Frits Thomsen
Senior Member
Mine is a Uniross X-press1000..
I don´t know the difference , but mine also charges in about an hour, or a little less..
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Frits Thomsen
See my pictures at
http://www.pbase.com/yoicz
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How is the Battery Life on the SD10?
- Thread starter Joe M.
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I don´t know the difference , but mine also charges in about an hour, or a little less..
Frits Thomsen
See my pictures at
http://www.pbase.com/yoicz
DaSonyGuy
Forum Pro
I agree with you Paul. I am not going to accuse Fritz of exagerating but I have no idea why he can seemingly get his to work so well when I found them unsusable!
When I first got my SD10 I went out on a sunny, mildly cold febuary day with a freshly charged set of Uniross 2300mAh NiMH's and I could only get ONE shot before it performed a low voltage shutdown!...I would pull the tray and get one more shot!!...In fact I had to pull the tray before every shot!!!
Quite frankly I would have had better results if I had filled my tray with dogs faeces!
It was not confined to a single set of four, I had about 6 sets at the time, all brand new.
Even when kept warm I never got more than 100 shots out of any of the sets!
My salvation came when I bought an EC-702 7.2v 2000mAh external Li-ion battery pack from Maplins for just £20. When I tested it for the first time I got just over 760 shots out of it!...And that was with a 2 second preview and leaving the camera on continuously for over an hour!!!!
The EC-702 only has one drawback, it fits to the camera via the tripod socket, which is neat enough but its like adding the battery grip, it adds height and I could not put the camera away in its Lowepro TLZ1 without having to remove it each time.
Since RCRV-3's came on the market I have never had a battery problem and because they fit in the cameras tray they are much neater and easier to use than the EC-702.
By the way NiMH's DO work with the SD9 because the secondary battery reduces the drain on them.
I wonder if Fritz was perhaps confusing the SD9 for the SD10?
Regards
DSG
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http://sigmasd10.fotopic.net/
Frits Thomsen
Senior Member
wise decision..
Maybe that is the explanation..did you just charge them once , and threw them into the camera..??
These batteries needs to be" trained" to perform their best..
I actually baught the batteries a couple of month before I got my Camera , and yes it is an SD10, ..so I charges them and completely drained them ( in a flashlight) several times before they ever went into the camera...
Ha ha ..no I do know what camera I have..
--
Frits Thomsen
See my pictures at
http://www.pbase.com/yoicz
ole thofte
Senior Member
Frits Thomsen wrote:
664 shots.....
that's a lot! That's a world record
You seem to have a cheaper charger, Express, with green2300 mAH NiMHs. As I remember 150 kr with 2000 mAH batteries.... Mine is a Sprint with greyish 2300mAH NiMHs (380 Dkr with 6 batteries) and they perform quite well but not to your standard, more like 200-250 shots. I searched Uniross's homepage for information. They have some but I didn't get much wiser.
Maybe the green ones are better for Sigma or maybe your' burning in' use is the explanation. I think I'll try your charger too....
ole thofte
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http://www.pbase.com/thofte
664 shots.....
that's a lot! That's a world record
You seem to have a cheaper charger, Express, with green2300 mAH NiMHs. As I remember 150 kr with 2000 mAH batteries.... Mine is a Sprint with greyish 2300mAH NiMHs (380 Dkr with 6 batteries) and they perform quite well but not to your standard, more like 200-250 shots. I searched Uniross's homepage for information. They have some but I didn't get much wiser.
Maybe the green ones are better for Sigma or maybe your' burning in' use is the explanation. I think I'll try your charger too....
ole thofte
--
http://www.pbase.com/thofte
ole thofte
Senior Member
Frits Thomsen
Senior Member
Well.. I bought the charger together with 4 of the green ones.
Then I bought 8 of the grey and black, 2300mAh batteries
But when I was in Romania, visiting Draculas castle I had to change batteries and I dropped one of the greens ....and it rolled away and fell down through a gat in the floor...
So after that I have only used the black ones..
I cannot explain why they seems to work so much better for me ... other than I had them some time before I got the camera and Charged and discharged them repeatedly... but don´t you all do that ??
To answer you next qestion I used a Kingston 512 and a 256 mb
when I was out shooting, later, at home when it all became at test shooting I only used the 512 and formated it every time it was full
I even wrote down how many pictures, I got each time , so that poeple shouldn´t acuse me of taking low-res pictures or something like that..
