Leica SL2-S terrible battery life?

[oka]

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13 minutes ago, criogenics said:

However, the SL2-s that I got simply doesn't seem up to par. Maybe it's just a dud. Going from 100-0 in less than 2 hours and less than 200 shots is unacceptably bad.

200 sounds very low, there is definitely something wrong. I could shoot few hundred photos in -20c and some videos in couple hours and still almost half battery left (when camera warmed up).

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[Jonathan Levin]

Ten batteries. That's around 2800.00US. Half the price of the camera! I know it's a Leica thing, but 100.00 would seem reasonable FWIW.

[criogenics]

7 minutes ago, oka said:

200 sounds very low, there is definitely something wrong. I could shoot few hundred photos in -20c and some videos in couple hours and still almost half battery left (when camera warmed up).

Yeah it's extremely low, which is why I started this thread in the first place!  

I have another 2 weeks before my return window closes, so I'll be doing more tests (receiving the 35SL tomorrow) and reporting for anyone interested.

[caissa]

1 hour ago, oka said:

I have no troubles to pay extra for the spare batteries.

BUT high battery consumption rate is a extra hassle which I like to avoid. I need to take 8 spares for full day assignment, it's a burden. Hassle with battery changes, after gig I have to charge all the batteries with multiple chargers to cut some time. Then from some time, batteries start to degrade so you have to label them and keep track of the batteries and their life during the assignments.

Now if I go to gig, I have 10+ batteries. As due to current situation I haven't done any full day assignments yet with the SL2S but as it seems, the battery life is almost two times longer than in SL2 - I might need to carry significantly less batteries and all save the burden which comes with it.

...which also makes SL2S pricing even more attractive if you count the extra batteries which you need to buy less compared to SL2.

10 batteries, that’s crazy. I have 2 batteries and a power bank. Enough for at least 2-3 days. You probably shoot more than I do, so add a second power bank.  (Better use a strong powerbank, not just 5000 mAh. Mine has 26800.)

You know that a battery needs moderate temperatures, so you need to keep it warm. A powerbank can be placed in your coat pocket. If you don’t protect the camera, the battery inside very soon gets very cold and is unusable. (In winter).

Edited January 5, 2021 by caissa

[oka]

26 minutes ago, caissa said:

10 batteries, that’s crazy. I have 2 batteries and a power bank. Enough for at least 2-3 days. You probably shoot more than I do, so add a second power bank.  (Better use a strong powerbank, not just 5000 mAh. Mine has 26800.)

You know that a battery needs moderate temperatures, so you need to keep it warm. A powerbank can be placed in your coat pocket. If you don’t protect the camera, the battery inside very soon gets very cold and is unusable. (In winter).

On my last season I used on weddings SL2 with two M10’s (P/R/M).

SL2 with 4 spares and two M10’s with 4 spares. In total 11 batteries.

Usually I ended up using 2-3 spares on SL2 and 2 in M10’s. If SL2 would break, M10’s needs more spares as Visioflex consumes a lot of power so I did carry some extra extra spares for M.

For the next season for main bodies I switch to two SL2S’s and single M10R for backup / third. I should drop at least 2 batteries compared to the previous setup.

Banks are no option for this kind of work.

If I work both days on the weekend, there is extra amount of stress to charge all the batteries and same time try to sleep enough. Maybe I should have four charges for SL and M so in total 8 chargers? 😅

[BernardC]

4 hours ago, criogenics said:

I emailed Leica and they said it might have to do with the non-official lens adapter.

Which adapter are you using? What lenses are you adapting?

[criogenics]

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37 minutes ago, BernardC said:

Which adapter are you using? What lenses are you adapting?

A cheap M->L adapter on Amazon and a VM 3.5 f1.2 III. Leica support said shouldn't be any issues with that combo, so the battery drain issue would likely be somewhere else.

[Slender]

10 spares that is mental.... Done 1200 images/day assigments (DNG+jpegs - never will bother with this again, they are useless---- and all bells and whistle on: AFC, pre-focus, 120fps viewfinder, dual recording of files....) with SL2 and 2/3 batteries at the most. And not to many hours on those batteries yet!

+1 for carrying a powerbank in your jacket for cold days out in the field. Works a charm!

Edited January 6, 2021 by Slender

[Chaemono]

Am 5.1.2021 um 10:33 schrieb 2M6TTLs:

"It is as it is" ???

...
You can watch movies continuously drawing power on an iPad for much, much longer than that.

And take pictures with it.

[2M6TTLs]

True what others have said here. Battery performance is not going to be good if the battery is cold especially in that metal body.In winter. For example, in winter when it gets really cold on some days, my iPad and MacBook batteries encased in aluminum sometimes refuse to charge until I warm up the devices.. And that's iINSIDE the house! When it's cold you need to keep your body and your batteries warm. 2 batteries should suffice if kept at a reasonable temp.

[Eivind]

I experience the same trouble with low battery life.  I guess if I turn off Wifi and Bluetooth, and spend less time in the menus, it will be slightly better.
Was thinking about buying a battery pack, until I saw the price of it.  

