D1X battery life

When will this be available? Or will it at all?

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Wow, this is some unexpected good news...

Although I tend to get more pictures per battery than most (because I rarely use the LCD on a shoot) 900 is way beyond what I expect from my batteries
I hope you can give us some details soon !

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

This is cool. I hope it will pass QA and released to public. I have firmware v5.00 and haven't send it back for v5.01, because I'm busy with the camera. I think I'm going to keep the v5.00 for a little longer and see what happen.

thanks for sharing.

--ricardo

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Frank said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This is NOT a firmware upgrade and your firmware version will not
change. Also, this is NOT an official release from Nikon and I
probably was selected as a test pilot because my Nikon repair shop
knows me (and my gear) quite well.

My Nikon technician designated this a "downgrade of the MMPU" which
translates into something radical is done with the CPU on the main
print board. In fact, the damn thing was so new that he had to
consult a Nikon, Japan, representative by phone while he worked on
my first camera. If anything went wrong, my camera would be ruined.
However, these nice Nikon guys here in Norway would just have
handed over a new camera, no questions asked. I like to have
relationships with such nice people.

Click to expand...

So if they downgraded the MMPU, there must be some negative repurcussions. Longer write times? What?

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Frank said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This is NOT a firmware upgrade and your firmware version will not
change. Also, this is NOT an official release from Nikon and I
probably was selected as a test pilot because my Nikon repair shop
knows me (and my gear) quite well.

My Nikon technician designated this a "downgrade of the MMPU" which
translates into something radical is done with the CPU on the main
print board. In fact, the damn thing was so new that he had to
consult a Nikon, Japan, representative by phone while he worked on
my first camera. If anything went wrong, my camera would be ruined.
However, these nice Nikon guys here in Norway would just have
handed over a new camera, no questions asked. I like to have
relationships with such nice people.

Click to expand...

This is the characteristic of Ni-MH battery (used in D1x). Lithium Ion battery (used in D-100) has great power and good battery performance even in cold weather, while Ni-MH is poor is cool weather and Alkaine is hopeless, Carbon-Zine? Forget it, you can't use in cool weather at all.

Regards,

Derrick Siu

Marco Birri said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Excellent info Bjorn!!! What's the difference between the 5.01 firmware upgrade and the 1.10 upgrade? I have the 1.10 firmware upgrade but no buffer upgrade. I'm on my way to a soccer shoot where I'll be shooting about 500 jpgs. I have 4 batts. Will see what happens. I get the same treatment from Nikon here in Israel as you have experienced in Norway. I phoned them on the little rubber cover that fell off the power DC in and they sent me one free! Nice people. It seems there's a silent upgrade/downgrade here.

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Phil! Can you check this info with Nikon. If it's true than it's something all D1X users have been waiting for. Thanks!

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Frank said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This is NOT a firmware upgrade and your firmware version will not
change. Also, this is NOT an official release from Nikon and I
probably was selected as a test pilot because my Nikon repair shop
knows me (and my gear) quite well.

My Nikon technician designated this a "downgrade of the MMPU" which
translates into something radical is done with the CPU on the main
print board. In fact, the damn thing was so new that he had to
consult a Nikon, Japan, representative by phone while he worked on
my first camera. If anything went wrong, my camera would be ruined.
However, these nice Nikon guys here in Norway would just have
handed over a new camera, no questions asked. I like to have
relationships with such nice people.

Click to expand...

So, why Nikon don't simply design a new Li-ION battery for the D1x? They would sell tons of them ...

Derrick Siu said:

Regards,

Derrick Siu

Marco Birri said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
http://www3.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=69895

Leon Obers said:

Leon Obers said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Wow, that is great news.
Please keep in touch or do write to your website about the details
if more information is available. Thanks.

Click to expand...

Maybe there is placed a diode to push the voltage 0.6 Volt more high??
(thought about myself to place it within an old battery).

--
Leon Obers

Click to expand...

Leon:

Nothing physical was done either with any of my two cameras (D1X, D1H) or my battery packs. The up(down)grade concerned only the main CPU of the camera. They probably changed the battery evaluation algorithm completely. The whole thing was new to the technician and he had to consult a Nikon, Japan engineeer by phone while he did the up(down)grade on my first camera. They denoted this a "downgrade of the MMPU" whilst I'd rather call it a miracle cure.

The up(down)grade has put the performance of my EN-4 packs into a completely new dimension. Never ever have I had more than 160 exposures under optimal conditions with D1H and for D1X, 50+ was quite typical before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, 20-30 after. I shoot exclusively NEF uncompressed and use the LCD a lot for histogram evaluation of each shot.

