Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

This is for any Sony A6300 owners who may experience this issue. I've noticed that this camera drains the battery quickly. I was out yesterday and started with a fully charged battery. I was out for less than an hour and took no more than 6 images, and the Sony battery was down to 6%! What's the deal here? I looked up some YouTube's on the subject and all I could come up with is that the sensor that switches between the EVF and the rear LCD screen accounts for some battery drain, but not all of it. So, while my Sony battery is on the charger (I did charge it up yesterday, but by this morning it was down to 90%) I put in one of my spare Wasabi batteries, turned the camera on and it showed 100%. But after looking at the menu for a few minutes and playing with EVF focus adjustment, I found that the battery was down to 87% after less than 5 minutes of the camera being on. This is frustrating, to say the least. Does anyone have any suggestions or a "fix" for this? Thanks in advance for any good advice or information. If this is a serious problem with this camera, and it can't be fixed, I'll ditch it for something else. Hopefully it won't come to that.

Wasabi

My 6300 does not have hat problem. There is some drain but I can get 150+ shots easily. Wasabi batteries work well for me so it is probably not the battery unless it is very old. Take a look at the contacts and see if there is any foreign material lodged in them. Maybe a trip to the cameras shop or Sony repair is needed?

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Sony's E mount cameras all suffer extremely poor battery performance, well documented throughout the industry and their number one reason for not having better sales. But your life seems shorter than normal. One issue is that either the LCD or EVF is ALWAYS active when the camera is turned on, until it goes into sleep mode. Check your settings and see if sleep mode is disabled or set to a very long time. Set it to around 10 seconds for best performance.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

In light of your reply here, I just dawned on me that I might have it set to stay on for a long time before going into sleep mode. As such, I wonder if carrying it on the strap, over my shoulder would cause it to constantly switch between EVF and LCD screen modes. That might use up a lot of battery. I will double check my settings and see how they're set. Thanks.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Quoting myself here. So I had the sleep mode set for 1 minute, and reset it for 10 seconds. The EVF/LCD screen mode is set to AUTO. Now, with the Wasabi battery inserted, fully charged, the camera has set, powered off, for a couple hours and it's down to 89%! Something's got to be wrong here. I got the camera back in December, but haven't had much of a chance to use it, so it's essentially new, as far as wear goes. I'm beginning to lose faith.

lamontcranston

Turn Airplane Mode ON and leave it ON. Turn Pre-AF OFF and leave it OFF unless you need it. For Focus Mode avoid AF-C. These are recommendations from Nasim Mansurov for the A6000 so your menu may be somewhat different. I have found my A6000 battery performance has improved somewhat using these settings. If you can find a sure-fire way to extend battery life significantly you can sell it to Sony and make a million dollars. Low battery performance seems to be the main complaint on their cameras. I was looking at reviews on the Fujifilm XT-1 today and it said battery performance for that camera is only SLIGHTLY better than the A6000. I was surprised.

repleo Loc: Boston

Wingpilot, there is definitely something wrong. Even without Lamontcranston's suggestions it shouldn't be draining like that. The problem may be the charger. Did you use the same charger for the Sony and the Wasabi batteries? Try a different one. If that doesn't work I think it is time to get it looked at.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Well, there's a certain amountof egg on face here after I discovered that the battery in the camera was one of my Wasabi spares!! One of them didn't want to stay charged up very well, and the other, after sitting in the camera for a few hours remained at 100%. So one of those Wasabi's could be defective. I found the Sony battery and charged it up and put it in the camera.

As for settings, I tuned on airplane mode, made sure it's not set in AF-C, turned off the focus assist light and set the sleep mode to 10 seconds. I think that covers all the power saving settings. Yesterday was the first time I experienced this excessive battery drain, and then I discovered that the battery was a Wasabi, so I think that battery could be defective and just won't hold a charge. I'll keep an eye on things to see how the OEM battery does, as it always seemed to do ok before.

Thanks for all the good replies, guys.

Stardust Loc: Central Illinois

Whether my camera or other battery taking appliances, I always start out assuming it is the battery, and that is the case 99% of time. There is a reason doctors start out prescribing pills first before prescribing surgery.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Surprisingly, EVF uses more power than the LCD. I have quite a few batteries for my A6000, and I also have a double charger.

gwilliams6

You have a poor Wasabi battery. While they generally work comparably to the OEM Sony battery, often the Wasabi wont last as long in use and wont keep their charge as well either. All OEM and Wasabi batteries will drain slowly while left in the camera, even if the camera is turned off. That is why Sony went to a bigger longer lasting battery in their latest cameras. For the A6000, A6300 and A6500 cameras yes turn off all draining settings like wifi. I have A6500 as well as A7RIII and A7III and I have turned off wifi (set airplane mode ON in your A6300), as well as turning off long display times in all my Sonys, that will help a lot. The tradeoff for the compact size of the A6000 series was the small battery.

lamontcranston

Some time ago I had a fairly new Wasabi battery that would not hold a charge. I emailed them and they sent me a new battery AND a new battery charger. I thought that was excellent service. The replacement battery is still working fine.

peterg Loc: Santa Rosa, CA

Sounds like you have a broken camera. The A6300 does "eats" batteries, but not that fast. Gary Friedman's book "The Friedman Archives Guide to the Sony's Alpha 6300" has a collection of battery-saving techniques.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

I also find with my a6000 that I get better battery performance if I charge in a separate charger rather than in camera. Some also suggest removing the battery from from the camera when not in use. Personally, I can’t be bothered. I always maintain two charged in addition to the one installed ..... and ..... never go out shooting without, at least, one extra battery.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

I do use a separate charger--the one that came with the two Wasabi batteries that I got. I think one of those batteries is just a bad unit. I know that over time, even with the camera turned off, the battery will lose some charge, but it's never been like this. When I discovered I'd put the Wasabi battery in, I figured I just had one bad battery. It would be nice if the new batteries for the A7iii would fit and work in the A6xxx series cameras. Now, if the freshly charged OEM Sony battery does the same thing, then I'll know the camera is suspect. If not, then I'll consider buying a couple new Sony batteries.