Digital Camera Battery Tips

Battery Conservation Tips
Are you always running out of battery power just before you take that perfect picture with your digital camera? Here are some tips to conserve your batteries when you are out "snapping away".

1) Turn off your digital camera when not in use. If you are in a situation where you must snap pictures quickly, this may not apply as turning digital cameras on and off take a few seconds, and may cause you to miss a picture-taking opportunity. However, if you are taking a leisurely stroll and can afford a couple of seconds before snapping a still subject, by all means, conserve your digital camera's energy!

2) Many digital cameras have a regular viewfinder and an LCD viewfinder. While the digital LCD viewfinder has its benefits, it can drain battery power. Turn it off when applicable and use your regular viewfinder for taking pictures.

3) Don't stop after taking every photo and look at the picture in your digital camera's playback mode. Granted, you sometimes need to look at photos immediately after shooting them in order to make sure your exposure is correct, the lighting is ok, etc., but doing this does use up your digital camera's battery power.

4) If you are using MicroDrive media, be forewarned that these miniature hard drives may take up quite more power than Compact Flash cards.

Taking care of you new battery pack

Normally, a new battery pack comes in a very low charge condition and must be fully charged before use. Refer to the user manual of your portable electronic equipment for charging instructions. A new battery pack needs to be fully charged and fully discharged or "cycled" as much as five times to condition them into performing at full capacity. Your equipment may report a fully charge condition in as short as 10 to 15 minutes when the new battery pack is being charged for the first time. This is a normal phenomenon especially for Nickel Cadmium (Ni-Cd) and Nickel Metal Hydride (Ni-MH) chemistries. When this happens, remove the battery pack and let it cool down for about fifteen minutes then repeat the charging procedure. "Conditioning" (fully discharging and then fully charging) is necessary so as to maintain the optimum performance of a battery pack, and is recommended at least once a month particularly for Ni-Cd and Ni-MH batteries. Failure to do so could result in reduced charge capacity and can significantly shorten the battery packs useful life. Lithium Ion batteries do not require conditioning. It is normal for a battery pack to get warm when charging and during use. However, if the battery pack gets excessive hot, here may be a problem with the portable electronic equipments charging circuit and should therefore be checked by a qualified technician. Rechargeable batteries undergo self-discharging when left unused for long periods of time. This is normal particularly in the case of Ni-MH and Li-ion chemistries. For best results, always store a battery pack fully charged. It should be removed from the equipment and kept in a cool, dry and clean place. The amount of runtime a battery pack produces depends on the power requirements of components in your electronic equipment.

Don't let under-charged batteries keep you from taking great photos.
 
If you infrequently use your digital camera, you may think that you after you use your digital camera, recharge your NiMH batteries, wait a few weeks or months, then use your digital camera again, that your batteries will be charged and you'll be ready to snap photos, right?

Oops... Do that and you'll be stuck with a non-functioning digital camera or one that just blinks a picture showing a dead battery.

Rechargeable batteries don't stay charged forever. They tend to lose a little bit of their power every day. If you charge your batteries and frequently use your digital camera, you will probably never notice this loss of power. However, after a couple of weeks, the power loss may be noticeable, and after a couple of months or longer of non-use, those once ready-to-go batteries may have lost enough power to make them unusable.

Don't get caught in this trap. Always charge your batteries before every trip, and make sure to use a battery charger with a sensor that prevents over-charge.

Memory Effect

Ni-Cd batteries remember how much charge was released on previous discharges. It has a tendency to release the same amount of energy with every charge/discharge cycle. If a Ni-Cd battery is always partially discharged before recharging, the usable capacity of the battery will be reduced. The Ni-MH battery is also affected by memory effect but to a lesser degree. A periodic discharge to one volt per cell or "exercise" is essential for Ni-Cd cells to prevent the building-up of memory. "Conditioning" (fully discharging and then fully charging) a battery pack also helps minimizing memory effect. Batteries can be fully discharged by disconnecting the equipment from the AC power supply and letting the equipment run on battery power until it ceases to function. Conditioning the battery once a month will keep it performing at its optimum level for a long time