D500 battery drain persists

[gyrrus]

D500 used three batteries on 1600 pictures, all Li-ion01. I bought two new batteries Li-ion20, but the camera does not go into standby mode, even when c2 standby timer is set to 4s. It seems like the new batteries drains at a speed of close to 10 % per hour, which is unacceptable for me. Is this a only my camera problem, or a common problem? Have changed between oem lenses and sigma lens 50-100 1.8, no difference, same also with Voigtlander 58 1.8. Have also changed memory card and formatted, no help.

[Ilkka Nissilä]

Do you have wireless communications on? Try airplane mode.

I thought Nikon replaced -01 batteries with -20 types for free if you own a D500.

[gyrrus]

They did not tell me at Japanphoto.. Yes, the camera is in airplane mode. This seems to me to be a problem with the standby function. It measures light each 5th second.

[Bent Hjarbo]

This may be a problem with your camera, but get the 01 bateries replaced anyway.

[Bjørn Rørslett]

The D500 is a little more fond of battery power than I had hoped, but as I never pay attention to the maker's overoptimistic battery ratings anyway, this behaviour was not entirely unexpected. In fact, in line with my other Nikons I have put to use the last decades.

I'd guess a fully charged battery would net me around 400-500 frames, thus your figures don't seem that deviating from expectations. I just added the battery grip with a second EN-EL15 inside to make the handling of the camera better and power capacity enhanced.

The battery doesn't seem to discharge at an unduly fast pace, though. The charge meter reads near 100% for days at end if the camera sits unused. I just checked the C2 setting and it was set to 10 minutes. The 'airplane' mode is always ON as this is necessary to make my Foolography GPS module work correctly with the D500.

The D500 is a mismatch with the -01 version of the EN-EL15 however and will deplete those batteries very rapidly. Get any -01 swapped with the new -20 version. I had no problem getting a healthy stack of new batteries as replacement for my old -01 ones. These new units also makes my 1V1 last many times longer powered than before.

[Akira]

EL-EN15 will be replaced with EL-EN15a along with the release of D7500.  Apparently the capacity of the new "-a" is increased.  You may want to wait for the "-a" to become available.

[Frank Fremerey]

I support Bjørn's point. Nikon exchanges any *01-batteries to *20-batteries for free if you provide them with a purchase receipt from the D500. Did so for me any anyone I know of.

I use the original grip with 8 x 2500mAh "eneloop black"and airplane mode, no image review, no live view.

The camera lasts for weeks without a battery change in normal temperatures here in Germany (+25°C in the heat of summer -10°C in the cold of the winter, average at 8°C).

In other words: between 7000 and 9000 shots on one charge

[elsa hoffmann]

I have two chargers - one for my D800 (Li-ion01) and one for my D500 (Li-ion20) batteries.
Would it make a difference if I just charge them all on one charger (for the Li-ion20 batteries) ?

[Akira]

Elsa, according to Nikon site, both MH-25 and MH-25a will charge both EN-EL15 and EN-EL15a.  So, any combination of these chargers and the batteries should work fine.

[Bent Hjarbo]

I have replaced all my batteries to the -02 version, done at no charge by Nikon DK.
If I only need to charge one battery I use the MH-25a, but if in a hurry to charge multiple batteries I also use the MH-25, I have not noticed any difference.

[elsa hoffmann]

thank you for the reply. I seem to recall reading something different - but could find it again !

But I do need help.

My camera does not automatically turn the display off (set for 4sec) and remains on. I also lost 50% battery charge in about 5 hours. This cant be right. - I was wrong - light does go off after 4 sec

Airplane mode ON
I have type Li0on20 batteries
I dont use live view.
Image reviewing - the usual - nothing different to that of my D800's
Just got this one a week ago - second hand - with 15k clicks on the clock - so really very new

what am I missing?

[golunvolo]

I had some problems with battery because the camera will try to transfer files even when turned off. I guess that is taken care of with the airplane mode...?

[Bent Hjarbo]

Have you tried to reset all, it is in the camera setup menu.
It will reset all but language, time and time zone.
If this doesn’t help I guess there’s a fault with the camera 

[Akira]

Elsa and Paco, didn't you turn the sleep mode "OFF"?  If so, you'd better make sure if your cameras are set to sleep after a certain period of time.

I don't know the exact term for the menu item (because I migrated fully to m4/3 now), but when I turned "off" the automatic sleep mode of D750 for an application and forgot about that, the camera drained the battery quickly.

[elsa hoffmann]

Elsa and Paco, didn't you turn the sleep mode "OFF"?  If so, you'd better make sure if your cameras are set to sleep after a certain period of time.

I don't know the exact term for the menu item (because I migrated fully to m4/3 now), but when I turned "off" the automatic sleep mode of D750 for an application and forgot about that, the camera drained the battery quickly.

excuse my ignorance - how does  sleep mode display? I have display mode set to 4 secs - which means the light goes off after 4 seconds but the info is still on the little screen showing which mode it is in etc