*ist DS NiMH battery performance and camera terminal

[RyanSteele]

Just a mention, NiMH batteries suffer very little from memory effect, so discharging/recharging your NiMH's is a bad idea, just top them up before use. NiCads are the ones with the significant memory effect.

 

[64mini]

Hello all,

been lurking on this forum for a while, finally decided to dive in )

I bought a Ds just before christmas and have had similar issues with battery life, I just had a closer look at them (J-Car supplied 2300mAh) and noticed that they are 1.2 volt, might explain the continuous shooting issue in particular....

what voltage is the batts others are having issues with?

cheers

Kevin

 

[VRoberts]

If the NiMH rechargeables are new, it can often take a few cycles
of charge/discharge for them to work properly. I've noticed this
with my new batteries, then few charge cycles later, its all fine.

Could still be faulty battery/charger/whatever, I doubt its the
camera itself.

I agree that full performance is not reached until after a few cherge/discharge cycles. But I am using a brand new NiMH and have mush better battery life than the OP. Something is wrong.

 

[VRoberts]

I use the same charger - and also another one that is similar. Have you allowed the batteries to charge until the LED turns green? I know this may sound silly, but if the charge says X hours, some people may remove the batteries after X hours and not check the LED.

How old are the batteries - in charge cycles? NiMH have a life of 500 to 1000 charge cycles.

How did you charge the batteries? Did you use a charger designed
for NiMH batteries and one designed for the high battery capacity
you are using?

Vic Roberts

 

[VRoberts]

I don't doubt that manual focus might produce better battery life, but I have been using auto focus for most of my tests so far. Your short life cannot be due to only auto focus.

I read someone also experienced better performance when not using
auto focus which is quite logical.

I don't have another digital camera that uses four batteries. My Xt
uses proprietary Li-ion. I use the also highly rated MH-C204F
charger too.

So, far, I have been impressed. But as I use manual focus lenses
all the time, my results might by atypical.

Maybe, maybe your AAs are old or -often the case- your charger is
not good. What happens if you put the AAs your DS does not like
into some other digital camera?

 

[VRoberts]

There should be no memory effect with NiMH battrries. There is no ned to discharge them fully each time. The "reconditioning" cycles are useful after perhaps a couple of hundred cycles.

It could be the "Memory effect". Memory Effect is a temporal
voltage depletion caused by charging and discharging a battery
without the battery being fully Discharged. Sony has came up with a
new charger which refreshes the memory effect by fully discharging
the battery before charging it.
http://www.boredguru.com/shop/page_us_B0001MQUQA_0_0.html

I bought my DS a month back and still using CR-V3 came with the
kit. Took a couple of hundred shots mostly with out flash and so
far no issues. And Bought the above charger and 8 Sony NIMH 2100mA
batteries which I am using with my canon A70. No issues with
batteries there as well.

I have my DS for almost a month now but have not have a chance to
take it out for long photo shoot. However, so far the NiMH battery
performance has been disappointing. Yet, I see a lot of people are
happily clicking away great pictures.

I could put in a set of newly charged battery in and the battery
would go dead after twenty or thirty test pictures. The battery
would also die after leaving in the camera for two days. I use the
2100mA Engerizer NiMH which according the test at another web site
should be the top brand.

Looking at the battery terminals in the camera. The negative
terminals on the battery compartment door have a hole in the middle
of the terminal. Could it be the terminal not having good contact
with the batteries?

Alternatively, may be other brands of NiMH are better?

Would appreciate any tips that you might have. I hesitate to take
the camera out shooting pictures for fear of the battery will die.

 

[VRoberts]

Hello all,

been lurking on this forum for a while, finally decided to dive in
)

I bought a Ds just before christmas and have had similar issues
with battery life, I just had a closer look at them (J-Car
supplied 2300mAh) and noticed that they are 1.2 volt, might explain
the continuous shooting issue in particular....

what voltage is the batts others are having issues with?