With several witnesses present I yesterday managed to get 1.200 NEFS (300 on D1H, 900 on D1X) from two worn-out battery packs and in the case of the pack for D1H, a non-modified camera even refused to work with it, but the very same pack gave 300 NEFs afterwards. These figures made even the talkative Nikon rep guys nearly speechless and provided real food for thought about the conservative attitude to assessing battery performace inherent in the 5.01 (D1X) or 1.10 (D1H) firmware versions.

The only side effect I've noticed is that writing time to the CF card increased during the torture tests. However, even near the 900th shoot my D1X filled its 12 NEF buffer (reduced because of the zoom preview had been enabled) at max speed, but the writing time to flush out the buffer became longer and longer. My estimate is that write time for a 8MB NEF increased from approx 3.5 to 7 secs. during the test. At the very end, just before the battery died, NEF writing time would be 10-12 secs.

I believe Nikon will do more field tests of this up(down)grade to ascertain possible side effects, before making the modification public. Your firmware version will not change, as this has nothing to do with firmware.

Finally, although people always claim Nikon don't listen to their customers, this is exactly what had happened here. The modification, I was told on good authority, resulted directly from all the complaints of poor battery performance. I think if the conversion is approved officially by Nikon, it will be a "silent" up(down)grade done to cameras receiving future firmware or buffer upgrades. How they're going to handle cameras running current firmware I haven't the slighest idea.

Bjorn, thanks very much for this information. It seems that our Nikon camera's do have far more extended work life with buffer upgrades, and better performance of the batteries. Specially with the worse results of the new Kodak camera it seems our Nikon bodies are not outdated for a more long period. I am pleased to have such a fine camera as my D1X.
I am waiting for official Nikon information for the battery up/down grade.

--
Leon Obers

This is huge news if true (assuming it is).

Can anyone confirm?

Danny Brenner said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Frank said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This is NOT a firmware upgrade and your firmware version will not
change. Also, this is NOT an official release from Nikon and I
probably was selected as a test pilot because my Nikon repair shop
knows me (and my gear) quite well.

My Nikon technician designated this a "downgrade of the MMPU" which
translates into something radical is done with the CPU on the main
print board. In fact, the damn thing was so new that he had to
consult a Nikon, Japan, representative by phone while he worked on
my first camera. If anything went wrong, my camera would be ruined.
However, these nice Nikon guys here in Norway would just have
handed over a new camera, no questions asked. I like to have
relationships with such nice people.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

First of all, Nikon is not a battery company, secondary, newer model of DSLR are coming, if they don't design, they can give yourself a good excuse to buy a new DSLR D2 or D200 using Li-ION istead, isn't it more profitable then selling battery? ..........I believe it might be good idea to send a email to any third party battery company to suggest them to make one instaed

Derrick

KadBandit said:

Derrick Siu said:

Regards,

Derrick Siu

Marco Birri said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
http://www3.photosig.com/viewuser.php?id=69895

Click to expand...

Meanwhile I am not waiting. I bought the Quantum 2x2 Turbo battery and though it's more cumbersome then an internal batteries, it's truly terrific!

Danny Brenner said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Frank said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This is NOT a firmware upgrade and your firmware version will not
change. Also, this is NOT an official release from Nikon and I
probably was selected as a test pilot because my Nikon repair shop
knows me (and my gear) quite well.

My Nikon technician designated this a "downgrade of the MMPU" which
translates into something radical is done with the CPU on the main
print board. In fact, the damn thing was so new that he had to
consult a Nikon, Japan, representative by phone while he worked on
my first camera. If anything went wrong, my camera would be ruined.
However, these nice Nikon guys here in Norway would just have
handed over a new camera, no questions asked. I like to have
relationships with such nice people.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Erika Lemberger

Erika,

What is your opinion/review of the Quantum 2x2 battery so far, as it compares to the previous Turbo battery? Is the 2x2 model noticeably lighter/smaller? More power and faster recycling time? Have you tried plugging in 2 devices in the battery's 2 outlets yet? (eg: flash power cord & camera body cord).

Thanks,
Casey

Erika said:

Danny Brenner said:

Phil! Can you check this info with Nikon. If it's true than it's
something all D1X users have been waiting for. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

.....he admitted that the limitation on the battery was intentional. In fact, with old firmwares on both H and X there were a few complaints of black frames (image not recorded) caused by the not enough power delivered by the battery when it was close to full depletion.

