[Michael Piziak]

Just curious. To keep track of things like date and time, do Pentax dslr's have a small built in battery?

I once had an Olympus c5050z and it's built in battery died and then it couldn't keep settings.

[jatrax]

I don't think it is a battery but rather a capacitor. Cannot remember where I read that though....

[Not a Number]

Actually there was an earlier thread on this if I can find it. The thread listed the battery that is used on the main board to keep volatile settings like time and date in memory. When looking up the specs on the battery the recharge life cycle for a fully discharged battery versus a partially discharged one was on the order of something like 50 vs 500. So the lesson would be to always keep a charged main battery in the camera which will keep the backup battery full charged. As I recall the Pentax support website says it takes about 48-72 hours to deplete the backup battery.

If I find the thread I'll post a link.

[Steve.Ledger]

My K-01 loses date and time when I remove the battery for recharging. But it doesn't lose the location and user settings. Go figure.

[aoeu]

My K-01 loses date and time when I remove the battery for recharging. But it doesn't lose the location and user settings. Go figure.

Flash memory rocks.

[fgaudet]

My K-01 loses date and time when I remove the battery for recharging. But it doesn't lose the location and user settings. Go figure.

My Q use to do that. Oddly enough I read somewhere to try a different brand of SD card. So I tried a Kingston and low and behold my Q now remembers the time and date when I change battery.

[Adam]

Just curious. To keep track of things like date and time, do Pentax dslr's have a small built in battery?

I once had an Olympus c5050z and it's built in battery died and then it couldn't keep settings.

AFAIK there is a backup battery for the date and time, as some people have reported that after a while, their cameras forget the time after the main battery is removed. The backup battery isn't meant to be replaced by the user and personally I've never experienced any issued with it.

Adam
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[Steve.Ledger]

My Q use to do that. Oddly enough I read somewhere to try a different brand of CF card. So I tried a Kingston and low and behold my Q now remembers the time and date when I change battery.

My Q uses an SD card, not sure how you're managing to fit an CF card in yours

[fgaudet]

My Q uses an SD card, not sure how you're managing to fit an CF card in yours

My bad, fixed now... It's saturday after all

[OregonJim]

My Q use to do that. Oddly enough I read somewhere to try a different brand of SD card. So I tried a Kingston and low and behold my Q now remembers the time and date when I change battery.

Probably because some cards are real power hogs, even when in "sleep" mode. I have one (CF) card that draws 5mA even when turned off, while most of my other cards draw on the order of a few microamps. That one card will kill a backup battery in minutes.

[kh1234567890]

Actually there was an earlier thread on this if I can find it. The thread listed the battery that is used on the main board to keep volatile settings like time and date in memory. When looking up the specs on the battery the recharge life cycle for a fully discharged battery versus a partially discharged one was on the order of something like 50 vs 500. So the lesson would be to always keep a charged main battery in the camera which will keep the backup battery full charged. As I recall the Pentax support website says it takes about 48-72 hours to deplete the backup battery.

If I find the thread I'll post a link.

Here.

[p38arover]

Early Pentax DSLRs did - at least my *istD has a replaceable CR2016 battery that is user accessible.

[VisualDarkness]

Flash memory rocks.

Yeah, flash memory can remember things without any power being feeded for a long long time as it only needs power to change the data. Sadly it doesn't help much for a camera to remember that it was "shut off 8:37" and continue from there.

[zekewhipper]

You can recharge the internal battery.

1) Turn the camera on.
2) Turn off the Auto Power Off option.
3) Turn off the rear LCD.
4) Let the camera sit overnight. Preferably till the main battery is depleted. That way you can give it a good full recharge too later, but because it obviously put all the juice it could into the internal battery.

[Michael Piziak]

Interesting. I've never seen a post where a Pentax dslr had a dead internal battery, resulting in lost date, time, etc... The Olympus prosumer camera I had, after a few years the internal battery died and it couldn't keep settings.

---------- Post added 05-04-14 at 10:09 AM ----------

My K-01 loses date and time when I remove the battery for recharging. But it doesn't lose the location and user settings. Go figure.

Thus I'm assuming these cameras have a small internal battery and a capacitor. The battery keeps track of time and date, as I don't think a capacitor could do that. The capacitor retains user settings. Your internal battery is probably shot.