olddutch Loc: Beloit, Wisconsin

I have a 60d. And a 7d which use the same battery. I do not turn either Camera off. But it goes to sleep after 4 mins (adjustable). But the camera wakes up instantly. Rather than miss. A shot while fildding with the off on switch I just let the Camera sleep. And if I let the camera just sleep I can pick it up a week later and there is battery enough for a few pics. I have not timed it for life of Cannon or third party battries but all of them seem pretty good. Now you are really confused???

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I can't speak for all non OEM batteries but, I received a non Canon battery to use with my R5 and found it lasted a lot shorter than my Canon.
I as a practice don't buy off brand batteries, but got this one and, to me it's not worth it. I replaced it and have 2 Canon back-up batteries.

LFingar Loc: Claverack, NY

I am well aware that after market parts are often made to different specs. I made no reference to that. What I stated was that Panasonic could very well supply some of the sellers of after market batteries. The specs probably would be different, making it wise to buy after market parts of any kind from vendors with a good track record. Depending on the product it is often cheaper to pull from an existing factory production line then to switch the line to making a cheaper item. I highly doubt that Panasonic's agreement to manufacturer Canon's batteries allows them to sell the identical battery to anyone else. That doesn't mean that if they are selling to other vendors that those batteries are necessarily inferior. They could be just different enough to prevent legal problems. NAPA is a prime example. Their belts and hoses are made by and are identical to the belts and hoses sold by Gates, argueably the world's premier manufacturer of such items. Even the part numbers are the same, except for the two digit prefix NAPA adds. Apparently Gates has no problem with the arrangement. There are countless such deals in the marketplace.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

In my case I found I can go all day with a OEM battery but could not do that with a non OEM battery. That was just me with one non OEM battery. With the cost in evolved with Photography I will not try to cut corners. That includes using off brand ink.

PHRubin Loc: Nashville TN USA

While I don't count the number of shots per battery, I cannot tell by how long it lasts which battery I have in my cameras. They "feel" like they last the same. I still have the original battery as well as 2 non-Canon ones (Vivitar) for my 80D, and 1 non_Canon (CS) for my T2i. I wouldn't hesitate to buy other brand batteries if I needed them.

George II Loc: Fayetteville, Georgia

I always use Wasabi batteries in my Canon 70D. Canon does not mfg batteries…

pecohen Loc: Central Maine

Bluetooth (and wifi) can also be power hogs as is GPS, though that is a more common issue with point-and-shoot cameras.

ecommons

Over time batteries develop memories. If you recharge your battery when it is not fully discharged, it may not charge to full. It's best to fully discharge before recharging. This was especially important when you used Nicads. The new Lithium Ions are better, but they will lose their effectiveness over time.

BebuLamar

Wasabi does not make batteries either.

Bill_de Loc: US

Or buy a cheaper camera!

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burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

You may find that some of the aftermarket batteries are not as advertised. I have tried several. I now use Wasabi brand batteries in my Lumix gear. They last about the same as the original Panasonic batteries did when new.

anotherview Loc: California

I believe the GPS function continues working even after the camera powers off. Check it.

no12mo

Are you leaving the lens cover on during longer periods of no picture taking?

no12mo

Hence my question "Are you leaving your camera on during longer periods of not taking pics?

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

I don't believe the 70D has GPS, but it does have WiFi. Unless you're using it, go into the menu and turn off WiFi... that may be causing the battery to drain faster.

Other things you can do:

1. Set the camera to go into sleep mode in as short a time as possible. Our cameras wake up so quickly at the touch of a button, it's not a problem if you need to take a fleeting shot. The camera should not drain the battery at all when it's in sleep mode. You should be able to leave it turned on, ready to use after a half second waking up.

2. Turn off automatic image review. Just call up images manually to check them every so often. (Doing this also reduces chance of missing shots when you're distracted by the replaying images and "chimping".)

3. Don't use the built-in flash. It draws heavily on the camera battery. Get an accessory flash and use that instead... it will work better in every possible way, and won't drain the camera battery.

4. Minimize the time you spend in the menus. One thing that can help, if 70D have it, is the green star user defined menu page. You can assign your most used features to that to have really quick access. The Q button/Quick Menu (if 70D has it, I think it does) also uses the rear LCD, so minimize using that too. Most of the settings that's used for are accessible via buttons and dials, anyway.

I can't tell you how good or bad 3rd party LP-E6 batteries are. All mine are OEM Canon batteries. Some are the original, around 10 years old, have been recharged many, many times and still work fine. Others are the newer LP-E6N with slightly higher capacity. I really can't tell the difference in the cameras. All together I have a dozen of them. I use grips on the three cameras that I take to most shoots, each of which holds two batteries. So I have one extra set for each camera (this is fewer spares than I used to carry with the old NIMH batteries). Honestly, I rarely need the backups. At events I often shoot for 8 or 10 hours and take 3000, 4000 and sometimes more shots without needing to change batteries (as long as I remember to charge them up the day before ). Two cameras do the majority of the work and I estimate I get upwards of 1250 shots per battery, just using some basic power-saving tricks (see below).

Now the latest Canon LP-E6NH are what you find in stores, with another modest boost in capacity. These are more expensive than the two previous versions. I haven't used any of them.

I also haven't used, but hear good things about the Watson brand batteries. They are a bit cheaper than the Canon, but I believe are compatible with the Canon chargers and give full info in the camera, just like the OEM batteries.

That's not the case with some of the 3rd party LP-E6 "clones". Especially the cheapest ones. They can't be charged in the Canon charger and come with their own. They also don't report full info in many of the cameras... just basic charge level status. This is because they don't have the same chips, tech and firmware that the Canon and Watson batteries do. I'd be concerned about using those in my cameras.

Yesterday I watched a video on Youtube about another common type of lithium battery, in which he compared nine different brands in a series of tests. What was obvious was the cheapest Made-in-China with the biggest capacity claims were among the worst and all actually had nowhere near the capacity they claimed. Problem is, most of the batteries today are made in China, I think even the OEM Canon. There are both good and bad coming out of China. So I'd stick with known, established brands that have good quality control... if not Canon, then someone like Watson. Check out reviews by users of other brands. And avoid the really cheap, unknown brands.

The optical viewfinder and AF system of DSLRs and the IS in lenses don't draw a lot of power. I mentioned above about how many shots I get and am shooting 6, 8 sometimes even 10 hours. I am using AF and IS heavily. I also see almost no difference in the number of shots I get when using an IS lens on one camera and a non-IS lens on the other. So that's not a big thing. (Back when I was shooting film, my EOS-3 cameras could drain a set of AA alkaline batteries amazingly fast, just keeping the AF system and IS active. If I wasn't careful, Sometimes I would only get two or three rolls of film to a set of batteries. I should have gotten about 30 or 35 rolls.)