Fujifilm X-T2 battery life

Every reviewer out there complains about the poor battery life on a mirrorless camera. I think by now, they should stop comparing it with a DSLR, acknowledge that mirrorless uses much more battery than a DSLR and perhaps just compare  battery life among mirrorless cameras only. There really is no point moaning how apples don’t quite taste like oranges.

Battery on a DSLR does a lot less work than on a mirror-less. It doesn’t needs to power, in some cases, huge and wonderful EVF screens which drain the power rather quickly. It is however disappointing that a battery on my Fujifil X-T2 is only rated for about 350 shots. It is on par with most other mirror-less systems, but I do wish it were a little bit better.

Power grip will help a lot. The new X-T2 power booster grip has room for 2 additional batteries, so in theory I can take about a 1000 images  before the camera runs out of juice. That is all a theory according to the official Fujifilm press release.

I did a shoot a couple of days ago and I shot the entire session on 1 battery, and I took 750 images. I will do another test on the original NP-W126S, but I have to admit I was a little shocked or at least very pleasantly surprised. I packed 2 additional batteries, to make sure I had enough, but never took them out of the bag.

I did make some modifications to the way I shoot, however. Understanding how much the viewfinder and the LCD screen drain the battery, I switched the LCD off altogether, and only used the viewfinder with the eye sensor. Which means, it only turned on when I looked through it. I could chimp if I wanted to thru the viewfinder, which is my preferred method anyway and I don’t really need to change settings with the menu on the back screen, as Fuji has everything I need available on top of the camera with their mechanical dials.

I had a really smooth session. A portrait session including some headshots and social network profile pictures. I only realised at the end of the shoot that I have not had to change the battery. 750 images is a massive amount, easily comparable to a DLSR and with my power grip, which is still on back order, I can shoot the entire wedding without having to change a battery. A very welcome surprise. I ordered a couple of additional batteries, just in case, but I think I’m covered in that respect.

I’ve seen you-tubers warn photographers not to use non-fuji batteries as they are prone to lock ups. Apparently the new NP-W126s has a much more advanced power distribution and can handle very fast continuous shooting. For me however, a portrait photographer, I’m yet to use the continuous shooting mode on my subjects. I don’t shoot sport action and ordinary people don’t really move all that fast.