Originally posted by UnknownVT It would seem that with primary Lithium AA's the new K100D Super from your tests did really well - more than double the rated capacity according to the K100D Super manual -
did you do any testing with rechargeable NiMH AA's?
I did not do any testing with NiMH because the press loan agreement with Pentax gave me limited time with the camera and the first set of lithiums I used didn't die ... and I was hoping to use the camera enough to kill them so I could give a final exposure count of how many shots you can get before lithiums die.
Unfortunately (for the review that is) the lithiums were still alive and kicking after 1480 exposures! The lithiums I used were Energizer e2 lithiums but I suspect brand doesn't matter that much. That said, I have several sets of Energizer 2500mAh NiMH batteries and they only last half as long as my Rayovac 2000mAh NiMH batteries or my eneloop 2000mAh NiMH batteries.
I usually get about 400-800 exposures with either the Rayovac or eneloop NiMH batteries in my *ist DL (yes, I know that's a huge range) but I only get about 250-500 exposures with my Energizer 2500mAh NiMH batteries in my *ist DL.
I really was amazed that the lithiums lasted as long as they did in the K100D Super. I don't know exactly how much charge was left in the lithiums but both of the LCD battery bars were lit on the K100D Super's display ... so I guess the camera was detecting at least half charge or more.
Still, even if the camera's battery meter was wrong and the batteries were almost dead, it's impressive that I got 1480 exposures with one set of batteries ... especially since I had shake reduction on all the time and dust removal each time I powered on the camera.
As far as the published Pentax battery life is concerned, I suspect they may be taking into account battery life drainage over time (such as if you left the camera sitting in your bag for a week before you used it again). I used the camera almost non-stop for two weeks during the review period.