Nikon D500 battery life has severely degraded

[LarryG]

Good evening. First, I apologize for the long posting.

I have a Nikon D500 for about 11.5 months. Over the past few weeks I have noticed a drastic decrease in battery life. Before, I was able to shoot 400-500 pictures a day with minimal decrease to the battery indicator. Now, I take about 100 shots and the battery drops to almost zero.

I am using the Nikon EN-EL15b battery that came with my camera. I am also experiencing the same problem with the Nikon EN-EL15 battery that came with another camera. Again, both of these batteries worked just fine in the D500 a few weeks ago.

-Battery info in the set-up menu shows both batteries as "new"
-I do not use live view.
-Picture review is off
-Wifi is off
-Bluetooth is off

In doing some research on-line I noticed a suggestion to reduce my Standby timer to 4 seconds using custom option C2.
After doing this I looked in my view finder, and noted that my exposure and focus information "blinked" off after 4 seconds but then came right on again. After another 4 seconds it blinked again and came back on and recycled again and again.
Could this be the cause of the battery drain and if yes how do I fix it? Frankly, I do not know if this was occurring in the past as it was not something I paid attention to.

If this timer issue is not the problem, does anyone have an suggestions as to what it might be?

I have written a similar e-mail to Nikon support but do not expect a quick answer so I thought it wise to reach out to this group. I am within two weeks of the end of my one - year warranty so time is of the essence.

Thank you all, very much.
.....Larry

 

[DRwyoming]

In doing some research on-line I noticed a suggestion to reduce my Standby timer to 4 seconds using custom option C2.
After doing this I looked in my view finder, and noted that my exposure and focus information "blinked" off after 4 seconds but then came right on again. After another 4 seconds it blinked again and came back on and recycled again and again.
Could this be the cause of the battery drain and if yes how do I fix it?

So you're saying that when the metering times out it blinks and comes right back on? And you're not touching any of the camera's controls and not half pressing the shutter release when it blinks back on?

If so then yes that could easily be causing your battery drain problems as the camera isn't going into sleep mode. Do you have a vertical grip on your D500? If so I'd remove it and see if the camera times out normally. If not I'd start by checking every control button to make sure none are stuck in the activated position. I've seen buttons get stuck when they get something like grime or something sticky like sap on them a stuck button could cause the kind of problem you're seeing as it's activating those buttons that wakes the camera back up. I'd also try removing the lens or swapping to another lens and see if that allows the camera to go into and stay in standby mode as lens buttons can also wake the camera up. I might also try swapping out memory cards as a card write error could conceivably cause quirky firmware problems, not very likely but the key is remove as many possibilities as you can think of. Similarly make sure none of the pins on the 10 pin connector are bent or potentially shorted to one another as that's another place where an electrical short could keep waking the camera up.

If all that fails to turn anything up then I'd probably do a full reset on the camera following instructions in the manual but then you'll have to reprogram any custom settings you use.

If it still won't go into and stay in standby mode until a button is pressed I'd probably send it back to Nikon.

FWIW your batteries are probably fine and you likely don't even need a super short camera timeout setting but if the camera keeps waking back up on its own you'll run right through batteries.

Good luck

 

[LarryG]

So you're saying that when the metering times out it blinks and comes right back on? And you're not touching any of the camera's controls and not half pressing the shutter release when it blinks back on?

If so then yes that could easily be causing your battery drain problems as the camera isn't going into sleep mode. Do you have a vertical grip on your D500? If so I'd remove it and see if the camera times out normally. If not I'd start by checking every control button to make sure none are stuck in the activated position. I've seen buttons get stuck when they get something like grime or something sticky like sap on them a stuck button could cause the kind of problem you're seeing as it's activating those buttons that wakes the camera back up. I'd also try removing the lens or swapping to another lens and see if that allows the camera to go into and stay in standby mode as lens buttons can also wake the camera up. I might also try swapping out memory cards as a card write error could conceivably cause quirky firmware problems, not very likely but the key is remove as many possibilities as you can think of. Similarly make sure none of the pins on the 10 pin connector are bent or potentially shorted to one another as that's another place where an electrical short could keep waking the camera up.

If all that fails to turn anything up then I'd probably do a full reset on the camera following instructions in the manual but then you'll have to reprogram any custom settings you use.

If it still won't go into and stay in standby mode until a button is pressed I'd probably send it back to Nikon.

FWIW your batteries are probably fine and you likely don't even need a super short camera timeout setting but if the camera keeps waking back up on its own you'll run right through batteries.

Good luck

Thank you DR. You have given me a number of things to try and the hope that it might be a relatively easy fix. Fingers crossed.
.....Larry

 

[Aussie Geoff]

Hi Larry I purchased the D500 about 6months ago and they changed the battery to a EN-EL15c and according to the shop the new charger model number MH-25a can take the old batteries (en-el15) but the older charger can not take the new EN-EL15c battery

 

[DRwyoming]

Hi Larry I purchased the D500 about 6months ago and they changed the battery to a EN-EL15c and according to the shop the new charger model number MH-25a can take the old batteries (en-el15) but the older charger can not take the new EN-EL15c battery

I charge the EN-EL 15c battery that came with my Z6 II in my older chargers all the time and have never had an issue and always get a full charge.

