i know that i still don't know....

am having long days shooting horses (to tape).

now, is it better to turn power (battery) on and off when i have 2 to 4 minutes break between them or simply leave on?

my experience so far is that turning on/off appears to shorten battery life (ie. remain time), and since the tape comes off the heads after about 30 sec of standby I'm not too worried by that aspect - or should i be?

any thoughts most welcome....

Over the last 20 years or so my habit is this. If it's not at least a 30 minute break the camera stays on. Doesn't matter which camera I was or am using. Sony VX1000, PD150/170, DSR250, JVC GY5000/5100, HD100 or 200 or HM700.
Anton Bauer, Sony, IDX...doesn't matter what batteries. First I might miss a shot while the camera powers up second the amount of power it takes to power up has got to be more (I would think) than to just let the camera "idle" the 2 to 4 minutes you're waiting.

thanks don, appreciated.

seems like the general consensus is leave on anyway.

have a great xmas....

This is totally camera dependent and I think the equation changed significantly when the industry moved to solid state. To my memory, DV tape cameras had settings for how long to keep the motors spooled up for fast record starting and then went into a power saving mode that took longer to start recording. That went away with solid state.

Nowadays, I think the LCD, external monitors and lens motors are the things you can disable to save power short of turning the camera off. You are then left with the power consumption of the camera's guts. Some cameras run long, others don't. With a small battery and some time, I think a little experiment would give you a gross estimate for your camera.