoether's Avatar

Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Huber Heights, OH, USA
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 730
Original Poster
QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
The title for this thread asks about realistic shots per charge and the original post adds a few qualifiers (no live view and limited chimping). I have been following and reading most of the comments and think I can summarize our user's experience in a few points:
  • Thousands of shots per charge are possible
  • Several contributors to this thread get less than 1000 shots per charge
  • Frequent use of the rear LCD will severely reduce the number of shots per charge
  • To stretch the amount of usage:
    • Turn off the info display
    • Turn off instant review
    • Don't use live view
    • Don't chimp
A few other factors that are sort of a given:
  • Video is power hungry
  • The on-board flash is power hungry
One thing that did not come up in the discussion is whether frequent AF use (say tracking moving objects in AF-C mode) may decrease the shots per charge. I think it safe to assume that the answer is yes.


Steve

Both days I shot around 3500 on one battery AF.C was in almost constant use. Hydroplanes don't pose so to speak. You have to grab your shots on the fly.








Last edited by kkoether; 08-02-2014 at 09:24 AM.
08-02-2014, 10:29 AM   #37
New Member




Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Seattle
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 6
This is slightly off-thread but if you want to get an idea of how good generic batteries are - weigh them! The real battery weighs 77gm on my digital scales; cheap generics typically weigh about 50gm. Battery capacity relates pretty well to weight so a 50gm battery will probably give two thirds of the number of shots (Not bad really as they are much, much, cheaper) Good quality generics often weigh the same as the original.

10-11-2014, 01:14 AM   #38
Pentaxian
dosdan's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,741
Took 2,054 K-3 raw shots today at a Little Athletics weekly meeting. (Last week it was 1,768 shots at the same place.) Forgot to look at the battery indicator to see if it showed any drop, but the camera was still behaving normally.

Dan.
10-24-2014, 06:30 PM   #39
Inactive Account




Join Date: Aug 2014
Posts: 76
I easily get 1900 (minimum) shots on a fully charged battery in jpeg Large files. Considerably more if I don't use LV or preview photos. (Guessing 2500) Note that I don't use flash. I am very impressed with the battery life!
II have used "save to RAW & JPEG" shooting heavily all day and not run out of battery!

Last edited by Pentaxaholic; 11-03-2014 at 07:56 AM. Reason: tested and numbers were off
03-02-2015, 02:55 PM   #40
Pentaxian
dosdan's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,741
I took 2,271 K-3 raw shots at a futsal competition yesterday on 1 battery. I forgot to look at the battery meter at the end. I had both the shot review and back LCD status display turned off, as I didn't have time to view them.

Dan.
03-02-2015, 03:23 PM   #41
Veteran Member
emalvick's Avatar

Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Davis, CA
Photos: Gallery
Posts: 1,642
Hmm... I spent last week on a vacation shooting about 400 shots per day. I was getting two days on a battery (about 800 shots)... I was rotating among three batteries, two were OEM and one was a generic. I'm fairly certain the generic only got about 600 shots, but it isn't really a complaint.
03-02-2015, 03:54 PM   #42
Pentaxian
dosdan's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,741
Perhaps the difference in power consumption is due to how often the rear LCD display is illuminated? The 2,271 taken shots was based on consecutive filename numbering. In a few parts I managed to immediately review what I knew would be dull/dud shots and deleted 74 shots i.e. 2,197 shots were left to be transferred. But overall, the back LCD was not used much.

A 2nd point is with AF.C bursts, it's possible that there will often either be no AF adjustment or only a small adjustment between shots in a burst. Whereas with all AF.S single-shot shooting, AF will probably adjust more for each shot. Against that, with AF.C the AF will be working continually when I'm tracking the action before pressing the shutter release button.

A 3rd and perhaps much more important point is that I wasn't using SR.

A 4th point is I have sensor dust shaking operating every time I turn on. With the type of action shooting I did yesterday, this sensor shaking would have occurred less often than a day full of turn-on-and-shoot/turn-on-and-review activity. (I don't think that wake-up-from-sleeping shooting performs sensor shaking.)


Dan.

Last edited by dosdan; 03-02-2015 at 04:16 PM.
03-02-2015, 03:58 PM   #43
Otis Memorial Pentaxian
stevebrot's Avatar

Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: Vancouver (USA)
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 42,007
QuoteOriginally posted by dosdan Quote
Perhaps the difference is due to how often the rear LCD display is illuminated?
It is my suspicion that those users who are getting incredible number of shots/charge have preview turned off, never use flash or AF, and also use faster shutter speeds (holding that mirror up is a big source of power drain).


Steve
03-02-2015, 04:10 PM   #44
Pentaxian
dosdan's Avatar

Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Brisbane, Australia
Photos: Gallery | Albums
Posts: 1,741
QuoteOriginally posted by stevebrot Quote
use faster shutter speeds (holding that mirror up is a big source of power drain).

This was a daytime indoor action event relying partly on natural lighting, so I used 1/800s shutter speed.

Dan.

Last edited by dosdan; 03-02-2015 at 04:17 PM.
Reply

Bookmarks
  • Submit Thread to Facebook Facebook
  • Submit Thread to Twitter Twitter
  • Submit Thread to Digg Digg
Tags - Make this thread easier to find by adding keywords to it!
action, batteries, battery, dan, day, dslr, eye, flash, grip, k-3, k200d, k3, pain, pentax k-3, shots, time, viewfinder, vision, weekend
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Removing Batteries Before Fully Charged Kenntak Pentax Camera and Field Accessories 5 12-26-2013 09:17 AM
Where can the number of shots/exposures be seen? Ztrejfer Pentax K-3 & K-3 II 12 12-12-2013 05:28 PM
Pentax k5 problem with fully charged battery? sarahparish91 Pentax K-5 & K-5 II 11 08-17-2013 09:26 AM
Number of PEFs on a SD card Arpe Photographic Technique 11 11-17-2008 04:52 PM
indication of number of images taken on a k100d? whitty Pentax DSLR Discussion 2 10-07-2007 08:27 AM



All times are GMT -7. The time now is 02:43 PM. | See also: NikonForums.com, CanonForums.com part of our network of photo forums!
  • Red (Default)
  • Green
  • Gray
  • Dark
  • Dark Yellow
  • Dark Blue
  • Old Red
  • Old Green
  • Old Gray
  • Dial-Up Style
Hello! It's great to see you back on the forum! Have you considered joining the community?
register
Creating a FREE ACCOUNT takes under a minute, removes ads, and lets you post! [Dismiss]
Top