Fred Miranda wrote:
I found the SL and SL2 battery life similar so I don’t think IBIS has much ill-effect here. Not sure if this has been improved with the SL2-S but it’s unlikely since these models share the same battery.
I had a SL2 and I swapped it for a SL2s a couple of months ago and from my personal experience, the battery in the SL2s last longer compared to the bigger brother.
The SL2s has the most recent firwmare, if battery life has been optimized via software, whenever the update lands on the SL2 (september/october, allegedly?) you may be able to see some welcome improvements
simonedf wrote:
I had a SL2 and I swapped it for a SL2s a couple of months ago and from my personal experience, the battery in the SL2s last longer compared to the bigger brother.
The SL2s has the most recent firwmare, if battery life has been optimized via software, whenever the update lands on the SL2 (september/october, allegedly?) you may be able to see some welcome improvements
Lot of expectations for the next firmware version for the SL2!
simonedf wrote:
I had a SL2 and I swapped it for a SL2s a couple of months ago and from my personal experience, the battery in the SL2s last longer compared to the bigger brother.
The SL2s has the most recent firwmare, if battery life has been optimized via software, whenever the update lands on the SL2 (september/october, allegedly?) you may be able to see some welcome improvements
I've read rumors the SL2's new firmware was scheduled for July but that does not seem to be holding water. My guess is some day in September.
Fred Miranda wrote:
I've read rumors the SL2's new firmware was scheduled for July but that does not seem to be holding water. My guess is some day in September.
Few more days to squeeze out of July 2021. But not expecting any big surprises at 1159. My imagination has me believing since the SL2 is at the flagship level for its class, Leica is busy going that extra +++ mile/KM to include some goodies that we might not be thinking about. Increased battery life would be wunderbar !
Just to follow up on this, yesterday I shot about 500+ photos with a single battery on the SL2s, under about 35°C, humid, and with moderate chimping included. I really can't complain, and I never managed to get so many shots with the SL2.
I did not notice SL2 battery life improvement with FW 3.0 so if SL2S has noticeably better battery life it may be a hardware difference.
The extended EVF option does make a difference, and as Fred mentioned the rear LCD consumes less power than the EVF.
The SL2 does not appear to be a PD spec device. If using the camera with PD charger attached, the camera still drains internal battery, albeit very slowly. The result is it acts like PD so perhaps a moot point.
This comes into play when recording long video. I filmed kids Christmas play in 5k/24 with portable Anker battery connected. Camera battery indicator after 1hr showed ~90% plus charge remaining.
Also third party lenses seem to draw more power than Leica SL lenses. The 50/1.4 S-Pro for example is power hungry. So is the Sigma 35/1.2. I'm not sure if this is a design difference in those lenses or if arbitrarily imposed by Leica to discourage third party lenses
simonedf wrote:
Just to follow up on this, yesterday I shot about 500+ photos with a single battery on the SL2s, under about 35°C, humid, and with moderate chimping included. I really can't complain, and I never managed to get so many shots with the SL2.
I've never really counted til now, looks like I created 301 DNG files yesterday with the SL2 + SL 50 using my normal shooting procedures and have what looks like about 50% battery remaining. I'll try to remember to see how many more photos I can get out of the remaining 50% battery power. Just curious now that you brought it up with a specific count.
Anyone ever shoot with the M9? I probably got on average 350 shots until the battery went between 50% and 25%, which later on in the M9's life, Leica set as a cutoff point for switching to a fresh battery. And the off/on trick to save battery, or setting a short delay before sleep would activate, didn't really work unless you were willing to wait the seconds for it to wake up again. Shooting events, I disabled sleep and never turned it off. Needed about 5 batteries to get through a day with it as a second camera system to my DSLRs.
I bought the Nitecore M240 USB charger and agree it's a great travel companion to charge a battery from a power bank while on the go. I have found that frequently the batteries charge to only 85-90% on it, rather than 100% with the official Leica charger.
I have the SL2s, I found battery life, not terrible, but far from great. Sony is way better, and even my Pana S1 used to have better battery life.
I am able to get around 950 images per battery, perhaps a bit more depending on the weather and how often i am checking the back panel, (I only do photos).
I have 3 batteries, and haven't yet had the need for a fourth, usually use 1 and a bit of the second.
