D800 battery life.

Home · Register · Search · Software · Hosting · Software · Join Upload & Sell

FM Forum Rules
Nikon SLRs, primes, and zooms lenses reviews

FM Forums \| Nikon-mount SLRs \| Join Upload & Sell
1 2 3 end

Archive 2012 · D800 battery life.

bbvaj
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #1 · D800 battery life.

I would like to know what battery life you are getting from D800. Coming from 7D it feels the life is pretty bad. I want to know if its normal or ...

I am getting about 375-450 shots/charge... I do review my stuff quite a bit. But i used to do the same with my 7D and could get close to a 800-1000/charge. I have a couple of En El 15 batteries and the situation is the same with both.

Apr 16, 2012 at 04:52 PM

Creative Edge
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #2 · D800 battery life.

I cant compare it to a 7D but coming from a d700 and D7000 I find the battery to be pretty bad also..
I'm getting somewhere in the ballpark of what you posted.

Now I just carry an extra battery as with the D700 I never worried about extra batteries.

Apr 16, 2012 at 05:01 PM

Dave_EP
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #3 · D800 battery life.

The batteries are probably never going to last as long as the 7D because they are smaller. Get used to it because it's not going to change.

I shot a short wedding with one battery before I got the grip, no problems - 679 shots with battery left over. Yes I chimp, but not excessively.

However, as with all my cameras, I have the grip now and use Eneloop AA batteries instead. I can generally shoot all day and all night and never change the batteries out.

Apr 16, 2012 at 05:03 PM

Creative Edge
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #4 · D800 battery life.

Dave,
I have the grip and had forgotten about that option. How many AA's does the grip hold?

Apr 16, 2012 at 05:07 PM

Dave_EP
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #5 · D800 battery life.

Creative Edge wrote:
Dave,
I have the grip and had forgotten about that option. How many AA's does the grip hold?

8 AAs.

Apr 16, 2012 at 05:08 PM

Mishu01
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #6 · D800 battery life.

I have no luck with my battery on D800. I have three batteries and two chargers since I own a D7000 as well and there is no difference. If I shoot constantly I may get 4..500 pictures on a charge but if I leave the camera ON for 2...3 hours without to use it the battery is draining very fast.... With D700, D300 or D5000 it happen to forget for days the camera ON in the bag without to drain completely the battery. This is very strange since for instance EN-EL3e was 1500mAh while EN-EL15 is 1900mAh... Other people are reporting 1000 pictures a day and just one or two lines drop... this is far from what I have...

I am sure it must be something wrong with my camera.

I would be very interested if any of you can make a test... to put a fully charged battery in D800 and then leave the camera ON for three hours in order to see afterwards how much was draining... this will help me to understand better the state of my camera...

Apr 16, 2012 at 05:27 PM

JimFox
Offline
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #7 · D800 battery life.

The battery life seems fine to me. This is just off the top of my head. But I have gone out with one battery and have done 2 sessions at the beach in 2 days, and I shot roughly 700 to 800 shots each time, so figure 1500 shots, and the battery had approximately 25% left...

So for the OP, perhaps it's in your technique?

Jim

Apr 16, 2012 at 05:36 PM

bbvaj
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #8 · D800 battery life.

I do review my images quite a bit by zooming in to 100% to check focus (using center button zoom function to medium magnification). I also shoot in live view when shooting some landscapes. But still 400 is kind of bad for a battery in camera of this class. With similar technique i easily managed 1000/charge from 7D.

All that aside, i am still a newbie. Please make some suggestions to improve my technique. I am willing to learn.

BTW, thanks for the responses.

Apr 16, 2012 at 06:08 PM

BrianJarvis
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #9 · D800 battery life.

I'm interested in hearing more real world experiences as well, My D800 is on order and from the looks of this I should get a second battery for a backup

Apr 16, 2012 at 06:26 PM

AndreasE
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #10 · D800 battery life.

My D8000 is now approaching 3000 photos since I got it.
Battery life is about the same as on the D7000: about 1000 photos per charge.

rgds,
Andy

Apr 16, 2012 at 06:27 PM

ryanpfleger
Offline
• •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #11 · D800 battery life.

AndreasE wrote:
My D8000 is now approaching 3000 photos since I got it.
Battery life is about the same as on the D7000: about 1000 photos per charge.

rgds,
Andy

Crap, I haven't even got my D800 yet, and you've already got the D8000!

Seriously though, 1000 per charge nearly fills up the memory cards I have, so it sounds like battery life won't be a significant problem for me

Apr 16, 2012 at 06:51 PM

Mishu01
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #12 · D800 battery life.

AndreasE wrote:
My D8000 is now approaching 3000 photos since I got it.
Battery life is about the same as on the D7000: about 1000 photos per charge.

rgds,
Andy

Hi Andy,

If you leave the camera ON for a few hours do you find a significant battery drainage or not? With D7000 no significant drainage for me... with D800 it is very high on my situation. That is hurting because otherwise my camera works flawlessly...

Apr 16, 2012 at 06:52 PM

Kittyk
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #13 · D800 battery life.

i have 1 battery with 2pins left (so at about 1pin on old LiOns) on D800 where i needed one and half battery with D700.
I have one battery for whole wedding day what i never experienced before with D700.
I rarely use preview and AF about 50% of time. Metering is set to very long time (minute or so) and i never switch camera off during the day. No VR, no video, no live view, no built-in flash.

