I'm getting inaccurate battery indicator on my K-x...freshly charged batteries after a few shots indicate half full or sometimes empty...power off take out the batteries then reinsert again does temp solve the problem or switch to live view mode then switch back to shooting mode does solve this problem too...I even got times can't power up my K-x for at least 5 times in the row!!!:dunno: Anyone have this problem too???:sweat:
K-x Battery Indicator!!!
- Thread starter Fo99Y
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According to the pentax forums, pentax has advised people with similar problems to insert the batteries, wait a minute before powering on. Also to ensure "battery" setting is set to "NiMH" if you are using Eneloops. Auto mode may not be able to detect properly.
Stick to Eneloops. And be sure to set the battery setting to "NiMH". Power off, take the batteries out. Put it back in. Wait a minute or 2 then power up. This should solve the problem.
BTW, someone I met today (he knows who!) suggested that you also need to check your batteries. After they are charged, use a multimeter to measure their voltage and see if one of them is below the others. This could mean a bad battery is pulling the voltage down.
BTW, someone I met today (he knows who!) suggested that you also need to check your batteries. After they are charged, use a multimeter to measure their voltage and see if one of them is below the others. This could mean a bad battery is pulling the voltage down.
The K-x seems to be a little strange in handling the batteries. After the batteries are inserted, I need to power up twice to on the camera. Perhaps my eneloops is half charge or empty. I popped in a fresh set of Alkaline batteries, The battery indicator didn't seems to be showing the battery life correctly after a few shots.
To me, its kind of weird. Hope Pentax will fix this in the new firmware soon.
cheerss..
To me, its kind of weird. Hope Pentax will fix this in the new firmware soon.
cheerss..
The manual strongly advises against using alkalines except for emergencies. They recommend only Lithium batteries or NiMH ones. I am not sure if Panasonic's EVolta would be good too. I suspect the high current drain of the camera exceeds what an alkaline can sustain which is why they recommend the other 2. be sure to set your battery config correctly too to Lithium or NiMH when using them.
As I said, I had the same problem which seemed to disappeared once I set the correct setting.
cheers
it might be a battery problem.
my old eneloops are starting to give that quite a bit on my k100d, the power run out very fast, i just do rejuvenation and they work fine for a while
my old eneloops are starting to give that quite a bit on my k100d, the power run out very fast, i just do rejuvenation and they work fine for a while
Agree that using NiMHs, must take care of them well. Minimum I feel is a smart charger that has individual charging circuits (and like airconvent said, a multimeter so you can check voltage and properly match your sets).
Ideally, I think a charger like this would be very useful if you're using NiMHs very regularly as you can revive your batteries:
http://www.eastgear.com/batteries-chargers/maha-powerex/chargers/maha-mh-c9000-wizardone-charger-bundle-4-pcs-of-aa-imedion.html
Ideally, I think a charger like this would be very useful if you're using NiMHs very regularly as you can revive your batteries:
http://www.eastgear.com/batteries-chargers/maha-powerex/chargers/maha-mh-c9000-wizardone-charger-bundle-4-pcs-of-aa-imedion.html
NiMh do not hold the voltage level stable enough after turned on for a while on a high drain device like a DSLR. When the voltage drops below a certain level, the camera will indicate low battery level or 'battery depleted'. This is a battery material characteristic. Usually, turning off the load (ie. turn off) and turining back on will resolve the issue. I did this by default for my K100D (ie. turn off when not in use). Here are a couple of things I'd recommend :
1. Use Eneloop/ GR Recyklo/ Immedion (pardon the spelling) for NiMH batteries. These hold the voltage level better than ordinary or higher capacity NiMh batteries.
2. Make sure the batteries are well charged (the above batteries help, since they don't degrade much in charge level).
3. Always carry spares (duh!)
4. Turn off between pictures or set of pictures. (get used to this, esp those coming from Lithium batt cameras)
5. If its mission critical, always carry a set of Lithium batteries as spare.
1. Use Eneloop/ GR Recyklo/ Immedion (pardon the spelling) for NiMH batteries. These hold the voltage level better than ordinary or higher capacity NiMh batteries.
