p.11 #1 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Understand your concern on breakage. I have a magnetic breakaway USB 90 degree adapter attached to the camera, to a coiled USB cable to the battery. This should protect the port. Regarding sealing with ports open, not too happy about it. Have microphone and power ports open. I might try to rig something to help seal. I do have op/tech rain sleeves and hope that will be enough. Suggestions?
p.11 #2 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
colorchange2 wrote:
Understand your concern on breakage. I have a magnetic breakaway USB 90 degree adapter attached to the camera, to a coiled USB cable to the battery. This should protect the port. Regarding sealing with ports open, not too happy about it. Have microphone and power ports open. I might try to rig something to help seal. I do have op/tech rain sleeves and hope that will be enough. Suggestions?
Not sure what you are trying to solve with the power bank, I think you will be no where near to the temp issue that some people are reporting.
I shoot more that 5 TB of video in the last month between -5 and -20c and the battery worked in a similar way as in the R5. Everest base camp would be quite a bit warmer.
Bring the power bank just in case but I would not use it, trust me is a pita, I did use a R5c powered via USB for getting 8k 60 and is a liberation not to have to do it with the R5 II
p.11 #3 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
action99 wrote:
Not sure what you are trying to solve with the power bank, I think you will be no where near to the temp issue that some people are reporting.
I shoot more that 5 TB of video in the last month between -5 and -20c and the battery worked in a similar way as in the R5. Everest base camp would be quite a bit warmer.
Bring the power bank just in case but I would not use it, trust me is a pita, I did use a R5c powered via USB for getting 8k 60 and is a liberation not to have to do it with the R5 II...Show more →
I am concerned about power/charging access on ebc trek, and also battery life in sub freezing temps. The higher elevations often only have solar power, and if inclement, there may be little charging for days. The power bank sits inside my jacket and has the power to fully power the R5II for the cold issue. A coiled cord doesn't strike me as a major impediment, but the open seals (microphone and power) are a much greater concern.
p.11 #5 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I am a landscape photographer that occasionally shoots in cold weather. Just wanted to confirm whether battery life is noticeably or drastically reduced around 0C (32F) with E6P?
An interesting experiment would be to shoot both cameras for a fixed time, then take the battery out and measure temp with IR thermometer. If the R52 battery is noticeably cooler, this might prove the vents (or something unique to the design) is responsible for the heat loss?
p.11 #6 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I'm reviving this thread because it's winter again in the northern hemisphere and other threads not about R5II cold weather performance have had some discussions about cold weather performance.
Just adding some observations from a football game today at around the freezing point:
The R5II I used from late 2024 until a couple months ago would drain batteries very quickly (either the single battery in the camera or two in the vertical grip) in even moderate and comfortalbe temperatures. I'm not sure if it was the camera or that I was using the old BG-R10 grip for the R5/6/6II instead of the new BG-R20 grip. Most of the time I also used LP-E6NH batteries instead of the new 'P'. So there were a few variables at play that might have affected battery performance.
That said, a couple days ago I got a brand new R5II and as mentioned, just used it for a snowy football game where the temperature was at around the freezing point. I used the camera without the grip (I also got the BG-R20 but decided to try it without first) with the 100-300 and 1.4x TC. On average I got about 7000ish frames per LP-E6P battery (down to 15-25% SOC). The camera was set to 30 fps e-shutter and I used pre-capture a fair amount, too. The camera initially had fw 1.0.3 installed and I updated it to 1.1.1 prior to today's game.
Obviously this was not really cold conditions, but it's pretty much the opposite of what I expereinced with the previous R5II, which was a very early release copy. I'm cautiously optimistic that I may be able to stop using an external USB power bank for most situations where I previously used one.
p.11 #7 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I came to the site today to revisit this thread. First week of cold temps in south-central Alaska 3*F. R5II batteries dead in under two hours. Less than 50 frames. Canon f'd us R52 buyers.
p.11 #8 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
noms wrote:
I am a landscape photographer that occasionally shoots in cold weather. Just wanted to confirm whether battery life is noticeably or drastically reduced around 0C (32F) with E6P?
An interesting experiment would be to shoot both cameras for a fixed time, then take the battery out and measure temp with IR thermometer. If the R52 battery is noticeably cooler, this might prove the vents (or something unique to the design) is responsible for the heat loss?
32F should be fine. It's when you get down to single digits everything goes to shit.
p.11 #9 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Bliz wrote:
I came to the site today to revisit this thread. First week of cold temps in south-central Alaska 3*F. R5II batteries dead in under two hours. Less than 50 frames. Canon f'd us R52 buyers.
