3X more :bigeyes:
comparing 30 vs (130-210) shots <as in manual for Alkaline batteries>
I'll cut down the LV usage & monitor.
Questions on battery life of K-X
- Thread starter kengoh
- Start date
3X more :bigeyes:
comparing 30 vs (130-210) shots <as in manual for Alkaline batteries>
I'll cut down the LV usage & monitor.
I don think the LV affects tha much, my pentax faces the same problem.
The batteries that came with the box lasted impressively. And as new users, as expected, I switch between LV and roam the camera's setting almost for 3 hours while reading the maunal.
And it lasted me many shots, i would say more than 200. Yesterday was the first time i changed battery, energizer battery, the silver ones, lasted less than 25 shots and the battery indicator shows half gone.
Changed to my GP 2700 battery, lasted the same shots. My software is the lastest, updated two days ago.... so i am interested to know what is the real problem too.
The camera acutally shut off due to insufficient battery juice during one of my HDD2 test shot.....
The batteries that came with the box lasted impressively. And as new users, as expected, I switch between LV and roam the camera's setting almost for 3 hours while reading the maunal.
And it lasted me many shots, i would say more than 200. Yesterday was the first time i changed battery, energizer battery, the silver ones, lasted less than 25 shots and the battery indicator shows half gone.
Changed to my GP 2700 battery, lasted the same shots. My software is the lastest, updated two days ago.... so i am interested to know what is the real problem too.
The camera acutally shut off due to insufficient battery juice during one of my HDD2 test shot.....
15 min charger is definitely the trouble maker
try to use a dumb slow charger (those intended to charge more than 10 hours with 0.1C current).
normally I can get 600 shots out of eneloop in my k200d.
I only use 1-hour charger at emergency (whose charge current is 1C).
The suggested max charging current for NimH is 1C actually, which means 1-hour charger is the extreme you can trust.
Beyond that it will hurt the battery a lot, and you can feel the damn hot when charging.
try to use a dumb slow charger (those intended to charge more than 10 hours with 0.1C current).
normally I can get 600 shots out of eneloop in my k200d.
I only use 1-hour charger at emergency (whose charge current is 1C).
The suggested max charging current for NimH is 1C actually, which means 1-hour charger is the extreme you can trust.
Beyond that it will hurt the battery a lot, and you can feel the damn hot when charging.
I'm suprised I'm not the only one with this issue, ohok1973 is having the same problem too.
Think I need to get a 2hrs charger.
But then the alkaline batteries is not charger related :dunno:
Think I need to get a 2hrs charger.
But then the alkaline batteries is not charger related :dunno:
i would suggest u buy a normal charger (those 8hrs charge time etc) instead of the quicky charger instead. it was perviously discuss in simliar topic that quick charger actually dont charger your battery fully but it will indicate it is fully charge. use those quick charger if you go oversea travel instead.
FYI, my eneloop and imedions last ave 500 shot (but the indicator drop very fast maybe a fresh battery will drop to half about 50-100 shots) but i always continue shooting untill about450 then i change a fresh set of battery.
Even the 2hrs charger is not good enough?
Thanks for the info on the battery indicator drop after 50-100 shots. So the new firmware didn't fix this...
But still I've no clue why my alkaline batteries runs out that fast?
Something sure doesn't sound right. No. of shots kengoh is obtaining is simply too low for comfort. 
Better to test again with a new charger and battery set. Borrow one from a friend if necessary. You should get at least 200+ shots from a fully charged Eneloop set with some flash and live view usage.
200+ is quite a conservative number. I remember getting hundreds of test shots from my first K-x body while I tested it with a set of fully charged NiMH.
Else get your camera checked.
Better to test again with a new charger and battery set. Borrow one from a friend if necessary. You should get at least 200+ shots from a fully charged Eneloop set with some flash and live view usage.
200+ is quite a conservative number. I remember getting hundreds of test shots from my first K-x body while I tested it with a set of fully charged NiMH.
Else get your camera checked.
Not the problem of 2hrs charger, but intelligent and quality issue.
You know, those bad quality "intelligent charger" actually means "stupid charger".
What normally happens is that there is a temperature control which will cut off the charging (and report fully charged) when the battery is over heated, (and indeed this is one of the feature indicating the battery is fully charged). But the problem is that if the charger is of bad quality, and the temperature control is not well calibrated, and the hot weather of singapore make it even worse. So it will cut off the charging long before the battery is fully charged.
Something sure doesn't sound right. No. of shots kengoh is obtaining is simply too low for comfort.
Better to test again with a new charger and battery set. Borrow one from a friend if necessary. You should get at least 200+ shots from a fully charged Eneloop set with some flash and live view usage.
200+ is quite a conservative number. I remember getting hundreds of test shots from my first K-x body while I tested it with a set of fully charged NiMH.
Else get your camera checked.
Thanks for the reply.
Will try a set of alkaline AAs this time.
Sounds not logical that my 15min charger only charge <50% full? Of course I'll still get a longer charging-time charger.
once read in the forum but cant really recall now, the 2 hrs charge give about 80% charge in the eneloops batts.....
excuse me, it's 15 minutes! how much life do you expected to be put back in a mere 15 minutes? no electronic gadget i have used to far could have ever been fully charged in 15 minutes.
here are a few tips that will give your k-x a long long life(it works for me):
1. just stick to NIMH rechargables.(the Eneloops they give work like a charm). and yes, charging them does not take only 15 mins -.-
2. for a backup, get Energizer Lithiums, the blue-and-silver damn expensive ones you can buy from reliable places like NTUC.
