Today’s Question: I have heard that you should remove the battery from your camera (in this case, Sony mirrorless) when not using it, because leaving it in harms the camera in some way. Do you agree? Also, does removing the battery improve the battery life in any significant way?
Tim’s Quick Answer: It is recommended that you remove the battery from your camera if it won’t be used for an extended period, to help prevent any potential damage to the camera. In addition, removing the battery may help the battery hold a charge longer.
More Detail: I really don’t consider it to be a great risk to leave a battery in the camera when the camera isn’t in use for an extended period of time, but there are some minor risks. Therefore, I would say it is a good idea to remove the battery from your camera when you’ll put the camera away for an extended period of time, but I wouldn’t worry about it if I forgot to remove the battery.
Frankly, the bigger issue in my mind relates to draining the battery, not putting the camera at risk. Many cameras will still cause the battery to be drained when it is in the camera, even if the camera is turned off. For example, I leave the GPS feature active on my camera, even when the camera isn’t in use, in large part so I don’t forget to turn the feature on again later.
With the GPS active even with the camera turned off, it is surprising how fast the battery will completely lose its charge. Therefore, I prefer to pop the battery out of the camera when I know I won’t use it for a while, primarily to retain a charge in the batter for a longer period of time.