Whether it’s just a day trip, a weekend get away, or a full week in the sun, you’ll want to maximize the battery life of your camera to ensure you never miss a shot. Here are a few tips to help you out:
1. Bring your charger and extra batteries. This one is kind of a no-brainer. If you’re just headed out for a day trip, you can often get away without lugging along anything extra, as most camera batteries will probably last a full day of shooting. However, a weekend trip or longer will necessitate bringing along some extra juice. And don’t forget to charge your batteries a couple days before you go instead of waiting until you’re at your destination. Downside: they take up more space in your bag, the bulky chargers especially, making it impractical for weekend trips when you’re trying to travel light.
2. Have a backup plan. Before you go away, research the closest photography and electronics stores at your destination in case you need to run in for an emergency battery or charger. If traveling by car, also consider a car charger as a backup in case your main charger is lost, stolen, or broken.
3. Reduce the brightness of your LCD screen. This one is easy to do by adjusting the setting in your camera’s menu. Turn down the brightness of the LCD screen a notch or two or three to conserve battery power. Downside: the screen will be more difficult to see in direct sun.
4. Don’t use flash or use an accessory flash with independent power. If your camera has a built in flash that relies on the camera’s battery for power, turn it off or don’t use it as often as you normally would and opt for high ISO photos instead. If your camera is a DSLR or CSC type that can use an accessory flash with its own power source (like AA batteries), this is a much better option. Not only will you get more power and flexibility, you won’t drain your camera’s battery since the external flash is powered externally. Downside: photos will possibly be noisy or underexposed without flash. External flash means more bulk to carry around, including separate batteries and charger.
5. Adjust other camera settings to maximize battery life. If battery life is your main concern, don’t be afraid to be aggressive when setting your camera. Turn off fancy extras like HDR modes, iContrast, Auto Lighting Optimizer, D-Lighting, auto distortion correction, vignette correction, and other processing functions. If your camera is WiFi capable, make sure it’s turned off and not transmitting. Set your standby time to something relatively short — that is to say the time after which the camera goes to sleep when its inactive. Downside: you may have to adjust the manner in which you shoot to adapt to these settings being off or reduced.
6. If you have a DSLR, buy a battery grip. A battery grip not only provides a more comfortable position for vertical shooting, it also provides space to insert an extra battery for lengthy, uninterrupted shooting.Downside: more to carry around.
7. Shoot in single frame mode rather than burst mode. Shooting in single frame mode will prevent any accidental bursts from occurring should you inadvertently leave your finger on the shutter a split second too long in burst mode. The fewer frames you shoot and the camera has to process, the longer your battery will last. Downside: you might miss a moment.
8. Don’t review photos on the LCD screen after taking them. Hey, remember film? Sometimes you had to wait weeks to see what your photos looked like. Digital cameras have spoiled us a little bit. The LCD screen is the number one source of battery drain, so the less you look at it, the longer it will last. Wait until you’re near a power source at a coffee shop or back at your hotel before doing lengthy reviews of your images. Downside: the anticipation might eat you alive.
9. Turn the camera off when not in use. While many cameras can be set to automatically turn off or go to sleep after a pre-determined time, it’s best to get in the habit of switching the camera off as soon as you’re done using it and not relying on the camera to do so. Downside: you could miss a moment while waiting for the camera to power up.
Get out and start capturing those moments and bring the juice.
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