2. Make sure the batteries are well charged (the above batteries help, since they don't degrade much in charge level).
3. Always carry spares (duh!)
4. Turn off between pictures or set of pictures. (get used to this, esp those coming from Lithium batt cameras)
5. If its mission critical, always carry a set of Lithium batteries as spare.
Stick to Eneloops. And be sure to set the battery setting to "NiMH". Power off, take the batteries out. Put it back in. Wait a minute or 2 then power up. This should solve the problem.
BTW, someone I met today (he knows who!) suggested that you also need to check your batteries. After they are charged, use a multimeter to measure their voltage and see if one of them is below the others. This could mean a bad battery is pulling the voltage down.
I agree, you have 4 X higher chance the voltage is lower than required.
I like AAs but I think it is time to move on to rechargeable Lithium batteries like other brands.
1. 1 Lithium => smaller, ligher kx.
2. 4 AAs => 4 X higher chance the voltage is not high enough
3. Faster battery change, er ok... not every one has butter fingers like me
4. Lithium is not expensive... get the OEMs, it may explode... but chance is not that high :sweat:
I agree, you have 4 X higher chance the voltage is lower than required.
I like AAs but I think it is time to move on to rechargeable Lithium batteries like other brands.
1. 1 Lithium => smaller, ligher kx.
2. 4 AAs => 4 X higher chance the voltage is not high enough
3. Faster battery change, er ok... not every one has butter fingers like me
4. Lithium is not expensive... get the OEMs, it may explode... but chance is not that high :sweat:
They have moved on to Lithium in their high end range. However, their studies show that the majority of their target entry level market prefer AA batteries so they have retained it to meet this demand.
BTW, there are no AA rechargeable lithium batteries available which is odd since we can do it in practically any other format. I suspect besides some technical challenges, the manufacturers are not prepared to make their alkaline batteries obsolete.
I agree, you have 4 X higher chance the voltage is lower than required.
I like AAs but I think it is time to move on to rechargeable Lithium batteries like other brands.
1. 1 Lithium => smaller, ligher kx.
2. 4 AAs => 4 X higher chance the voltage is not high enough
3. Faster battery change, er ok... not every one has butter fingers like me
4. Lithium is not expensive... get the OEMs, it may explode... but chance is not that high :sweat:
but aa's very cheap..
but aa's very cheap..
yeah man....$6-8 vs $99! ;p
The AA Lithium will yield around 21,000 shots for $99.
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and if all yoru cameras run on AA, just need one charger.
now i bring my k100d, sometimes my p&s , both use AA
then i have to bring a specific one for my k20d's battery. :bsmilie: i mean, not like it's a lot, but it still counts.
when visit to cities, if one forget to bring charger, can just grab AA from stores.
Another reason is that AA lithium is quite a bit lighter too. That's why I liked to use AA lithium instead of rechargeable ones when I was using D/Ds/K100D
Just wonder how serious is the battery problem for the KX.
The other camera forum a lot or argument - so sian reading them.
Should we wait for Pentax to fix (my guess it is either a design design or manufacturing problem from Pentax although it may as well be a battery problem) or try our luck in getting a good set.
I just pop by MS color after dinner tonight; and was surprised they quoted $990 for KX.
I alway though they are cheaper than other stores. Last night a shop in Chinatown quoted less than the MS quote?
The other camera forum a lot or argument - so sian reading them.
Should we wait for Pentax to fix (my guess it is either a design design or manufacturing problem from Pentax although it may as well be a battery problem) or try our luck in getting a good set.
I just pop by MS color after dinner tonight; and was surprised they quoted $990 for KX.
I alway though they are cheaper than other stores. Last night a shop in Chinatown quoted less than the MS quote?
MSC has been quoting $990 for a while now. You should try OP. They have alot of sets at $960. AP (at Funan only) also quoting $960 too. BTW, since setting the Batt status to "NiMH" I've had not experienced the batt low problem.
