Batteries and nighttime shooting
Aug 30, 2017 16:22:43 #
I was taking nighttime photos in Quebec and used a wired remote switch to take pictures with my Canon 5D EOS on a tripod. I noticed that my batteries seem to discharge very quickly. I don’t know why. It could be the batteries are old (bought 8 years ago - but they were fully charged), that taking pictures in the dark takes more juice, or using a wired remote switch runs the batteries down (this doesn’t make sense to me.) When I disconnected the remote, the battery showed more life and took more pictures – but I had to depress the button on the camera to do that…potentially causing shaking. Any thoughts?
Aug 30, 2017 16:31:03 #
Does the remote leave the rear LED lit up?
Aug 30, 2017 16:53:53 #
After I take the picture, the rear LED shows the picture and goes off like always does. I think I would have noticed something unusual like that.
Aug 30, 2017 17:12:10 #
Aug 30, 2017 17:40:37 #
I was trying to learn to shoot with aperture priority. I set my ISO from 125 to 1600 and that affected the time the shutter was open. I set the aperture at 5.6 or 11. Sometimes I lowered it to 3.5. Having said that, the shutter was open from a short time which allowed me to capture a ship moving in the St. Lawrence without any blur to a completely blurred picture because the shutter was open for a couple of minutes. Sorry I'm not very specific, but I didn't record the setting when I took the shots. I was trying to set the effects of using different speeds to capture scene.
BF
BF
Aug 31, 2017 00:08:07 #
When I shoot using the screen on my Nikon instead of the viewfinder the camera literally eats up batteries, which is normal. I simply bring a lot of batteries along. Other than that, I have no idea what could be happening.
Aug 31, 2017 06:18:48 #
rdubreuil
Loc: Dummer, NH USA
Another possibility is the remote you're using. For example the Shutterboss from Vello can be operated without batteries of it's own for focus and shutter release as it draws it's power from the camera's battery. You can't use the other functions of the intervalometer without batteries in the unit but, just as a release it's nice to not worry about dead batteries when shooting.
Aug 31, 2017 06:35:45 #
Aug 31, 2017 07:07:39 #
Base_fiddle wrote:
I noticed that my batteries seem to discharge very quickly.
"seem" could be the key word. You were shooting at night, using a remote, and experimenting with exposures. Maybe the different situation made the battery seem to discharge faster. Do you know how many shots you got? Did the battery go dead? I have batteries that are eight years old, and they "seem" to work fine. Longer exposures might have an effect, but I doubt it would be very noticeable.
Aug 31, 2017 08:44:08 #
When I use Live View and take long exposures (any thing over 30-45 seconds I consider long) I'll easily go through 2-3 batteries in a few hours. Once they start getting low I swap them out because I don't want them to go dead in the middle of a 2-3 minute exposure. I doubt the wired shutter release has much to do with it.
Aug 31, 2017 10:44:28 #
Aug 31, 2017 10:50:14 #
Jerry, I only took about 30 pics. The battery registered no bars - in fact, I couldn't another picture until I changed the battery. Then the same thing happened to the second battery. That's when I started wondering about the batteries. I assume that these batteries have a memory and maybe they can't hold a charge like they used to.
BF
BF
Aug 31, 2017 11:03:17 #
Base_fiddle wrote:
Jerry, I only took about 30 pics. The battery registered no bars - in fact, I couldn't another picture until I changed the battery. Then the same thing happened to the second battery. That's when I started wondering about the batteries. I assume that these batteries have a memory and maybe they can't hold a charge like they used to.
BF
BF
If the batteries are Nikon Lithium there are no memory problems
Aug 31, 2017 13:41:42 #
I have a Canon camera and will check the type of batteries when I get home. Could they possibly be Nikon batteries?
Aug 31, 2017 13:48:36 #
I have my LCD turned off so it doesn't show the picture every time I click the shutter. The preview is just the press of a button away if I want to see it.
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