Very fast battery drain: Canon 200D SL2 with Sigma 150-600 contemporary lens

[rahat]

My 06 year old Canon 200D SL2 still works exceptionally well in terms of number of shots with kit lens of Canon 55-250mm but when paired with a Sigma 150-600mm contemporary lens drains the battery very fast.

The lens motor seems to be running even when the power button is kept OFF unless I remove the battery from camera. The battery will drain off within 2-3h even without switching it ON when the lens is mounted.

Is it the small size of the battery or the incompatibility of the 200D with lens or may be something wrong with this particular piece of lens?

Any leads would be genuinely appreciated.

Thanks in anticipation everyone.

[wq9nsc]

Do you have the lens image stabilizer turned on?  It will greatly increase battery drain.

Rodger

[rahat]

Yes. Keeping it at OS2. Would it create so much trouble?

I tried to see the behaviour of this lens on a Sony Alpha6500 with a Sony to Canon adopter. The motor movement noise was not that prominent but still there was some sound from the lens. Couldn't check how much time would it take to drain the battery of the Sony Alpha6500.

[wq9nsc]

Image stabilization consumes a fair amount of power with this lens.  I have one and have used it as a hiking lens on my 1DX III body and the battery drain isn't horrible but still noticeable even with the large battery pack used for the 1 series bodies.

It isn't just a Sigma lens "thing", IS use increases battery drain with Canon lenses also but some are worse than others depending upon the structure of the lens and how optical IS is implemented.

Rodger

[rahat]

Yes. Agree about OS being ON and consuming battery when the camera is ON. But why when the camera is OFF and no shutter button is being pressed? It shouldn't then try to stabilise the lense, no?

[wq9nsc]

With the camera off, it should not.  Everything should be shut down at that point.

Rodger

[rahat]

Doesn't that translate that there's a problem with this particular lense or the body and lense are not compatible?

[p4pictures]

Lenses should not drain batteries when the camera is switched off. You mentioned that your other Canon 55-250mm lens works fine with no battery drain, I think it is a lens issue. 

In use with the camera switched on larger lenses with bigger AF motors and more large glass elements to move will drain a battery faster than a lightweight small lens. 

[kvbarkley]

The lens is connected directly to the battery, so if there could be a fault with the lens that constantly drains the battery. The only way to test this is to leave the lens off the camera until you actually need it, and put it on, take the shot and pull it off.

It could also be a weak battery. You might want to try a new one.

[rahat]

Yes, the battery might have gotten weaker over its life of almost 06years now. But do you really think one can do this frequent connection/ disconnection of this heavy a lense? Practically a hastle it would be.