Nikon D500 - poor battery life, even with Li-Ion20 batteries!

JasonBrown2013

JasonBrown2013

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Jason Brown
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Hi all,

I love my D500 but I am having real trouble with the battery life. I am using the following equipment:

- Genuine MB-D17 grip
- 2x genuine EN-EL15 Li-Ion20 batteries (one manufactured June 2016, the other April 2017)
- 2x genuine MH-25a chargers

Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and SnapBridge turned off in camera (in other words, I've enabled Airplane Mode)

Camera has firmware version C 1.13, LD 2.016

Touch controls disabled

MB-D17 battery type set to LR6/AA Alkaline (the other options are HR6/AA-Ni-MH and FR6/Lithium) - I'm using one of the EN-EL15 batteries in this and the MB-D17 battery is used first, then the body's battery.

Cards:
- Lexar 2933x 64GB XQD
- SanDisk Extreme PRO 95MB/s 64GB SDXC

I am struggling to get 500 shots per charge on a single battery - I should be getting about 1,200 according to Nikon's documentation? Doesn't matter if I put the older or newer battery in the grip, still getting poor results and also poor results when used in the body too (without the grip).

I purchased all of this from Wex in July 2017 - was going to call them today but they're closed, so will call tomorrow and see what they suggest.

Anybody here got the same issues or any suggestions?

WP_20170910_15_21_50_Raw.jpg
 
JasonBrown2013 said:
2x genuine EN-EL15
Click to expand...


Hi Jason,

I had similar problems with the Mickey Mouse batteries
of the D800E until I replaced all these with the Eneloop
Pro. End of any problem.

Maybe that is worth a try…
 
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Kodiak Qc said:
Hi Jason,

I had similar problems with the Mickey Mouse batteries
of the D800E until I replaced all these with the Envelop
Pro. End of any problem.

Maybe that is worth a try…
Click to expand...
Hi, can you send a link please? :)

I was hoping there might be a fix that didn't involve purchasing anything... I already bought another MH-25a suspecting it was my third party double charger that wasn't charging these properly. :(

Other people are getting 1,000+ out of their EN-EL15s with their D500s so I'm not sure what the issue with mine is.
 
JasonBrown2013 said:
MB-D17 battery type set to LR6/AA Alkaline (the other options are HR6/AA-Ni-MH and FR6/Lithium)
Click to expand...
No idea if this will help or not, but your EN-EL15 batteries are Lithium Ion so I would change the grip to the bolded option ...

btw I'm sure Daniel above meant Enelop Pro's (made by Panasonic I think) ... also be aware that many third party batteries do not work in the D500 so I would exercise caution.
 
PaulButler said:
No idea if this will help or not, but your EN-EL15 batteries are Lithium Ion so I would change the grip to the bolded option ...

btw I'm sure Daniel above meant Enelop Pro's (made by Panasonic I think) ... also be aware that many third party batteries do not work in the D500 so I would exercise caution.
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Thanks. I've got both batteries on charge right now so when they're done I will fire up the camera again and change that.

Anything else that sticks out as something to change?
 
There has been mention of battery issues with the D500 in the D500 thread - I don't think you're alone. I've heard some mentioning the use of the XQD as well as an SD card could be the culprit. I only use an SD, and can't say I've had bad experience with the battery life - however, saying that I don't shoot that many shots in one session, and have come from a Sony A6300 which had much poorer battery performance - so I've not noticed!!
 
PaulButler said:
No idea if this will help or not, but your EN-EL15 batteries are Lithium Ion so I would change the grip to the bolded option ...

btw I'm sure Daniel above meant Enelop Pro's (made by Panasonic I think) ... also be aware that many third party batteries do not work in the D500 so I would exercise caution.
Click to expand...
The battery type should only applicable if you are using AA batteries in the grip. If you are using an EN-EL15 battery the camera should be able to automatically sense that battery type is in the grip.

JasonBrown2013 said:
Thanks. I've got both batteries on charge right now so when they're done I will fire up the camera again and change that.
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Have a read of the manual, the D750 manual says that menu option doesn't effect the use of EN-EL15 batteries.

Have you checked the manual regarding battery life and what affects it?

The questions I would ask are:

Is there a standby time option set in your camera?
Do you use live view a lot?
Do you use continuous AF regularly without taking an image?
Do you view the menus/images on the LCD regularly?
Do you use VR on your lenses?
Is wifi/GPS enabled constantly?

