What's your experience with the battery life? I picked one up yesterday. And discovered that the NEX-F3 drains the battery at a very high rate. It went down from fully charged to 80% in merely one hour. And I had only shot a few pictures during that time. UPDATE 1/7/2013. Exchanged for another one. Same issue. But I can now safely say that it's navigating the menu system which drains the battery at exceedingly high rate. I may be returning this afterall. What's your experience with the battery life? I picked one up yesterday. And discovered that the NEX-F3 drains the battery at a very high rate. It went down from fully charged to 80% in... » Read More What's your experience with the battery life? I picked one up yesterday. And discovered that the NEX-F3 drains the battery at a very high rate. It went down from fully charged to 80% in merely one hour. And I had only shot a few pictures during that time. UPDATE 1/7/2013. Exchanged for another one. Same issue. But I can now safely say that it's navigating the menu system which drains the battery at exceedingly high rate. I may be returning this afterall. « Show Less
1055172
Of course, it depends on how many pictures were taken in that hour, the flash, video, replay, and speed. I simply take pictures of my twins on special occasions. I've never really had a problem w/the battery life and can do a good 2 days while traveling w/out recharging. If it continues maybe you can contact customer service about replacing the battery bc the camera must be relatively new. Mine is only 5 months old.
1055173
My experience has been very good... Over Christmas for example, I had a battery last me for a few days, and that's with shooting probably 20 photos and a little video each day. On trips where I'm doing a lot of shooting I may go through a battery each day and recharge at night. Since I have two batteries I just cycle them through and am never lacking a charged battery. When I got my camera, a firmware update made battery life significantly better... Could be the same for you.Best of luck!
1055174
I found that the battery life will not last anywhere near the 470 shots that is claimed. It seems to drain rather quickly when you use the menu system. I think at least two batteries are needed for the NEX cameras. Pretty disappointing but the images this gem puts out are hard to beat.
1055175
I have not experienced any major battery life issues. I take a lot of photos when I use it and a few video clips as well and don't need to charge up for a couple of days. I am an amateur so I generally keep it on auto with very little to none on manual. I am pretty basic and just wanted a camera that takes great clear photos inspite of my limitations which is exactly what it does for me. I take approximately a couple of hundred in a day plus a video or two when I shoot my alpacas at shows. Then I take about a hundred when we are out in the country while my husband fly fishes and I don't have to recharge for a couple of days. Again I use a pretty basic setting and I only have 1 battery. I have not experienced any major battery life issues. I take a lot of photos when I use it and a few video clips as well and don't need to charge up for a couple of days. I am an amateur so I generally keep it on auto with very little to none on manual. I am pretty basic and just wanted a camera that takes great clear photos inspite of my limitations which is exactly what it does for me. I take approximately a couple of hundred in a day plus a video or two when I shoot my alpacas at shows. Then I take about a hundred when we are out in the country while my husband fly fishes and I don't... » Read More I have not experienced any major battery life issues. I take a lot of photos when I use it and a few video clips as well and don't need to charge up for a couple of days. I am an amateur so I generally keep it on auto with very little to none on manual. I am pretty basic and just wanted a camera that takes great clear photos inspite of my limitations which is exactly what it does for me. I take approximately a couple of hundred in a day plus a video or two when I shoot my alpacas at shows. Then I take about a hundred when we are out in the country while my husband fly fishes and I don't have to recharge for a couple of days. Again I use a pretty basic setting and I only have 1 battery. « Show Less
1055176
I haven't experienced any battery drain issues so far and I have been using it since September 2012. I've been able to use this camera several times on one charge, even shooting in continuous mood with great battery life. I haven't updated the firmware on my camera either. I'd suggest you contact Sony and see what they can do for you or return it for a replacement since you just purchased this camera.
1055177
I have never had a similar problem when shooting in normal mode, BUT i did notice when shooting in HDR mode it drained the battery quickly and processed pretty slowly. I suspect the same is true for Panorama mode. I suspect both of these modes use a lot of processing power. I ended up taking it off of HDR mode and didn't have any problems. I bought a second battery from a guy on craigslist and like having a back-up, but that is more for when we haven't charged it for a while. I'm not sure if I did a firmware update or not.
