Battery life in digital camera

R

Rich Grise

Guest
Well, I found out already that it's a good thing that I'd bought the NiMH
charger & 4 AAs - my little digital camera just abruptly quit and went
black, quicker than if I'd turned it off. It didn't even retract the lens!
So, popped in the new ones, and it's working like a champ.

I shouldn't be surprised - you have to make machines pretty smart these
days to outwit all those ingenious idiots out there. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
 
I use a digital camera quite a lot for a few years now, and have run the
gamut of experimentation with batteries.

Horror of horrors, I have reached the conclusion that for 90% of what I do,
Lithium AA cells are the most practical. Yes, yes, they are $10 a set, but
in my cameras at least I get about 4 times as many shots out of lithiums as
I get out of a charge if NiMH, longer if I use the display sparingly. If I
am around the house taking pictures of birthday parties I use NiMH, but away
from home I would rather pay for the batteries than fuss with recharging,
and I only need to change batteries 1/4 as often. Too, if I do not use the
camera for a few weeks the self discharge of the NiMH is an unwelcome
surprise.

YMMV, of course, but try all the options and pick one that suits you best.
Oh, the dead lithiums that won't power the camera any more will run for
years in battery operated clocks, some pagers, and a lot of other gadgets
around the house.

"Rich Grise" <null@example.net> wrote in message
news:Lk4uc.7573$oh7.7150@nwrddc01.gnilink.net...
Well, I found out already that it's a good thing that I'd bought the NiMH
charger & 4 AAs - my little digital camera just abruptly quit and went
black, quicker than if I'd turned it off. It didn't even retract the lens!
So, popped in the new ones, and it's working like a champ.

I shouldn't be surprised - you have to make machines pretty smart these
days to outwit all those ingenious idiots out there. ;-)

Cheers!
Rich
Click to expand...
 
On Sat, 29 May 2004 14:44:03 -0400, "BFoelsch"
<BFoelsch@comcast.ditch.this.net> wrote:

I use a digital camera quite a lot for a few years now, and have run the
gamut of experimentation with batteries.

Horror of horrors, I have reached the conclusion that for 90% of what I do,
Lithium AA cells are the most practical. Yes, yes, they are $10 a set, but
in my cameras at least I get about 4 times as many shots out of lithiums as
I get out of a charge if NiMH, longer if I use the display sparingly. If I
am around the house taking pictures of birthday parties I use NiMH, but away
from home I would rather pay for the batteries than fuss with recharging,
and I only need to change batteries 1/4 as often. Too, if I do not use the
camera for a few weeks the self discharge of the NiMH is an unwelcome
surprise.

YMMV, of course, but try all the options and pick one that suits you best.
Oh, the dead lithiums that won't power the camera any more will run for
years in battery operated clocks, some pagers, and a lot of other gadgets
around the house.

[snip]
Click to expand...

I've owned a Sony DSC-S70 for three years... bought it upon the birth
of the 6th grandchild, 5th granddaughter ;-)

It has a LiIon rechargeable battery.

Being the cautious type I bought a spare figuring I'd need to swap
batteries sometime during a shoot.

Sheeesh! I get an easy 200 shots per charge, most of which use the
flash, and I've never used the second battery.

I even bought two 64MB memory sticks. Turns out that one memory stick
will hold 108 1280x960 jpeg's. Gave the second stick to my wife when
I bought her a DSC-P31 (both models come with 8MB, which is
inadequate).

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice:(480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax:(480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

I love to cook with wine. Sometimes I even put it in the food.
 
Hi Jim,

Then it seems that the 16MB cards that come with the cameras should be
ok for 25 pictures or so. Or even more with lower resolution.

Many cameras I looked at work with two AA cells. The mfgs recommends the
CR-3V with similar form factor but these are almost $10 each. Even if
they last four times that long I don't see the economics here since I
can buy a package with more than 20 AA cells at Costco for around $10.

Sorry for the blank posts. But I fixed that (hopefully) for good. Dumped
Netscape and loaded Mozilla. Slower but more stable, it seems.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
 
I guess my point is that it is not always about economics.

Here in Connecticut, USA I can get a set of 4 AA Energizer Lithium cells for
$10 USD, which is 5 times the price per cell as you quote for alkalines.
Even if the lithiums last only 3 times as long, I am willing to pay that
price to reduce the number of times my batteries run out at inopportune
times. If I used a set of batteries every day I would worry about it, but I
probably use three sets of lithium batteries per year. That's $30 USD per
year. I will forgo one restaurant dinner per year to make up the cost!

The NiMH work OK, but the self-discharge drives me crazy. If I don't use
them for a month they are just about dead!

My cameras won't use the CR-3V cells, so I can't comment on those. My
cameras also use 4 cells. Don't know if the 2 cell cameras reduced the
battery usage proportionally, or if they require twice as many battery
changes.

Thanks in advance.



"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote in message
news:DI6uc.59295$d35.47382@newssvr29.news.prodigy.com...
Hi Jim,

Then it seems that the 16MB cards that come with the cameras should be
ok for 25 pictures or so. Or even more with lower resolution.

Many cameras I looked at work with two AA cells. The mfgs recommends the
CR-3V with similar form factor but these are almost $10 each. Even if
they last four times that long I don't see the economics here since I
can buy a package with more than 20 AA cells at Costco for around $10.