Sounds like you're sitting waiting for something to happen, or doing landscape photos? If you put the 'dead' battery under your insulating layers to warm it up again, and put it back in the camera, does it once again report a high state of charge?
p.11 #10 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Wildlife mostly. I take the battery out of the camera and into the chest pocket of my puffy coat when not shooting which is a real problem. Im not noticing much of an extended life doing so either.
p.11 #12 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Based on the R5II I used last year and earlier this year, which was progressively updated with the most recent fw as it was released, no, I didn't notice any obvious improvement.
I'm leaning more towards copy variation or a silent hardware fix applied at some point during regular production. As mentioned before, the camera I got last week seems to be very good with batteries at least around the freezing mark, which the previous camera didn't handle well. Not sure if date of manufacture is relevant, but the previous camera I used had a serial number starting 144 (August 2024 production) and the camera I just got starts with 155 (July 2025 production).
See this page over at TDP for how to determine the date of manufacture from Canon's current serial numbering system.
If you dig back through this thread, IIRC, there were some user reports from last winter claiming no battery performance problems in extreme cold, which obviously would be earlier production copies, which would suggest age isn't a clear identifier. But age could still be relevant if there was early copy variation that has since been addressed (how anyone outside of Canon would know or be able to determine this, I'm not sure...).
p.11 #14 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
That's just pathetic battery life and you must take very good care of them in your pockets. Looks almost like it's a warm weather camera only. Very curious if that's also the case for the R6III.
p.11 #15 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I shot an indoor event today with the R5II that spanned about 3 hours. Again in e-shutter, but 10 fps and only short 2-3 frame bursts most of the time, all with the 28-70/2. This time I used the BG-R20 grip with two 'P' batteries. I was just able to cover the full event with the two batteries and each accounted for just over 2,000 frames with battery SOC down to 7 and 9% at the end. I noticed the camera became relatively warm later into the event after a fair bit of shooting. I've noticed this with the previous R5IIs I've used. Heat was noticeable along the left side by the vent, along the top around the prism area and also somewhat noticeable in the grip area. I didn't notice similar heat on Sunday at the football game that generated well over 10K images, but it was also cold and windy, which certainly helped keep the camera relatively cool.
Around 2000 images per battery is generally fine for most events but I do some day-long events in the summer where shot count can easily be over 10K, for which I might have to revert to using a USB power bank as it will be more cost effective than adding more 'P' batteries that I won't need most of the time.
As a point of comparison, I also used an R6II in H+ EFCS without the grip as my secondary camera with the RF 135/1.8. With it I got about 800 frames before swapping at around 50% (to avoid the frame rate slowdown in EFCS once the battery drops below around 45%). The R6II was used much more sporadically. Prior to adding the R5II, I would have used the R6II as the main camera and an R6 as secondary and from that experience, the R6 typically burned through batteries noticeably faster than the R6II.
So while the R5II got a bit warm and the number of shots per battery was lower than over the weekend (totally different type of shoot and environmental factors), I don't feel it's worse than the R6II. I'm slightly curious if the fan grip would help keep the camera cooler even for stills, but unless one becomes available at a great price, I don't think the current warm camera battery performance is that concerning.
p.11 #16 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Uarctos wrote:
That's just pathetic battery life and you must take very good care of them in your pockets. Looks almost like it's a warm weather camera only. Very curious if that's also the case for the R6III.
Correct, the R5II is for temps 20*F and up My copy serial number is 143.......
p.11 #17 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
This is feeling a bit like the 1D3 era but worse because there's seems to be some sort of morse code to decipher to identify which cameras are affected. It sounds like it could be a certain combination of camera serial number, battery serial number, and firmware?
p.11 #19 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
Flowernut wrote:
I'm starting to think it may be tied to the camera settings. What is turned on what is off etc.
If it is then this should be easily tested and proved.
If someone that is experiencing bad battery performance in cold weather simply copies their settings to a file and send it to someone that is NOT experiencing the bad battery performance and have them test it out.
Ideally in the same temps and duration as the person that had issues.
Would be interesting to see the results.
Or another way would be to have both people save their settings then reset their cameras to factory defaults and test them in the cold.
p.11 #20 · Canon R5 Mk II - battery issue in cold weather
I noticed the same issue with the OEM batteries with my r5II and they’re expensive! I did some research, and one person spoke highly about a third-party brand called Kastar, which supports everything the OEM batteries do, including pre-continuous shooting. I bought two of them and use them with a battery grip, and to my surprise, this combination lasts longer than the OEM batteries!
I shoot in h+ mode, i shoot birds, it lasts me for 2 good sessions !
