A day in the life of a Dimage 7 battery.

There have been a lot of comments about "short battery life" and "what kind of battery life should I expect" on the D7. I decided to monitor the use of a set of batteries during a typical heavy shooting day and post the results so that people could compare. This represents battery usage under real conditions, rather than a "press the button every minute" test.

Procedure:

The camera was turned on once in the morning and not switched to off again.
Sleep time was set to 1 minute.
Times are rounded to the nearest minute, so may be off a little.
I used the EVF, set to come on when I brought my eye to the camera. The LCD was used when in setup mode to format cards. I estimated the time to format a card as one minute. Camera was set to defaults, Fine mode JPEG.

The batteries were RayOVac 1600mAH, charged in a RayOVac PS4 charger.

The accumulated time is an underestimate because it does not include any pre-focus set up time for shots, or any fractions of a minute.

Results:
Event    Time       Accumulated on time, minutes
2024     9:52       0
2025     9:52      
2026     9:52        
auto off 9:53       1
2027     9:59       1
auto off 10:00       2
2028     10:01      
2029     10:02       4
auto off 10:03       5
2030     10:04
auto off 10:05       6
2031     10:06      
2032     10:07       7
2033     10:08       8
2034     10:09       9
2035     10:10       10
2036     10:11       11
2037     10:11      
auto off 10:12       12
2038     10:13
2039     10:14       13
2040     10:15       14
2041     10:16       15
2042     10:17       16
2043     10:18       17
2044     10:19       18
2045     10:20       19
2046     10:20    
2047     10:21       20
2048     10:21      
2049     10:22       21
2050     10:22  
2051     10:23       22
2052     10:24       23
2053     10:25       24
2054     10:26       25
2055     10:27       26
2056     10:29       28
2057     10:30       29
2058     10:31       30
2059     10:32       31
2060     10:32             (spotted some wild turkeys)
2061     10:32
2062     10:32
2063     10:32
2064     10:33       32
2065     10:34       33
2066     10:35       34
2067     10:36       35
2068     10:36
2069     10:36
2070     10:37       36
2071     10:37
2072     10:37
2073     10:38       37
2074     10:38
2075     10:39       38
2076     10:39
auto off 10:40       39
2077     10:42
auto off 10:43       40
Format card          41
2078     14:57
2079     14:57
2080     14:58       42
auto off 14:59       43
2081     15:06
auto off 15:07       44
2082     15:15
2083     15:16       45
auto off 15:17       46
2084     15:19
2085     15:19
2086     15:19
2087     15:20       47
2088     15:20
2089     15:20
2090     15:20
2091     15:20
2092     15:21       48
2093     15:21
2094     15:21  
2095     15:21
2096     15:21
auto off 15:22       49
2097     15:25
2098     15:25
2099     15:25
2100     15:25
2101     15:25
2102     15:26       50
2103     15:26
2104     15:26
2105     15:26
2106     15:27       51
2107     15:27
2108     15:27
2109     15:27
auto off 15:28       52
format card          53
2110     15:39
auto off 15:40       54
2111     15:42
2112     15:42
2115     15:43       55
2114     15:43      
2115     15:43
2116     15:44       56
2117     15:45       57
auto off 15:46       58
2118     15:49
2119     15:49
auto off 15:50       59
2120     15:51       60
auto off 15:52       61
2121     15:55
2122     15:55
2123     15:55
auto off 15:56       62
2124     15:58
auto off 15:59       63
2125     16:00
2126     16:00
2127     16:01       64
2128     16:01
2129     16:01
2130     16:01
2131     16:01
auto off 16:02       65
2132     16:18
2133     16:18
2134     16:18
2135     16:19       66
2136     16:19
2137     16:20       67
2138     16:21       68
auto off 16:22       69
2139     16:23      
2140     16:23
2141     16:23
2142     16:23
2143     16:23
2144     16:24       70
auto off 16:25       71
format card          72
format card          73
2145     16:38
2146     16:38
2147     16:38
2148     16:39       74
2149     16:39
2150     16:40       75
2151     16:40
2152     16:40
2153     16:41       76
2154     16:41
auto off 16:42       77
2155     16:43
2156     16:43
2157     16:43
2158     16:44       78
2159     16:44 (one time "white" low bat warning during focus on screen only)
auto off 16:45       79
2160     16:46
2161     16:46
2162     16:46
2163     16:46
auto off 16:47       80
2164     16:49
2165     16:49
2166     16:49
2167     16:49
2168     16:50       81
2169     16:50
2170     16:50
2171     16:50
2172     16:51       82
2173     16:51
2174     16:51
2175     16:52       83
2176     16:52
2177     16:52
2178     16:52
2179     16:52    
auto off             84
format card          85
2180     16:56
auto off             86
2181     17:05
2182     17:05
2183     17:05
2184     17:05
2185     17:05
auto off 17:06       87
2186     17:07
2187     17:07          
2188     17:08       88
2189     17:08
auto off 17:09       89
2190     17:10
2191     17:10
2192     17:10
auto off 17:11       90
2193     17:12
2194     17:12
2195     17:12
2196     17:13       91
auto off 17:14       92
2197     17:15
2198     17:15
auto off 17:16       93
2199     17:17
2200     17:17
2201     17:18       94
auto off 17:19       95
2202     17:20
2203     17:20
2204     17:21       96
2205     17:21
2206     17:21
auto off 17:22       97
2207     17:23
2208     17:24       98
2209     17:25       99
2210     17:25
2211     17:26       100
auto off 17:27       101
2212     17:28  
2213     17:28      
auto off             102

After shot 2213, the low battery light came on during the save, and I decided to call it quits. I could have squeezed a few more shots out of it, but I would normally change the battery at this point.

Summary.
Total camera usage time      : 9:52am to 5:28pm = 7h 36m
Total camera "active" time   : 102 minutes.
Total pictures taken             : 189
Card formats                       : 5            

Conclusion:

I think that the battery life is actually pretty good. 189 shots is more than I would normally take, and 7 hours of continuous operation is just fine. Your actual use would depend on which battery saving features you use with the camera, especially how much you use the LCD. In my day to day operation, I rarely have to put in a second set of batteries.