I don't have a D500 but most nikons behave in the same way. The menus are quite similar too. Battery usage could be dependant on the user and how the camera is used. Whilst some may say they take over 1000's images on a single battery without knowing how they shoot. If i use live view for landscapes the battery drains very quickly, I probably only get 200-300 images from a battery. If i'm out shooting wildlife without live view a battery can last all day taking 500-1000 images and the camera on standby. I've just altered the standby time on my D750 in the hope of keeping AF points active for longer (i.e. not needing to half press the shutter to activate the AF point if its gone to sleep. This will probably have a knock effect on battery life.
 
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rob-nikon said:
The battery type should only applicable if you are using AA batteries in the grip. If you are using an EN-EL15 battery the camera should be able to automatically sense that battery type is in the grip.
Click to expand...
OK, so changing that option probably won't do anything? It does mention AA lithium - not EN-EL15 lithium, I guess.

Have you checked the manual regarding battery life and what affects it?
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Yes, it lists pretty much all of the things you listed in your post.

Nikon reckon you can get approximately 1,240 shots on a single EN-EL15 battery - whether that's in the camera or in the MB-D17.

Is there a standby time option set in your camera?
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c2 Standby time is set to the default 6 seconds.

Do you use live view a lot?
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Practically never.

Do you use continuous AF regularly without taking an image?
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Not really, and my AF mode is set to AF-S.

Do you view the menus/images on the LCD regularly?
Click to expand...
Yes, but the LCD brightness is set to the default 0 value and I don't do it often enough to drain the battery completely, I wouldn't have thought.

Do you use VR on your lenses?
Click to expand...
Yes - I use Sigma lenses mainly, so OS is enabled mostly and when I use my one Nikon lens (the 50mm f/1.8G), I use VR on that.

Is wifi/GPS enabled constantly?
Click to expand...
The camera is in flight mode so all of that is turned off.
 
On my D500, I'd get less than 600 shots with or without the grip. Yes, that was with official Li-On 20 batteries and airplane mode on, etc.

We've tried to solve this one before but I've never heard of anyone getting close to the Nikon estimate of 1200!!

Maybe they'll be able to address the issue in future?
 
wezza13 said:
On my D500, I'd get less than 600 shots with or without the grip. Yes, that was with official Li-On 20 batteries and airplane mode on, etc.

We've tried to solve this one before but I've never heard of anyone getting close to the Nikon estimate of 1200!!

Maybe they'll be able to address the issue in future?
Click to expand...
Are you still only getting about 600? That's usually about what I can manage.

Is it worth tying to contact Wex or Nikon about this? This thread on another forum is quite interesting to read as somebody sent their camera in and it was rectified (some people in there getting 1,000 per charge): http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1483256/0
 
JasonBrown2013 said:
Are you still only getting about 600? That's usually about what I can manage.

Is it worth tying to contact Wex or Nikon about this? This thread on another forum is quite interesting to read as somebody sent their camera in and it was rectified (some people in there getting 1,000 per charge): http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/1483256/0
Click to expand...

Up to when I sold it a couple of weeks ago, yes. Always had poor battery life and I had everything enabled or disabled to conserve the life.
 
wezza13 said:
Up to when I sold it a couple of weeks ago, yes. Always had poor battery life and I had everything enabled or disabled to conserve the life.
Click to expand...
I've not had a look at the D500 thread yet but you say lots of other people in there having no joy either?
 
wezza13 said:
Correct. There's a lot of guff in there but have a skim through and you'll see reports of the issue (y)
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So there's probably not a lot else I can do to help improve the battery life? :(
 
I've got a 3rd party grip on my D500 and have 2 Nikon's and 2 Duracell EN-EL 15's. I've a load of other EN EL 15's from spares on my D7100 and D810 that dont work in either camera or grip.

Put them in as one Nikon in camera and one Duracell in grip. Took about 1300 shots yesterday with an 64Gb XQD in as main and an SD set as overflow. Battery info shows MBD17 @ 80% after 1351 shots and the internal battery at 68% after 0 shots. I popped a charged battery into the grip and it came up 100%.

Pretty sure that I switched them both at once. Looks like the internal battery is discharging rapidly when it's not being used or the battery is not charging properly to begin with.

