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02-13-2010, 02:25 PM   #16
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QuoteOriginally posted by adelena Quote
The re-chargeables are an off brand and the charger came with them.
As others have said, get at a minimum some sanyo eneloop NiMh rechargables (two packs of 4 is good) and a sanyo-brand eneloop charger. Your battery problems will pretty much be history then.

02-13-2010, 06:02 PM   #17
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..either that (good rechargeable batteries) or you haven't done the firmware fix yet that is why battery power indicator is always on the low.
02-15-2010, 06:58 AM   #18
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QuoteOriginally posted by GerryL Quote
..either that (good rechargeable batteries) or you haven't done the firmware fix yet that is why battery power indicator is always on the low.
Hmm. I have done the firmware upgrade and after that I started with newly charged new 2500 NimH and the battery meter went down to orange after a few hours and has been on "0" empty for 2-3 days now but I am taking pictures al the time. No idea when they will run out. Thought the Battery indicator was fixed in this latest firmware or have I done something wrong?
02-15-2010, 08:53 AM   #19
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QuoteOriginally posted by aliasant Quote
Hmm. I have done the firmware upgrade and after that I started with newly charged new 2500 NimH and the battery meter went down to orange after a few hours and has been on "0" empty for 2-3 days now but I am taking pictures al the time. No idea when they will run out. Thought the Battery indicator was fixed in this latest firmware or have I done something wrong?
Dunno about the indicator, but when it does get down to empty, I'd change them. Evidence suggests that low power makes the focus system get "lazy", and perhaps is related to this "mirror slap" thing a few people are now going on about.

02-15-2010, 09:09 AM   #20
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QuoteOriginally posted by mattdm Quote
Dunno about the indicator, but when it does get down to empty, I'd change them. Evidence suggests that low power makes the focus system get "lazy", and perhaps is related to this "mirror slap" thing a few people are now going on about.
Hmm. The batteries died just 5 minutes after writing that post :/ Typical But The indicator went thru orange to empty in hours and after that I have taken hundreds of images over 3 days and the meter has been on empty all that time. I use manual focus so that part aint a problem. WHen I replaced them I tok the oppurtunity to messure their capacity and they all had about 1200mV left in them. Weird.
02-15-2010, 09:33 AM   #21
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QuoteOriginally posted by aliasant Quote
Hmm. The batteries died just 5 minutes after writing that post :/ Typical But The indicator went thru orange to empty in hours and after that I have taken hundreds of images over 3 days and the meter has been on empty all that time. I use manual focus so that part aint a problem. WHen I replaced them I tok the oppurtunity to messure their capacity and they all had about 1200mV left in them. Weird.
Here's a bit of an explanation.

Pentax dSLRs using AA batteries all have a common family trait of being fussy with batteries -
due to momentary high current drain (up to 1.484 Amps) and using voltage level threshold (cut-off at 1.15V).

When there is current demand the battery's voltage drops - the higher the current demand the more the voltage level drops.

eg: the K200D will shutdown at 1.15V per battery = 4.6V total (see post #25 in K200D Battery Meter Problem )
remember also even if a single battery is low (at higher current drain/demand) - it could cause the whole set to fail.

Here's a graphical illustration using that 1.15V voltage threshold (horizontal line in red)

(NOTE: to be fair - the horizontal scale in this animated comparison are not the same for the higher capacity NiMH, their ranges are wider (better) )

Since the max current demand seemed to be tested at about 1.484Amps the critical curve would be somewhere between the 2Amp curve (dark green) and the 1Amp (purple).

The eneloop shows more curves above the 1.15V red-line than the 2 well known higher capacity NiMH, and if one cares to look at the curves in NiMh Battery Shoot Out - the eneloop maintains noticably higher voltages than any other NiMH battery LSD or otherwise.


This is the reason why the majority consensus here whenever AA battery problems are mentioned that then knowledgeable will recommend eneloops.

I use eneloops in my K100D and K-x and I get about 1,000 shots on the K100D and over 1,100 shots on the K-x per charge, and often the camera(s) will be unused for weeks, then I will shoot hundreds of shots in a session -
eneloops have served me well.

