1DX Battery Drain?

[Nazareth]

I had posted this in another thread, but didn't weant to take over the htread, so I thought I'd ask the 1DX owners in this htread if the follow scenarios are good, bad, or just pain ugly? My 1 year old batteries seem to be draining quite rapidly- at least it seems that way-

I'm a landscape shooter mostly- taking other shots at rendom, but mostly landscape- I shoot on tripod, with mirror lockup and 10 second timer to allow rickety-ish tripd to settle down (I made mistake of buying a vanguard tripod- now I have tol ive with wobbly tripod till I get a real tripod) and I don't use live view except for shots that I can't see through the viewfinder becuase camera is too close to ground, or at wierd angle- these liveview shots make up around 18/14 of my shots, but I am quick to turn it off and resume viewfinder viewing to preserve charge on batteries-

I went out today and shot exactly 100 shots, in dark conditions that required long exposures from 20 seconds to 30 seconds dependign on how dark (it's very overcast, and I'm in the deep woods, shooting streams and foliage right now) I had a freshly charged battery i nthe camera- I get home, check the battry indicator, and lo and behold, it's down to 3/4 already- I'm assuming if I had shot another 100, I'd be down to aroudn 1/2 battery charge left at that rate-

This just seems like an aweful quick discharge of the battery to me? Or is this pretty much on par with other folk's experience? I remember taking my canon 7D out for days on end and shootign hte same way, mirror lockup, 10 secodn timer, live view roguhly 1/4 of the time- and coudl get several days of shooting?- I know hte 1DX uses more juice, but that much more?

 

[Ewinter]

I get this aswell.
I could be wrong, but I'm imagining the larger sensor, dual digic 5+, metering digic and higher bandwidth readouts all consume more power.
Also, I can't find an auto screen dimmer. Your screen may be running brighter than it would have been otherwise.

 

[Nazareth]

Thanks, so you're only getting about roiughly 300-400 per charge using timer and lockup etc? That just seems quite low, but liek you mentiioned, it could be the increased power demands, that that is about all I can really expect- which, if so, I'm ok with (I can only shoot for abotu 2-3 hours a day anyways, and get abotu 2 days before rechargign battery- so 2 days is ok, but just seems that I shoudl be at least able to get 3 days (about 6-8 hours or so)- Another poster in the other thread said it seemed not normal, but not sure if that poster shoots landscape with hte settings I mentioned or not- (I know the 10 secodn timer for soem reason drains batteries quicke,r or at least seems to, not sure abotu hrew mirror lockup though if that woudl or not)

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

100 exposures of 20-30 seconds each might use up the battery that much. There is power holding the mirror up and the shutter open, so compared to 1/100 sec shots, that's having the mirror up 20,000-30,000 times longer. Obviously, it does not use 20,000 times the power, but expect it to use a lot more if your mirror is up and shutter open for 40-50 minutes total.

 

[Nazareth]

ok thanks, that explains it better for me- I wasn't sure if the camera used extra juice holding hte mirror open or not- I guess I can try usign hte 2 second timer to see if that makes a significant difference, soudns liek it should-
I do have a remote I could use as well.

I have one question if you might know the answer- I have my "C-1" custom setting set to this mirror up, 10 second timer, with all the other settingsl ike F/22 Aperature priority etc set the way I like- My question is, if I have the camera on "C-1" for the whole 2-3 hours of shooting, does that mean the camera is constantly using power keepign hte mirror locked in open position for hte whole 3 hours? I suppsoe I coudl try settign the camera back to manual or aperture priority or whaqtever between shots to see if it made a sginificant difference or not-

 

[hwoarang5]

u didnt mention what lens and set up u are using i have the exact same issues, with TAMPON.. ahem i mean Tamron sp 24-70mm f2.8 vc... i change 3 copies of this before getting a proper copy that does drain batteries .. but in the end i sold it off for canon 24-70mmII far better reliability..