Might try 2 No Duracells and see what happens
 
Jim_Tod said:
I've got a 3rd party grip on my D500 and have 2 Nikon's and 2 Duracell EN-EL 15's. I've a load of other EN EL 15's from spares on my D7100 and D810 that dont work in either camera or grip.

Put them in as one Nikon in camera and one Duracell in grip. Took about 1300 shots yesterday with an 64Gb XQD in as main and an SD set as overflow. Battery info shows MBD17 @ 80% after 1351 shots and the internal battery at 68% after 0 shots. I popped a charged battery into the grip and it came up 100%.

Pretty sure that I switched them both at once. Looks like the internal battery is discharging rapidly when it's not being used or the battery is not charging properly to begin with.

Might try 2 No Duracells and see what happens
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Sounds like it's a game of trial and error - might just have to live with the battery performance. :(

My 5 year old D3200 with equally old batteries kicks this thing in the ass when it comes to battery life... about the only thing the D3200 does better though - lol! :D
 
Update: spent a while on the phone today with Wex and Nikon discussing the issue. In the end I took the camera, the grip and batteries into Wex. They tested it with some newer EN-EL15a batteries from their D7200 and D850 demo models and saw that the battery life was still poor. They've taken my D500 body back and will send it off to Nikon Europe so that Nikon can look at it - they think it's a fault with the body itself. I should have the D500 back in a few weeks.
 
JasonBrown2013 said:
Update: spent a while on the phone today with Wex and Nikon discussing the issue. In the end I took the camera, the grip and batteries into Wex. They tested it with some newer EN-EL15a batteries from their D7200 and D850 demo models and saw that the battery life was still poor. They've taken my D500 body back and will send it off to Nikon Europe so that Nikon can look at it - they think it's a fault with the body itself. I should have the D500 back in a few weeks.
Click to expand...

My D500 has been on Nikon's shelf since early August awaiting attention for just this issue ... there are quite a number of reports of poor battery life and an equally frustrating number of reports of good battery life. Please let me know what response you get from Nikon and I will let you know what I get.
 
gramps said:
My D500 has been on Nikon's shelf since early August awaiting attention for just this issue ... there are quite a number of reports of poor battery life and an equally frustrating number of reports of good battery life. Please let me know what response you get from Nikon and I will let you know what I get.
Click to expand...

Have you had any update from Nikon?
 
gramps said:
My D500 has been on Nikon's shelf since early August awaiting attention for just this issue ... there are quite a number of reports of poor battery life and an equally frustrating number of reports of good battery life. Please let me know what response you get from Nikon and I will let you know what I get.
Click to expand...
Will do. Apparently Wex posted it to them today, so Nikon will receive it tomorrow and Nikon themselves have told me that the turnaround time is 2-4 weeks in an email they sent me about the issue when I rang them up earlier today.
 
Kaolin said:
Have you had any update from Nikon?
Click to expand...

I've had a list of what they plan to do but just looks like a service except for checking the 'battery firmware', which won't be too helpful as I've three more batteries exactly the same here at home. It's currently shown as 'awaiting repair'. :(
 
Kaolin said:
Hopefully Nikon's description is poor and they have actually done something useful. Certainly last time I sent something in the paperwork was missing a certain degree of detail.
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I hope so, when they eventually get around to doing it! :)
 
They must have a batch of bad components get into supply chain somewhere it would be interesting to see serial numbers of those with problems to see if its specific range ? mine can be left in my bag for over a month and take it out and battery does not look to have moved and can just switch on and use - hope I am not tempting fate now !!
 
AdamSi said:
They must have a batch of bad components get into supply chain somewhere it would be interesting to see serial numbers of those with problems to see if its specific range ? mine can be left in my bag for over a month and take it out and battery does not look to have moved and can just switch on and use - hope I am not tempting fate now !!
Click to expand...

There is definitely some variability in the product.
 
Kaolin said:
Hopefully Nikon's description is poor and they have actually done something useful. Certainly last time I sent something in the paperwork was missing a certain degree of detail.
Click to expand...
Other sources on the internet state that people sent their cameras in, Nikon sent them back and said there was nothing wrong but magically the battery life issue was fixed. I think Nikon don't like admitting when something is wrong, or they don't always tell you what they've done.

