my digital camera batteries drain FAST!?

Question

digital cameras are soo kool but minez isnt working! the batteries drain fast!! and not like 3 days fast!
im talking 3 mins. fast!
a little help here!!!

Answer 1

Normal alkaline batteries just don't do it for digital cameras because of the high instantaneous current required to run a digital camera. (This includes all batteries such as "Duracell" and "Super Heavy Duty" etc) These types of batteries will appear to the camera to be flat even when they aren't because they just don't have the capacity to give the camera what it wants.

Some places still sell rechargeable Nickel Cadmium Batteries (NiCd), and these batteries cannot cut it for digital cameras. There are also rechargeable alkaline batteries and these aren't great either.

The only type of rechargeable to get is Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), and the higher capacity the better. This capacity is typically rated in milliamp hours. A medium capacity battery for a camera will have say 1600 MAH whereas a high capacity battery will have more than 2000 MAH. Some even go as high as 2600 MAH. Get the highest that you can.

One downside is that NiMH batteries go flat in the camera if you do not use them. In a camera that uses 2 batteries, this can happen in as little as a week.

My advice is get a couple of sets of high capacity NiMH rechargeable batteries (2000 MAH or higher) and use these as much as possible. Also however buy one or two sets of Lithium batteries (non rechargeable) these last a long time but are wickedly expensive. Have one set of lithiums for backup in case you need the shot but the rechargeables are all flat. Soon as you can put freshly recharged batteries in and again keep the lithiums in reserve. Unused lithium batteries will last for years.

Many cameras have a menu setting which can flatten the batteries for you prior to recharging. ONLY IF you are using NiMH batteries is this a good idea. Vendors tell you that NiMH are not prone to "memory effect" and therefore do not need to be totally flat before being recharged, but this is not true. NiMH bateries should be discharged before being recharged. If the camera can't automatically discharge them, then keep using the camera until it won't go anymore, then recharge them.

Hope this helps.

Answer 2

You should always use the highest capacity batteries possible for a digital camera, as they are very intensive. I've tried cheapos from poundland that wouldn't even power the camera up, but have since moved on to 1800mAh rechargeables from Maplins which seem to last forever (much longer than the Duracell ones I was paying a lot for)

Answer 3

Does it have an LCD screen for shooting and viewing pictures? If so, try taking pictures through the viewfinder instead of using the LCD screen. The screen can drain the batteries FAST, though some of the new models are better in that regard.

Answer 4

If you're using regular AA's and the camera flash and the camera's LCD screen -- I can see this happening. Get some good (although expensive) AA's intended for digital cameras. If you still have a bit of a problem, turn off the LCD screen (if you can). If that doesn't work, see if you can get it fixed under warranty.

Brian Auer
http://blog.epicedits.com

Answer 5

Is it under warranty? I would check the recharger, mine quit working right and the batteries drained quickly, as yours do. i would test the battery charger and see if the rechargables are good. They only last
for about 2000 charges. if you are using normal batteries thats not good, they cannot handle a camera's power requirement.

Answer 6

Are they recharagable or AA? If they are you probably did not charge them up properly and caused them to have a "memory".

Answer 7

Get a card that holds more memory!