EOS R8 Battery life is ridiculously short

[Eaglesnest]

The battery life on my new R8 is ridiculously short. After a full charge, it shows low battery power after just a few of shots. Is there any reason why? Thank you for the tips. 

[Waddizzle]

Welcome to the forum.  Congratulations on your camera purchase.

There settings and techniques to reduce power consumption.  For example, I would disable photo preview after every shot.  Stop “chimping” after every shot, which means looking at it for flaws.  The rear screen does not have the display resolution to make that judgement.  

All I ever do is check the exposure ever once in a while.  There are other settings that affect power consumption, like Continuous AF and OVF display settings., for example.

It is the same battery used in entry level Rebel DSLRs.  ???  I believe Canon made a judgment error to not use the larger E6 battery found in their midrange DSLR camera bodies.  The E6 battery is used in the R5, R6, and R7 bodies.  I recommend that you buy a few spare batteries to carry with you.

[deebatman316]

How many pictures can you get before the battery goes down. The battery could be faulty do you have another one to test. The R8 does use a lower capacity battery compared to the R6 Mark II and R5.

[Waddizzle]

I would also like to know what lens you are using to cause such a rapid battery drain.

[deebatman316]

I've seen 3rd Party Mount adapters cause rapid battery drain too. Lenses mainly 3rd Party can also do the same too.

[Eaglesnest]

I used 100 mm 2.8 Macro EF lens with an adapter.(Canon adapter)

Tried with the right mouse button, still unable to see answers to other members questions. 

[deebatman316]

Which EF 100mm Macro lens. Canon has released a few different revisions over the years.

[Eaglesnest]

No I don't have another battery. The camera is less than a month old.

I reduced the time preview from 8 to 4 secs. Hope this will help.

[Waddizzle]

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@Eaglesnest wrote:

No I don't have another battery. The camera is less than a month old.

I reduced the time preview from 8 to 4 secs. Hope this will help.

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I suggested that you should disable preview entirely.  The less the rear display is used, the better.

[EDIT] I also disable the rear exposure display from turning on when my eye is not up to the OVF.  If I wish to see a “Live View” display, then I simply press [INFO].

[deebatman316]

If it is the original EF 100mm Macro that uses an Arc Form Drive AF Motor. Those older Arc Form Drive lenses are power hungry. They tend to run the battery down faster in my experience.