Canon 7D: Battery Life Again — Why?

category: Cameras • 2 min read

Canon rates their LP-E6 battery in the Canon 7D as 1,000 photos on average. The average depends on the temperature, too hot - too cold will diminish that. Flash also influences the number of exposures. Something has to feed the blaze that comes out from the pop-up flash.

I’m amazed by the number of exposures I’m getting from my LP-E6s. It’s improving, I get more and more.

Over the last month, I’ve noticed that the battery is lasting a lot longer. A year ago, I was getting around 1,500 exposure, now I’m getting 3,000+ exposures per charge per battery. Either:

  1. Canon’s a genius, the batteries are improving with age instead of obeying the laws of physics.
  2. Canon’s a genius, the camera is using less and less energy. They should patent it and sell it as green technology to the auto industry.

  3. I’m doing something different.

  4. I’m not using the flash anymore or any less than before.

  5. Now, most of my shoots are outdoors, in the rain and the cold, so the battery life should be reduced.
  6. The only thing different is the lens that I use. December is always a slow month for business for me. So I’m doing a fair bit of bird photography with my new Sigma 120-400 f/4-5.6.

It looks like the Sigma’s 120-400 Optical Stabilization is much more efficient than the Canon’s Image Stabilization from the 70-200IS-L f/4. So now, I’m getting between 3,300 exposures to 3,500 exposure per battery charge. I don’t dare going past 3,500 exposures. I’ve noticed that when the charge is low:

  • The AF is significantly slower
  • The Vibration Reduction/Optical stabilization doesn’t work as well.
  • The camera feels more “sluggish”. I doubt that I get my 7 frames per sec, it’s closer to 4 frames per second (still not too shabby).

Canon 7D