Whether you are a paid photographer, or someone who take pictures for fun, your camera is one of your most important possessions. As they can capture all of life’s hidden, ephemeral moments, many photographers don’t leave their house without one. But being able to shoot all day without having to worry a dwindling camera battery is just as important for any photographer.
For the rapid-shooting photographers out there, many aren’t lucky enough to get all-day battery life from their cameras. In order to make sure that you get the most out of your camera battery, we’ve come up with a list of tips to help improve battery life in your camera.
Using the LCD Screen instead of Your Viewfinder
Many modern cameras come with giant, bright, and high definitions screens that can show you exactly what you will be taking a photo of. But, as you could imagine, these screens can use a lot of battery to run all day every day. So instead of using the LCD to set up and capture your shot, you should try and use the built-in viewfinder instead to save your camera battery. While you can dim the LCD screen while taking photos, you can also turn it off altogether to save battery. Of course, you can turn it back on review the photos from your session and make sure they are Instagram worthy.
Using Zoom Too Frequently
There is a good chance that if you take a lot of photos, you are likely using the zoom function far too frequently. However, one of the most important rules in photography is that you should only utilize zoom if you are unable to get any closer to the subject of your photo. See, whenever you use the zoom function, the motor within the camera needs to move the lens, which uses up a decent amount of power. Aside from saving the camera battery, moving closer to your subject instead of zooming should help you get a better photo too.
You Always Have “Automatic Flash” On
While flash is quite necessary in some environments, we often use it when we don’t need to. Especially during the day, having automatic flash on is likely doing nothing to improve the look or quality of your photos. If your flash is going off during the day, turn it off. And as easy as it is to turn off when you don’t need it, it’s as easy to turn back on when natural lighting needs some extra help.
Perform Solid Camera Battery Maintenance
Simply put, the better you treat your camera and its battery, the better (and longer) they will work. There are a number of relatively simple things you can do to ensure that your battery is maintained correctly. This includes things like keeping it cool during incredibly hot weather, warm during frigid weather, and to make sure not to physically damage the camera in any capacity. Of course, if you’re storing your camera for a long time, it couldn’t hurt to actually remove the battery. This is because a slow drain can occur when a camera sits unused for a prolonged period of time.
Replace Batteries That Are Showing Signs of Performance Issues
It is tough to get the most out of your camera when it simply isn’t delivering the same performance that it used to. This often means it now takes longer to do things, or it simply doesn’t last as long as it once did. But its not just you, everyone has to deal with it. That’s because camera batteries are made from lithium-ion batteries which have a finite number of charge/recharge cycles.
So if your camera battery is on its last legs, or just isn’t working as well as it is suppose to, then investing in a replacement battery might be a better option than continuing to milk it for all it’s worth. Thankfully, we sell a wide variety of different camera batteries for many different cameras, so finding the right one for you shouldn’t prove very difficult.
Turn off Any Features You Don’t Use
Many digital cameras that come out today are jam-packed full of a variety of different features. While some of them will get a lot of use, others you will hardly touch. Because some of them will be on or used by default, it won’t hurt to go into your camera’s settings and turn off any features that you don’t use. Your battery life will likely improve in a big way.
While coming up with ways to extend your cameras battery life is important, so is extending the battery life on your phone. This is not only because a phone is a means for communication, but because many people also use their phone as a backup camera. Happy shooting!
I do not get this article. I get 2 days of use on my series 3 no problem. I even wear it to bed to track my heart rate. I walk sometimes for hours tracking the workout. No idea why anyone would have trouble with only a day.