Battery life for Digital Camera

[faye]

Hi,
hmm, please don't bang me if i post in a wrong forum...

I have a 4x Energizer 2100mAH along with its own battery charger..

i only use these 4 battery for my Nikon CoolPix 3100(the battery it comes with, Panasonic 1800mAH)

By the time i bought it till now i believe i charge it less than 30 times(5 months) and i drain the battery before i charge it.(until i can't use the same battery to turn on the camera)

I charge it more than 3 hours whcih only need 1 hour(it said).

but i can only than 40pictures before the low batt sign jumps out. I believer another 15 to 20 then it iwll die.

Is it normal? the specs says it can take more than 200 pictures before the low batt sign..

Should i try GP 2100 series?

Thanks

 

[Cheetah8799]

I have a cheap 2.1mp camera. It takes 4 AAA batteries. I use rechargables, which are still fairly new, but the camera eats the battery life like crazy. Best bet is to turn OFF the lcd display if you don't need it. That is the biggest power hog.

for the most part, digital cameras eat batteries...

 

[MrSnatcher]

Yes, turn off the lcd display. My sony camera eats up the battery too. I have a powersaver feature on mine, I am sure this isnt new technology, your camera probably has one to.

 

[aka1nas]

While that camera can and will eat batteries like popcorn, that is a little low. First off, ditch the energizers as they tend not to put out for as long as other similarly rated NiMH cells. If you want the longest life you can get, look for some 2800mAh Maha cells. CHeck out dpreview for places that sell them. Also, what charger do you use? Some chargers will actually perform significantly better and some will kill the betteries faster than others. Also, your batteries, although rechargeable, will not last forever. Usually they say its 1000 charges or 2 years, but if you are using them often perhaps they have started to wear out already?

 

[faye]

i dont' use the camera often, means i don't charge often..

I bought the battery along with a charger, also from Energizer.
The camera only needs 1800mAH, if i use 2300, will this harm the camera? or higher the better?

 

[AIWGuru]

The canon powershot A70 will take about a thousand pictures before needing to change the batteries. It's amazing. I've had some other digital cameras which I've returned because of their poor battery life. If you want good battery life, canon cameras as where you should look.

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

Originally posted by: faye
i dont' use the camera often, means i don't charge often..

I bought the battery along with a charger, also from Energizer.
The camera only needs 1800mAH, if i use 2300, will this harm the camera? or higher the better?

mAH is the batteries capacity, it has nothing to do with its output. if you felt the need you could carry around an external 5aH battery if you wanted so long as its voltage/amperage/wattage was correct.

 

[SilentRunning]

Originally posted by: AIWGuru
The canon powershot A70 will take about a thousand pictures before needing to change the batteries. It's amazing. I've had some other digital cameras which I've returned because of their poor battery life. If you want good battery life, canon cameras as where you should look.

Yep, love mine.

Canon A70's don't focus until the shutter button is partially depressed, other digital cameras are always adjusting the focus while the camera is on which eats batteries up.
Also the LCD is a drain.

 

[faye]

my Nikon coolpix also need to press partitally in order to focus, but it drains the batt

 

[WackyDan]

I get great life with my CoolPix 995 - But that is when I turn off the LCD screen..... Taking lower res pictures helps too. Less time saving to memory card = more battery life.... But I don't do that anymore....Just bought another battery.

 

[Zoinks]

My experience is that digital cameras eat batteries like crazy. I tried some energizer lithium batteries and they last a long time but aren't cheap. I use them for trips and just keep a set of rechargables in the recharger to swap out for home use.

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: SilentRunning

Originally posted by: AIWGuru
The canon powershot A70 will take about a thousand pictures before needing to change the batteries. It's amazing. I've had some other digital cameras which I've returned because of their poor battery life. If you want good battery life, canon cameras as where you should look.

Yep, love mine.

Canon A70's don't focus until the shutter button is partially depressed, other digital cameras are always adjusting the focus while the camera is on which eats batteries up.
Also the LCD is a drain.

Maybe not a thousand... but you'll get at least 100, depending on your use.

 

[aka1nas]

One other thing, if you are charging them for 3 hours more than they need have you been checking their temerature? Extreme heat is not good for the battery and will also reduce its life. I have a 1 hour rayovac charger that while it charges very well, it also heats up the batteries a lot. Something as simple as having a little airflow over them while chargin may help. Finally, NiMH cells do drain if you let them sit. They will typically be unusable from a full charge after about 2 weeks or so. Lastly, do not store your batteries in the camera if you don't use it often as in some cameras it seems to make them drain faster(IME only certain models seem to do this, my olympus C-3000 was fine after a few weeks with the batteries in the camera, but I would get customers coming in complaining about their camera's batteries draining fast all the time when I was selling digital cameras so it does happen.).

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: aka1nas
Finally, NiMH cells do drain if you let them sit. They will typically be unusable from a full charge after about 2 weeks or so.