I got 35 on the 256 card and 67,77,83,78,77,71,69and 68 plus 27plus 12 from yesterday
Frits Thomsen
See my pictures at
http://www.pbase.com/yoicz
Just Looking
Veteran Member
I've tried many times to explain that here. First of all, it's nothing to do with the "capacity" of the batteries. Fritz has managed to get his cells conditioned to where, at low temperature, the resistance stays low enough that the voltage stays high enough to keep the camera happy until he uses most of the energy in the batteries. That's the ideal situation.
The more typical situation, however, is that the voltage drops a bit too much, when the batteries still have most of their capacity unused, due to the load current dropping too much voltage across the marginally too high internal resistance. The typical reaction at that point is to recharge them, which makes them that much worse the next time. What you need to do is discharge them all the way, then charge them, to condition them to work better the next time.
I measured 500 shots at a more normal room temp, in SD10, with a new set of Mahas after 4 conditioning cyclees. Trying the same cells after only 2 conditioning cycles, they hardly worked at all, and died after a few dozen shots. The huge difference in numbers is due to a small difference in the marginal parameters of the batteries relative to the demands of the camera. That's why 8 cells in a power grip can get more than 10X the number of shots as 4 cells in the camera.
j
Frits Thomsen
Senior Member
Yes. I have been thinking hard to find an explanation too..
could it be , that it´s actually a good thing to be poor ..??
I mean I have only 2 sets of 4 batteries.. and they really get to work for their money (current)..
If I had , lets say 4 sets they would probably ly around and get lazy..
--
Frits Thomsen
See my pictures at
http://www.pbase.com/yoicz
J. Michael
Veteran Member
are you shooting on Hi-Resolution.
Hello all..
I read this thread yesterday, and instantly realised that I
disagree with you all...
What on earth are you doing to get those rediculously low
numbers...???
Then I decided to see how many shots I actually would get out of a
set of four freshly charged Uniross´s
I went out yesterday. It was rather cold..well below zero celsius..
so I only took 12 pictures before I went home.
Today I have been out "shooting" for several hours, the temperature
was just around 0 C. I took 102 pictures. On several of them I used
2sec. delay and on some others MLU.. autofocus on all
When I got home i wanted to burn out the last power of these
batteries before they got warmed up...
Well to make a long story short there was still an incredible 546
pictures left in them....
I took them in burst of 4or 5then let the buffer empty and click,
click...again...
I kept the Autofocus work for every picture and even let it hunt a
while, sometimes.
I have never cared to testy these batteries before, as I knew they
had plenty of reserves in them , but I must admit even I got a
little surprised..
So please don´t say rechargeble AA´s dont work on a SD10..
Frits Thomsen
See my pictures at
http://www.pbase.com/yoicz
ole thofte
Senior Member
That's right, you have...
Yes, and some of us would like to duplicate Frits's trick. It works for him in warmer weather too as I understand it. This question is usually answered by your explanation of the low voltage of the batteries, high internal resistance, the drop of the voltage and the high 'capacity' of the batteries being rather useless. Your suggestion is: use a powerpack with 8 NiMHs. And usually seconded by Laurence: use CR-3V... But it's simply more handy and less costly for some of us to use 4 NiMHs and that's why this unresolved question pops up from time to time, when a solution seems to be at hand as Frits has here.
I've tried discharging my batteries regularly (at least 20 times; it took painstaking 8 hours each time) using an Ansmans charger with this feature. I discovered however that it didn't give more shooting capacity and that my 2200 mAh Nimhs functioned as well or better when I didn't discharge them but just recharged them over an hour or two. Maybe Frits's way of breaking in the batteries draining them in a flashlight is more effective than the charger? ..... or maybe it has to be done early in the lifespan of the batteries?
Well, yes, ok to your 4 conditioning cycles. it worked for you but not for me. And if you don't want to carry a powerpack that's not a solution. I've adjusted my shooting habits to the batteries: filling up one 512 Mb card and that's it and recharge the batteries again. It works but the situation could be better.... hence the interest for Frits experience.
ole thofte
--
http://www.pbase.com/thofte
Tom Rowland
Veteran Member
I have been using the 15 minute rechargable Rayovacs. They are easy to find in Walmart, Target, and lots of other places. I pop them in the charger, pack up my stuff, and they are charged. Some times I put a set in, take a shower, put in another set, eat breakfast, put in another set, pack my stuff, and I have three fresh sets. I have never had a set die before lunch. I carry a jumpstart car battery with a converter, and plug the charger in while I eat lunch and recharge a set or two. This is the cheapest, easiest, and best solution I have found. I have commonly shot 300-400 shots a day, using the 120-300, and lots of autofocus.