So, apparently, Nikon addressed that problem by limitating the number of frames available per charge.

Whether that's true or not I don't know as I never experienced that problem with black frames. And, it seems odd that they would half the number of frames per charge just because of that.

Anyway, the guy offered to disabling the new feature on my H. But, he said that the only way to do that was to downgrade the firmware to the original old version v. 1.0.

FYI, I used to get 300+ shots per charge before the upgrade whereas now I get around 150.
I have yet to decide if I want to bother and have the downgrade.
So, any new future findings of yours would help me decide.

--
Nicola (mr)
(Amateur Photographer)
http://www.pbase.com/nicola/galleries

It recylcles almost immediatly at ful power and is a bit lighter and a bit smaller and I like the new auto turn off when not in use and one battery lasts me a whole wedding whereas I used to need two.

Casey Cheung said:

What is your opinion/review of the Quantum 2x2 battery so far, as
it compares to the previous Turbo battery? Is the 2x2 model
noticeably lighter/smaller? More power and faster recycling time?
Have you tried plugging in 2 devices in the battery's 2 outlets
yet? (eg: flash power cord & camera body cord).

Thanks,
Casey

Erika said:

Danny Brenner said:

Phil! Can you check this info with Nikon. If it's true than it's
something all D1X users have been waiting for. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Erika Lemberger

Oh I did forget to mention that tonight at a wedding I shot I did plug in the SB 80 DX and the camera into that one 2x2 and it worked like a charm. True you almost feel like cables are coming out of your ears but it really does work well for both the flash and camera and I may be mistaken but I think in slightly enhances the camera's speed. It feels like it at least!

Erika said:

Casey Cheung said:

What is your opinion/review of the Quantum 2x2 battery so far, as
it compares to the previous Turbo battery? Is the 2x2 model
noticeably lighter/smaller? More power and faster recycling time?
Have you tried plugging in 2 devices in the battery's 2 outlets
yet? (eg: flash power cord & camera body cord).

Thanks,
Casey

Erika said:

Danny Brenner said:

Phil! Can you check this info with Nikon. If it's true than it's
something all D1X users have been waiting for. Thanks!

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
Erika Lemberger

Click to expand...

--
Erika Lemberger

............... says that downgrading the firmware is not possible without a physical part change.

The problem I ran into with this technique was a syndrome known as "topping off" a still usefully charged battery. “Topping off” is charging a battery and leaving it for a few days and topping up the charge state prior to use. This kills the EN-4 stone dead in short order.

When I was following my own battery problem this subject came up and I was deemed responsible and Nikon was, initially washing their hands of it. Well it was their camera that was not flattening the batteries and I had no choice but to recharge them, we are advised not to condition recharge every time so ………

I got two new batteries free and a tweak to extend the battery life ~ just like what is described but this was January 2001.

Any further info on this????

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Frank said:

Bjorn Rorslett said:

Georg Herbet said:

How many shots per battery charge are you D1x users getting?

Click to expand...

Before the 5.01/buffer upgrade, between 40 and 120 per charge.

After this upgrade, between 20 and 40 per charge. I experienced
intermittent "black" frames.

I complained quite loud to my Nikon technician and yesterday he did
a not-yet released upgrade (by him called a downgrade) on my D1H
and D1X. Afterwards, I get more than 900 NEFs per charge. This on
batteries which were nearly two years old and I was about to throw
away.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This is NOT a firmware upgrade and your firmware version will not
change. Also, this is NOT an official release from Nikon and I
probably was selected as a test pilot because my Nikon repair shop
knows me (and my gear) quite well.

My Nikon technician designated this a "downgrade of the MMPU" which
translates into something radical is done with the CPU on the main
print board. In fact, the damn thing was so new that he had to
consult a Nikon, Japan, representative by phone while he worked on
my first camera. If anything went wrong, my camera would be ruined.
However, these nice Nikon guys here in Norway would just have
handed over a new camera, no questions asked. I like to have
relationships with such nice people.

Click to expand...

I just got back from a photoshoot in Iceland.
http://www.millhouse.nl/icelandfebruary2005.html

With the (quite old) Nikon batteries, I got about 50 shots in sub zero conditions.

A new (third party) battery bought at http://www.deverkoper.nl lasted for ca. 150 shots in the same conditions.

In warmer conditions (> 15°C) I get around 200 shots from the original Nikon batteries and over 400 shots from the new third party battery.

It is very important to treat NiMH batteries well: do not top them off, but recharge when fully empty and don't store your batteries in your camera.

--
Regards,

Fred Kamphues