Canon 7D Mark II and battery

I have a Canon 7D Mark II camera, and while I'm happy with it, I find that the batteries do not last as long as they did on my 7D - no matter the weather (though colder weather is always worse), I can go through at least 2 batteries in a rugby day (which are 2-3 80 minute matches) whereas on my 7D the charge on the battery lasted a lot longer. One battery would last through more than 3 matches.

 

I've heard others had this problem in the past - is there a newer model of the 7D that doesn't do this? Or should I get a different Canon EOS model where the battery life is better.

 

Can anyone shed light on this? I do use canon batteries with the charger that came with my kit.

 

Thanks

Sheryl

Hi Sheryl,

 

Sorry to hear you are having battery issues.

 

Which battery are you using in your Canon 7D MK II? Canon has two that will work in cameras like the 7D, 7D MK II, 6D, 5D MK III and 5D MK IV and others I have not named them all.

 

Canon had the older version of the battery LP-E6 which was a 7.2 VDC 1800mAh (13Wh) Lithium-Ion battery and the newer LP-E6N which is a 7.2 VDC 1865mAh (14Wh) lithium-ion battery. Both batteries will power the cameras and both can be used with the same battery charger. The newer one has a little more capacity. Also, batteries tend to lose capacity as the age. Also, cold weather will drop their lasting stamina.

 

Settings on your camera will also alter performance time in my experience, things like live view, shooting in movie mode, GPS and Wi-Fi being on can burn battery power faster.

 

There are also third-party batteries on the market, I find these tend to stop performing well in the stamina arena after a few months. also beware of counterfeit Canon batteries, they look like the real thing, but these cheap knock-offs will not perform as expected. Only buy from a reputable dealer.

 

I tend to think this is a battery issue, not a camera issue, but it may be possible the new 7D MK II takes more power. If you are seeing the performance time of your battery dropping, it may be time to buy a new LP-E6N genuine Canon battery.

 

I will be interested in hearing others experience with the 7D MK II. I had a 7D and still have a 6D and 5D MKIV, I know the 6D and 5D MKIV work well with the newer LP-E6N batteries.

 

Good luck on resolving this issue.

Hi Mark,

 

I have the batteries that originally came with the camera - the LP-E6 1800 mAh. It lasts a long time on my older 7D, but loses juice on the Mark II version which is weird. At the time I got it about 2 years ago, I was reading on a forum for the 7D Mark II that others had the same problem with their batteries losing charge more quickly on the 7D.

I also have batteries by BOWER(their version of the Canon LP-E6) that are 7.4 2800 mAh, which you would think would be better, but they lose juice just as quickly as the Canon ones. I don't do any video, wi-fi, or GPS (much less know how to do it), mostly sports shooting (rugby) and non-profit fundraiser events (with a flash). My batteries I buy usually through B&H.

 

I know with past Canons (10-40D), this was never a problem, be it with canon batteries or secondary ones. And not a problem with the 7D. Just the 7D mark II which is weird.

 

Hope that clarifies things for you.

I did a little research, interesting stuff on the 7D MK II, I was reading some postings from 2014 back when the camera was released, and people claimed the GPS on the camera never turns off even when the camera is switched off as long as the battery is in the camera, I even saw a posting about the viewfinder still being active if you touched the focus button with the camera off but the battery still in. This could be easily tested, and you could remove the battery to see if the viewfinder indeed behaves differently with no battery. The claim was the camera kept GPS on even when the camera was off so the camera would not take so long to lock on GPS satellites if it never turns off GPS. I am only repeating what I read on forums, so I can't take this as gospel. But it would give you some things to search.

 

The workaround is to take extra batteries with you when shooting. :oops: Guess you know that.

 

I will see if I can find if this issue was fixed with a firmware update as these postings were from 2014. The complaints were people who stored the camera for a week or so with the battery in the camera would find the battery dead the next time they used the camera.

 

I never owned a 7D MK II, so I can not confirm this. But I do know Lithium-Ion batteries have a finite number of recharge cycles so if you leave the batteries in the camera while storing the camera you would be putting more wear on the batteries possibly causing them to be needed to be recharged more and wear out sooner.

 

As far as third party batteries, I prefer not to spend my money on them anymore. Genuine Canon batteries are only around $62 and I can count on them to perform best and hold up for many recharges. All batteries fail eventually, but in my personal experience, I have found no third party battery that is as good as the Canon original. I am not trying to sound like a commercial, and I am not paid by Canon to say this. lol. Of course, if they would like to hire me, Canon and I would have to talk. ;)

 

Just browsed the Canon 7D MK II firmware page LINK and didn't notice any info on battery life. Sorry. :oops:

Of course you could buy a 3rd party battery grip... it will let you put 2 batts in the camera, virtually doubling the amount of time / number of shots you can fire off before needing to change batteries. Given your use, I'd be surprised if you needed to change them at all. While I can't comment on the Apparent GPS design fault, I can say that leaving batteries out of camera, and in the bag when not in use, will leave them fully charged for you to start your day - regardless of the 7D2s foibles.

 

The other key advantage of a BG is better shooting ergonomics for portrait shooting, though obv YMMV. That said, the bottom of the barrel ones are not very good. A 'name brand' 3rd party grip, while NOT as durable as the OEM ones, still, are pretty resilient in all but the harshest service. I like BGs, and have used them on nearly every digital camera I've ever owned. This included years of wedding service, dangling a 70-200/2.8 and 5D/5D2 by my spider holster off my belt (ie. Dangling the weight of the camera and lens by the tripod mount on the BG)... That experience was a pretty even mix of OEM and 3rd party BGs.

 

By far the biggest downside is added weight and size. Again, YMMV, but handling a camera with ONE installed will def tell you if those are deal breakers for you.

 

Decent third party battery grips can be had for the cost of one genuine Canon battery. Pairing that with 4 decent quality non-oem batteries can be done for probably around $100. IME, OEM batts are largely interchangeable with OEM ones. Over the last 13yrs of digital camera use, I've found that they have pretty similar endurance and longevity as the OEM ones - although I don't typically buy the bottom of the barrel ones, as those DO tend to suck. Instead (like the BGs) I find that 'name brand' 3rd party ones are the sweet spot for reliability and cost effectiveness.

 

Maybe that helps, maybe not, but food for thought ;l

Indeed, the manual for my 7D Mk II states that GPS does function when the camera is off and can affect battery life. However, if you aren’t using this function, GPS can be disabled. I haven’t really tested to see if my Mk II has reduced battery life compared to my original 7D (and can’t anymore since the 7D was sold some time ago), but I use it pretty heavily at airshows and have never felt limited by battery life. And I use a mix of new LP-E6n batteries that came with the camera, and some leftover spare E6 batteries. Edited May 20, 2018 by mark_ethridge

If you don't already use a battery grip get the Canon BG-E16, it'll hold two batteries and extend your shooting sessions. I picked up genuine Canon BG-E13 and BG-E14's on eBay used but in near perfect condition for $65 and $70. I use them on both my 70D and 6D with an extra battery in each grip.

I had battery problems with my original Canon 7D version 1. The amount of shots i could take with that camera was way lower than what was stated in the manual. When i used flash, even external studio flash the count was even worse. After several trips to Canon with minor to no improvements, I finally sold it.