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Archive 2016 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer

  
 
ontime
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Has anyone done any tests to see how many shots you can squeeze out of an X-T2's battery with the built-in intervalometer?

I noticed you can make the LCD black (although it's still on ) using the display button, which would probably hugely improve battery life over time.

I wonder if there's a way to turn off EVF and LCD while the intervalometer is firing.

Test results
See bottom of post for detailed settings. There may be a few test shots included in the frame count, causing small discrepancies... this is not meant to be a strict experiment but to provide ballpark estimates.
  1. "Astrophotography" settings (X-T2: 30s exposure, shot every 1s, infinite shots, LCD + eye detect): 224 frames, 1h 58m uptime.
  2. "Astrophotography" settings with EVF eye detect only (X-T2: 30s exposure, shot every 1s, infinite shots, Eye detect only): 246 frames, 2h 6m uptime.


Camera information for all tests unless otherwise stated:
Camera: X-T2
Firmware: Launch (will find version later)
Batteries: 1, no grip
Cards: 32GB Lexar 2000x, 64GB 2000x
Lens: 18-55 @ 18mm, OIS off
Charged battery to full before messing with settings, didn't record % (whoops) but assume >95%

Settings: "Astrophotography"
Focus: Manual
Exposure: ISO 1600, f2.8, 30s
LENR: Disabled
LCD Setting: rear screen + eye detect
Shutter: Mechanical
File output: RAW
Card write: Sequential
Interval timer settings: 1s between shots, infinite shot

Edited on Oct 10, 2016 at 01:10 PM · View previous versions



Oct 04, 2016 at 11:55 AM
ontime
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Looks like I may have to do some tests on my own here. I'll think about methods and post results if anyone cares. It's hard to plan out time lapses if you don't know if you're camera's gonna die mid sequence.


Oct 04, 2016 at 08:17 PM
svassh
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Always curious about this feature what are your planned uses for this?


Oct 05, 2016 at 10:40 PM
Macro
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Have you considered using an external power source to remove the limitations of one battery?


Oct 05, 2016 at 11:06 PM
ontime
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


I plan on taking the camera out for time lapses in the backcountry, e.g.:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtoyama/26382925415/in/dateposted/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtoyama/25777833814/in/dateposted/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mtoyama/26316462461/in/dateposted/

I'm cool with carrying a few batteries, but I'd like to avoid additional power sources or grips as they add a lot of weight. So knowing how long I can shoot on a single battery is important.

Shot until the camera died on the first two time lapses linked.



Oct 06, 2016 at 12:34 AM
TheEmrys
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


I would also be interested to see how it does with and without the grip. The three batteries could be quite a boon.


Oct 06, 2016 at 12:56 AM
TheEmrys
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Some very fun work there. Makes me miss the Cascades. How long did it last for you?


Oct 06, 2016 at 01:00 AM
ontime
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Doing the first test tonight.

Camera: X-T2
Firmware: Launch (will find version later)
Batteries: 1, no grip
Cards: 32GB Lexar 2000x, 64GB 2000x
Lens: 18-55 @ 18mm, OIS off
Charged battery to full before messing with settings, didn't record % (whoops) but assume >95%

Settings "Astrophotography"
Focus: Manual
Exposure: ISO 1600, f2.8, 30s
LENR: Disabled
LCD Setting: rear screen + eye detect
Shutter: Mechanical
File output: RAW
Card write: Sequential
Interval timer settings: 1s between shots, infinite shots

I'm somewhat curious about these settings and how they interact with battery life:
- mechanical va electronic shutter
- put LCD/evf in eye detect mode to keep screen off



Oct 07, 2016 at 12:07 AM
ontime
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


"Astrophotography" settings above lasted for 224 frames, starting at 9:40 PM and dying at 11:38 PM. That's not very good. I'll tweak some settings today and try again.


Oct 07, 2016 at 04:22 PM
iamjoenish
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


^^^ Thank you!


Oct 07, 2016 at 08:54 PM
dhachey
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


That's somewhat worse than the published CIPA spec (340 shots), but probably consistent with your long exposure. Why not use a USB battery pack to power the body?

ontime wrote:
"Astrophotography" settings above lasted for 224 frames, starting at 9:40 PM and dying at 11:38 PM. That's not very good. I'll tweak some settings today and try again.