All NiMH are all 1.2 volts. That is not a problem.

Alkaline batteries start at 1.5 or higher, but gradually drop to 0.8 volts before they are considered "dead". NiCad and NiMH batteries have a relatively flat discharge curve that remains at 1.2 volts for most of the charge cycle.

 

[HF Cheung]

Yes, I waited until the lights turned green and, for a few times, even after over night. It took two hours or so which is the about right. I don't believe I have recharged these more than 100 times.

I use the same charger - and also another one that is similar. Have
you allowed the batteries to charge until the LED turns green? I
know this may sound silly, but if the charge says X hours, some
people may remove the batteries after X hours and not check the LED.

How old are the batteries - in charge cycles? NiMH have a life of
500 to 1000 charge cycles.

 

[VRoberts]

I would first get another set of batteries to make sure the first set is not damaged. If that produces poor life, then I suspect the camera is bad.

BTW - I assume you are turning off the camera when you are not using it.

I use the same charger - and also another one that is similar. Have
you allowed the batteries to charge until the LED turns green? I
know this may sound silly, but if the charge says X hours, some
people may remove the batteries after X hours and not check the LED.

How old are the batteries - in charge cycles? NiMH have a life of
500 to 1000 charge cycles.

 

[tekadealfred]

The battery-performance depends VERY much on the quality of the batteries, try to use a charger with a "conditionig-mode" and after reconditioning chack the voltage of each cell.

I use a set aof 2year-old NiMH's Uniross 2000 mAh.

After 320 pictures. one third with flash, the battery-indicator shows "half" - I think that's ok!

The cam was measured according to CIPA with Sanyo 2500 mAh (Pentax-Germany)

BTW - I assume you are turning off the camera when you are not
using it.

I use the same charger - and also another one that is similar. Have
you allowed the batteries to charge until the LED turns green? I
know this may sound silly, but if the charge says X hours, some
people may remove the batteries after X hours and not check the LED.

How old are the batteries - in charge cycles? NiMH have a life of
500 to 1000 charge cycles.

 

[dr150]

I have 1450 mAh Kodak batts that markedly beat 2000 mAh Lenmar Pros! Go figure.

So the brand definitely matters--at least in my experience!

That said, I bought 4 2500MAH Energizer batts at Target for $10 (the BEST price to be found on these--it's a national price!) for my DS camera.

Bottom line is the Energizer give great results! I was able to take 500+ pictures with EXTENSIVE LCD use, some flash and downloading the pics to the computer over the course of 2 weeks! I didn't need my recharger as the batts held up throughout the whole trip. :=D

Stick with Energizer or Kodak as they seem to consistently have the best performance stats and deserved reputation. Plus at Target's $10 price, the Energizers are a no-brainer.

I have my DS for almost a month now but have not have a chance to
take it out for long photo shoot. However, so far the NiMH battery
performance has been disappointing. Yet, I see a lot of people are
happily clicking away great pictures.

I could put in a set of newly charged battery in and the battery
would go dead after twenty or thirty test pictures. The battery
would also die after leaving in the camera for two days. I use the
2100mA Engerizer NiMH which according the test at another web site
should be the top brand.

Looking at the battery terminals in the camera. The negative
terminals on the battery compartment door have a hole in the middle
of the terminal. Could it be the terminal not having good contact
with the batteries?

Alternatively, may be other brands of NiMH are better?

Would appreciate any tips that you might have. I hesitate to take
the camera out shooting pictures for fear of the battery will die.

 

[dr150]

If you have a Frys store near you, they're having a sale on 10 AA's 2400mAh for $10. That's a great price!

Worth trying out. If you don't like them, you have 30 days to return them, no questions asked.

Sale lasts until Tuesday.

I have my DS for almost a month now but have not have a chance to
take it out for long photo shoot. However, so far the NiMH battery
performance has been disappointing. Yet, I see a lot of people are
happily clicking away great pictures.

