[LeDave]

Does the camera read both the battery in the D-BG4 alongside with the camera as one? Or if the battery indicator in my K-5 states that the battery is half-way full, then that means it is only for the grip, and I should use it until the battery indicator is dead then it will restart with my K-5's battery? (As I set the grip to be the priority battery through my K-5 settings.)

[Ratmagiclady]

Does the camera read both the battery in the D-BG4 alongside with the camera as one? Or if the battery indicator in my K-5 states that the battery is half-way full, then that means it is only for the grip, and I should use it until the battery indicator is dead then it will restart with my K-5's battery? (As I set the grip to be the priority battery through my K-5 settings.)

Partly it depends on how you've set the camera to take power from batteries.

If you've set it to drain from the grip batteries first, you should be able to pop out the battery pack and see if the reading changes. (Turn it on and off too) I usually find that if I've forgotten to charge my grip battery that long for time, rather than a busy night, (with my K20d) I'm also starting to lose charge from the battery in the camera.

[Docrwm]

The K-5 can be set to use either the in body or the grip battery first. It makes more sense to use the grip battery because its easier to get to when it is depleted. If you go into the Menu and go to the 3rd Wrench menu and scroll down to "Select Battery" you will see that you have the option of Auto Select, Body First, or Grip First. Mine is set to Grip First. One nice aspect of the Pentax OS is that when you take your D-BG4 off and put it back on the camera settings for the grip are still set. The indicator on the upper and back screens reflect the status of the currently in use battery as selected in the menu as described above.

[DSims]

I use the same setting (grip priority), and it seems to measure only the battery you're using at the time. Nevertheless, as Ratmagiclady mentioned, I've also noticed that sometimes my battery in the camera (K-5 or IIs) is partly drained when I switch over, even though I charged them both recently. So perhaps it will drain both at times.

[Docrwm]

I use the same setting (grip priority), and it seems to measure only the battery you're using at the time. Nevertheless, as Ratmagiclady mentioned, I've also noticed that sometimes my battery in the camera (K-5 or IIs) is partly drained when I switch over, even though I charged them both recently. So perhaps it will drain both at times.

The camera starts up with the battery in camera and I know I have forgotten to turn on the grip from time to time. Both of those will drain the battery in camera slightly. Overall, the combination seems to get me through a full day of shooting at places like Disney where the camera is used a lot, has AF on full time, and turned on and off a lot.

[stormtech]

I also have mine set for grip priority. My observation is only for the battery indicator on the top LCD screen. I rarely run my batteries very low, but last week while doing a bunch of catch-in-focus shooting, by the time I was done the battery indicator showed 1/2 charge. When charging the batteries that night, they both took a few hours to charge. So my assumption is that even if the grip battery becomes depleted and the body battery is full, the indicator still shows a full charge. Only when the body battery came down to half charge did the indicator show half charge.

Thanks Doc for reminding me that I can check the status of both batteries independently with the menu screen - forgot about that!