Sony RX100iii battery life

[CherylL]

I picked up this camera for those times I do not want to take the Canon 70D and to travel light. I recently took this on a trip to shoot video and time lapse. I was very surprised that it would only shoot 332 photos for a time lapse before the battery died. It was a fresh battery and reading the manual again it is noted that is how many photos per full battery. I did shoot jpg.

Does anyone shoot time lapse with this camera? Any tips?

What was interesting is that I shot many video clips and Raw photos over a 2 day period and still had half a battery remaining.

 

[Dao]

I bought one for my wife last year when it came out. In general, the battery life is not bad, but my wife said she need to turn on the "airplane mode" sometimes to save battery. (When she do not need to connect the camera to any WiFi nor phone via NFC)
i.e. trip to the zoo

 

[CherylL]

Thanks for the tip Dao! I will try turning the WiFi to airplane mode. I like to take 600 to 900 shots per time lapse. Would a portable external battery source work with this camera? I do not want to be tethered to a lap top. That would defeat the purpose of traveling light.

 

[CherylL]

I've had the Sony for over a year now and picked up another one. I thought I would update the battery life for anyone else using this camera.

After last year's trip and short battery life of only 300 time-lapse photos, I ran a few tests and made note on the battery life. Photos were all raw and used 3 Sony batteries. Video was XAVC-S.

RX100iii
Test time-lapses totaled 2000 photos with temperature at 70 degrees = one full battery

Mexico 2 time-lapses with total of 697 photos plus a few test shots 90+ degrees = 3/4 battery

RX100iv
Outside wedding temperature about 60 and reception indoors
30 photos + 12 clips total of 5 minutes 1080p 120fps = one full battery
17 photos + 48 clips total of 24 minutes 1080p 60 fps = 3/4 battery

Mexico shot photos and video over several days with 90+ temps 1080p 60fps
106 short clips + 181 photos = 2 batteries 1/2 each

The difference from last year's trip to this one is that last year the camera was in a hot van for 2 hours before I shot the 300 photo time-lapse. This year both cameras were with me during the tours.

I am very surprised that the 120fps ate up the battery fast too.

Overall I am very happy with both cameras and can live with the battery life. At least I can now estimate better the battery life.