I would like to share a story before jumping into the main segment. A few days back I and my couple of friends went to visit a historical place and brought a camera with us to capture the memories and moments. The saddest part is, after taking a few snaps, the battery of the camera got drained and we couldn’t take any photos of that journey.
Can you imagine how cruel this moment was for us? If we had an idea about the battery life of the camera that we brought, then it couldn’t happen. The main reason for sharing the story is to make you realize how important it is to have a perception regarding the camera’s battery life that you own.
In this article, we have described how long a camera battery lasts, what affects the battery life of a camera, and how you can store the battery in emergency situations.
How Long Does a Camera Battery Last?
Generally, with a single charge of a decent camera, you can take more than 400 shots or use 8-10 hours on a full charge. If we talk about the life span, then the battery will last a minimum of 5 years depending on the maintenance.
How long a camera battery will last also depends on the brand as well. For example, you can take more than 850 shots with a Canon camera on a full charge and take up to 320 video shots with a single charge. On the other hand, if you use Nikon cameras, the battery will last 50 to 90 minutes maximum with a single charge if you shoot videos continuously.
If your camera’s battery drains suddenly, you can’t charge it if the place you belong has no option to charge, or you may forget to bring the charger with you which is normal. On the other hand, you’ll get very few cameras that don’t require a charger to be charged. For instance, it is possible to charge Nikon cameras without a charger, because they can be charged with the help of a mobile charger, USB cable, or others
However, to avoid the situations where you have no charge left in the battery of your camera, you should have an idea about the average camera battery life. Knowing the average battery life will help you get an additional battery if you have to work more that will require the life of two batteries. I am running a few minutes late; my previous meeting is running over.
The Calculation of How Long a Camera Battery Last
The maximum camera owners don’t know how to figure out how long the battery will last. In this segment, I will talk about it and will show a method that you can apply to know the battery life of your camera.
Step-1: Look for the Watt-Hours of your battery
Almost each of the professional cameras comes with watt-hours on the case. If they don’t, search on Google with a camera model & you’ll get the watt-hours there for sure.
Step-2: Know the Wattage Consumption
In the second step, you have to know the wattage consumption of your camera which is a little tricky to know. Most of the manufacturers include the power consumption on their product page, but if you don’t get them, then search on the internet.
Step-3: Measure the Run Time
It is time to measure the run time. Once you have got the watt-hours and the wattage consumption, now divide the battery watt-hours by the wattage consumption of your camera. For instance, if you have a battery with 98 watt-hours and your camera consumes 35.2 watts an hour, that means, your battery will last 2.78 hours with a complete charge.
Step-4: Calculate By Using Additional Accessories
How will you measure the battery life of your camera if you use accessories with your cameras? This question may come to your mind, right? Well, it is simple too. You just need to find out how much power your accessories consume and put it into your calculation, that’s it. Suppose you use a video transmitter while shooting that consumes 9 watts, so add it to the total power consumption of your camera. Look at the below sum
Battery Watt-Hours =98
Power Consumes by Your Camera= 35.2 Watts
Accessories Uses =9 Watts
So, Power Consume By Camera + Accessories Uses =44.2 watts
Now Total Consume of Power/ Battery Watt-Hours=2.21
You’ll get about 2.21 hours of run time.
What Affects The Battery Life of A Camera?
Here is the list of things that affect the battery life of a camera. These include
- Wireless Connections
- Image Stabilization
- Battery Health
- Wireless Connections
- Different Sensors
- Image Review
How To Preserve Battery In Emergency Situation
In this segment, we have shown a way to conserve a battery in an emergency situation.
- Turn All Wireless Connection Off
- Stabilization Should Be Off
- Disconnect Sensor Cleaning
- Power Down Image Review
- Keep Your Camera Completely Off
Final Thought
So, this was the discussion about how long does a camera battery last. It is obviously important to know how long your battery will last before going to shoot something. Otherwise, you’ll get in trouble because you won’t get options everywhere to charge your camera battery.
By getting the battery watt-hours and the power consumption of the camera per hour, you can simply measure how long you can use your camera. We have given the entire process of measuring it with the explanation above. Hopefully. you have got it simple and understanding.
Even then if you find any difficulties or complications, let us know in the comment section below.
