IS power consumption

I have a new IS lens and the manual that comes along with it from Canon says

more power is consumed when it is on. Is there a way of quantifying this so

that I know how it actually affects how I do things?

I suppose you could charge the battery fully, then activate the camera continuously until the

battery dies. Do this with and without IS activated. See if there is a difference. I've not tried

this but I have a couple of IS lenses and have not noticed an obvious difference in battery life

when they are used, as opposed to using non-IS lenses.

 

Depending on the lens, you could easily use much more energy running the AF motor than

the IS unit -- and this isn't even considering the power use by the camera itself.

 

I would not worry much about this unless you are in an extremely power-limited situation.

I have the 5D... my lenses I use are the 24-105mm IS and the 100-400mm IS.. I was in Alaska for 11 days shooting everyday.. approximately 50 images in RAW. I changed the battery once about mid week and then only because i was neurotic it would drain completely when it only showed 1 out of the 3 little battery bars gone.

 

So, to answer your question... I don't think battery drain is much of an issue.. Shoot.. have fun.. enjoy.. don't worry.

I agree with Charles - don't sweat. I often shoot with a 70-200/2.8L IS, 300/4 L IS, 24-70/2.8 and/or 17-40/4 L on two or three 20D/30D bodies. I'll shoot between 600 and 1000 images on a good 1/2 day and when I get home and charge the batteries (all at the same time) you can't tell which were with the IS lenses and which were not.

I agree with the posts above. One other thing to remember is that different lenses take different amounts of power to keep IS moving. I can tell that my 300 f/2.8L IS and 500 f/4L IS take quite a bit more than the 28-135! I don't worry about it with any of the lenses. If it is a smaller lens, I can't even imagine worrying about it.

Hi,

 

Hard to really say, just something you should keep an eye on when first using the lens and camera together. How you use it and the batteries themselves are big variables, as well.

 

I've shot 700-800+ pics some days with a 10D and either 70-200/2.8 I.S. or 28-135 IS lenses on the camera the whole time. 12-14 hours of shooting, usually needed to change batteries just once later in the day. Haven't had occasion to shoot as long a session with 30D yet, but I expect similar performance. No use of the built-in flash, I use a separate flash at all times. Built-in flash use probably cuts the number of avail. pics in half. And, I use battery grips on each of my cameras that accomodate a pair of batteries, so halve the number of shots if using a single battery.

 

On the other hand, I've completely drained eight fresh AA alkalines while shooting just a single 36 exp. roll of film, with 300/2.8 or 500/4 IS lenses on EOS3 with PB-E2. If you frequently half-press the shutter button to activate AF and IS, that will add to the power drain. Doing this reflexively while watching wildlife through the viewfinder was the situtation that caused the EOS3 batteries to drain so rapidly. Normally a set would last me at least a few dozen rolls of film in that camera.

 

Plus it depends upon the specific batteries, too. BP512, BP511, BP511A, etc. and many aftermarket replacements for them vary a good deal in how much power they can hold, so will give different numbers of shots. Some are rated roughly 1200 mah, others are 1800. 50% more shots with the latter!

 

Best bet, buy some extra batteries, charge em up and keep them handy. I already have 6, but just bought 4 more extra brand new BP511 "generic" batteries (1800 mah)off eBay for less than $25 total, including shipping. That's a bit better than the $45-50 apiece they want for the "real" Canon batts (which are lower capacity)!

I can't quatify it but the battery is most likely to be low if I have used my 300 f4 IS quite a bit. I don't think the difference is enough to be a major issue though.

Canon manuals normally indicate about 15% or so less images/battery with IS on all the time

 

I used a Tamron lens on a trip and had noticably less battery drain, but it was not drastic by any means, I'm thinking about 10-15% more shots, and not worth foregoing IS. Probably only noticed because I was checking for it, this is pretty much a non-issue