I know this is not a very new topics but after contacting customer service about some issues with battery life, I realized that Canon design team in Japan has failed to address this issue. The camera may be operating as described but something is not right. I was getting about 50% battery life compared to what is published, ran some tests and found the following:
- Intro: quite often when recording I have to stop for 1 to 10 minutes (never know how long, it depends) and I was keeping the camera in standby mode (not recording) like I always do with my other cameras. Recording time was way shorter than published.
- Testing: set recording to MP4 - 4K (135Mbps), fan in auto mode (low), power saving off (new with firmware 1.06), LCD screen to normal brightness, system set-up>battery life display. Run the test for 30 min. Two new battery packs.
- Recording: Est. record time 50min, batt. 100%. Results: Battery at 10% after 30 min. Fan not running during recording (as per spec). Camera body temp. 85F at the hottest point.
- Standby: Est. record time 57min, batt 100%. Results: Battery at 30% after 30 min. Fan running all the time (even if camera is cold). Use almost as much power as recording.
- Media (display mode only): Est. record time 54 min, batt 100%. Results: Battery at 70% after 30 min. Fan running all the time (camera body at room temp. 70F). Quite an improvement in battery power usage. Note: after turning the camera on video mode, standby, I push the "media" button (not playing back movie), and measure power usage.
Suggestions for product improvement: turn off the sensor when in standby as well as the fan when camera is not hot. Same in media mode - turn off the fan if not needed.
I was happy to learn that, with the R5C we can record continuously (more than 30min.) but this is only possible if we use an external power source. I have purchased an Indipro 98WH battery that last 8 hours for the cost of 3 Canon battery packs.