1055178
All I can say is that I have already taken thousands of pictures with this camera and the battery has performed wonderfully. I always charge it between uses. The instructions said the battery did not have to be fully drained before I recharge it and can be recharged at any stage so I always plug it in after using it. However my previous Sony camera was a battery hog but this one isn't, at least not for me.
1055179
My battery life has been great. I don't shoot hundreds of photos every day, maybe on average 20 per day, and the battery stays charged for about two weeks. It doesn't matter to me how fast it goes from 100% to 80% charge, but how long to takes to get to 0-20% charge.
1055180
I've never updated the firmware and still haven't seen any issues with battery life. Typically, on a 10-day vacation with daily pictures etc I'll see the battery start to go low on day 5 or 6. Maybe you got a unit with a defective battery?
1919421
hello! Pretty good battery life...this has been a GREAT camera. This is my son's - he's really into making movies, uses it every day.Would recommend!
1903855
I never experienced such drastic draining of charge when using those supplied batteries in the grip (when the camera was OFF). Mine is performing well. Please check if the same happens when (not using the grip) a single but different battery is installed in the body-if so contact the canon service; in the meanwhile, check all the contact pads in the grip for any short circuit. I hope you can figure it out easily.
735308
I too have this concern. Though it's hard to gauge because people all seem to have different standards about what good battery life is. So please, those of you who reply, be sure to specify in some quantifiable terms how long your batteries lasted, what kind you were using, and whether you used the flash or battery saving settings/techniques. Be as specific as possible. Thanks.I see posts by people who were thrilled that they could take 'almost a whole day' worth of pictures. I have a bulky sony DSC-S50 that will take pictures all day for a week without recharging so I'm not sure if I should be impressed by this for a small camera or not. Depends on how many pictures are being taken on that almost whole day. I too have this concern. Though it's hard to gauge because people all seem to have different standards about what good battery life is. So please, those of you who reply, be sure to specify in some quantifiable terms how long your batteries lasted, what kind you were using, and whether you used the flash or battery saving settings/techniques. Be as specific as possible. Thanks.I see posts by people who were thrilled that they could take 'almost a whole day' worth of pictures. I have a bulky sony DSC-S50 that will take pictures all day for a week without recharging so I'm not... » Read More I too have this concern. Though it's hard to gauge because people all seem to have different standards about what good battery life is. So please, those of you who reply, be sure to specify in some quantifiable terms how long your batteries lasted, what kind you were using, and whether you used the flash or battery saving settings/techniques. Be as specific as possible. Thanks.I see posts by people who were thrilled that they could take 'almost a whole day' worth of pictures. I have a bulky sony DSC-S50 that will take pictures all day for a week without recharging so I'm not sure if I should be impressed by this for a small camera or not. Depends on how many pictures are being taken on that almost whole day. « Show Less
57580
I've honestly never drained my battery. I've taken over 200 pics in a day a several short (40 second) videos. My battery never died on me.
1362619
I shoot on the highest quality settings, with a lot of zooming in and out and switching to preview mode etc and the battery that came with the camera will last about an hour. I bought an extra battery for back. Talking to the camera shop staff, they told me that you can buy bigger batteries, such as 2 hour batteries or 4 hour batteries. They said that the four hour batteries are longer and stick out of the back of the camera a little, no big deal though. Hope this helps. I have the M400 model which is similar to the M41, it just has no internal memory (so is lighter) and stores the film on SD cards instead. Hope this helps. I shoot on the highest quality settings, with a lot of zooming in and out and switching to preview mode etc and the battery that came with the camera will last about an hour. I bought an extra battery for back. Talking to the camera shop staff, they told me that you can buy bigger batteries, such as 2 hour batteries or 4 hour batteries. They said that the four hour batteries are longer and stick out of the back of the camera a little, no big deal though. Hope this helps. I have the M400 model which is similar to the M41, it just has no internal memory (so is lighter) and stores the film on... » Read More I shoot on the highest quality settings, with a lot of zooming in and out and switching to preview mode etc and the battery that came with the camera will last about an hour. I bought an extra battery for back. Talking to the camera shop staff, they told me that you can buy bigger batteries, such as 2 hour batteries or 4 hour batteries. They said that the four hour batteries are longer and stick out of the back of the camera a little, no big deal though. Hope this helps. I have the M400 model which is similar to the M41, it just has no internal memory (so is lighter) and stores the film on SD cards instead. Hope this helps. « Show Less
693056
Excellent. I have 8 Cannon still cameras and the ELPH has better battery life than my others. I use flash for every shot and even then it lasts a long time. Just charge when you finish shooting, not just at the end of the day. That's my best advice.