Oct 07, 2016 at 09:23 PM
millsart
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


I thought the Fuji's had the ability to go to sleep between frames when using the intervalomter setting ? Camera internally still keeps time but wakes up as needed to take the shot.

Of course having also owned a few Sony, Leica, m4/3 and Nikon camera's over the last year or two perhaps I'm mixing up features with a different brand ?



Oct 08, 2016 at 09:57 AM
Daniel Smith
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Having a feature the camera can't adequately power is a design screw up.



Oct 08, 2016 at 03:16 PM
dhachey
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Daniel Smith wrote:
Having a feature the camera can't adequately power is a design screw up.


Unless you throw in the vertical grip with two more batteries. Most of the small mirrorless bodies have low capacity batteries (1,250 mAh for the X-T2) compared to larger DSLRs. It's a significant limitation IMHO. The X-T2 is causing me to reevaluate my shooting style, going retro so to speak. I'm taking fewer images and thinking more about what I'm shooting.



Oct 08, 2016 at 10:32 PM
millsart
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Daniel Smith wrote:
Having a feature the camera can't adequately power is a design screw up.



Wouldn't having a very large battery, thus ruining the size and ergonomics that seem important to a majority of mirrorless buyers, just to allow for a feature that is utilized by a small minority be more of a screw up ?

What should they have done, made the camera the size of a traditional DSLR so you could have a large DSLR sized battery in the camera, so that yes, it could sustain long interval periods, but at the cost of probably alienating most of your market who does not want a camera that large and who probably doesn't do a lot of interval shooting either.




Oct 08, 2016 at 10:39 PM
cputeq
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


Daniel Smith wrote:
Having a feature the camera can't adequately power is a design screw up.


The camera was recording data for 112 minutes -- almost 2 hours straight. I think that's more than 'adequate'. But I'm curious what you think 'adequate' is? Infinite shots? 1000 shots at 30 seconds each?


Also -- there's a grip with two more batteries, and you can power via the grip's DC power plug also.




Oct 08, 2016 at 10:43 PM
cputeq
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


ontime wrote:
I noticed you can make the LCD black (although it's still on ) using the display button, which would probably hugely improve battery life over time.

.



Are you sure this is correct? I just tested my XT2 by putting it in "evf sensor" only (no LCD) and the LCD definitely stays black -- not dark dark grey, but black

As a matter of fact, I set my interval shooting with 1 minute between shots -- the camera turns off, because it wouldn't read my eye to the EVF and made the slight noise it makes when it sleeps...then it woke back up 3 seconds before the next exposure.



Oct 08, 2016 at 10:58 PM
ontime
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


cputeq wrote:
Are you sure this is correct? I just tested my XT2 by putting it in "evf sensor" only (no LCD) and the LCD definitely stays black -- not dark dark grey, but black

As a matter of fact, I set my interval shooting with 1 minute between shots -- the camera turns off, because it wouldn't read my eye to the EVF and made the slight noise it makes when it sleeps...then it woke back up 3 seconds before the next exposure.


It is not correct, I just pushed the button right at the same time as the camera turned itself off for the interval timer. You can ignore my statement.

However, during long exposures the LCD or EVF will stay on (depending on your settings) showing a countdown timer for the exposure. I believe this is one reason why I'm getting so few frames when using the interval timer with 30s exposures.



Oct 10, 2016 at 11:59 AM
ontime
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


cputeq wrote:
The camera was recording data for 112 minutes -- almost 2 hours straight. I think that's more than 'adequate'. But I'm curious what you think 'adequate' is? Infinite shots? 1000 shots at 30 seconds each?

Also -- there's a grip with two more batteries, and you can power via the grip's DC power plug also.



I agree with this - I don't really expect the camera to last long when doing 30s interval timer shots.



Oct 10, 2016 at 12:02 PM
ontime
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · X-T2 battery life and intervalometer


I have posted additional test results in the original message. I'm going to move away from astrophotography-type settings and do a more traditional (e.g. daytime) time lapse test next.



Oct 10, 2016 at 01:11 PM
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