Apr 16, 2012 at 06:56 PM

AndreasE
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #14 · D800 battery life.

Mishu01 wrote:
AndreasE wrote:
My D8000 is now approaching 3000 photos since I got it.
Battery life is about the same as on the D7000: about 1000 photos per charge.

rgds,
Andy

Hi Andy,

If you leave the camera ON for a few hours do you find a significant battery drainage or not? With D7000 no significant drainage for me... with D800 it is very high on my situation. That is hurting because otherwise my camera works flawlessly...
Mishu,
not that I recall it in the approx 3 weeks since I have the camera.

If interested in some of the relations of energy consumption in DLSR, you might take a look in my blog. I wrote about it last year. Maybe your usage pattern is different to mine.
http://nikonandye.wordpress.com/cameras/digital-bodies-consumer/nikon-d5100-review/nikon-d5100-review-page-4/

rgds,
Andy

Apr 16, 2012 at 07:13 PM

Rodolfo Paiz
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #15 · D800 battery life.

My D800 is on its second charge, so not a whole lot of information yet. This charge was begun about 10 days ago, and has 670 shots in it. I often do a quick chimp to check a histogram or precise focus in challenging situations, and I also turn off the camera when I'm not using it. I now have 20% remaining.

I'll leave the camera on, starting 3pm, to see how much it drains while on with a lens cap. Shouldn't be much, since I'd expect it to go to sleep in 15 minutes or so and use only a trickle of energy. But we'll see.

Apr 16, 2012 at 07:14 PM

Kittyk
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #16 · D800 battery life.

Rodolfo Paiz wrote:
My D800 is on its second charge, so not a whole lot of information yet. This charge was begun about 10 days ago, and has 670 shots in it. I often do a quick chimp to check a histogram or precise focus in challenging situations, and I also turn off the camera when I'm not using it. I now have 20% remaining.

I'll leave the camera on, starting 3pm, to see how much it drains while on with a lens cap. Shouldn't be much, since I'd expect it to go to sleep in 15 minutes or so and use only a trickle of energy. But we'll see.

with almost all nikons i have ever had, the switching off have no effect on consumption. it is just to avoid accidental focusing and so on when it is in camera bag and for good feeling of old school people.
once the metering is off, display off, all data written, then it uses about the same power as switched off.

Apr 16, 2012 at 07:38 PM

AndreasE
Offline
• • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #17 · D800 battery life.

ryanpfleger wrote:
AndreasE wrote:
My D8000 is now approaching 3000 photos since I got it.
Battery life is about the same as on the D7000: about 1000 photos per charge.

rgds,
Andy

Crap, I haven't even got my D800 yet, and you've already got the D8000!

Seriously though, 1000 per charge nearly fills up the memory cards I have, so it sounds like battery life won't be a significant problem for me

See, how simple plain mistakes create the next rumor wave :-)
My brain mixed up the 4digit D7000 and the 3digit D800.

Batterylife is critically dependent on your shooting behavior. If somebody is world champion in chimping he might not do so with 1.0000 photos on one charge.

Turning the monitor OFF (image review, option c4) helps twice. First, the time when the monitor is on is about 1.000x energy consuming than the camera in pure standby (turned-on, metering off, monitor off). Second, if the image review is turned on, the write speed of the SD/CF card is reduced by ca. 50% - which means the camera is twice as long in the power hungry mode of writing data.

Based on the experience in the past. Getting between 300 and 1500 photos per charge is rather an issue of custom settings the owner chooses plus the time each shot is beeing looked at, rather than a camera or battery issue.

rgds,
Andy

Apr 16, 2012 at 07:53 PM

Rodolfo Paiz
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #18 · D800 battery life.

There's something odd here, though. What I remember from my earlier cameras is that they would go to sleep after a few minutes. After an hour, my D800 is still on. If there's a new setting for this that I missed, or the camera is factory-set not to sleep (which I'd call a bug), then that could affect battery draw and produce some of the odd "I'm getting 400 shots" experiences.

Apr 16, 2012 at 08:01 PM

mshi
Offline
• • • •
Upload & Sell: Off

p.1 #19 · D800 battery life.

It really depends on the image quality settings you choose to use. 14-bit uncompressed raw drains battery much quicker than Small-Basic-JPG.

Apr 16, 2012 at 08:02 PM

Avi B
Offline
• • • • •
Upload & Sell: On

p.1 #20 · D800 battery life.

Rodolfo Paiz wrote:
There's something odd here, though. What I remember from my earlier cameras is that they would go to sleep after a few minutes. After an hour, my D800 is still on. If there's a new setting for this that I missed, or the camera is factory-set not to sleep (which I'd call a bug), then that could affect battery draw and produce some of the odd "I'm getting 400 shots" experiences.

I dont have this camera but I would agree with this 100%. My old D70s turns off the meter etc after about 5 seconds. Most of the camera goes to sleep after a couple of minutes. If the D800 is not doing this, then that would definitely draw the battery.

Apr 16, 2012 at 08:28 PM

1 2 3 end
FM Forums \| Nikon-mount SLRs \| Join Upload & Sell 1 2 3 end