Max 3 dives with D500 battery?

[sinetwo 17]

Hey all, something that's been irking me is that I seem to get a maximum of 3 dives (comfortably) with the D500. I use official batteries and the official charger and I've disabled the touch interface and I leave it on airplane mode. The display brightness is set to 0 (normal) so I have an indication of real life exposure. 

 

I don't feel like I excessively use the screen but I do sometimes for quick settings off eye rather than in the OVF. I think I take anything between 50-100 shots per dive depending...

 

I use the optical hot shoe on the Nauticam like most users.

 

Other dslr users I've spoken to say they get more daily mileage out of their much older systems. I attribute this to perhaps the camera being more efficient and storing less information (megapixels)? 

 

At this point, I feel like the d500 misses the "long lasting batter argument" against their mirrorless equivalents, unless I'm missing some obvious settings? 

 

Any thoughts from fellow D500 users that can squeeze 4+ dives in a battery? 

 

Edited November 30, 2022 by sinetwo

[TimG 62]

We've just been discussing this on a post that MAGS started about the D500 in a Subal housing.

I've had the D500 since 2107 and have done around 500 dives with it. I get about the same battery life as you: 3 dives for sure - I might squeeze out a 4th if I didn't take that many pics in the first 3 dives.

I must admit I have always been very happy with this. A full day's shooting on one battery - works for me. I never thought that this might be less than perhaps it should be. 

I've got 3x batteries, two of which are starting to get slightly creaky but still can turn out 3 dives.

[nomadadv 3]

i have dived with the d500 since 2017 i ve been even using it for video and even use the hdmi signal on a monitor and i have really long dives one hour min but at the end my batt dies and i swap it with a fresh on especially if i go on a night dive!

 

 

[sinetwo 17]

Thanks both, good to hear my actuals are similar and that I'm not doing anything significantly wrong. Maybe one day they'll create an external battery pack of sorts that can serve as the strobe arms and give you mega power! 

[davehicks 89]

Which exact battery model do you have? Nikon EN-EL15a, b, c, or something else? There were some issues with the batteries before the A model that prompted a recall/replacement. Don't even think about 3rd party batteries.

[Draq 109]

I think it can be confusing to refer to number of dives rather than number of shots.  I have had dives where I only took a few shots due to conditions or an absence of what I was looking for.  I feel I get plenty of shots out of a D500 battery before I need to change it, although I have never actually tried to track that number.  Underwater, I use only the "c"  batteries of fairly recent vintage.

[TimG 62]

2 hours ago, Draq said:

 

I think it can be confusing to refer to number of dives rather than number of shots

 

Yeah, that’s a fair comment, Draq. I’d say about 250-300 shots from a full charge

[sinetwo 17]

Agreed, that feels about right. With the Z7 dpreview get 420 with the OVF and 360 with the rear screen. Which rivals the D500 quite a bit, given it needs to keep a screen on at all times! 

[Mags 4]

Yep, I am also dissapointed. Reckon I get around 250 shots per charge. That is without live view. If live view is on it drops to around 50 shots or 1 dive as I found out to my horror. Whilst away I tried my original and the b type Nikon Batteries. Borrowed an A type. No difference to really percieve. In the end I turned off live view unless I wanted to get a low down shot and couldn't get my shot using the "headstand" method.

[TimG 62]

I'm running a test at the moment. I've now done 6 dives (3 days x 2 dives - probably around 5 hours in total) and plan to do another 2 tomorrow. Still on the same battery...... 

The camera has been on for the duration of each dive but I never use LiveView. 

I'll report the total number of pics when I finish.......

[TimG 62]

WOW!

I've just finished the 8th dive on the same battery. No use of LiveView at all but the camera was switched on for the duration of each dive - all of which were in the 45 -55 minute range. 

I took 682 RAW images and the camera is still reporting the battery as having 25% charge left.

The battery is an EN-EL15b. The QR code gives its date as 2018 but it isn't that old. It's either 2020 or 2021, I Can't be sure which.

But a pretty good rate of return in terms of images!

 

[sinetwo 17]

That's crazy @TimG, it's the kind of life I was expecting from a DSLR.

 

I presume they're all full size raw images, monitor brightness on 0 (normal) and airplane mode on? 

