Does Heat Affect Battery Performance

[pflower]

I am shooting in India where it is about 32c at the height of the day.  Today I made about 180 photos with my X2D but completely exhausted one battery and reduced a second to about 35%.  Seems a bit short to me.  Anyone got any thoughts.

[flash]

It does seem short. I was in Varanassi in November and got double that. A few things.

The body is a heat sync for the camera. If it's warm then the internals are warm. Try turning the camera off or to standby between shots. The EVF uses more power than the rear screen but if you have the camera on you could consider turning the rear LCD off. I have moved from using a hand strap to a regulat shoulder strap because it made a difference to the temp. of the camera.

The older batteries last substantially less than the latter ones. (grey o ring). If your batteries have the red or black o-ring they'll have less capacity.

Heat does affect battery life. Both hot and cold. Batteries are happiest between 15 and 20 degrees C.

Gordon

[colonel]

Heat does not reduce battery capacity, it can actually increase it.
However extreme heat reduces battery life.

Which is why using slow chargers for longer times (over night) conserves battery life compared to fast chargers, as they tend to generate much more heat in the battery.

In terms of working in a hot environment, just common sense really. Try to keep the camera out of the sun, and covered in a bag when not using it. Lastly try to charge it in a cooler environment.

how-does-temperature-affect-battery-performance