[awo425]

Reading some of the reviews on various sites, it was made a point that the Li-Ion battery brick is smaller than comparable cameras due to the sizing constraints caused by the flexibility of using AA's with the adapter. Is it smaller?

Yes, it is smaller.

[MrHungry]

I generally don't keep count, but I know I've taken at least 400 images without depleting the battery.

[leheath8]

I took 967 photos in 4 days with very little live view use, no flash use, but lots of chimping and I only changed the battery once (and it wasn't fully charged at the start, nor fully drained at the end) so I have been pretty happy with my battery life. I bought a cheap spare battery so I always have a back-up. I also have the adaptor but have never had to use it yet, but will take it with some Eneloops when traveling in very remote areas where I may not have access to power for several nights for charging the lithium batteries.

[Metalwizards]

For what it's worth, my battery life kind of sucks too. I get around 400 shots before it starts warning me.

[phaiviog]

I have found that battery life is terrible when using the K-r's interval shooting function. The camera seems to use a fair bit of charge during the entire session rather than sleeping and waking up to take a photo. What I've ended up with is a mere 16 photos over 8 hours and a depleted battery while using 30 minute interval shooting. Auto review is off so I'm not sure where all that missing charge is going. It seems Interval shooting taxes battery life unnecessarily and maybe the future FW will fix it. But for normal use the battery (D-LI109) gets about 400 shots before it needs a charge.

[hawk1500]

I haven't used the li-ion battery much but it wasn't great when I did use it. I just use my AA batteries now.

[Hypocorism]

I have found that battery life is terrible when using the K-r's interval shooting function. The camera seems to use a fair bit of charge during the entire session rather than sleeping and waking up to take a photo. What I've ended up with is a mere 16 photos over 8 hours and a depleted battery while using 30 minute interval shooting.
...
But for normal use the battery (D-LI109) gets about 400 shots before it needs a charge.

Interesting. Your findings about the interval shooting worries me because that's a primary feature that swayed me to buy the K-r.
Must do tests myself now.

Likewise I can rely on about 300-400 normally. Happy enough with that because it's a huge improvement over the 200-ish range max that my K-x always does with LSDs.
Others say they comfortably get many more out of theirs using AA NiMh. Reports on numbers attained have always been so erratic.

I agree with you about the sleeping & waking. It really should be doing something like that. Jeez, compared to my Canon gear I still don't believe Pentax have half a clue about energy efficiency.
Other cameras aren't pedantic about brands of AA batteries they accept either.

.R.

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Last edited by Hypocorism; 03-19-2011 at 05:50 AM.

[phaiviog]

Interval shooting worked just fine when I was on 1 minute intervals. But maybe the camera was auto focusing over the 8 hour session?... I'll check it again another time. But would like to hear from more people about interval shooting. It's a great extra feature to have for the Pentax.

Okay so I checked again and have found the battery to last ~500 shots or 6 hours which every comes first.

[piledon]

I took 967 photos in 4 days with very little live view use, no flash use, but lots of chimping and I only changed the battery once (and it wasn't fully charged at the start, nor fully drained at the end) so I have been pretty happy with my battery life. I bought a cheap spare battery so I always have a back-up. I also have the adaptor but have never had to use it yet, but will take it with some Eneloops when traveling in very remote areas where I may not have access to power for several nights for charging the lithium batteries.

This is essentially my experience as well. Excellent battery life with 400 to 500 shots on a single Li+ battery along with lots of mucking around with settings because I just bought the thing a month ago. I too bought a cheap-o back-up and it's giving me similar results. Right now I can't understand the need to run out and buy AAs and the expensive holder (that was a really poor design choice, Pentax!) when you can buy backup Li+ packs for around US$10 each. In fact, I'll probably get a couple more just so I have more juice than I can ever imagine needing, because I'm often wrong about my imagination...

[Penumbra]

I won't start another topic, i'll post my question here:

I got the AA adapter for my k-r and, to my surprise, with a set of freshly recharged Ni-MH (all of the same brand) 2700 mAh, when powering up the k-r i get the battery depleted message.

The same rechargeables power just fine my Olympus 570 UZ.

I checked, double-checked, the AAs were inserted properly (polarization), the contacts on the adapter are ok (nod oxidized or anything), so, i ask you, what the heck? Any ideeas?

I don't have a set of regular (non-rechargeables) AAs to do a test with them as well.

Best wishes

[smrk]

There is a battery 'type' setting in the menus.