1787889
I got like 300 pictures and 5 minutes of video on the alkaline batteries that came with my camera. ... My rechargeable Energizer 2300mAh nimh batteries seemed to be doing about the same. (surprisingly ... I usually get better performance out of the rechargeable, but I may have been using an old / worn out set)
976616
WOW!!! Thank you for that! I missed taking pictures at a concert and my work Christmas party this weekend!! So pissed about this that I could have just turned the battery around! All I can say is wow....Now I'm wondering if I should keep the camera or not. Hopefully this is all that is wrong with it. It's such a pain to return..exchange..whatever. Thanks for your help!
1226970
I have used mine intermittently for several days in a row and never had a problem with battery life. At least several hours of continuous operation. I think I would run out of memory card space before I ran out of battery.
1127608
Can't speak on a nex 5r, but I used it on a nex 5n for about 14 hours today for a time lapse. It stayed charged. The battery seemed full when it started an empty by midday, but it kept going until I shut it down.
1591878
1) Battery life from the included battery ~800maH is about 50 minutes shooting at 720p at 60fps. I believe it is a little longer when you shoot at slower frame rates like 30fps. I bought a 1200 maH after market battery which took it to nearly 60 min at 60fps. 2) I usually use the camera in more or less bright sunlight outdoors at a pool. So optical and digital zoom is pretty good under those conditions which are generally optimal conditions for most videocams. I have not tried in lower light situations. 3) It saves in mp4 format which is perfect for most applications. I have a SDHC slot on my Mac and it's easy to copy from the SDHC card to my computer and do whatever I want, share or burn DVD. 1) Battery life from the included battery ~800maH is about 50 minutes shooting at 720p at 60fps. I believe it is a little longer when you shoot at slower frame rates like 30fps. I bought a 1200 maH after market battery which took it to nearly 60 min at 60fps. 2) I usually use the camera in more or less bright sunlight outdoors at a pool. So optical and digital zoom is pretty good under those conditions which are generally optimal conditions for most videocams. I have not tried in lower light situations. 3) It saves in mp4 format which is perfect for most applications. I have a SDHC slot on... » Read More 1) Battery life from the included battery ~800maH is about 50 minutes shooting at 720p at 60fps. I believe it is a little longer when you shoot at slower frame rates like 30fps. I bought a 1200 maH after market battery which took it to nearly 60 min at 60fps. 2) I usually use the camera in more or less bright sunlight outdoors at a pool. So optical and digital zoom is pretty good under those conditions which are generally optimal conditions for most videocams. I have not tried in lower light situations. 3) It saves in mp4 format which is perfect for most applications. I have a SDHC slot on my Mac and it's easy to copy from the SDHC card to my computer and do whatever I want, share or burn DVD. « Show Less
300779
It is normal for mine too. It eats batteries like a 3yr old eats candy. It is my only complaint with the camera. I also us a Nikon Coopix L610 and it is even worse on the batteries.
189366
I have one of these that has been in constant use since about August 1, and as of the end of October still had about 35% life on the original batteries. This is on trail mode with about 10-15 shots per day, sometimes a lot more (windy weather- branches triggering a thousand pictures in a day, for instance). I can't compare to other models, but this is fairly decent in my opinion.
183945
I took photos in rapid succession with the flash always on and it lasted between 260-280 photos before I changed it out, only because it was on the last bar. It recharges very fast in an hour or two. I have done this numerous times with similar results. They are a notch below the Nikon batteries as far as how many photos could be taken on a single charge, but they are still very good and way cheaper. I used them more than the Nikon battery, because they are cheaper to replace.
722702
Battery life for most Sony compact camera's are good. But its highly recommended to buy back up batteries (off brand is OK) when the flash will drain the battery (if used) . I always have other batteries fully charged and ready when low battery indicator happens.
934068
Battery here is not impressive, at least in comparison with my old Lumix LX-3. Turn camera off when not shooting should become a good habit. Also, there is no pause for video shooting and bno ability to get snapshots while playing.