 

[Fishboy1952]

I have a D500 that came with the EN-EL-15a batteries. I have since purchased a couple of the 15b and 15c batteries in preparation for a trip. All 3 revisions work great in the original charger.

 

[LarryG]

So you're saying that when the metering times out it blinks and comes right back on? And you're not touching any of the camera's controls and not half pressing the shutter release when it blinks back on?

If so then yes that could easily be causing your battery drain problems as the camera isn't going into sleep mode. Do you have a vertical grip on your D500? If so I'd remove it and see if the camera times out normally. If not I'd start by checking every control button to make sure none are stuck in the activated position. I've seen buttons get stuck when they get something like grime or something sticky like sap on them a stuck button could cause the kind of problem you're seeing as it's activating those buttons that wakes the camera back up. I'd also try removing the lens or swapping to another lens and see if that allows the camera to go into and stay in standby mode as lens buttons can also wake the camera up. I might also try swapping out memory cards as a card write error could conceivably cause quirky firmware problems, not very likely but the key is remove as many possibilities as you can think of. Similarly make sure none of the pins on the 10 pin connector are bent or potentially shorted to one another as that's another place where an electrical short could keep waking the camera up.

If all that fails to turn anything up then I'd probably do a full reset on the camera following instructions in the manual but then you'll have to reprogram any custom settings you use.

If it still won't go into and stay in standby mode until a button is pressed I'd probably send it back to Nikon.

FWIW your batteries are probably fine and you likely don't even need a super short camera timeout setting but if the camera keeps waking back up on its own you'll run right through batteries.

Good luck

Hi again. I tried your suggestions but to no avail. Spoke to Nikon and will be sending the camera in for repair. Thankfully, I'll just make it under the one year warranty. Thanks again.

 

[DRwyoming]

Hi again. I tried your suggestions but to no avail. Spoke to Nikon and will be sending the camera in for repair. Thankfully, I'll just make it under the one year warranty. Thanks again.

Bummer you couldn't find a simple solution but great news that it's under warranty. I just got a lens (600mm f/4 G) back from Nikon USA service and they went above and beyond the repair I sent it in for. At least in my experience they do great work and hopefully your camera comes back working like new.

 

[Johan Schmidt]

Sounds like the battery is faulty. I've had a D500 since it was released 3 - 4 years ago and can still easily shoot 3000+ images with a single battery in a day.
Until you get the battery replaced, try turning off the Flight Mode setting, as well as turning off the image preview coming up on the screen after each shot

 

[DougC]

Just a random thought…do you have airplane mode set to the “on” position? If it is set to the “off” position it will cause a constant battery drain.

 

[Johan Schmidt]

Just a random thought…do you have airplane mode set to the “on” position? If it is set to the “off” position it will cause a constant battery drain.

hahaha - yes the double negative in the Nikon menu - yes, it must be on airplane mode =on

 

[LarryG]

Thanks for the tip about airplane mode. I had is set to "off" believing that off = off. But apparently on = off. Whew.

 

[RichF]

I have not seen this problem with genuine Nikon batteries but with fake ones they often die quickly.

 

[Replytoken]

I have not seen this problem with genuine Nikon batteries but with fake ones they often die quickly.

This was discussed a lot when the D500 came out and folks had battery drain issues. I put my D500 in Airplane mode the day I received it since I do not use SnapBridge. The other thing I seem to notice is that the D500 will drain a battery more quickly than some of the older Nikon models I have owned (D750, D610, D300) when stored. But in the field with a fully charged battery, I find it behaves well.

--Ken

 

[gaknott]

I am trying the same thing with airplane mode turned on. Since I have had my D500 (purchased used with 14,000~ clicks), I has seemed to drain the battery much quicker than the previous D7200 or my D850.

 

[Replytoken]

I am trying the same thing with airplane mode turned on. Since I have had my D500 (purchased used with 14,000~ clicks), I has seemed to drain the battery much quicker than the previous D7200 or my D850.

Perhaps I have had a bit of bad luck, but there now seems to be many electronic products that like to consume power even when they are not operating. The D500 and my Panasonic GX85 are quite bad, although the latter makes the D500 look like a lightweight. And I have a personal and a work laptop that drain their batteries as well when they are off. Quite maddening, but I am told that this is not unusual for some products. And the Panasonic was serviced for this issue last year. It is a bit better, but it can still eat a battery if not used for a period of time. My D300, on the other hand, could sit for a year and still provide me with enough power for a quick shoot.

--Ken

 

[ManxMark]

Hi LarryG, just wondering did you get this issue sorted on your D500, mine has developed the same fault and I‘d like to know what the repair is? Thanks

 

[Krümelkraft]

To me it seems obvious that the problem is the metering that doesn't go off.

The question is why your D500 doesn't go to sleep mode. Could be that your shutter or one of the other buttons is a bit nervous, i.e. it makes a contact even when the button is not actually pressed and makes the camera believe the button is countinously pressed.

For instace, you could simply switch off the camera when not in use.

Oh, I just saw that this is already two years old - Mods, you may delete this...

 

[LarryG]

Hi LarryG, just wondering did you get this issue sorted on your D500, mine has developed the same fault and I‘d like to know what the repair is? Thanks

Hello. I sent my D500 and batteries into Nikon.
After a few weeks and numerous phone conversations, they claimed that they could not duplicate the problem and that my camera was fine. They returned the camera and it has been ok. I have no idea what happened. Good luck with your issue.