[Slender]

A recapitulation of tips to improve battery life on SL2 I learned and use when on long walks and dont need all bells and whistles on:

• Use those batteries for a dozen of cycles, and they get better.
• If you have multiple batteries, label them and use/charge them sequentially.
• Use Leica L lenses and Leica adapters. Update both camera/lenses.
• Get familiar with your camera so to wander less in menus.
• Turn camera OFF between uses, even for some minutes between shots. Minimise screen display time in Power options.
• Dial down your EVF fps to 60fps.
• Cut OFF the Pre Focus.
• Use the EVF Extended option so there is no screen on when not framing a shot.
• Use the rear screen instead of the EVF if you want to take this even further 🤪 (only if you feel like it)
• Off course, no WIFI or Bluetooth... it is all quite annoying when shooting to keep track of this anyway.... at least last time I checked... Need to give it another try for GPS but I dont really care I can remember by myself (still) where I went recently.
• If you are on a bright day out, shooting below 90mm and speeds above 1/250th.... I guess one could also try to deactivate the stabilisation on top of that.
• Create and use your profiles to quickly change between modes and settings so you dont loose time in the menus/waste picture opportunities chasing settings in the menu system.

You can create your own; low power long day strolling mode with all of those options, and the next minute change back to another mode with 6 FPS, AF-C with body detect, Pre-Focus, EVF at full brightness and 120fps etc etc....

In video, if you are lucky to have an Atomos Ninja, you can cut the screen at the back, remove memory cards and the Ninja does all the hard work of monitoring/recording the sensor output. Just use the back screen for initial settings, the top LCD for setting ISO/T/Shutter angle, and the shutter to trigger the Atomos.For video I strongly recomend pairing your camera with a USB power bank. If it does PD (power delivery) it is even better. Keep both camera and external batteries cosy in your jacket in those cold months

 

Edited January 26, 2021 by Slender

[Simone_DF]

And here I thought the Sonys were complicated to set up 

[Jeffry Abt]

7 hours ago, Slender said:

Dial down your EVF fps to 60fps.

 

 

How do you do that?

[SrMi]

7 hours ago, Slender said:

A recapitulation of tips to improve battery life on SL2 I learned and use when on long walks and dont need all bells and whistles on:

• Use those batteries for a dozen of cycles, and they get better.
• If you have multiple batteries, label them and use/charge them sequentially.
• Use Leica L lenses and Leica adapters. Update both camera/lenses.
• Get familiar with your camera so to wander less in menus.
• Turn camera OFF between uses, even for some minutes between shots. Minimise screen display time in Power options.
• Dial down your EVF fps to 60fps.
• Cut OFF the Pre Focus.
• Use the EVF Extended option so there is no screen on when not framing a shot.
• Use the rear screen instead of the EVF if you want to take this even further 🤪 (only if you feel like it)
• Off course, no WIFI or Bluetooth... it is all quite annoying when shooting to keep track of this anyway.... at least last time I checked... Need to give it another try for GPS but I dont really care I can remember by myself (still) where I went recently.
• If you are on a bright day out, shooting below 90mm and speeds above 1/250th.... I guess one could also try to deactivate the stabilisation on top of that.
• Create and use your profiles to quickly change between modes and settings so you dont loose time in the menus/waste picture opportunities chasing settings in the menu system.

You can create your own; low power long day strolling mode with all of those options, and the next minute change back to another mode with 6 FPS, AF-C with body detect, Pre-Focus, EVF at full brightness and 120fps etc etc....

In video, if you are lucky to have an Atomos Ninja, you can cut the screen at the back, remove memory cards and the Ninja does all the hard work of monitoring/recording the sensor output. Just use the back screen for initial settings, the top LCD for setting ISO/T/Shutter angle, and the shutter to trigger the Atomos.For video I strongly recomend pairing your camera with a USB power bank. If it does PD (power delivery) it is even better. Keep both camera and external batteries cosy in your jacket in those cold months

 

IBIS and Bluetooth do not use relevant amount of power, at least not on other brands like Sony and Nikon.

[SrMi]

1 minute ago, Jeffry Abt said:

How do you do that?

Main Menu 4 -> Display Settings -> EVF Frame rate

[Simone_DF]

4 hours ago, SrMi said:

IBIS and Bluetooth do not use relevant amount of power, at least not on other brands like Sony and Nikon.

Most likely the SL2 / SL2-S is using BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) and the energy consumption is negligible.

[2M6TTLs]

On 1/3/2021 at 7:16 AM, SrMi said:

Make sure pre-focusing is turned off.

Turn it off where?

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Hallo,

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[2M6TTLs]

On 1/6/2021 at 2:00 AM, Daniel C.1975 said:

Hi, 

in principle I think that's a non-issue, just add spare batteries. 

However and just for the record, I've checked on the power consumption today. A 2.5 hour walk at -4 degree C. I took 240 pictures with the camera mainly in my hand and mainly with EVF and Leica-m lenses. I took a few pictures with the screen and checked taken pictures every now and then at the screen or showed a taken picture with my family. 

Just at the end of the tour the battery symbol jumped to the 50-75%(according to the manual) battery indicator. So I assume it's closer to the 75%. 

I think that's not too bad. 

 

Cheers

Daniel

Not too bad? It's miraculous. My battery isn't doing that even in warm weather with power hungry features turned off.

[Photoworks]

1 hour ago, 2M6TTLs said:

Turn it off where?

FOCUSING - AF SETUP