You need to make sure that you have it set for the Ni-MH batteries.

This may have changed sense the last time I checked but the Ni-MH batteries usually have a lower peak voltage than alkalines ( 1.2 vs 1.5 )

If the camera is expecting 6v like it would from alkalines and it gets 4.8v from the Ni-MH it would think that the batteries are not fully charged.

[Penumbra]

Hmmm,

I remember not changing that setting, under battery type i't's left on "auto" mode.

These rechargeables are not that worn out, they probably don't charge at 100% by now, but the camera doesn't start at all, shouldn't it at least boot up?

[Hypocorism]

I got the AA adapter for my k-r and, to my surprise, with a set of freshly recharged Ni-MH (all of the same brand) 2700 mAh, when powering up the k-r i get the battery depleted message.

The same rechargeables power just fine my Olympus 570 UZ.

I checked, double-checked, ...

Your story is typical with Pentax, in my experience with a K-x and later a K-r the power usage/management is appalling. They haven't got a clue!
A friend of mine bought a new set of top grade expensive Duracells, expecting them to be good in his K-x, and it wouldn't even boot up on them!

The first big drama is that the cameras will only utilise certain brands AND types of standard NiMH AA batteries, the other big fault is that some cameras (like my K-x) drains a freshly full charged set of quality batteries very quick, while some owners claim theirs give an acceptable 400+ shots on the exact same battery type & brand. Go figure.
For this reason a lot of K-x owners seem to stick to buying Lithium throwaways.

Bottom line: In your case you obviously have a brand that Pentax is unfriendly toward (although they work perfectly in competently made product), so your only way out of this is to buy brands such as Sanyo "eneloop" or perhaps iMedion LSD (Ready-To-Use) type rechargeable AAs.

For that reason I've stuck with the default Li-Ion block type batteries in my K-r, they yield not spectacular but OK shot rates in mine (touch wood) and backup spares are quite affordable now on eBay -- from about USD8 + ship each.

.R.

[Penumbra]

crap..

the type i mentioned i tried are Sanyo but i don't think "eneloops", it's not written anywhere aneloop. Sanyo model HR-3U

The other set (that also doesn't work) is Himpex 2800mAh. , these might be a "lesser" brand, though come on, we're talking about a damn accumulator here.

I don't understand, is there a technical reason for this limitation? I payed 39$ for the damn adaptor with the thought i'll be able to use rechargeables with it, i don't want to buy lithiums or alkalines.

Why would Pentax do this or, not fix it through firmware? (i remember reading about a power indicator problem with the k-x then a fix via a firmware update)

Dammit man, corporations will be corporations i guess, no matter the name users will be treated the same. There's no good will from a corp. towards the buyer of it's products.

Thanks for the replies Hypocorism and smrk!

[smrk]

I dont have any first hand experiance with the AA battery adapter I haven't gotten it yet so I may be off here, and I know I said it before, but have you tried setting the battery type to something other than Auto?

From my understanding Lithium-Ion batteries are easily damaged by draining them all the way so many manufacturers will put in 'Safety nets' in their products that prevent the product from draining the battery all the way.

I have heard many people complain about how their new lith-ion cordless drill will not give them any warning when the battery is about to die, unlike the older Ni-cad batteries.
You could tell when the Ni-cad's were running low because the drill starts to loose power, with the Lith-ion they run strong until the cut off then they just stop.

I don't know if pentax has this sort of 'Safety net' built into their camera's or not, but if the camera is confused and thinks that you have put in a set of Lith-ion batteries when you are using the Ni-cad/Ni-MH, the lower voltage they provide will make it think the batteries are dead and try and "save you from yourself" and prevent you from damaging the batteries.

Looking at the Lith-ion pack that came with my Kr I see its a 7.4v battery, which is a big jump up from the max 4.8-5v your brand new fresh Ni-MH AA batteries will provide, which is probably why they provide the settings in the menu anyway.

Its possible that its a bug in the 'Auto' battery mode where it tries to 'save' the battery before it tries to determine the battery type.

Its also possible, (and actually more likely now that I think about it) that the camera's 'boot' sequence requires a certain amount of current draw to start and if the batteries are unable to provide the juice fast enough you will get the low battery warning.

Alkaline, Ni-cads, and Lith-ion batteries generally provide a faster current draw than Ni-MH batteries, but there are some Ni-MH batteries out there that provide a faster current draw than others.
Which might explain Hypocorism's experience where some rechargeable work and some don't