About the battrey for k-r

I bought my k-r on 31st Dec 2010.
And i found out that the Lithium batterey doesnt last very long.... wondering if it's because my one is a 'Made in China' or they are generally not lasting very long?


thx

Hi Momo

I have had a total of 8 'third party' batteries from China for both K10d's and my present K7's. None of them have any problems with reduced life. And I am sure that you will find similar reports of the same on here. However I am also sure that some will say that the quality is not too good. All I can vouch for is that I personally have found them to be of extremly good quality and very reliable. Please note that very cold weather does reduce the battery life. Take a spare with you and keep it warm when it is very cold.

Regards


Paul

Hi Momo - welcome to Pentax User.

Can you be more specific? How many pictures can you take?

Do you use a lot of live view and/or flash?

You'll probably find that all batteries are now made in China, at least those used in electronics. This only becomes a problem if an unscrupulous supplier is used who may substitute cheap poor quality materials and pocket the difference (while the buyer has specified a particular standard and negotiated the price accordingly). There's evidence of this happening with Marklin trains over the past few years, problems with poor quality alloy castings long-solved in the West have been reappearing.

I rather doubt anyone would be daft enough to do that with Pentax though as they'd lose the contract overnight and quite possibly contracts with other manufacturers when word got around!

New batteries need 2-3 cycles before they are really up to speed.

If you use the LCD a lot, life will be limited. I get around 2-3 hours of filming out of a 7D battery.

Sensor cleaning on my K10D essentially kills battery life - without it, I can get a couple of thousand shots, even at -20.

Bret

If we are talking about buying a new camera, the battery should be fully charged before first use. I would expect over 800 shots with one of these batteries - I had a camera on test for a few days and couldn't shoot enough images to even dent the battery power.

i am finding that the battery life on my k r is not that good i am using sanyo enloops and camlink batteries i do not use live view or flash much and i have not used the li-on battery yet but have just charged it
and put it in camera so will see what happens

Then you have your answer - use the Li-ion battery provided and you won't have a problem.

Interesting. Eneloops have a substantially larger capacity than the Li-ion (2000mAh as opposed to 1500-1700mAh)

but I suspect it's at a nominal 7.4V not 4.8.....

7.4 x 1.5 --> 11.1Wh
4.8 x 1.9 --> 9.1Wh

The Li-Ion will also get smaller current pulls, it's win all the way.

Oh, and the 1900 is a realistic Eneloop figure.

Bret

Aha. I was thinking of my 7D which takes 6 Eneloops.

I wonder what the actual for the Li-ion is.

http://www.ephotozine.com/article/Pentax-Kr-14989

Unfortunately I can't remember the rating of the battery, but it was higher than the K20D type.

7.4V
1050 mAh (7.8Wh)

Thanks guys!

My first charge only did 100 or less shoots...which was really worrying.

I think bretti_kivi was right. After 3-ish cycles the battery does get much better! i can shoot a couple of hundreds no problem so far. Havent used up this time yet. So will see how many it can do this time!

and also, yeah, cold weather doesnt help either.

I had my K10 decide to upset me yesterday. Then I realised: I think I've taken the better part of 2,500 shots since the last time I charged the batteries.....

but the cold really hit them. I warmed them in a pocket and they worked again.

Bret