This isn't true. NiMh batteries will drain at a rate of about 1% per day at room temperature. If they're kept lower than that (in the refrigerator, perhaps) they'll discharge at a lower rate, but still have nowhere near the shelf life of alkalines or LiIon.

 

[AIWGuru]

Originally posted by: beatle

Originally posted by: SilentRunning

Originally posted by: AIWGuru
The canon powershot A70 will take about a thousand pictures before needing to change the batteries. It's amazing. I've had some other digital cameras which I've returned because of their poor battery life. If you want good battery life, canon cameras as where you should look.

Yep, love mine.

Canon A70's don't focus until the shutter button is partially depressed, other digital cameras are always adjusting the focus while the camera is on which eats batteries up.
Also the LCD is a drain.

Maybe not a thousand... but you'll get at least 100, depending on your use.

No, No. I get literally a thousand. I can play with the zoom, lcd always on, flash etc. The first time I loaded this camera up I wanted to deplete the batteries. I was playing with panoramic and burst mode etc. I filled up my 256MB memory card about 15 times before giving up on draining the batteries. It literally takes 1000 shots. Also, it's got an awesome parallel design rather than most others' serial.

 

[AIWGuru]

Originally posted by: beatle

Originally posted by: aka1nas
Finally, NiMH cells do drain if you let them sit. They will typically be unusable from a full charge after about 2 weeks or so.

This isn't true. NiMh batteries will drain at a rate of about 1% per day at room temperature. If they're kept lower than that (in the refrigerator, perhaps) they'll discharge at a lower rate, but still have nowhere near the shelf life of alkalines or LiIon.

both the battery guide from steve's digicams and dansdata say that nimh batteries will be dead after about a month of non-use.

 

[aka1nas]

Lemme rephrase that a bit. They won't be stone dead after 2 weeks, but they will have alost a significant enough amount of their charge that you won't be able to use them long in a digital camera. I think its actually more like 2% a day from what I heard, but I am sure there are other factors that can change that.

 

[21stHermit]

Originally posted by: faye
i dont' use the camera often, means i don't charge often..

I bought the battery along with a charger, also from Energizer.
The camera only needs 1800mAH, if i use 2300, will this harm the camera? or higher the better?

The mAH is only the current capacity, no matter what, NiMh's are 1.3V batteries. The real problem with NiMh's is their self-discharge rate: 1%/day at room temp and 2-5%/day in a hot car.

I use a BP-511 (LiIon) in my D Rebel, its only a 1100 mAh battery but at 7.2V. I can start in the morning and take 2G of RAW photos and still have something left. I don't count frames, when the card is full is all I care.

 

[beatle]

Originally posted by: AIWGuru

Originally posted by: beatle

Originally posted by: aka1nas
Finally, NiMH cells do drain if you let them sit. They will typically be unusable from a full charge after about 2 weeks or so.

This isn't true. NiMh batteries will drain at a rate of about 1% per day at room temperature. If they're kept lower than that (in the refrigerator, perhaps) they'll discharge at a lower rate, but still have nowhere near the shelf life of alkalines or LiIon.

both the battery guide from steve's digicams and dansdata say that nimh batteries will be dead after about a month of non-use.

I haven't had that problem with mine, even left inside my A70. They're PowerEX 1800 mAhs, FWIW. I was never able to get that many shots out of my A70. That's pretty impressive!

When looking at info on NiMh batteries, I looked here and here for info. Steve's Digicams doesn't mention anything about them dying in a month, just that they discharge. When I had my old HP315 camera, it would sit for months without use, and I still got quite a bit of use out of it before killing the batteries.

Regardless, I think we can all agree that NiMh batteries are not good for standby and that it's not a bad idea to "top them off" prior to using them. Right? I personally carry a set of alkalines in my camera bag just in case my rechargables die and I need to take some more pics.

 

[AIWGuru]

It's only about 3 weeks old. I understand that canon makes newer revisions of its cameras which may be better on battery life. IE moving the digic to .13u

 

[Peter D]

I use an A70 with 4 rechargeable Energizer 2050mAH batteries and with regular use (including taking videos at 640x480 and taking lots of pics at full res and superfine quality) I get over a full week of use.

 

[aka1nas]

Also, keep in mind that the A70 uses 4AAs vs the CP3100s two.

 

[batmanuel]

I have those same 2100mAh Energizers and I get hundreds of shots out of my Olympus D510 with the LCD on. I usually exhaust my storage space before I exhaust my batteries.

It seems like you have a fast charger, since it can charge them in an hour. I've been using a slower charger, one of those that trickle charges it for 12 hours or so, which I believe gives you a better charge and is easier on the batteries in the long term (although those Energizer AA 4 packs are only about $10 at Target, so they are really cheap to replace).

 

[XRdirtHead]

:beer:

 

[faye]

hmm, does it matter if i charge the battery over night with a 1 hour charger?

I usually charge them at least 3 hours(from a 1 hour charger)

I flash every shots, but i don't think it should exhaust that fast.

btw, is there a battery safe mode in that Nikon Coolpix 3100?