Last edited by UnknownVT; 02-15-2010 at 09:39 AM.
02-15-2010, 10:31 AM   #22
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QuoteOriginally posted by mattdm Quote
Dunno about the indicator, but when it does get down to empty, I'd change them. Evidence suggests that low power makes the focus system get "lazy", and perhaps is related to this "mirror slap" thing a few people are now going on about.
Yup! ..and apparently a lot of people are making a big deal of it.
If you find an Achilles heel, strike it!
Bring that sucker down as I am now insecure with my popular camera brand!

02-15-2010, 10:45 AM   #23
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Another dayt another post where a new user is baffled by the AA's. Meanwhile my Lion just keeps going ...... i just don't get AA batteries in a camera this complex.
02-15-2010, 11:03 AM   #24
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QuoteOriginally posted by Alfisti Quote
Meanwhile my Lion just keeps going ...... i just don't get AA batteries in a camera this complex.
Lion normally means "Lithium Ion" - are you sure?

Li-ion are rechargeable lithium batteries whose native voltage is 3.7V per cell which means 4x = 14.8V (obviously WAY over the expected 6V in a Pentax dSLR)

Perhaps you mean the lithium AA batteries such as the Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA that came with the camera?

JFYI - there are some who have found problems with lithium AAs -
please see: Defective Camara or Battery Problem K200D??
where people have actually found (quite contrarily) that alkalines seem to work better than the lithium AAs
02-15-2010, 11:47 AM   #25
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Yes, DSLRs eat Alkaline batteries. It is true of my K100d (which gets only CR-3 Lithiums) and also the K-x. My K-x blew through a set of Alks in less than 200 shots. However, the Eneloops have lasted for two months on one charge and are still going strong. The Energizer Ultimate Lithiums I wanted to test before traveling with them are still waiting.

Last edited by GeneV; 02-15-2010 at 11:59 AM.
02-15-2010, 11:52 AM   #26
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QuoteOriginally posted by Alfisti Quote
Another dayt another post where a new user is baffled by the AA's. Meanwhile my Lion just keeps going ...... i just don't get AA batteries in a camera this complex.
For every one person who refuses the advice to use Eneloops and insists on struggling with years-old cells of unknown quality (or worse, alkalines), there are thousands happily using Eneloops with *no problems whatsoever*. AA's are a problem only if you choose to make them be a problem by not getting the ones known to work.
02-15-2010, 12:01 PM   #27
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Eneloops or..
Panasonic Infiniums which I am impressed with.
02-15-2010, 12:08 PM   #28
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Well. I dont really complain about my batteries lifetime even though the Lithiums that came with the camera died after about 3 hours use.

What I was a bit baffled over was the accuracy ( non existent) of the Battery life Indicator. Even after the Firmware update.

I havnt been able to buy those Eneloop here in Sweden. The ones I have now are Hähnel 2500NimH (brand new) and as a backup my semi old Duracell 2500NimH.
The Duracells are pretty crappy but enough until the Hähnels are charged again.
The Hähnel did last several days and many hundreds of images, many with the flash.
02-15-2010, 12:49 PM   #29
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QuoteOriginally posted by aliasant Quote
Well. I dont really complain about my batteries lifetime even though the Lithiums that came with the camera died after about 3 hours use.

What I was a bit baffled over was the accuracy ( non existent) of the Battery life Indicator. Even after the Firmware update.

I havnt been able to buy those Eneloop here in Sweden. The ones I have now are Hähnel 2500NimH (brand new) and as a backup my semi old Duracell 2500NimH.
The Duracells are pretty crappy but enough until the Hähnels are charged again.
The Hähnel did last several days and many hundreds of images, many with the flash.
Were you shooting a lot of video or spending a good deal of time looking at Live View? Three hours is not very much time for the Lithiums.
02-15-2010, 01:55 PM   #30
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QuoteOriginally posted by GeneV Quote
Were you shooting a lot of video or spending a good deal of time looking at Live View? Three hours is not very much time for the Lithiums.
Since it was the first day with the camera I did use the video a bit.
Maybe 1 hour trying to take a movie and trying to view it on my old tv but I only had an old video out cable from my old Samsung S850 compact and that didnt work.
Same contact though and it was worth a try.
Dont think I spent more then 1 hour doing that. I might have taken about 15 minutes of video max.
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