Thank you Jim,
yes I checked of course the correct battery type setting in the menu. This settings has a big influence on the depletion switch-off situation. You even can "lock" your camera, when you set the "wrong" value, because apparently the voltage level which decides about depletion (4 x 1.3 Volt of AL) can be higher than the typical voltage of another battery type (e.g. 4 x 1.2 Volt of Ni-MH). Unlocking is only possible with inserting correct types and then selecting the correct value. Can you or someone confirm that it is only the voltage which is used as criteria for the depletion status of a battery in the K-30? May be you are on the safe side with the 4 battery case, when you select always Ni-MH mode?
I just tried to set (wrong) Ni-MH type for
non rechargable AL batteries (which are not at all empty). With this setting the K-30 does show 50 % battery level. I assume this level will be kept for a very long until the AL battery is really depleted. When I switch battery type to the (correct) AL type, the camera is immediatly switching-off after depletion message. With this my current workaround is to used standard AL batteries, but to set the Ni-MH type different in the menu. Any better hints?
I am considering to try 4 special
rechargable Alkaline Manganes (RAM) batteries, which have 4 x 1.5 Volt nominal voltage instead of only 4 x 1.2 Volt. May be such batteries do no show the problems in the K-30?
Such RAM batteries need special charging and are not recommended for high current devices (like digital cameras?). Is this also true when you do not use the internal flash at all?
Regards, Peter
P.S.: I wonder how the automatic battery type detection in the K-30 does work. May be it is better to avoid this setting completely?
P.P.S.: I just read, that the RAM rechargable batteries are very sensible when beeing discharged too much. With 25 % discharge they can be charged about about 100 times, but with 50 % discharge this value can be reduced to 10 times. It looks like RAM batteries are really not suitable for digital cameras, because discharge level cannot be controlled well.
P.P.P.S.: And what about using Li-ion AA batteries with each 3.7 Volt and each from 750 up to 1200 mAh? With modification of electrical wiring in the battery holder you could use either 2 x AA or parallel 2 x 2 x AA and a total of 7.4 Volt. The total mAh capacity would be much bigger than the original Pentax Li-Ion battery. But of course all this on your own risk ... and if the camera burns you do not need high ISO or flash light any more :-)
Last edited by Plentax; 11-07-2013 at 03:41 AM.