Digital Camera Battery Life

chimaera · 13 Mar 2006 at 23:55

I bought a digital camera recently (my first) which runs off 2 AA batteries. Now in the very short time i've had it i've gone through 2 sets of batteries, from about 15 pictures.

This just seems bizarre to me, i've read about them using up shed loads of power, but i've only had the LCD on for a good 10 minutes in total, and thats stated as the main power drain.

I did have it plugged into my PC for a while (45 mins) but not actually turned on, i can only assume thats what has killed the second set because i only put them in fresh last night and took 5 photo's this evening. When i unplugged it the batteries were red hot, but how could it have been taking power when the camera wasn't turned on or actually doing anything :confused:

Is it worth exchanging it for a model with built in rechargable battery like a mobile phone. My phone has a 2mp camera and flash and the battery when taking pictures lasts for ages.

I'm very confused

delta555 · 14 Mar 2006 at 00:06

Could be a defective camera.

What make / model is it?

chimaera · 14 Mar 2006 at 00:21

delta555 said:
Could be a defective camera.

What make / model is it?

Its the BenQ C520, bought off OcUK, only a cheapo one but i was expecting not so great picture quality from that, i wouldn't have thought different makes could eat batteries faster than others :confused:

I thought that the fact it uses AA's might be a bonus and give longer life.

Edit* i've put back in the first set that died on me a few days ago, and its showing up as 2/3 bars for battery power :confused:

maybe its just a deffective indicator, always seems to happen after i've unplugged it from the usb, maybe thats affecting it somehow.

Ringo · 14 Mar 2006 at 05:04

Make sure you use top of the range batteries like Duracell Plus and not cheapo batteries than cost a quid or so.

Tomsk · 14 Mar 2006 at 06:48

Get some rechargable NiMH batteries and a charger. Even a cheap (1300mAH) set of 4 will cost £10 or less. Getting more mAH is better, but if you've only got a cheap camera....

NiMH batteries will last longer than the alkalines because they hold a useful voltage (~1.2V) almost to the point when they're fully discharged.

Alkalines start off at a higher voltage (~1.6V) but this gradually reduces over their lifetime. When the voltage is too low, the camera ceases to function even though the alkaline battery may still have some charge left. Also digital camera always charge the flash which require a high current drain. With alkaline batteries, even when new, during high current requirements, the voltage will drop, again causing the camera to think the battery has expired.

chimaera · 14 Mar 2006 at 07:11

Tomsk said:
Get some rechargable NiMH batteries and a charger. Even a cheap (1300mAH) set of 4 will cost £10 or less. Getting more mAH is better, but if you've only got a cheap camera....

...My thoughts exactly, only a cheap camera, but then again its better than going through packets of Duracells which arn't cheap, especially the M3 ones which i was using, was a good £5 worth of batteries.

Alkalines start off at a higher voltage (~1.6V) but this gradually reduces over their lifetime. When the voltage is too low, the camera ceases to function even though the alkaline battery may still have some charge left. Also digital camera always charge the flash which require a high current drain. With alkaline batteries, even when new, during high current requirements, the voltage will drop, again causing the camera to think the battery has expired.

I think thats exactly my problem, the default settings on the cam were max quality max resolution, and being a cheapo one maybe it just cant handle it. I've dropped down a lot of the settings and turned off auto flash which seemed to think that auto = every photo.

See how it goes, got a trip coming up soon and i'd like some decent snaps.

Thanks guys.

DizMatt · 14 Mar 2006 at 10:04

I work in a shop that sells cameras and people keep saying this
you need rechargable 2000mAh batteries or better
20 quid will do it for 2500mAh ones and a charger
cheaper and each set when charged will last longer
normal AA's for digital cameras are emergency use only tbh

james.miller · 14 Mar 2006 at 10:08

dont bother with duracells :rolleyes:

My fuji camer will take about 30 pics with 4 duracell ultra's. That'll get expensive real quick. As everybody else said, get some rechargable batterys, it's so much cheaper in the long run.

jhmaeng · 14 Mar 2006 at 10:57

Some devices simply last longer with a set of Ni-MH rather than Alkaline (however flashy it is, Duracell Ultra M3 blah blah, etc). Most camera manuals recommend you to use Ni-MH batteries, and you will often find battery life quoted differently depending on whether Alkaline or Ni-MH is used. (Ni-MH quoted battery life is usually much higher).

chimaera · 14 Mar 2006 at 13:26

Think i'll definitely get some Ni-MH batteries then.

The thing thats really been puzzling me is that the Duracell M3 batteries have a little indicator strip on the side, which is reading nearly 100% power still in them, yet my camera shuts down with the battery indicator flashing.

Got to be down to power drain, maybe the batteries can't supply enough to the camera.

Oh well, more expense.

themask70 · 14 Mar 2006 at 18:34

yeh well, check if it is faulty and buy some rechargable batteries!!! at least 1400aph or whatever the unit of measurement is. have fun

Adex · 14 Mar 2006 at 19:20

Talking of batteries, are there likely to be any major differences between the likes of Uniross 2500maH or something like the much more expensive Ansmann version ?

These would be for use primarily in a dedicated flashgun btw

GlasgowTitan · 15 Mar 2006 at 11:54

I just took Dizmatt's advice and bought a set of 2500Mah batteries, so far they have taken way longer to reach the half pwer symbol on my camera than my last set of 1300mah batteries, so buying higher capacity batteries seems to do the trick for me.