I'll be shooting in Tibet, away from access to electricity, for about eight days at a stretch. I'm trying to figure out how many batteries I should carry to cover my shooting for those days.

How quickly does the Canon 5D drain the battery while shooting? What about backing up? It seems that "battery/shot" would need to include battery usage in downloading from the flash each day.

Thanks!

Sounds like quite a trip, John.

To your question, there's really no hard answer. The 5D's 7.2v battery is not nearly as robust as the 1-bodies' 12v batteries, but it's also much lighter. Its longevity depends on factors such as temperature (colder = shorter life) and operational drains (ex: image stabilizer usage, use of the camera's lcd). As a policy I always have a spare battery handy when shooting with the 5D. Being in a remote location I'd suggest a bandalero of batteries.

I've gotten nearly 500 frames on a single charge, but this was relatively quick shooting with virtually no chimping. Shooting as I normally do with occasional histo checks and image reviews, it is more like 250 - 300 range, but YMMV...

Solar Bag

This might be worth considering

Shooting in the balmy tropics, I average about 400 frames per charge on my 5D. I rarely chimp as the LCD is too dim too see in Hawaii's sunlight.

Just for my information, what's the precise definition (and origin, if known) of "chimp"?

Jeremy

Jeremy,
The urban dictionary has several definitions, of which here are the first two...

1. Chimp
see Dubya
The chimp tried to answer journalists questions today... what a laugh

2.
To review an image on the LCD screen of a digital camera after taking a photograph. In common usage among press photographers. The act was dubbed chimping after photographers were caught making monkey-like noises when they reviewed a good shot in their cameras.

1. The photographer chimped his double-play shots from the first base photo position.
2. The photographer was caught chimping on the sideline after a play and missed the interception shot.


John

Why we're talking batteries, has anyone used the non-OEM batteries, like the ones on ebay. They cost about a 1/3 of what Canon asks for there batteries.
maddog