5DIII in the field:battery & CF card use

[walter.sk]

I left NYC for a powwow in Minnesota with my 5DIII and trepidation over having one 32Gb CF card and one battery.  I even stopped off at a camera shop in Minneapolis and found that they carried the Canon battery but the price was so high compared to NYC prices that I didn't get one. I did have a charger and a laptop with a portable hard drive to dump each day's shots onto.

The first day I was somewhat conservative in the number of shots I took (CRW's only), but I did get about 800 on the card with room left over.  The battery had about 15% left, even after lots of chimping.

Second day I decided to shoot with complete abandon.  By the end of the day I could not fill the CF card until I shot video after video, just to fill the card.  The battery still showed about 8%.  I shot more, including videos and HDR sequences, than I ever had in previous years with the 1DII and came to the conclusion that, while it is probably good to have a backup CF card and battery, there is just about no way that I would run out of either in even a heavier than normal day's shooting for me.  (Minnesota at 30 below zero is a different story...)

By the way, I am a complete fan of the 5DIII now.  What a nice camera!

[Tony Jay]

Good to know that you had a good time Walter.

Those batteries are good with excellent longetivity.
That said I would still be nervous without a backup (I shoot with four batteries, and several different CF cards).
Still - good to know that I could if I had to.

Regards

Tony Jay

[walter.sk]

--That said I would still be nervous without a backup (I shoot with four batteries, and several different CF cards).
Still - good to know that I could if I had to.
Tony Jay

I had my 1DII and a couple of batteries and CF cards for it ready to go, but they stayed in the trunk of the car.

[stever]

you have to start being more careful when the batteries are a couple years old.  good to date your batteries and run an analysis every 6 months or so to avoid surprises