MSC is usually not the cheapest store, but prices are usually decent and not too far off. Service is good.
Continue to read updates on battery for KX.
Some good feedback from this gentleman in dpreview:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=33659044
Cut and paste below for other users/potential users of the KX.
Posted by Owen Marshall [PROFILE]
Date/Time 00:25:01, 11 November 2009 (GMT)
I bought a K-x yesterday (serial no. starting 344...) , and after testing it briefly with the supplied Lithiums at work (the indicator was first orange, but eventually turned green and everything worked fine) I was rather anxious (considering this thread) to try it out with my Ni-MH batteries. The results were rather interesting, and, ultimately, surprising: the short version is that the camera initially didn't work with Ni-MHs, but now works fine. Read on for the blow-by-blow details ...
First, I tried some newly charged Varta 2500mAh batteries I've been using in a Canon P&S (without issues) for about a year. Waited five seconds, turned on the power switch: nothing.
Waited another ten seconds, turned it on: orange indicator, which quickly became red and then "batteries depleted" after taking three shots. During this time, I changed the battery setting from auto to NiMH and tried using LV, neither of which prevented the camera dying.
Left the camera another ten seconds before switching on again, with the same result. And then randomly after further lots of five-ten seconds either the camera would not turn on or would show in quick succession a red battery indicator, "batteries depleted" and then switch off.
I was thinking at this point that I've got a lemon, and grabbed another set of rechargables (older Energizer 2500mAh). These wouldn't even switch the camera on.
In desperation I put the Vartas back in and tried switching the order of the batteries, trying all combinations. No luck, the same behaviour as before.
So I was cursing my luck and working out when I could take the camera back to the shop in the morning. But I decided that I might as well play around with the camera using Lithiums a bit more in the meantime, and took about fifty shots with these. I turned the battery setting back to "Auto" during this time, and left it there.
Then I figured I'd give the Vartas one more try, remembering some previous posts on this thread. This time, I left the camera a full five minutes between inserting the batteries and turning it on, making myself a drink while I waited ...
... and when I turned it on this time, the indicator was orange, quickly changed to green, and has sat on green happily through about a hundred shots, much menu fooling around, one movie test and some extensive use of live view. Turning the camera off and then on again still keeps the indicator on green (so once the batteries are correctly detected, you don't need to go through the five minute wait again). In fact, I haven't been able to shift it off green since, irrespective of LV usage, processing of HDR shots or anything else I can throw at it.
Therefore, I'm thinking that the time period for the camera to detect and adapt to new batteries is fairly critical for Ni-MHs. Setting the battery type to "NIMH" does nothing to change this, as far as I can tell (perhaps this is a f/w bug?) -- the camera needs to work the battery type out on its own, and once it's done this things are fine. At least, this is the case with my unit, and it seems to fit with the recent experiences of a few others in this forum. I'm going to perform a few more tests tonight with my other rechargables, to see if they'll work after the five minute rule, and also see if I can reproduce this behaviour after putting the Lithiums back in the camera to reset the battery type. I'll also test if setting the battery type to "Lithium" prevents my Ni-MHs from working.
But at this stage I think (or rather, hope!) that the ultimate message is that yes, there is a major problem here that will hopefully be addressed in firmware (you shouldn't have to wait five minutes after inserting a new lot of batteries!), but it may not be as catastrophic as it seems at first (since my camera did, ultimately, work with some basic, cheap NiMHs).
Curiously, the manual makes no mention of needing to wait a substantial amount of time before using NIMHs, and even seems to recommend their usage over Lithiums and Alkalines. No mention is made of eneloop-type technology in the manual, and the quoted shot numbers with NiMH batteries are based on using 1900mAh-rated cells (so Pentax clearly thought you didn't need anything particularly flash to get this camera to work!)
(and sorry for the rather long first post in this forum! The K-x is an awesome little camera ... it's such a pity it's got this silly battery bug)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope Pentax can improve on this in the next firmware update.
