Onquest Loc: Just Wandering

I knew when I bought the camera 10 months ago that the battery life wasn't great, so I bought a spare. Yesterday at the county fair I had left home with two fully charged batteries and a battery pack. Shooting hi-res jpg I had maxed out both my batteries after only 270 images total! By using the battery pack I limped in with another 15 images. What the heck!!! I didn't shoot video, only occasionally 'chimped' when the lighting was tricky and never used bracketing or burst mode.

My questions to you are is this a symptom of dying batteries or perhaps something else is going on? Or is this normal behavior for the Sony a6000?

Hank Radt

While one of the major weaknesses of the a6xxx is battery life, this doesn't sound normal - I'd have expected at least 2x, maybe 3x the number of images. Couple of things: have you noticed a higher battery drain more recently than when you first got them? If so, perhaps there is an issue with the batteries. Also, there are a number of functions that you can set to reduce battery drain in the field - since we don't know what yours are, suggest you do some searching to find which ones you might want to change. Couple that come up frequently are Airplane Mode, EVF and Pwr Save Start Time, and even the speed of the memory card, but there are others as well.

Onquest Loc: Just Wandering

Thanks, Hank. That has given me a place to start looking. I don't want to have to go and buy more batteries after only a few months use.

Hank Radt

One other thought - were you using AF-C? If so, your camera will try to focus constantly, eating battery power.

lamontcranston

The A6000 is an excellent little camera and the only complaint I have with it is poor battery performance. I can usually get a full day out of 1 or 2 batteries depending on how much use it gets that day. I will rarely shoot 285 photos in one day so one battery is usually sufficient. But the rule is ALWAYS TAKE A SPARE. And a fully charged battery in my camera sitting on the shelf unused for a week will typically discharge around 25% over that period. So it does use a lot of battery power for all of that great technology. In your case, the usage seems abnormally high. Either your batteries are approaching their end life or your settings are putting an unusually high drain on your batteries. I've followed this topic of short battery life for a couple of years and it is a common complaint on that camera. And I have never read of a satisfactory solution. I have 2 A6000's so I've been hoping Sony would release a firmware update that would address this issue but no luck so far. If you find a solution please let us know. Leaving the camera stored with Airplane Mode On seems to provide some relief. And not using AF-C is a great idea.

Notorious T.O.D. Loc: Harrisburg, North Carolina

Does the battery charger have a Condition charging mode to check and recondition the batteries?
My Canon has this option...

Best,
Todd Ferguson

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Sony has developed a reputation for poor battery life. Still, a comparison of Fuji and Sony showed that Sony had the advantage in battery life, with 420 for Sony and 320 for Fuji. I've never had a problem with A6000 battery life, but I haven't shot a huge number in one day. I think my max was just under 200, but there was lots of battery life left. I use the Sony battery and these.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JG54F3C/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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

In addition the oem battery, I use two Wasabis and an external charger in my a6000. I rarely charge the battery in the camera. IMHO, the external charge is a deeper, fuller charge than the camera’s system. Performance between the Sony battery and Wasabis is fairly equal, I’d say. I leave the camera in WiFi airplane mode. That said, when using it as a travel camera, I always carry all 3 batteries and can’t recall a day when I didn’t need at least two. I usually shoot in raw or raw+jpg with 80-95ms SD cards. Good luck.

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

EVFs do use battery juice. I carried one spare on a recent trip where everyday was “all day”. Never needed a third—but I thought about it & I’ll likely add one next time

LoneRangeFinder Loc: Left field

DPreview has it much closer. I consistently got as many as 400 on a recent trip with my Fuji.

ronichas Loc: Long Island

Even though this article is specifically for night photography, I found it had good tips for extending battery life.

6 Tips for Better Night and Star Photos with Mirrorless Cameras

https://www.meetup.com/LI-Photographers/messages/boards/thread/51210894

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

Thanks for the link, but it's for members only of the Long Island Photography Meetup group. These may be the same tips?

https://www.naturettl.com/6-tips-better-night-star-photos-mirrorless-cameras/

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Must join the group to see the article.

Also -

http://www.diyphotography.net/6-tips-for-getting-more-battery-life-from-your-sony-mirrorless-camera/
http://www.diyphotography.net/extend-cameras-battery-life-9-times-40/

ronichas Loc: Long Island

Sorry about that. The link is

https://www.naturettl.com/6-tips-better-night-star-photos-mirrorless-cameras/?utm_source=Nature+TTL+Newsletter&utm_campaign=a09815c059-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_10_24&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b1f65641f0-a09815c059-166569513

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Thanks.