[TimG 62]

14 minutes ago, sinetwo said:

I presume they're all full size raw images, monitor brightness on 0 (normal) and airplane mode on? 

Yep. 

And for the technical community, water temperature was 27-28 degrees Centigrade - 82 degrees Fahrenheit

[Mags 4]

Thanks @TimG, I would be happy with 682 images for one battery charge. I'll write to Nikon to see if there have been any "duff" batches, knowing my luck they will be the ones I have! My dives were all around 70 to 90minutes so would have thought 3 dives of that duration were OK,

Edited December 10, 2022 by Mags

[JohnLiddiard 26]

Also to consider, different lenses affect battery usage.

[phxazcraig 101]

FWIW, with my D810 and then D850, I got multiple days on a battery.  I never thought twice about it during a typical 3-dive day.

I changed out the battery each night with a fresh one simply because I was already at the camera anyway to get the card out.   Typically 3 hour-long dives each day - 100 or so shots per dive macro, and sometimes 3x that many wide angle (because not using flash more I also tended to shoot multiple frames per second with some subjects.)

Then, with the D850, I tried video a couple of years ago.  Totally different, mostly due to all that Live View use.  I noticed toward the end of my second dive that I was getting a battery warning.  And that was typical - barely eked out 2 dives on a battery.  I figure both Live View and continuous VR ate the power.

 

[Mags 4]

Continuous VR, didn't think of that one

[TimG 62]

2 hours ago, Mags said:

Continuous VR, didn't think of that one

Interesting thought. I've only got VR on the Nikkor 105mm and never use that feature underwater.

[phxazcraig 101]

7 hours ago, TimG said:

Interesting thought. I've only got VR on the Nikkor 105mm and never use that feature underwater.

Hmm.  I've never turned it off.  

[sinetwo 17]

@TimG can you share your exact setup and settings on how you get such good battery life?

 

[TimG 62]

2 hours ago, sinetwo said:

@TimG can you share your exact setup and settings on how you get such good battery life?

 

Sure, but they were nothing special. 

Focus set to AF-S; mode on Manual,; varying shutter speeds from around 1/60 to about 1/400. UWT trigger (which allows high speed sync (HSS) with my Retra strobes); fibre optic cables; f stops between f8 and f22; No Liveview; minimal image review between shots; camera switched on throughout dive with sleep on default setting; focus centre-weighted. 

I plan on diving today and will be using the same settings so I can check further. But, as I say, really nothing special or unusual. Apart from using HSS a bit , I use pretty vanilla settings. 
 

I must admit I was surprised by the battery life. I usually change batteries at the end of each dive day but pushed it as an experiment to see just how long it’d last. I used my setup just as normal not taking any special efforts or changes. 

[sinetwo 17]

@TimG thanks, I think you're right in the way of AF/VR using battery. I'm guessing D500's AF system is fairly intense and may require more battery life, and perhaps that in combination with VR drains it even more.

 

I read up on this thread that seems to indicate this as well. Perhaps I should try turning off VR and see if that makes the difference, as I also use vanilla settings for both macro and wide (perhaps long exposures every now and then).

[TimG 62]

Interesting thread in that link. Thanks.

Hmmm, makes me think a couple of things:

- make sure the Wifi/Bluetooth bits and bobs are switched off

- turn off VR

- maybe reduce the standby timer to as little as you really need. (I know Mags was keen to increase hers)

- it made me wonder whether using a WA lens (rather than macro) also reduces battery power usage. The 682 images I took on less than one full battery were all using a Tokina 10-17. So minimal - almost no - focus hunting or shifting. That said I have used either a 60mm or 105mm (VR off) loads of times and have never really noticed a battery drain that caused me any kind of concern.

 

 

[TimG 62]

Just done 2 dives this morning in awful (for Sint Maarten) viz caused by swells.

70 images recorded and camera showing 62% charge left with my oldest battery - an EN-EL15 (not an a, b or c model)

Here's the settings:

Mode: M

Shutter: Between 1/40 and 1/125

ISO: 200

Aperture: f11 or f13

AF-C (not AF-S)

XQD = RAW

SD = RAW

WB Auto0

DX

Single Shot

Notes: Only very short image reviews; No LiveView; Lens Tokina 10-17 so no VR; Standby Timer (c2) 6secs; Matrix Metering

Like I said, nothing unusual in any of that.