How to Boost Camera Battery Life and Keep Shooting!

There are a lot of great ways to improve the battery life of your camera. Modern cameras have become more complicated with all the different things their processors and sensors do. This has been in response to the demand from photographers, content creators, and video makers. And as a result, camera battery life has majorly decreased. So we’re going to talk about how to boost camera battery life. You’ll really thank us for this!

I spent a major portion of my photo career shooting with Canon cameras. When I switched to Sony, I was utterly disappointed with the performance of their batteries, but even modern Canon cameras suffer from poor camera battery life. The other night, I shot an event for around three and a half hours only to have two Canon mirrorless camera bodies die on me. Crazy, right? Who’d ever think that would happen. But it did. Let’s get into how modern camera battery life can be improved.

Keep in mind that you’ll sometimes make sacrifices. And we’re not telling you to do this to a fundamental level of obedience. We are simply letting you know that, if you do these things, your camera battery life will massively improve.

Turn Off All AI and Scene Recognition

Modern cameras go really big on AI and scene recognition. But surely, this works the processor more. In fact, the biggest power suck for camera battery life is the processor. When you turn on AI or scene detection of any sort, it makes the processor work harder. So, to extend your camera’s battery life, turn it off. Of course, this means you’ll have to do a bit more manually. But photographers have focused by manually assisting the autofocus for years with incredible results.

Choosing the Focusing Points Yourself Saves Camera Battery Life

Lots of folks leave their cameras to automatically choose where to focus depending on the composition. But, cameras really can’t read your mind. And if you’re shooting in continuous autofocus, it might not hold the focus on a certain spot (more on that later)! When you choose the autofocus point yourself, it has an easier time with the battery life. So we recommend choosing to focus it yourself.

Image Formats: JPEG, RAW, HEIF, and More

Writing a RAW and a JPEG photo takes the processor more time and power. The same goes for applying things like Clarity in-camera. JPEGs take the least amount of processing power we’ve found. RAWs can take a whole lot. Just think about how much battery life it drains if you shoot a ton of RAW and JPEGs together.

Indeed, photographers talk about storage being so cheap. But what about battery life?

Let it Go to Sleep to Preserve Battery Life

Here’s a quote from another article we worked on.

Imagine this: you try to go to sleep and someone or something keeps waking you up. Eventually, you’re going to run out of energy. But, unlike your body, too much sleep for a camera isn’t a bad thing. I’ve had my cameras in my bag on sleep mode after I accidentally turned them on. After I woke them up, they were just fine and ready to start shooting.

Many folks don’t like letting their cameras to sleep, but you really should do so.

How to improve the battery life of your camera

Truly, you should let the camera go to sleep within a reasonable amount of time. We tend to set it to 5 or 10 minutes. There’s no need for it to go to sleep every 30 seconds when it’s not in use. Booting it back up will exhaust more battery life.

Turn Off Exposure Preview Mode

One of the biggest things that drain camera battery life is the exposure preview mode. This makes the processor work so much harder to show you exactly what you’re going to get. It can also make the autofocus performance work harder. Turning it off improves battery life. However, even we have to say that this has improved over the years.

Airplane Mode Preserves Camera Battery Life

Here’s a tip that’s really big with Sony cameras

If you turn on Airplane mode, it stops draining the Sony camera battery life. Yes, the cameras have an airplane mode which you should also enable when you get onto an airplane of some sort. What this results in is the camera doing a whole lot less work overall. So the Sony battery is being exhausted less and has to power one less task.

HOW I MADE MY SONY CAMERA BATTERY LIFE LAST FOUR DAYS

We do this tip with pretty much every single camera we review and use.

Dimming the Viewfinder and LCD Screen

The brighter your screen is, the more camera battery life it drains. The dimmer the screens are, the less power the LCD will require. The same goes for the viewfinder. Of course, there are situations where you need the LCD screen to be brighter, like in sunny weather. So use it only during that time and then turn it off otherwise.

Lower ISO Settings

Here is a tip from an article we wrote

Here’s a tip that you probably didn’t know! The higher your ISO is, the more power your camera will use. This is because your camera does other things like noise suppression, detail rendering, and much more at higher ISO settings. It does this no matter what, and that’s one of the reasons why camera manufacturers tout it so much. Extended ISO settings also artificially boost the output.

HOW TO SAVE YOUR CAMERA’S BATTERY LIFE. 5 TIPS YOU DIDN’T KNOW

Typically, I personally only stick to film ISO settings like 100, 160, 200, and 400. With that said, perhaps use an auto ISO setting that’s programmed to use anything below ISO 800.

Don’t Use Powerzoom Lenses

The new thing that all the manufacturers are trying to push are powerzoom lenses. But they require power from the camera’s battery to function. Why have the lens drain extra battery life?

Faster Memory Cards

Here’s a quote from a piece we wrote a while back about faster memory cards and how they affect camera battery life.

Besides the LCD screen, making the processor work less is also a fantastic way to preserve the battery life. And the absolute best way to do this is to get a faster memory card. When you own a faster memory card, the processor takes less time to write each image. But if the card is slower, then it will take more time and also require more energy.

HOW TO CONSERVE THE BATTERY LIFE OF YOUR MIRRORLESS CAMERA

Single Autofocus: Not Continuous

If your camera is continually trying to keep a subject in focus, then it’s constantly working extra hard. But if your subject isn’t moving, then why bother? Set the camera to single autofocus instead of continuous.

To make sure that the autofocus is working in tip-top shape, use isopropyl alcohol. It’s approved by manufacturers, and we’ve got a tutorial on how to use it right here.

Use an External Flash or Lighting

Most modern cameras don’t have a flash built in, but some do especially if they’re aimed at a more basic user. Here’s a quote from an article we wrote about it a while back.

Using on-camera flash not only degrades image quality but also pulls a hefty amount of battery power. If your camera has a hot shoe for mounting a flash, do so. If not, turn off your flash unless you really need it. This also means you need to hold very still.

EXTENDING THE BATTERY LIFE OF YOUR CAMERA

You Don’t Need to Shoot at 20 Frames a Second Most Likely

Seriously, you don’t need to shoot portraits at 20 frames a second. It’s just needlessly exhausting the camera battery life. Shoot a single photo in single autofocus. Get it right the first time and not wrong 19 times.

Cold Weather? Save Camera Battery Life By Putting it In Your Coat

Here’s a quote from an article we wrote about this.

If you’ve got an iPhone, you probably know this very well. But it also happens with cameras. In fact, it’s faster with mirrorless cameras because they need to power the LCD and the EVF.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR CAMERA BATTERIES LAST LONGER IN THE COLD

And there you have it! A ton of great ways to save camera battery life while you’re shooting in the field. If you’re new to photography, then these will help a lot. But even if you’re experienced, we think that you’ve got a ton of information here to keep in mind. Maybe you’ll unlearn some of the habits you’ve been doing.

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