[Ex Finn.]

With no flash and minimal chimping I consistently get 1k + shots with original battery. Eneloops pretty much perform the same.
This is with no in camera processing, NR and lens corrections turned off. And set to shut off after 1 minute.

---

Last edited by Ex Finn.; 11-24-2011 at 06:48 PM.

[RonHendriks1966]

Well turn everything off that uses power. No liveview, no AF-assistand light, no picture review.

With low power consumption, but I'm on Hi-speed modus on sportsevents then I can take between 1500 and 1800 RAW on a single charge. Using the camera on a longer timespan will reduce that but it will be no problem to fill up a 32GB card with 1350 RAW or 3000 Jpg on one battery.

I would suggest to take at least one original spare battery from Pentax, since they are better and a handfull of them from dealextreme (or so).

Taking RAW or Jpg makes a lot of difference. But if you don't do video then you can just buy cheap SanDisk classe 4 cards.

[Nuff]

Like mentioned above, turn everything off that remotely uses power. Turn off SR, horizon etc, all the functions that use gyros/accelerometers. You can turn them off at night if you really need them or bring a light tripod with you instead.


http://jarek.smugmug.com

[Northern Soul]

I have to say that if the pictures are important, and it sounds like they are, I'd bring along a few more batteries rather than try and get by with just the one by not using half of the functions of the camera. If you're not going to check things on the screen you might we take a film camera The batteries are less than 3oz each - better safe than sorry!

[conradj]

With my K-5 i turn off everything that automatically switches on the rear LCD, turn its brightness down a tad, switch off AF assist light and backlight on the top LCD. Set the camera to power down the meter after 10s, sleep after a minute. i leave the SR on since i do a lot of low light shots. Turn off AF with the shutter button, use the back panel AF button. Leave the NR on auto. Don't do any in camera PP, save RAW + high quality JPG's. The largest shoot i've done with this camera was this newest set that's on my flickr, 4 and a half hours or so in the metro maintenance yards and underground, in the middle of the night. Didn't skimp on in-cam reviews, just used the camera.

Took abt 460 shots mostly between ISO400-1600, deleted perhaps 60 while i was shooting. Battery was one notch down at the end of it. Figure i prolly could count on it lasting another 70-80 shots, dunno after that.

[ChrisA]

FYI, I also get as few as 200-300 shots per battery. Two or three things made a huge difference and allowed me to get 700+.
1. Turn the camera off between uses. Back in the day I could leave the istD, K10, and I believe even the K7 turned "ON" all day long with no significant battery drain.
It seems the K5 does not power down as fully as the others, so turn that power switch to off when not in use.

Now that is very interesting indeed - thanks for this. I've only recently converted from the K10D, and I literally never switched it off - so I've kind of inherited the same technique with the K-5.

At the end of the current charge I'll try switching it off and see if it makes the difference you say.

[FullertonImages]

One thing that no one has mentioned is recharging. Even if you have enough batteries to shoot during those 10 day stretches, you're going to have a hell of a lot of recharging to do, especially if you only have 1 or 2 chargers. K-5 batteries last amazingly long, but they also take quite a while to charge.

[Northern Soul]

I got the impression that the OP is going to post batteries off to a friend/relative every few weeks and receive back charged ones. The friend/relative will then have a week or so to charge the depleted ones.

[MagnificentMath]

DL I90 weighs 77g fully charged. Obviously it will weigh slightly less when it's discharged

Thank you. My guess was pretty good: only off by about 0.1 oz.

It would be worth having a very careful look at people's experiences with battery life - search the forums carefully.

They do seem to vary a lot. My personal experience has been quite disappointing so far - I have a fairly new K-5 and I'm barely using LiveView or Video at all, and I'm getting fewer than 300 shots per charge with both the original Pentax battery and a knock-off. Others are reporting enormously more than this, and I'd dearly love to know why the differences.

AFAIR, I'm not using the camera any differently than I was using the K10D, from which I'd get about 4-500 shots per charge.

There does seem to be a very varied experience as far as battery life goes. I may rent a K-5 and experiment to see how I can maximize the battery life.

I travelled with five original batteries and some lithiums for two 7/8 day's long hikes this year. The lithiums (Energizer) didn't hold there charge very well if I used live view/video. But I only had to change the Pentax battery once every trip. Each trip I used the K-5 for about 600-700 shots with autofocus on (hard to remember since I deleted al the bad shots) and about 25 minutes of video and some live view usage. Temperature was between 8 and 16 degrees celsius. Five batteries might have been overkill, but in your situation it should be more then enough. I chose Pentax because of it's capabilities for hiking trips. I started with a K200D which isn't as sophisticated but it uses very little energy and runs on AA's and is weather proof. If you can get one with a low shutter count/refurbished I would consider the K200D to bring along for a 6 month trip. The 10mp ccd sensor is still very well regarded when you shoot low ISO's.

I'll definitely look into the K200D. It's disappointing that the lithiums didn't work for you.

FYI, I also get as few as 200-300 shots per battery. Two or three things made a huge difference and allowed me to get 700+.
1. Turn the camera off between uses. Back in the day I could leave the istD, K10, and I believe even the K7 turned "ON" all day long with no significant battery drain.
It seems the K5 does not power down as fully as the others, so turn that power switch to off when not in use.

2. If you do leave the camera on and have it slung over your shoulder, be sure that the focus button is not being activated by your butt!
As funny as it seems, I wore my camera battery down in a few hours without taking any photos. I was royally pissed as I had no place to recharge.
Took days to realized what was going, when I finally saw a random photo appear due to an extra hard butt-dial on the focus button. :-)

3. Turn off the image review. Even at one second, the LCD seems to eat a LOT of power.
I turned that off and it really seems to make a big difference. Although probably not as much as the first two items.
I really only need to review photos every so often so that works well.