Sorry for the blank posts. But I fixed that (hopefully) for good. Dumped
Netscape and loaded Mozilla. Slower but more stable, it seems.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
Click to expand...
 
Yes, the convenience factor is certainly there with Lithiums. With this
little use I wouldn't worry about cost either.

I don't know if rechargeable Alkalines have the same self discharge
issue. They don't last as many cycles as NiMH. All I know is that lots
of people went to these new Alkalines out here (California). It does get
very toasty in summer which is an issue with batteries.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com
 
On Sat, 29 May 2004 14:44:03 -0400, BFoelsch wrote:

I use a digital camera quite a lot for a few years now, and have run the
gamut of experimentation with batteries.

Horror of horrors, I have reached the conclusion that for 90% of what I do,
Lithium AA cells are the most practical. Yes, yes, they are $10 a set, but
in my cameras at least I get about 4 times as many shots out of lithiums as
I get out of a charge if NiMH, longer if I use the display sparingly. If I
am around the house taking pictures of birthday parties I use NiMH, but away
from home I would rather pay for the batteries than fuss with recharging,
and I only need to change batteries 1/4 as often. Too, if I do not use the
camera for a few weeks the self discharge of the NiMH is an unwelcome
surprise.
Click to expand...
Thanks. I missed that factoid and I've read a fair amount on batts.
Even if I take the NiMH cells out of the camera, GPS, whatever,
they'll self discharge. That explains everything. Buggers.
YMMV, of course, but try all the options and pick one that suits you best.
Oh, the dead lithiums that won't power the camera any more will run for
years in battery operated clocks, some pagers, and a lot of other gadgets
around the house.
Click to expand...

--
Best Regards,
Mike
 
Activ8 <reply2group@ndbbm.net> wrote:
On Sat, 29 May 2004 14:44:03 -0400, BFoelsch wrote:

I use a digital camera quite a lot for a few years now, and have run the
gamut of experimentation with batteries.

Horror of horrors, I have reached the conclusion that for 90% of what I do,
Lithium AA cells are the most practical. Yes, yes, they are $10 a set, but
in my cameras at least I get about 4 times as many shots out of lithiums as
I get out of a charge if NiMH, longer if I use the display sparingly. If I
snip
Thanks. I missed that factoid and I've read a fair amount on batts.
Even if I take the NiMH cells out of the camera, GPS, whatever,
they'll self discharge. That explains everything. Buggers.
Click to expand...
Put them in the fridge, and they'll self-discharge at a quarter (or so)
of the rate.
 
On Sat, 29 May 2004 12:19:33 -0700, Jim Thompson
<thegreatone@example.com> wrote:
%<
I've owned a Sony DSC-S70 for three years... bought it upon the birth
of the 6th grandchild, 5th granddaughter ;-)

It has a LiIon rechargeable battery.

Being the cautious type I bought a spare figuring I'd need to swap
batteries sometime during a shoot.

Sheeesh! I get an easy 200 shots per charge, most of which use the
flash, and I've never used the second battery.

I even bought two 64MB memory sticks. Turns out that one memory stick
will hold 108 1280x960 jpeg's. Gave the second stick to my wife when
I bought her a DSC-P31 (both models come with 8MB, which is
inadequate).
Click to expand...
I've got a Sony DSC-P8, it too has a LiIon battery. Absolutly
brilliant. I have 16,64,128MB cards, can store a total of around 150
photos between all cards when it is set to the 3.2megapixel mode.

I did run in to a small problem just recently though. Went on holidays
interstate to visit family, and then decided to go away for 4 days
with my wife on a small driving tour of the south-west coast of
australia. I forgot to take the charger. The camera actually took
photos for 3 of the 4 days, and filled up the 128MB + some of the 64MB
memory card. Bought a second charger in a little town which I am now
going to convert to a car charger.

Also climbed a massive lighthouse only to realise that the 128MB card
was full and that the other cards where in the car. Bummer. Being
digital, i just deleted a few older photos that weren't that great.
 
"The Real Andy" <.pearson@wayit_dot_com_dot_au_remove_the_obvious_to_reply>
wrote in

I did run in to a small problem just recently though. Went on holidays
interstate to visit family, and then decided to go away for 4 days
with my wife on a small driving tour of the south-west coast of
australia. I forgot to take the charger. The camera actually took
photos for 3 of the 4 days, and filled up the 128MB + some of the 64MB
memory card. Bought a second charger in a little town which I am now
going to convert to a car charger.
Click to expand...
The whole town? Wow!

Cheers!
Rich
 
On Mon, 31 May 2004 19:38:45 GMT, "Rich Grise" <null@example.net>
wrote:

"The Real Andy" <.pearson@wayit_dot_com_dot_au_remove_the_obvious_to_reply
wrote in

I did run in to a small problem just recently though. Went on holidays
interstate to visit family, and then decided to go away for 4 days
with my wife on a small driving tour of the south-west coast of
australia. I forgot to take the charger. The camera actually took
photos for 3 of the 4 days, and filled up the 128MB + some of the 64MB
memory card. Bought a second charger in a little town which I am now
going to convert to a car charger.

The whole town? Wow!
Click to expand...
I remember my english teacher doing that lesson!

Cheers!
Rich
Click to expand...
 
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