 

[Skulker]

ok thanks, that explains it better for me- I wasn't sure if the camera used extra juice holding hte mirror open or not- I guess I can try usign hte 2 second timer to see if that makes a significant difference, soudns liek it should-
I do have a remote I could use as well.

I have one question if you might know the answer- I have my "C-1" custom setting set to this mirror up, 10 second timer, with all the other settingsl ike F/22 Aperature priority etc set the way I like- My question is, if I have the camera on "C-1" for the whole 2-3 hours of shooting, does that mean the camera is constantly using power keepign hte mirror locked in open position for hte whole 3 hours? I suppsoe I coudl try settign the camera back to manual or aperture priority or whaqtever between shots to see if it made a sginificant difference or not-

I dont often take long exposure shots. But I forgot to charge the battery the other day and it was flashing for warning it was low BEFORE I started. I took about 75 shots at 30 Seconds each before it gave up. Sounds to me like something is draining the battery. Mine is also about a year old BTW.

And the mirror will drop after quite a short delay, if you don't take an exposure when its held up. At least I have not been able to stop it dropping

 

[Nazareth]

hwoarang5: Doesn't matter what lens really, my 17-40 canon, 85mm, 35mm- it's all abotu hte same amount of time-

Skulker- I set them irror lockup in my C1- setting which I then register- as long as I'm in C1 (whicvh i have set to: 10 secodn exposure, mirror lockup, F/22 (as well as vairious other settings ushc as white balance, etc) the mirror stays in lockup position-

So figuring you got roughly 75 shots at roughly 1/4 charge ([perhaps a little less with hte warnign flahsing) we'll figure 1/4 charge, then that woudl be about 300-ish (could maybe bwe generous and figure 400) total for a full charge- Maybe My camera is gettign abotu average then

Have you checked to see if your camera is affected by the canon 1DX recall? I've just had mine in for repairs due to the issue mentioend i nthe recall/advisory- My sensor arrived absolutely filthy- I shot with it that way for a year- avoiding gettign light areras in my photos if possible- thinking it was just dust- but coem to find out, the first canon 1DX's came with insufficient lubrication in the mirror box assembly which apparently was causing perhaps wear and tear which was causing debri inside hte camera to serttle on sensor- Check your camera by takign shot of sky at max aperture (F/22 or whatever largest number is) then boost the contrast soem on the photo in photoshop to see the spots better- if htere's a large amount of spots in upper left and right corners, your camera might be affected by this recall- You can see a photo of mine and what the debri will look like here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/55331349@N05/10348299754/#sizes/k/in/photostream/

And this photo was AFTER I got it back from repairs- they cleaned the center of sensor (it was nearly as covered in debri as the corners) but htey didn't clean hte corners- now I've got to send it back in again-

You can tell if your camera is affected IF it doesn't have an "A" just inside hte batter comp[artment or a black mark on the silver part right near opening OR if your seriel number has a 1-7 in the 6'th number from the left- your left as you're looking at it- Google 'canon 1DX product advisory' for more info and ot see photos of where to find those marks to check

 

[Skulker]

So are you using Live view to focus? Are you doing macro? I will try it on mine some time. I wanted to lock it up for star shots. I just find it a pain with my remote control timer if the mirror is sometimes up and sometimes down due to time lapse. So I use mirror lockup for macro but not remote timed shots.

My 1Dx is subject to the recall. I haven't sent it back as yet, but I've been meaning to for a while. My lens needs to go back for a software update as well. I never want to part with them but I should get them both done. BTW I'm not seeing any "dirt" on the sensor to talk of. The odd bit I see is usually when I've been swapping lenses in a hurry in the field.

 

[Nazareth]

If your camera is affected, you'll defiantely see debri in the corners, especially hte upper left corner from what I udnerstand- Have you taken a shot of a light area such as sky at F/22 and max zoom and checked yet? That wil ltell you if there's any debri on the sensor or not-

I only use live view for maybe 1/8'th of my total for the landscape shots, or less even- I only use the live view when the camera is low to hte ground, or at a position that makes it too awkward to look through viewfinder