Battery Drainage on SL2

[Jared]

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Definitely make sure the remote wake up feature is disabled.  As far as I am aware, it shouldn’t drain the battery otherwise when it’s turned off.

As to comparing it with your M(240) experience... There is a lot more demand for the thankfully larger battery on the SL2.  You have a very power hungry EVF, a somewhat power hungry LCD, auto focus motors to run, an IBIS system to run, optical image stabilization on a couple of the lenses, and a much more powerful digital signal processor.  That all draws a lot of power.  Especially the EVF and the DSP.  There is a reason DSLR’s can usually take thousands of shots on a single charge while mirrorless cameras are typically a few hundred.  

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[budjames]

On 4/6/2020 at 7:47 AM, Exodies said:

Do you have bluetooth on and remote wake up?

I just turned off remote wake and bluetooth to see if battery drainage when off improves. Thanks.

Regards,
Bud James

Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.

[Photoworks]

I just came back from a walk and I got 810 shots on one battery. battery wad done after that..

Not bad

[sebas_]

I too find the battery capacity not really great on the SL2. They should have opted for a bigger battery solution going from the SL to the SL 2. 

What is really driving me nuts, however is the "Battery too low for 4k or burst" problem. There is now an article on EOS HD: https://www.eoshd.com/leica/leica-sl2-has-power-flaw-until-fixed-i-recommend-not-using-for-professional-4k-shooting/

When I am using my Sigma MC 21 EF to L adapter with my Zeiss Milvus EF (manual lenses, electronic aperture) lenses, the error occurs by about >95% battery. I has hoped that attaching an USB-C battery pack resolves the issue, but sadly not. Using the external battery it just prolonged the time a bit, but as soon as the battery level drops some percent (still showing full on the LCD) the recording stops and the error occurs. 

The article shows that the problem is much more widespread as I thought and is also happening with other lenses....

I have written Leica early in February about the problem, but sadly without any solution yet. 

I really enjoy the SL2 system, but with this error it's simply not usable for professional video-shoots, which the SL2 is also advertised for. 

I really hope there is some fix available soon! 

 

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Edited August 12, 2020 by sebas_

[AZN]

Genuine question: now that things have settled down, how is the SL2 battery life compared to the SL?  This is for mainly stills shooting.

I'm pretty happy with the SL battery stats and can go a whole day with just one.  Yes I carry a spare battery, but have yet to need it.

Same thing for the SL2?

Edited August 12, 2020 by AZN
Damn typos…

[Guest]

For me I haven't noticed a difference. But as always, "it depends", in this case on your shooting methods. I tend to use cameras in a very old school way, no screen use, no high tech focus aids etc.

[hoppyman]

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Several thousand exposures into using the SL2 in studio , best case I  might exchange the not fully depleted battery when  a 64GB card is full, so 600+ rapid series exposures. If  using the screen exclusively to shoot and review through whole sets with a model each time then the battery might be close to flat with ~ 300 shots.

So much depends on how you are using the camera of course (and what functions are turned off)

[caissa]

On 8/12/2020 at 10:28 PM, sebas_ said:

I too find the battery capacity not really great on the SL2. They should have opted for a bigger battery solution going from the SL to the SL 2. 

What is really driving me nuts, however is the "Battery too low for 4k or burst" problem. There is now an article on EOS HD: https://www.eoshd.com/leica/leica-sl2-has-power-flaw-until-fixed-i-recommend-not-using-for-professional-4k-shooting/

When I am using my Sigma MC 21 EF to L adapter with my Zeiss Milvus EF (manual lenses, electronic aperture) lenses, the error occurs by about >95% battery. I has hoped that attaching an USB-C battery pack resolves the issue, but sadly not. Using the external battery it just prolonged the time a bit, but as soon as the battery level drops some percent (still showing full on the LCD) the recording stops and the error occurs. 

The article shows that the problem is much more widespread as I thought and is also happening with other lenses....

I have written Leica early in February about the problem, but sadly without any solution yet. 

I really enjoy the SL2 system, but with this error it's simply not usable for professional video-shoots, which the SL2 is also advertised for. 

I really hope there is some fix available soon! 

 

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Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

You look on a eos website for SL2 information....     Isn’t this a bit strange.... Do you really expect good/fair advice there ?

I use the camera since December and when doing demanding work I use an external USB PD battery bank. So I never had the problems you mentioned. A “professional user” should be flexible enough to add external power if it is a good idea to do it.

I mentioned this in several places on this forum. But there are still users so “professional” that they rather keep on complaining for months, instead of applying a simple and elegant solution. They rather change their camera to (guess what) an eos....  and complain that the SL2 is not for professionals ...      (Obviously overheating is fine for professionals, but avoiding a well known error message by cleverly using external power is not.)

Short : I am happy with the SL2 battery performance (though the camera has new features like prefocus or ibis that demand more power). Generally it is the best camera I ever had. I agree that Leica does not give a hint that an external power device would avoid some problems (they rather try to sell the additional handgrip which is not such a good idea, I think.) But for a flexible “professional” it should be easy enough to find a work around.

Edited August 14, 2020 by caissa

[caissa]

To make things very clear: I use an external battery bank with USB PD from Anker if I expect high power demand. And this way I never had to face this error message. And can use the camera 100 percent, also burst and 4K.

Strange enough this professional writer did not have the idea to use a battery bank to avoid any problems. Strange, as this is a common technique also with other cameras (for example Gerald Undone about video with Fuji).  It’s certainly no rocket science. And definitely no reason to give up the SL2.