I could put in a set of newly charged battery in and the battery
would go dead after twenty or thirty test pictures. The battery
would also die after leaving in the camera for two days. I use the
2100mA Engerizer NiMH which according the test at another web site
should be the top brand.

Looking at the battery terminals in the camera. The negative
terminals on the battery compartment door have a hole in the middle
of the terminal. Could it be the terminal not having good contact
with the batteries?

Alternatively, may be other brands of NiMH are better?

Would appreciate any tips that you might have. I hesitate to take
the camera out shooting pictures for fear of the battery will die.

 

[VRoberts]

Which brand battery?

I use the same charger - and also another one that is similar. Have
you allowed the batteries to charge until the LED turns green? I
know this may sound silly, but if the charge says X hours, some
people may remove the batteries after X hours and not check the LED.

How old are the batteries - in charge cycles? NiMH have a life of
500 to 1000 charge cycles.

 

[TowHas]

I use 2300 NiMH energizer. I went to florida for week, took 300 pics and came back with still full charge.

I have my DS for almost a month now but have not have a chance to
take it out for long photo shoot. However, so far the NiMH battery
performance has been disappointing. Yet, I see a lot of people are
happily clicking away great pictures.

I could put in a set of newly charged battery in and the battery
would go dead after twenty or thirty test pictures. The battery
would also die after leaving in the camera for two days. I use the
2100mA Engerizer NiMH which according the test at another web site
should be the top brand.

Looking at the battery terminals in the camera. The negative
terminals on the battery compartment door have a hole in the middle
of the terminal. Could it be the terminal not having good contact
with the batteries?

Alternatively, may be other brands of NiMH are better?

Would appreciate any tips that you might have. I hesitate to take
the camera out shooting pictures for fear of the battery will die.

--
towhid

 

[daimesu]

I'm using Energizer Accu Rechargeable 1200mAh NiMH batteries with the included charger. Can't solve the problem. Seems like Energizer is at fault, since the included CRV-3s lasted for three weeks or so.

I have my DS for almost a month now but have not have a chance to
take it out for long photo shoot. However, so far the NiMH battery
performance has been disappointing. Yet, I see a lot of people are
happily clicking away great pictures.

I could put in a set of newly charged battery in and the battery
would go dead after twenty or thirty test pictures. The battery
would also die after leaving in the camera for two days. I use the
2100mA Engerizer NiMH which according the test at another web site
should be the top brand.

Looking at the battery terminals in the camera. The negative
terminals on the battery compartment door have a hole in the middle
of the terminal. Could it be the terminal not having good contact
with the batteries?

Alternatively, may be other brands of NiMH are better?

Would appreciate any tips that you might have. I hesitate to take
the camera out shooting pictures for fear of the battery will die.

--
http://amagawa.deviantart.com/

c . .
(o o)

 

[HF Cheung]

Wouldn't the camera go into sleep mode even if I didn't turn it off? Anyways, I remember distinctly that I had the camera off for most of the time.

BTW - I assume you are turning off the camera when you are not
using it.

 

[HF Cheung]

Engerizer 2100mAH

Which brand battery?

 

[Douglas Film]

use the batteries , there ares ome things you should not save. Batteries are one.

 

[JensR]

Hi Douglas!

use the batteries , there ares ome things you should not save.
Batteries are one.

I disagree.

IMO, our landfills are more than full enough, even if someone has enough money to use batteries. We should use reusable products wherever possible. And it is possible with the *ist, as many users report. Hopefully the reason for the "AA problem" will be found soon.

My next purchase might be a charger with single cell supervision, as each pack is only as good as the worst cell. But at the moment, I am very satisfied with the livespan of my AA NiMHs.

CU
Jens

 

[VRoberts]

I assume it does, but since my good battery life experience was obtained when I did turn off the camera I dind't want that to be the cause of our different experience.

BTW - I assume you are turning off the camera when you are not
using it.