Canon 7D: Battery Life Again. Why?

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 exposures, 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:
  • I’m not using the flash anymore or any less than before.
  • Now, most of my shoots are outdoors, in the rain and the cold, so the battery life should be reduced.
  • 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).