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battery life - I am not content

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Arnold1960

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Although panasonic quotes battery life for maximum 400 pictures (steady use with special arrangement) to minimum 100 pictures, I must confess, that I am not
content with battery life.

Using the cam for two/three days constantly I think, I only can take up to 70 + - 90 pictures.

The indicator is funny: it goes form "full" (very long) to "half full" (only short time) and "minimum" - - a little llonger.

the red flashing battery icon allows to take about 10 - 15 pictures - but if its cool at the evening, battery will go down earlier.

In the last 14 days I have loaded it for about 3 - 4 times. (500 pictures)

Will have to buy extra battery - or is it possible, that the battery must "learn living"??

thanks for responses!

--
greetings from Austria
Arnold
 
I have heard that the battery life does indeed improve in time. I suggest you buy a spare battery regardless. I did so and have never regretted it. It’s comforting to know you have a charged battery in your camera case if the need arises.

Pat
 
The batteries do get better after multiple charges. Not sure how many they need before they reach their "peak", but many others seems to get many more images than you quote. May I ask if you use the LCD or the EVF? That will make a difference to battery charge.

Mark
 
I've always felt that battery life might be more accurately measured by "time of operation" rather than "number of shots." If you use a 2-minute power shutoff cycle (I do that) and even resort to "Economy" mode on those cameras that allow it, you can minimize "time of operation." But under extreme conditions, I've gotten as many as 900 shots on a single charge from my FZ30's battery, and 700 shots from my TZ1's battery. These figures were attained while shooting mostly in "Burst" mode, when I was out shooting birds in flight. On the other hand, when I'm just out wandering around shooting scenery, I'll get far fewer shots per charge, just walking around with the camera on ready for whatever scene strikes my fancy.
What's YOUR shooting style?
--
Just cruisin' ...



EffZeeThirty (Got the Gull), Trizzy, Foxy50
 
As a rule I get more han you on my FZ50 but I don't get much more than 200. But I don't really care, I carry three batteries and it is easy to swap them and they are dirt cheap on e-bay. I take them home and they are fully charged in less than two hours. Much better than my old camera and it's AAs a set of which cost more than my panny clones, were very fiddly to change over and took forever to charge.
--



eFZed50, Oly TeeCON17, RaynoxDCR150 DCR250
My Galleries are at
http://picasaweb.google.com/trevorfcarpenter
 
First of all, I had the same thougt than you concerning the battery life.
BUT - the short version of manual indicates:
Recording:
1,5 Watt with LCD Modus
1,5 Watt with EVF

Playing:
0,7 Watt with LCD Modus
0,7 Watt with EVF

you see ... exaktly the same!

I will buy a spare battery - found it for about 30 Euro, with 810 mAh instead of Standard 710 mAh - provided by a german company (with 5 years of guarantee)

--
greetings from Austria
Arnold
 
My shooting style:

Energy Saving after 2 min,
cont. autofocus,

I mostly take pictures in setting "P" (Program", because I like to control the aperture and shutter) to get more sharp focus background (what we in german call "Tiefenschärfe" - and to also control the time.
jitter control Nr. 1

AND (maybe thats important) I like to play with zoom, testing the various viewing angles!

and now? - anything important to change? :-)
(I know - "dont play around, just point and shot ...)
--
greetings from Austria
Arnold
 
I suppose it's because I'm old enough to remember when batteries were very poor indeed, in the days before alkaline batteries. I just think that battery technology is advancing at such a rate as to be amazing. It sounds to me that you are suffering from camera on time rather than picture taking. My FZ50 gives me hundreds and hundreds of photos on one charge, yet only a couple of hours switched on (no photos). Generally I get a days shooting out of one battery, with a second battery required on intense use occasions, specifically where each shot includes a reasonable amount of set up and menu work. Ordinarily I expect 300 photos from a charge, and often get more. Last weekend I captured 877 photos at a wedding (2.1GB), with the bulk of these captured on the first battery.

I have no complaints.
 
Good advice - I will stop this feature,

because I've already changed to the high speed area focussing, which will also help
to catch aeroplanes !

--
greetings from Austria
Arnold
 
Okay, now some kind of a report:

I took 150 pictures from Saturday til now - today also about 10 with "jpeg+raw".

Today at the last photos, battery segments went from 3 to 2. (but after "off/on" - because I was driving home - there were 2 segements again)

I also changed the jitter control to "2" - plus (as recommended) "no contin. Autofocus".

Seems to work :-)
--
Greetings from Austria!
Arnold :-)
 
Thank you for the link of the battery university.

I've already known this, because I´m also member in another forum with "toys" and LiIon batterys --> garmin navigating :-)

This morning segments went down to one after starting - but afterwards I shot about 40 pictures - most of them using "jpg+raw" -
(I´ve already mentioned, that the 2 segments dont last very long...)
that makes a summary of 190 pix til now - and includes at least 50 - 60 raw
(I suppose, saving their 16 MB needs more batt-power)

I am curious how much pictures it reallywill take before the red flashing batt-symbol is on.

--
Greetings from Austria!
Arnold :-)
 
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