3. abide by the warming in rule where you give the k-x a few minutes of adapting time everytime you put in a new set of batteries.
i have observed that no matter which battery setting i choose(sometimes when i change battery type, i forget to switch the battery setting so i can be using NiMHs with the battery setting set to "Lithium"), the camera still will last.
hope this helps
p.s. i have read in dpreview and pentaxforums before that alkaline batteries just do not cut it with the k-x. it had something to do with alkalines being unable to sustain the high voltage or whatever blahblahblah. lithiums were the answer. so to avoid any fuss or hassle i just avoid alkalines altogether. be it true or not you might want to check it out.
here are a few tips that will give your k-x a long long life(it works for me):
1. just stick to NIMH rechargables.(the Eneloops they give work like a charm). and yes, charging them does not take only 15 mins -.-
2. for a backup, get Energizer Lithiums, the blue-and-silver damn expensive ones you can buy from reliable places like NTUC.
3. abide by the warming in rule where you give the k-x a few minutes of adapting time everytime you put in a new set of batteries.
i have observed that no matter which battery setting i choose(sometimes when i change battery type, i forget to switch the battery setting so i can be using NiMHs with the battery setting set to "Lithium"), the camera still will last.
hope this helps
p.s. i have read in dpreview and pentaxforums before that alkaline batteries just do not cut it with the k-x. it had something to do with alkalines being unable to sustain the high voltage or whatever blahblahblah. lithiums were the answer. so to avoid any fuss or hassle i just avoid alkalines altogether. be it true or not you might want to check it out.
excuse me, it's 15 minutes! how much life do you expected to be put back in a mere 15 minutes? no electronic gadget i have used to far could have ever been fully charged in 15 minutes.
here are a few tips that will give your k-x a long long life(it works for me):
1. just stick to NIMH rechargables.(the Eneloops they give work like a charm). and yes, charging them does not take only 15 mins -.-
2. for a backup, get Energizer Lithiums, the blue-and-silver damn expensive ones you can buy from reliable places like NTUC.
3. abide by the warming in rule where you give the k-x a few minutes of adapting time everytime you put in a new set of batteries.
i have observed that no matter which battery setting i choose(sometimes when i change battery type, i forget to switch the battery setting so i can be using NiMHs with the battery setting set to "Lithium"), the camera still will last.
hope this helps
p.s. i have read in dpreview and pentaxforums before that alkaline batteries just do not cut it with the k-x. it had something to do with alkalines being unable to sustain the high voltage or whatever blahblahblah. lithiums were the answer. so to avoid any fuss or hassle i just avoid alkalines altogether. be it true or not you might want to check it out.
Thanks for the helpful info.
For sure I'll get a 1 proper NiMH charger.
The alkalines' issue will be good if can be addressed. May need them when NiMH runs out as alkalines are very easily available & readily to be used without the need to charge. I 'll be happy if they can last 120 shots.
1900shots from specs is only for Lithium AAs, most likely is 1200-1900 shots depending on the LV & flash usage.
The eneloops reported by various users to be average 500 shots.
Thanks for the helpful info.
For sure I'll get a 1 proper NiMH charger.
The alkalines' issue will be good if can be addressed. May need them when NiMH runs out as alkalines are very easily available & readily to be used without the need to charge. I 'll be happy if they can last 120 shots.
the Energizer lithiums i am refering to are also not chargeable. They are just normal batteries, but more expensive. so you might want to consider replacing the alkalines in your equation with Lithiums. you can get them at any place you might be able to buy alkalines. 4 AA Lithiums can cost around 14 bucks i think.
I always have a set of 4 with me in case my Eneloops run out on me(the good thing about the k-x is that you never have to leave house wondering whether you forgot to charge your battery or whether your batteries will last the day). That has never happened though. The eneloops are amazing, can shoot on red life all the way until i reach home. =D
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Yeah, I saw NTUC selling like $15 for the energizer brand, not cheap but still consider cheap comparing to a few sets of alkalines.
A few Pentaxians have previously recommended the Maha MH-C401FS charger, the nice thing about it is that you can choose to fast charge or slow charge with it, depending on how much time you have on hand. Definitely good to have 4x AA lithiums as backup. If you need to use alkaline, I would try not to use the flash and live view.
Unless you are in a rush, avoid using such 15min chargers.
They achieve this by charging at higher current an cutting off earlier so battery is at 80-90% charge.
BTW, the common "quick charger" for sanyo is 1 hr for 2 batteries (or 2 hrs for 4 batteries), so yours is a special one?
Nonetheless, I managed to get 1000 shots with mine, so you need to verify if its the camera or batteries. Confirm your firmware is ver 1.01 and that you set the battery setting to "NiMH" (don't use auto)
Unless you are in a rush, avoid using such 15min chargers.
They achieve this by charging at higher current an cutting off earlier so battery is at 80-90% charge.
BTW, the common "quick charger" for sanyo is 1 hr for 2 batteries (or 2 hrs for 4 batteries), so yours is a special one?
Nonetheless, I managed to get 1000 shots with mine, so you need to verify if its the camera or batteries. Confirm your firmware is ver 1.01 and that you set the battery setting to "NiMH" (don't use auto)
Ops, typo error, yes, it's v1.01 (not 1.1, typed wrongly in the earlier post)
My setting is now at NiMH.
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