Haha, thank you for the heads up regarding the butt focus. I'll watch out for that! I'll probably turn it off though as I've seen numerous mentions of the K-5's poor standby mode across this forum.

I have been pleasantly surprise with my K5 battery life and number of photos I was able to take with a single charge. Beside turning the review completely off, one can adjust the LCD screen brightness - lower the brightness might further improve the battery life if you don't want to turn it off (I have mine with 3 sec review).

Lee

I'll probably turn it off, but will have it dimmed as much as possible for when it needs to be on.

Well turn everything off that uses power. No liveview, no AF-assistand light, no picture review.

With low power consumption, but I'm on Hi-speed modus on sportsevents then I can take between 1500 and 1800 RAW on a single charge. Using the camera on a longer timespan will reduce that but it will be no problem to fill up a 32GB card with 1350 RAW or 3000 Jpg on one battery.

I would suggest to take at least one original spare battery from Pentax, since they are better and a handfull of them from dealextreme (or so).

Taking RAW or Jpg makes a lot of difference. But if you don't do video then you can just buy cheap SanDisk classe 4 cards.

Now that's the battery life I'm looking for. If I can get 2200 or so off a single battery then I'll only need to bring two between resupply points.

Like mentioned above, turn everything off that remotely uses power. Turn off SR, horizon etc, all the functions that use gyros/accelerometers. You can turn them off at night if you really need them or bring a light tripod with you instead.


http://jarek.smugmug.com

Another good idea. I would not have thought of the accelerometers.

I have to say that if the pictures are important, and it sounds like they are, I'd bring along a few more batteries rather than try and get by with just the one by not using half of the functions of the camera. If you're not going to check things on the screen you might we take a film camera The batteries are less than 3oz each - better safe than sorry!

It won't be feasible to carry enough batteries to take advantage of all the features on the camera given I'll be shooting about 500 images a day. And that's also the reason I can't use a film camera: storage and processing is prohibitively expensive. But it's the right idea: I want to storage capacity and ease of processing ability of a digital, but the battery life of a film.

With my K-5 i turn off everything that automatically switches on the rear LCD, turn its brightness down a tad, switch off AF assist light and backlight on the top LCD. Set the camera to power down the meter after 10s, sleep after a minute. i leave the SR on since i do a lot of low light shots. Turn off AF with the shutter button, use the back panel AF button. Leave the NR on auto. Don't do any in camera PP, save RAW + high quality JPG's. The largest shoot i've done with this camera was this newest set that's on my flickr, 4 and a half hours or so in the metro maintenance yards and underground, in the middle of the night. Didn't skimp on in-cam reviews, just used the camera.

Took abt 460 shots mostly between ISO400-1600, deleted perhaps 60 while i was shooting. Battery was one notch down at the end of it. Figure i prolly could count on it lasting another 70-80 shots, dunno after that.

I plan on going one step further with the AF: I plan on using MF as much as possible to preserve the battery even more. I figure with as much practice as I'll be getting, I'll be able to focus pretty quickly and accurately. But your 500 shots really isn't that much at all. I would like five times that.

One thing that no one has mentioned is recharging. Even if you have enough batteries to shoot during those 10 day stretches, you're going to have a hell of a lot of recharging to do, especially if you only have 1 or 2 chargers. K-5 batteries last amazingly long, but they also take quite a while to charge.

I got the impression that the OP is going to post batteries off to a friend/relative every few weeks and receive back charged ones. The friend/relative will then have a week or so to charge the depleted ones.

That is correct. I just won't have the opportunity to charge for that long. But that's also why I'm looking at non-rechargables now. They would certainly be simpler.

[Fries]

Just to add to the information about the K200D; the Energizer non rechargeable lithiums last a very, very long time in that camera. It only takes 4 batteries. Over here there is some more information: https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/pentax-dslr-discussion/32788-hows-your-k2...tery-life.html

[RonHendriks1966]

No idea about the differences in battery lifetime. I used one K-7 and four K-5 body's. Since july 2009 I made almost 170.000 pictures (some movieclips) and I can say that all battery's I had lasted very long.

[Nuff]

By the way, if you are planning to use manual focus, no matter what camera you choose, you should really invest in a better focusing screen. One with split prism or another focusing aid. They will speed up your MF a lot, not to mention accuracy. I have K3 with grids from Focusing Screen and it's great help. You might prefer the others, they have photos of what they look like when in use.

[Vipertsniper]

trip to Paris this weekend 3 days use .. took my charger never needed it 1800+ shots .... the battery is still registering full ...

[obscura]

the 980shots that the specs claim, i think from my experience that it's spot on....
i recharged it once at around 850 shots, but it wasnt empty yet... now im at around 1500... havent recharged since 850, still going strong.
if you are not using flash and you're not doing video, im sure you can have over 1k shots, easily.
i have disabled the lcd light, the af assist, and for most of the time the backscreen is also turned off... except when i sit down to review my photos...

[LaurenOE]

There is also the factor of cold. When I shoot in the cold, I keep spare batteries in my jacket. All power calculations/equations get a little wonky when cold is factored in.

Honestly, if I was going to embark on a project like the OP originally posted about, I think I would make a custom power solution to power a K5.

I don't think I could reasonably guarantee anything more than a day or two using all the features on a K5 in addition to flashes and such.

In extreme conditions away from civilization and power....I would take along a film body and leave the digital at home.