I sometimes forget to change batteries at lunch, but with three sets I never worry as it takes less than 30 seconds to change to a fresh set if they run out.
And did I mention it usually takes more like 5 minutes to recharge, instead of the 15 minutes claimed.
Just Looking
Veteran Member
Ole, sorry I don't have any better ideas for you. It sounds like you have a way that gets you by, and I wish you luck in finding the ultimate solution. Maybe Frits's brand is just that much better and will be the breakthrough you're looking for.
j
j
Just Looking
Veteran Member
sounds like you're able to use about one-third of the capacity before they die...
j
Frits Thomsen
Senior Member
Crashncutie
Member
I also use the Rayovac batteries but I never let them get to the point where they die just to be safe. I have two 512 MB Lexar 40x compact flash cards. I got into the habit of using one set of batteries for two cards, I use autofocus and 2 second preview. When both cards are full I change the batteries with the extra set i keep in my pocket and by the time both cards are downloaded the batteries are fully charged again. If I had gigabytes of compact flash cards it might be a different story, but I'm a fairly casual shooter. I haven't had a problem with the Rayovacs to date (other than accidently sticking them in the same pocket i had my keys and change in and my pocked got reeeaaaal hot. I think a lot of folks issues have to do with their shooting style and the number of memory cards they keep with them, just finding a battery that works well in whatever climate you live in and depending on what kind of shooting you are doing. Just my two cents.
yesfan02
Leading Member
--I have the same problem with AA one set lasts for 150 shots and the other two sets last only about 30 so I'm going through the lengthy process of conditioning these batteries. We are going on a road trip in August ( washington state to montana, S.Dakota then west to Wyoming, Idaho, Oragon coast then north home) and I want a better source for power .
Soon! Oh Soon the light. Ours to shape for all time, ours the right. The sun will lead us, our reason to be here.
Frits Thomsen
Senior Member
Hello Yesfan and Ole
After reading your posts (again in Oles case) I want to say one important thing . I don´t think it is a good idea to "recondition" NiMh batteries, by drainging them completely. On the contrary I think it is important to allways keep them charged, I regularlly give them a tour in the recharger if they have beeing lying around unused.
But in the beginning when the batteries are new it is important to charge> > > discharge 5 times or thereabout..
Sorry if I have been causing some confusion...
Frits Thomsen
See my pictures at
http://www.pbase.com/yoicz
After reading your posts (again in Oles case) I want to say one important thing . I don´t think it is a good idea to "recondition" NiMh batteries, by drainging them completely. On the contrary I think it is important to allways keep them charged, I regularlly give them a tour in the recharger if they have beeing lying around unused.
But in the beginning when the batteries are new it is important to charge> > > discharge 5 times or thereabout..
Sorry if I have been causing some confusion...
Frits Thomsen
See my pictures at
http://www.pbase.com/yoicz
Different bodies are different. My first SD9 gets a lot more shots than my second from the same batts. No idea why, but a third body I've used but don't own is the worst of the three. Battery brand is another big variable, and probably different battery samples within the same brand.
Frits Thomsen
Senior Member
Yes and the conditioning before use.. and never blend sets...
Frits Thomsen
See my pictures at
http://www.pbase.com/yoicz
Just Looking
Veteran Member
Maha has this to say about conditioning:
http://www.mahaenergy.com/store/mhc204ffaq.asp
quote
Q: I just got the batteries & charger. What do I need to do before first using them?
For new NiMH batteries, it is necessary to cycle them three to five times before they reach peak performance. Battery cycling can be achieved simply by using the batteries and recharging them or using the charger’s built-in conditioner (see below).
...
Q: What is conditioning?
The conditioning feature on the MH-C204F basically rejuvenates your batteries by first draining them and then charging them. By using this feature, your batteries will perform at their highest standards. Conditioning is also used to eliminate the memory effect which NiCD batteries suffer from.
Q: How often should I condition my batteries?
For Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries, conditioning is recommended once for every ten charges. For Nickel Cadmium (NiCD) batteries, conditioning is recommended every time you charge your batteries.
...
After extended storage, you may need to condition (using the conditioning feature on PowerEx chargers like the MH-C204F) the batteries several times to regain nominal performance.
endquote
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