Useful Tip/Warning - Marking Batteries

Hi,

I've just been rather painfully educated...... I hope this helps someone else.

I have several different camera systems and multiple batteries for each. I picked up a tip here some years ago about marking batteries with a small piece of colored tape to identify which ones go in which charger, etc. I've all my Canons marked with a piece of blue marking tape and my Fuji's are orange. My little black box chargers are marked similarly in their battery slots. Zero cost, easy, can be seen on black batteries, makes life simple, never have the wrong batteries, never have the wrong charger, etc.......

Until this morning. If the edge of a piece of tape loosens and lifts, it may be in a way that allows the battery to go into your camera, but then the adhesive back of the tape catches in the camera's battery slot, sticks to the sides and you can't get it out. The more you pull, the more tape peels back off the battery itself and bunches up onto the inside wall of the battery slot, gluing it there. It was extremely difficult to remove the battery because you can't get hold of it.

My advice : never mark batteries by putting a piece of any sort of adhesive backed tape on their sides....... I think I'll keep the system of marking them because it works so well, but it'll be a dab of paint, or tape on the bottom perhaps.

Cheers, Rod

Interesting that you should bring this up - it does sound like a huge headache.

When I bought my X-Pro1 a few years ago, the previous owner had one OEM battery and two third-party batteries. The third party batteries were just a little to thick, and wouldn't pop out of the battery compartment on their own, so he used some clear packing tape to make a rather ingenious "handle:"





Basically, you take a piece of the clear packing tape (which is both very thin and very strong) and adhere it to both the top and the front, but leave enough "slack" such that when you adhere the slack to itself, it makes a little handle for pulling the battery out.

It's never come un-done and stuck to the compartment, thank goodness. Possibly something like this could be done with colored tape, I don't know. Or maybe mark the tape itself.

Anyway, I'm not sure why I'm even posting this, as it really doesn't solve your problem. But it is a useful hack for overly-thick batteries, IMO. And even if things did get hung up within the compartment, at least there is a handle to pull it out.

--
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I always affix my labels to the side of the battery that is visible when you open the battery door compartment.

Good to know, thanks for sharing.

Paint markers.

Adrian Tung said:

I always affix my labels to the side of the battery that is visible when you open the battery door compartment.

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That sounds sensible and should solve the OP's problem.

nail polish or magic marker

all good ideas. Also the 3M Post-It 'Flags'. Thin, strong and colorful. Actually, I use them on the SD cards since they are a pain to remove when an L bracket is attached.

I have one camera system. I've found this very effective in not getting my batteries and cameras mixed up.

shotguns said:

I have one camera system. I've found this very effective in not getting my batteries and cameras mixed up.

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Cheapest solution of all.

I would love the opportunity to get different batteries and cameras mixed up.

One camera, one battery just isn't much fun. :-(

shotguns said:

I have one camera system. I've found this very effective in not getting my batteries and cameras mixed up.

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That was working for me also until a late night outbreak of GAS raised it to two systems.

I would love it if I could use one battery with my X-E1. Minimum is two on a typical outing for me. One time I was close to running out of charge on my third (and last) battery.

awa355 said:

I would love the opportunity to get different batteries and cameras mixed up.

One camera, one battery just isn't much fun. :-(

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Numerical labels for using batteries in rotational order. Keeps the number of charge cycles even.

Discharged batteries are stored with labels down.

Macro said:

Numerical labels for using batteries in rotational order. Keeps the number of charge cycles even.

Discharged batteries are stored with labels down.

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That means they'll all let you down at the same time! :-O

Just kidding of course.

--
The sky is full of holes that let the rain get in, the holes are very small - that's why the rain is thin.
Spike Milligan

Macro said:

Numerical labels for using batteries in rotational order. Keeps the number of charge cycles even.

Discharged batteries are stored with labels down.

Click to expand...

Same setup here, works great.