The advantage of AA batteries is it's easy availability but if not all types of AAs can be used then may become a disadvantage.
cheers
Some good feedback from this gentleman in dpreview:
http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=33659044
Cut and paste below for other users/potential users of the KX.
Posted by Owen Marshall [PROFILE]
Date/Time 00:25:01, 11 November 2009 (GMT)
I bought a K-x yesterday (serial no. starting 344...) , and after testing it briefly with the supplied Lithiums at work (the indicator was first orange, but eventually turned green and everything worked fine) I was rather anxious (considering this thread) to try it out with my Ni-MH batteries. The results were rather interesting, and, ultimately, surprising: the short version is that the camera initially didn't work with Ni-MHs, but now works fine. Read on for the blow-by-blow details ...
First, I tried some newly charged Varta 2500mAh batteries I've been using in a Canon P&S (without issues) for about a year. Waited five seconds, turned on the power switch: nothing.
Waited another ten seconds, turned it on: orange indicator, which quickly became red and then "batteries depleted" after taking three shots. During this time, I changed the battery setting from auto to NiMH and tried using LV, neither of which prevented the camera dying.
Left the camera another ten seconds before switching on again, with the same result. And then randomly after further lots of five-ten seconds either the camera would not turn on or would show in quick succession a red battery indicator, "batteries depleted" and then switch off.
I was thinking at this point that I've got a lemon, and grabbed another set of rechargables (older Energizer 2500mAh). These wouldn't even switch the camera on.
In desperation I put the Vartas back in and tried switching the order of the batteries, trying all combinations. No luck, the same behaviour as before.
So I was cursing my luck and working out when I could take the camera back to the shop in the morning. But I decided that I might as well play around with the camera using Lithiums a bit more in the meantime, and took about fifty shots with these. I turned the battery setting back to "Auto" during this time, and left it there.
Then I figured I'd give the Vartas one more try, remembering some previous posts on this thread. This time, I left the camera a full five minutes between inserting the batteries and turning it on, making myself a drink while I waited ...
... and when I turned it on this time, the indicator was orange, quickly changed to green, and has sat on green happily through about a hundred shots, much menu fooling around, one movie test and some extensive use of live view. Turning the camera off and then on again still keeps the indicator on green (so once the batteries are correctly detected, you don't need to go through the five minute wait again). In fact, I haven't been able to shift it off green since, irrespective of LV usage, processing of HDR shots or anything else I can throw at it.
Therefore, I'm thinking that the time period for the camera to detect and adapt to new batteries is fairly critical for Ni-MHs. Setting the battery type to "NIMH" does nothing to change this, as far as I can tell (perhaps this is a f/w bug?) -- the camera needs to work the battery type out on its own, and once it's done this things are fine. At least, this is the case with my unit, and it seems to fit with the recent experiences of a few others in this forum. I'm going to perform a few more tests tonight with my other rechargables, to see if they'll work after the five minute rule, and also see if I can reproduce this behaviour after putting the Lithiums back in the camera to reset the battery type. I'll also test if setting the battery type to "Lithium" prevents my Ni-MHs from working.
But at this stage I think (or rather, hope!) that the ultimate message is that yes, there is a major problem here that will hopefully be addressed in firmware (you shouldn't have to wait five minutes after inserting a new lot of batteries!), but it may not be as catastrophic as it seems at first (since my camera did, ultimately, work with some basic, cheap NiMHs).
Curiously, the manual makes no mention of needing to wait a substantial amount of time before using NIMHs, and even seems to recommend their usage over Lithiums and Alkalines. No mention is made of eneloop-type technology in the manual, and the quoted shot numbers with NiMH batteries are based on using 1900mAh-rated cells (so Pentax clearly thought you didn't need anything particularly flash to get this camera to work!)
(and sorry for the rather long first post in this forum! The K-x is an awesome little camera ... it's such a pity it's got this silly battery bug)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
I hope Pentax can improve on this in the next firmware update.
The advantage of AA batteries is it's easy availability but if not all types of AAs can be used then may become a disadvantage.
cheers
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