With December now here and winter less than three weeks away, cold weather in our area is inevitable. Layering up and getting outdoors to photograph birds and wildlife is a great way to stay active during the winter months and sure makes the arrival of spring seem a lot sooner. One question I am asked all the time is how to make sure a camera battery doesn’t fail in cold weather. Ensuring your battery has plenty of power when a shot presents itself is easy by following these simple steps.
1. Charge Your Battery The Night Before
If you are heading out with your camera anytime but especially in cold weather charge your battery the night before. A fully charged battery has more power and will hold its charge much longer than a partially charged one will. If you think because you haven’t used your camera in months the battery will still be fully charged this is not the case. Batteries lose their charge sitting and just because you turn your camera on and the battery indicator reads fully charged doesn’t mean it will last long. As you use the camera the indicator will quickly drop to 75% then 50% then 25% then the camera shuts off. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen this happen at workshops I’ve conducted despite reminding participants to charge their batteries the night before. Every time I hear the same response “but I haven’t used my camera in months”.
Sometimes I get questioned about this practice as people are concerned about battery memory. Battery memory is an effect that causes some batteries such as nickel-based batteries to hold less power when repeatedly recharged if not fully discharged first. Essentially, the battery remembers the lesser charge thus never reaching full capacity. Fortunately, lithium-ion batteries used in DSLR cameras do not suffer from memory effect so no need to worry about this, charge your battery!
2. Limit The Use of Your LCD Screen
A camera’s LCD screen located on the back of the body requires significant power to operate. Therefore, the more the LCD screen is used the faster the battery will lose its charge. When photographing birds and wildlife I only use my LCD screen to briefly look at my histogram to check my exposure. I do this periodically as light conditions and scenes change and this is done quite quickly. Reviewing my images is something I do at home on my computer. Not only is this more accurate as images on the LCD often look great only to see they are out of focus once you get them up on the monitor it also conserves battery power.
3. Set Your Camera To Auto Power Off Mode
This is an amazing feature that will considerably save battery power. In this mode, you can choose how long your camera stays on when not in use. For me, I set mine to one minute. What this means is when I’m walking around and don’t press any buttons on my camera it automatically powers off thus not draining the battery. As soon as I see a subject, raise my camera and press the shutter, the camera automatically powers up and captures the image. In fact, the camera will power up when any button is pressed without having to turn the main power switch off and on. This saves battery power and time. I’m a Canon shooter so this mode might be called something else for Nikon users and on my Pansonic camera, I believe it’s referred to as sleep mode. Consult your manual on how to activate this feature, you will be glad you did.
By following these three easy steps I’ve never had a battery let me down anytime even during the cold winter months. The memory cards I use are 32 GB and hold just over 1200 RAW images each and I have filled 2 cards in -20 to -30 Celsius temperatures and still had between 25% to 50% battery life when finished shooting. As a result, I do not own a spare battery for my Canon 7D.
Earlier this year I started a vlog and am recording more videos with my camera. This requires considerable more battery power. Add in an external microphone that runs off of the camera’s battery and I found myself needing spare batteries for my Canon Rebel T3i which I use to record my vlog. Not wanting to pay $84.99 for an authentic Canon battery I decided to shop around and found this 2 pack of Powerextra batteries complete with a USB charger for a fraction of the price.
I haven’t done a side-by-side comparison to see exactly how long these aftermarket batteries hold their charge compared to the factory Canon battery, but I can tell you I don’t notice a difference. I used these batteries extensively this year to capture footage for my vlog and record numerous takes of me fumbling my way through a sentence as I try to get my point across and have been very impressed with their performance. If you use your LCD a lot for landscape images or recording video thus using more battery power or find yourself needing to replace your factory battery I highly recommend checking these batteries out. Powerextra offers a wide range of batteries for most cameras so be sure to find the battery that is compatible with your make and model.
Under normal operating conditions, a fully charged battery that is not nearing the end of its life shouldn’t let you down. If you have had issues with your battery maintaining its charge especially during the winter months try following these simple steps and don’t let a dead battery be the reason for missing the shot of a lifetime.
Good birding,
Paul
thanks so much for sharing
My pleasure Francine!
Great information as always. And thanks for the tip on the Powerextra batteries – I have a Canon Rebel T3i as well, so I’ll definitely check this out!
Thanks Colleen, my pleasure. I have been really impressed with these batteries and am glad I didn’t spend the extra money on the Canon battery.