Battery problems with Ist DL2
Does this problem affect only the rechargeable batteries you mention??? Is it a new problem, ie they have worked fine before?
I am not sure that the power of the batteries has anything to do with it, but if the camera works fine with lithium (which are best in my opinion) or alkaline then I struggle to work out what the problem might be....
Good luck
Peter
I've just learnt to live with it, and keep a spare set to hand
Pentax K10d, *istDL, Kit lens ( 18-55mm ), 50mm f1.7 lens, Tamron 70-300mm lens, Prinzflex 70-162 manual lens, Various old flashes.
Graham
Thanks so much for your replies. Could not work out how to reply to you individually, but have tried many types of battery, all with the same result. Have not tried the ones specified by Graham, so will try to get some of them and see if I fare any better.
Many thanks
gillyflower.:
I did have a similar problem a couple of years ago which turned out to be my battery charger, have you tried borrowing a friends charger?
but it does help
Yes - bought new charger as well. Maybe I'ss stick to the K10D!!!
gillyflower
I have a DL2 and a Samsung GX10 (K10D clone). The DL2 was unused for a while after I got the GX10. When I went back to it I had a problem that neither rechargeables, nor alkaline would work, got the empty battery flashing icon.
Following advice on this and other forums I tried Energizer Ultimate Lithium, and these have worked fine. However, after my earlier problems, I always remove them between use, and usually when I put them back, I get the empty flashing icon, I remove & re-insert then they show full power.
Recently they have been on offer at ASDA & Tesco for £3.99 a 4 pack, normally £6.99. It's worth a try at that price, I'm still on my first set, and they're still showing full power after quite a bit of use.
Watch out when buying to get the ones that say, " Up to 630 digital photos" on the pack. Because they do some energizer which are not lithium, but the packaging is almost identical.
ME Super, MX, 2No. 50mm f1.7, MZ-10, 28-70 f4, 28mm f2.8, Samyang 500 & 800 f8 mirrors, Vivitar 2x TC, K-01, K-30
I'm very close to just throwing it in the bin, I'm so frustrated, particularly on the day I'd travelled 60 miles to photograph a steam loco, and had taken 8 (yes, eight) fully-charged sets of batteries with me, and I wasn't able to take a single shot. When I got home, I checked the batteries and they were all fine.
I also have a thought in my mind about a "battery type" setting - cannot remember if the *istDx series had this or not or it might have been with older film cameras.
Ultimately it is down to the battery chemistry and on-load voltage. Some will be as low as 1.2v and others as high as 1.5 which with 4 in series is a significant difference.
.
I'm very close to just throwing it in the bin, I'm so frustrated,
Don't do that!
Try lightly sanding both the contacts on the battery door ( very lightly) and the ends of the batteries.
It did work for mine, got to be a shot.
Pentax K10d, *istDL, Kit lens ( 18-55mm ), 50mm f1.7 lens, Tamron 70-300mm lens, Prinzflex 70-162 manual lens, Various old flashes.
I love my Pentax, all of them.
Eventually I decided to leave a set of the brand new lithium batteries in the camera overnight (approx 12 hrs), with the camera switched on and empty battery symbol flashing. The next morning the empty battery symbol was still flashing, however when I switched the camera off and then back on again - HEY PRESTO! The camera switched on and the display showed a full battery symbol.
It appears that a new set of batteries has to be "initialised" in some way. At the moment I know that it appears to require a maximum of 12hrs to do this, so will experiment to determine the minimum amount of time required.
Really glad I got it working - I had also emailed pentax support, but got a response saying that the camera was too old and that parts were no longer available.
There are Youtube videos about the issue which may help as well:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBmLxdUlkW8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLPKgoG76bw
(albeit those refer to a K-x but it is the same problem.)
Welcome to the forum!
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14 years