[jdb566]

Hey all,

Hope someone can help, as I have googled the problem and can't find an exact match. I have two Pentax made rechargeable batteries for the K-r. They used to give us a fairly respectable 400-600 shots per battery. Now both of the batteries, fully charged according to the charger and the camera when inserted are now only giving 2-10 shots before being completely discharged Since it is both batteries I am suspicious that this is something internal to the camera body and not the battery. I was hoping someone might be able to shed some insight to this particular issue.

Thanks in advance and cheers!

Jeff

[hcc]

How long did you use the batteries and how many times did you charge/discharge them? Rechargeable batteries have a limit in the number of cycles after which their voltage may drop more rapidly.

Maybe it is time to buy new rechargeable batteries.

My 5 cents....

[kiwi_jono]

Sounds suspiciously like they are not being fully charged.
What does the camera battery indicator say when you put the batteries in initially - bear in mind it takes some time for the camera to work out charge state after a battery is put in so it might be indicating a false battery level to start with.

Is it taking a 2 or more hours to charge? If not you might want to clean the contacts on the battery charger (an eraser followed by a dry clean cloth can do a good job) and try again.

[jdb566]

Thanks, I will check the battery contacts. Having 2 batteries thst were purchased at different times and have different usage go at the exact same time seems coincidental, the indicator says full, until you take a couple of photos and the charging cycle has not gotten significantly longer. Just to test the battery theory however, we have ordered a new one. Thanks again for your time and I will try out you suggestions.
Cheers

[jdb566]

Okay, so just to test out the theory that the rechargeables were depleted I got an AA adapter put in Energizer Advanced Lithium AA batteries which lasted exactly 3 minutes. The battery gauge started out as half full and show completely empty after watching it for two minutes. I then took 3 photo's without flash and the message Battery Depleted came up on the camera LCD and shut off. So after having a similar experience with alkaline's, my testing would seem to show that something in the body is creating a super drain on the battery. Both sets of batteries were fresh and had expiration dates several years out.

Does anyone have any thoughts, that don't involve just a depleted battery as my testing seems to disprove that. I do realize that one should always choose the simplest explanation of a phenomenon, the one that requires the fewest leaps of logic. But in this case Occam's razor seems to be at odds with the law of probabilities that all all for set of batteries, of different manufacture and type, purchased at different times and locations are all bad at the same time.

So any more in depth hypotheses as to what might be causing this would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks in advance,

Jeff