Time lapse T3i / Battery

[SCCanon]

Does anyone have any input regarding time lapses and the T3i, and the expected battery life?

I am trying to help a friend run one in his shop to capture the construction of walls etc - and we have set it up to take 1 picture an hour (with an Aputure intervelometer), it starts and takes about 4 images before it craps out.

I assumed I would get a few days - being that we are only taking an image per hour, and the camera goes to sleep after 4 seconds.  It seems like we are only getting about 4 hours- which seems ridiculous.

Could I have some of the settings wrong that are drainig the battery- or is it possible that this is accurate, and that is the most we can expect?  Thanks a mill- we are beyond frustrated...

[TCampbell]

This sounds more like the camera is going to sleep -- not running out of battery power, no?

You can configure how long the camera waits to auto power off (and one of the options is 'off').  

When I do astrophotography the camera is literally taking images for hours on end, so I configure my camera not to sleep (and I also run the camera on Canon's AC adapter rather than on batteries but that's because astrophotography drains a lot more power (a single exposure is many minutes long... not fractions of a second like typical photography, so there's a big difference in battery life.)

If you want such a thing, it's the Canon ACK-E8 for your camera (lists for $85, but can be found for less if you price shop.  B&H, for example, sells it for $65).  

To disable auto-power off on your camera, hit:

Menu -> Gold wrench #1 -> Auto power off -> and pick the time you want (one of the choices is 'off' which means the camera will not auto power off.  It'll run until the battery dies or until you turn it off.)

See page 167 of your manual.

You will probably want to make sure you re-enable auto-power off when you're finished with your time lapse session ... otherwise you're likely to grab the camera next time you want it and find out it's got a dead battery.

Good luck!

[SCCanon]

Thanks Tim!

Actually- as far as I can tell it is the battery that is getting drained- as I have to load a new battery just to get the camera to turn on when I return the next day.   I am starting to lean towards a ghost sucking the life out of the camera at midnight every night...  Sadly- he doesn't want to spend any additional cash on an adapter - or that would be an excellent suggestion.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.  I truly appreciate it.

-Maureen

[TCampbell]

Do you have an idea of the age of the battery and/or is it a genuine Canon battery (as opposed to a 3rd party brand)?

My experience with genuine Canon batteries has been fairly consistent (that's not to say that every once in a while even the best manufacturers wont produce a bad one) -- generally good lifespan and performance.  My experience with 3rd party batteries has been inconsistent and generally not as good.  Since predictable and reliable performance is important to me, it's an area where I don't cut corners -- I stick with what I can trust.

Batteries are expected to wear over time and typically you get a few hundred recharge cycles out of them before the "full" capactiy starts to diminish.  I'm wondering if your batteries might be getting to that point.

You *should* be able to get at least 400 shots out of a fully charged battery (typically many more). 

Press the "Info" button on the back of the camera several times (this cycles through a list of things the camera can display on the rear-LCD) -- one of the display optiosn is to simply have the LCD remain off (even when the camera is on).  This will help conserve power when doing time exposures (since nobody is there staring at the rear LCD screen anyway.)