AdamSi said:
They must have a batch of bad components get into supply chain somewhere it would be interesting to see serial numbers of those with problems to see if its specific range ? mine can be left in my bag for over a month and take it out and battery does not look to have moved and can just switch on and use - hope I am not tempting fate now !!
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Maybe. The battery my camera shipped with has a manufacture date of April 2017 which makes me think my camera was made around that time - it also shipped with firmware C 1.13 which is still the latest at the time of writing. My D500's serial number is 6041xxx - can anybody decipher when this was made?

So, right now I'm back to how I was before I finally bought my D500 in July: I've got a grip, two batteries, several cards and other accessories - but no D500! :p
 
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AdamSi said:
Mine starts with 6015 be interesting to see others post first 4 digits and if they have issues
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And yours is OK? If you look in the battery info section how many shots are you able to get per charge?

Li-Ion20 batteries I guess, too?
 
I cannot remeber and rarely gun it s even though I have 2 batteries I’ve never run out and had to change to spare, it does go quicker depending what lens which is understandable eg a 300mm f2.8VR eats it quicker than non VR but I’ve done way over 500 with charging and leaving it long periods between
 
Hello Jason,
I also have a D500 and the poor battery life - with 1 batterij i can hardly take 350 - 400 shots ?
i don't like this at all and I am thinking of contacting the technical assistance of Nikon Europe to do my complaint about this poor battery-life.

How was the repair of your D500 at Nikon? Is the issue now fixed ? How many photo's can you get out of the battery now?

I am very interested and awaiting your result before I take steps ..
 
Jos Verbinnen said:
Hello Jason,
I also have a D500 and the poor battery life - with 1 batterij i can hardly take 350 - 400 shots ?
i don't like this at all and I am thinking of contacting the technical assistance of Nikon Europe to do my complaint about this poor battery-life.

How was the repair of your D500 at Nikon? Is the issue now fixed ? How many photo's can you get out of the battery now?

I am very interested and awaiting your result before I take steps ..
Click to expand...
Hi!

I was just going to post an update, but yes I was getting the same number of shots per charge as you which obviously shows really terrible battery life. Do you know roughly when your camera was manufactured? Mine was April 2017 (going by the date on the battery it shipped with), would be interesting to see if yours was from the same time! I think there may have been some quality control issues given that some people's are OK and others not.

My camera was sent off on September 11th and I got a message from Wex on the 25th informing me that Nikon hadn't been able to replicate the issues with the batteries that they were using and had asked for my batteries to be sent in for testing. When I originally took the camera in I also took my grip and batteries but Wex didn't send those off - they just sent the body. I'd recommend that if you get the camera serviced by Nikon you also send them your batteries. Nikon should have my batteries now so it'll be interesting to see what they say, but I've heard that other people have sent their cameras in, Nikon announce 'nothing is wrong', yet when the customer received their camera whatever the issue was with it had been magically resolved. Seems that Nikon doesn't like to admit when things go wrong, but they do do something to fix the issue.

I'm not sure if I'll get my original camera back or a replacement body - that's up to Wex to decide for me based on what Nikon say. I've paid £2,000+ for this camera when you include the extras like the grip, XQD card, batteries and the WR-R10 kit, so it'd be nice to have something that works!

Wex think they'll know around the middle of next week (probably looking at October 4th or 5th) what the verdict on my camera is, by which point it won't be far from a month since I sent it in!
 
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Mine has been in for over 30 days before being looked at and it's now been shown as 'being repaired' for the last 3 days ... actually getting quite used to my D700 now.
 
gramps said:
Mine has been in for over 30 days before being looked at and it's now been shown as 'being repaired' for the last 3 days ... actually getting quite used to my D700 now.
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How do you check the repair status on it? I didn't send mine into Nikon, Wex did that for me.

I've not even used my D3200 since I sent my D500 off. I've been busy with other things, guess it was a good time to send it in for RMA!
 
www.nikon.co.uk/trackrepair allows you to enter your repair Request iD & Customer Number which you get when Nikon acknowledges receipt of your equipment, in your case I assume WEX would either have this or their own tracking details with Nikon.
 
gramps said:
www.nikon.co.uk/trackrepair allows you to enter your repair Request iD & Customer Number which you get when Nikon acknowledges receipt of your equipment, in your case I assume WEX would either have this or their own tracking details with Nikon.
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Thanks, have emailed my rep at Wex asking if he's got these.
 
gramps said:
Not that it helps mind you ... another week passed and still not ready to be returned. :(
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You should get in touch with Nikon - they themselves state repairs will be between 2-4 weeks.
 
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