EOS R battery life is a concern for many photographers, the specification says 370 shots on a single LP-E6N. If you’re changing from a DSLR using the same LP-E6N batteries that’s a big drop. In use, I’ve found my EOS R battery life to be much better than the specification.
A couple of weeks ago I took the EOS R, and EOS 5D Mark IV to give the EOS R focus system a trial shooting motocross. I’d packed two lenses, my EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM and EF 135mm f/2L USM. Over the course of the event I shot 789 frames with the EOS R, and even more with the EOS 5D Mark IV. I never changed batteries in either camera all day.
Motocross – 789 shots
When I got home I happened to notice the frame count on the camera screen, seven hundred and eighty nine shots. So I took a look at the battery info screen, and it showed 23% remaining battery. Wow impressive, and indeed much better than the measly 370 shots in the specification. To be honest in my hands my Canon cameras are always better than the CIPA specifications, but this was more than double.
Checking Lightroom I found that I used the EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM for 141 shots, and the EF 135mm f/2L USM for 648 shots. Remember the EOS R will continuously run the Image Stabilizer in your lens when it’s powered on.
Even better EOS R battery life
This past weekend I joined a group of models, photographers, stylists, hair & make-up team for a great day of photography.
Fashion / portrait / studio shoot – 1375 shots
I’d been shooting for a while with the EOS R, and then the card was full… it was a 32GB card and I’d taken 1073 RAW photos. So I switched card and carried on.
Sometime later the Eneloop Pro batteries in my Speedlites needing changing. Finally the low battery warning started to flash in the viewfinder. I shot a few frames more, before changing the camera battery.
Then just before my last two sets of the day I changed battery in the camera, and took a moment to have a look at the battery info. The EOS R battery life shows it had done one thousand, three hundred and seventy five shots with just 8% of the battery remaining.
Looking at the whole shoot, I used four lenses and took 1471 photos.
- EF 24-70m f/4L IS USM – 307 shots
- EF 40mm f/2.8 STM – 445 shots
- EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM – 232 shots
- EF 85mm f/1.8 USM – 487 shots
But this was LP-E6, not the LP-E6N
I was pretty amazed to be honest. In my delight, I didn’t notice that in both these situations I was using the older LP-E6 battery, not the higher capacity LP-E6N. The LP-E6N comes with the EOS R, and is used for the CIPA battery specification test.
So I just popped an LP-E6N in the camera and sure enough the battery info screen shows that this is indeed an LP-E6N.
Just wow – I might go looking for some more “old school” LP-E6 batteries 🙂
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Some stats on my usage: I shoot every day (Mon-Fri) and seldom at weekends I average 2,200 shots per shoot (11k per week).
On my 5DMk3 bodies I’d usually cover that with one battery.
On my 5DMk4 bodies my battery is usually dead after about 1,000 shots.
I’m looking to buy the EOS R. The spec of the battery in that was shocking so it’s encouraging to read this article.
Thanks Brian.
ps. Never buy a used camera from me. My Mark 3’s are above 500k shutter count (each) and still on the original shutters…(!)
Hi guys. I wanted to share my insights about batteries in EOS R. I bought this camera for taking timelapse shots. At the beginning I was a little scared by a small number of photos according to CIPA tests. However, after the first tests, I’m sooooo surprised. Over 3,100 photos and still two battery bars! Of course, the LCD screen was turned off and all other settings were only for timelapse purposes. Personally, I am very happy and I can definitely recommend this camera for timelapse, at least when it comes to the battery issue.
I use my EOS-R for videography rather than photography, although I also do a little of the latter. In a typical commercial video shoot, the LP-E6N will last me all day, although that’s lots of relatively short video clips at Full HD. I don’t normally shoot 4K so I can’t say how long the battery would last at that resolution.
Where I’ve covered an event, such as a company dinner dance or celebration that goes from 6pm till midnight, I’ve needed a couple of LP-E6N batteries, although the first battery covers about two-thirds to three-quarters of the event.
Basically, I’m really happy with the battery performance and that charging only takes 2 hours. Even so, I’ve experimented with using a DC coupler and a power bank. The EOS-R works fine that way, but the power bank has to either go in my pocket or I’ve used gaffer tape to fix the power bank onto a tripod leg.