Edited August 14, 2020 by caissa

[sebas_]

vor 1 Stunde schrieb caissa:

You look on a eos website for SL2 information....     Isn’t this a bit strange.... Do you really expect good/fair advice there ?

I use the camera since December and when doing demanding work I use an external USB PD battery bank. So I never had the problems you mentioned. A “professional user” should be flexible enough to add external power if it is a good idea to do it.

I mentioned this in several places on this forum. But there are still users so “professional” that they rather keep on complaining for months, instead of applying a simple and elegant solution. They rather change their camera to (guess what) an eos....  and complain that the SL2 is not for professionals ...      (Obviously overheating is fine for professionals, but avoiding a well known error message by cleverly using external power is not.)

Short : I am happy with the SL2 battery performance (though the camera has new features like prefocus or ibis that demand more power). Generally it is the best camera I ever had. I agree that Leica does not give a hint that an external power device would avoid some problems (they rather try to sell the additional handgrip which is not such a good idea, I think.) But for a flexible “professional” it should be easy enough to find a work around.

 

vor einer Stunde schrieb caissa:

To make things very clear: I use an external battery bank with USB PD from Anker if I expect high power demand. And this way I never had to face this error message. And can use the camera 100 percent, also burst and 4K.

Strange enough this professional writer did not have the idea to use a battery bank to avoid any problems. Strange, as this is a common technique also with other cameras (for example Gerald Undone about video with Fuji).  It’s certainly no rocket science. And definitely no reason to give up the SL2.

I am happy to have an objective discussion on this forum, but it is really tiresome if users start on insulting others, simply because there is a disagreement on a topic. 

It would be actually very helpful, if you would read my whole comment, before starting on raging about how professional I am or not. 
As laid out in my first comment, I could NOT solve the issue by attaching an Anker USB-C PD battery pack. I have tried different USB cables to see if there's a problem with them but the behaviour is the same. If you as well take a look at the photo, I have attached to the first post, you see that the battery indicator shows full and the external power indicator is shown as well - still the error occurs. 

It is great that you have not experienced the problem, but that does not mean others do not have this issue!

I do not see any problems by quoting Andrew's blog post, as it aligns with my findings. He has more different lenses to test out, as it seems that this issue is strongly dependent on the chosen lens. 

I have not said that the SL2 is not for professionals, I have pointed out that the SL2 is currently hardly usable for professional video-shoots. As I get the error irregularly and it does not follow a specific pattern. That means I once can record for more than half an hour and other times I get the error message right from the start (battery full and USB-C PD power attached). This is simply problematic as I do not know when it will happen, which make it a dilemma on a shoot (reliability). 

Furthermore, I really think that the SL2 system is a fantastic tool, but it has its quirks, which hopefully will be solved by Leica soon. But it is just a camera, a tool, and therefore it should be possible to talk about it objectively without making allegations if there is another point of view than the own one.

 

[caissa]

I have the impression that we have a different way to tackle problems. I know that the details are very important. So I mentioned PD which is crucial. You did not mention that. Also you mention no details of the devices.

Usually if one system works and one not, the right method is to find out the differences. You seem to prefer doing other stuff, like referring me to links etc. If I had the problem I would try to get as much info as possible about the working system. But you are mainly interested to show that you know already everything necessary and I am not even able to read your text. That’s really a very useful way to solve a problem or find help.   

Well good luck with your method. I am off. I prefer using the camera to this “discussion”.

[SJH]

I got one of the first SL2’s back in December and the biggest battery drainer for me was Pre-Focus being on especially in low light or wide apertures. I switched it off in my profiles and battery life improved for me by about 15-20%. Pre-Focus being on also made a lot of noise from my perspective so I assume was using quite a bit of power.

I mentioned the noise in a post responding to a new SL2 owner who was concerned about the racket with his new 50 SL APO which actually appears ‘normal’ (under 50 APO focus issues).

Oddly I transferred all my profiles successfully after the v2 update part from the fact Pre-Focus had been reset to ‘on’. Once again I noticed battery life had dropped but then, when I swapped the M lens mounted at the time for my SL50, of course I heard the noise again so switched it off.

 

[bherman01545]

On 4/7/2020 at 10:14 AM, Jared said:

Definitely make sure the remote wake up feature is disabled.  As far as I am aware, it shouldn’t drain the battery otherwise when it’s turned off.

As to comparing it with your M(240) experience... There is a lot more demand for the thankfully larger battery on the SL2.  You have a very power hungry EVF, a somewhat power hungry LCD, auto focus motors to run, an IBIS system to run, optical image stabilization on a couple of the lenses, and a much more powerful digital signal processor.  That all draws a lot of power.  Especially the EVF and the DSP.  There is a reason DSLR’s can usually take thousands of shots on a single charge while mirrorless cameras are typically a few hundred.  

My SL2 has Leica FOTOS off and both Bluetooth and Remote Wakeup off and there is still a slight drain, but I've seem this in other cameras so I'm not too worried.

Plus, I have four batteries

[BernardC]

Leica should consider offering a dummy battery with a D-Tap connection. That's the video standard for external power, so it would be compatible with hundreds of different batteries. It would be a relatively simple design, given that the SL/SL2 don't have a battery door. The adapter would need to contain a polarity-safe voltage correction circuit. D-Tap connectors are supposed to only go in one way (they are D-shaped), but enterprising videographers have been known to use brute force to get around that protection.