[Gian]

Hello All, and Merry Christmas,

my new K1-II went missing, but UPS managed to find it and deliver it, together with 31+77L, in time for Christmas.

Compared to my K3-II, it looks more power hungry, but because I am shooting LV to check the focus, that might explain the battery drain.

What is strange, is that a freshly charged battery doesn't show really full.
Should I worry, or is it just a different way of metering?

I am using the original Pentax D-LI90 and two Patona's from my K3.

-Gian

[jatrax]

A freshly charged battery shows as full on mine. You might run the battery through the charge cycle a couple times to be sure it is fully charged. Do all the batteries show the same? I would think at least the new one should show full charge. The older ones might not be holding a full charge anymore?

[Gian]

well, I must experiment, switching old/new batteries.

It surprises me that you can see the battery drain after a two hrs walk in the garden, and my shooting style hasn't changed from the K3.

can feel the camera bottom warm, never noticed that on the K3.

[Kevin B123]

Hi,
I think it is more power hungry, especially with live view on a lot.
I have noticed that the battery seems to take longer to charge.
As suggested, once it has been through a few cycles it will be fine.

[Bob 256]

Sometimes devices like the K-1 have to calibrate their charge monitoring and this requires you to run the battery well down and then recharge it as jatrax stated. You should see a full charge when you've done this. If not, I would get a new battery and see if that works and if not, it might be time to contact Pentax or the dealer where you bought the camera. Best to do it soon as new camera coverage can vary depending on the dealer.

[C_Jones]

I have never had power difficulty with my K-1 II. I use a fully charged battery for almost every use.

[myrdinn]

In my experience the K-II isn't more hungry for a battery than the K5. But of course things like live view and the gps ask a lot from the battery. You might switch them off, and see what happens.

[phollings]

I recall a prior discussion on this forum that might warrant reiterating. It was concluded that battery life was sensitive to the depth of the discharge cycle. Doing a full discharge/recharge cycle a few times should not be a problem. However doing this routinely can significantly shorten battery life.

[Trees]

I definitely notice a considerable difference between my K-1ii and my K-5iis.

It only makes sense, bigger sensor, bigger screen, most of the mechanics are larger, etc.

Why would it not be power hungry?

[Oldbayrunner]

It's not just the LCD, with the K1 there are all those nifty lights that light up on different parts of the camera body, check and shut those off. Then turn them individually on when your shooting in places where they can be of help. Also this is where the grip comes in mighty handy, having one and setting the camera to drain the grip, then the camera makes managing battery life easier.

[C_Jones]

As has already been expressed, if a user is using live view or gps the battery power may be used accordingly more than when not resorting to those functions. Shooting using the viewfinder without gps on will enable the user to have more power for attaining images. It is just a matter of how the user is administering functions while shooting. Different user preferences are up to the user in accordance with the situation.

Happy Holidays!

[MJKoski]

MK2 eats more battery than MK1. Only reason for that is the image accelerator. I get about 25% less usage time out of MK2 body compared to MK1 using the same fully charged original D-LI90 batteries. I do mostly 30+ second exposures.