Originally posted by SlickYamaha Yes. this question again.... No its not the same as the other 2,486 threads about the battery meter.
I have a new KX. I purchased it knowing that the batteries had issues but after the software upgrade, they usually got more accurate. I did the upgrade and I still notice inconsistencies with the meter.. When i first got the camera it seemed like after 30 shots the meter was already down to orange or "half"... the strange thing was it seemed like when i was taking shots it would be orange, then when I view the shots it went green for a few minutes, then i would notice it was back to orange... then all of a sudden about 8xx shots into the SD card, it went from orange to red. I went to take another shot and nothing happened, the camera turned off that fast. To the point of not even being able to get another shot off... I broke out a new set of eneloops and started back up... about 50 shots back into it i was down to orange again. I thought maybe the pack set on the shelf for a year or so, (even slow discharges still discharge) So I threw them on the charger over night, put them back in.... 50 or so shots later I'm back to orange. I assume this will stay orange for another 8xx shots or so... but still... whats up with the meter?
eneloops are the way to go - and one should charge them before using -
as you've realized that some may have sat on the shelves for a while and there is no guaranteeing how much charge is left - and K-x like all other Pentax dSLRs using AA's are very, very battery fussy.
As for showing Half Orange after about 50 shots -
it really depends on how those 50 shots are done.
Shooting off 50 shots in succession - probably would temporarily "stress" the batteries, so that their operating voltage (under load) is lowered - hence the Half Orange.
However normally with a bit of rest the batteries probably would recover back to Full Green again -
- I think this is what you are kind of seeing.
Batteries are also temperature dependent - in the cold they often show noticeably lower performance and lower meter readings - if cold enough they may not even work.
I can't quite explain the sudden demise going from Orange to Red -
unless you were shooting a bunch over a short duration and the meter sort of didn't have a chance to stabilize to show Empty Red before the operating voltage level (under load) drop to below the threshold.
Did you by any chance allow the batteries to rest a bit and tried switching the K-x back on? Often one can squeeze a few more shots out.
My experience with the K-x battery indicator has shown:
full
Green lasts for about 1/3 (33%) usage (~400 shots)-
half
Orange first shows when there is still about 2/3 (66%) capacity left (~800 shots left or lasts for ~600 shots) -
empty
Red shows when there is about 1/6 (16.7%) capacity left (~200 shots).
(I am on firmware version 1.01.00.07; and shot count 20,000+ - so that is from 17 changes of batteries) I average over 1,200 shots per eneloop charge - and I added the approx number of shots on each level to my table above.
Everyone's shot count is likely to be different due to different shooting styles - I think the percentages probably are likely to hold?
Note: I shoot with very little flash and just about everything set to save batteries - so YMMV in terms of total shots -
however in the first part of the table above the ratio or % should hold and one merely needs to calculate from one's typical total shot count/charge to arrive at the approx shots per level.
For me when the Red/empty battery level first shows at a steady state - I know I still have about 200 shots to go - so I have often gone to a gig/shoot with batteries that are showing Red/empty - of course carrying my spare charged set and back-up set of lithium AAs.
(note orange or red may show fairly early on - but once the K-x is "rested" the indicator may revert back to the higher state - so the lower level has not yet reached a "steady state" as I call it, is when the level shows even after being rested)