How does the battery life compare to the Canon Powershot? Are there any DSLRs that have better battery life than others? Do they generally take battery packs as opposed to batteries? How many photos will a battery pack generally go for?
I ask because on my summer vacation I took literally thousands of pictures with my Canon Powershot – probably doubled the number of pictures I’ve taken before in the rest of my life. But the batteries! I used dozens of batteries, finding that they only lasted for less than 200 shots. While I’m generally happy with the Powershot and would not “trade down” for better battery life, I’d trade up for the ability to take more shots.
Read the Dpreview review.
In any case, a DSLR is going to have many times the battery life of a point-and-shoot. It’s not uncommon to get well over 1,000 shots per charge.
To answer the specific question: DSLRs definitely differ in battery life. It’s yet one more factor to consider when choosing your equipment.
As beowulff said, Dpreview is the best place to get real answers.
Some cameras have relatively compact battery packs, which I prefer, but they only give around 200-300 shots before time to swap out. I don’t consider this a great defect (you mean I can only take 200 shots?!?), and always carry a spare battery for each camera to an event. I like smaller batteries for the same reason I like smaller memory cards: if one dies, I have at least one spare, and the replacement cost will be cheaper.
Several years ago I bought a Nikon DSLR (a D50) and really was amazed at how long its battery lasted–I would charge it whenever it seemed low, and shoot for a few days. I don’t know about newer Nikons, but perhaps they still come with nice fat battery packs in the grip that last 1000 shots.
If you truly want a camera “that you could load on Sunday and shoot all week long”, most prosumer cameras have an option for a battery grip, like this one for the D3300. Those grips are nice because not only do they give you double or triple the battery life, but you also have a very nice hand grip with shutter control for vertical shots.
Indeed. I specifically wanted a DSLR because I wanted to use a viewfinder. Growing up with SLRs and motion picture cameras, it’s more ‘natural’ to look through an eyepiece. In addition, even though I feel like I’m in my 20s, my eyes disagree. My medical certificate now says that I’m required to carry close-up lenses when flying. Using a viewscreen has become problematic.
It’s got to be better than my Nikon CoolPix L1. That thing eats batteries faster than a very hungry thing eats particularly tasty things. And Wifey likes her ‘pretty lights’, which she always forgets to turn off, so we’re out of batteries.
I tried out the camera in the back yard yesterday afternoon. I used the Auto mode and Auto Focus. I was not in sequence-shooting mode, but clicking off one photo for each press of the button. It’s a pretty fast camera, as I took ten snaps almost without noticing.
