continu lo-bat *istDS

hi folks,

i bought my cam 1,5 years ago.
now, when i put on my cam, it gives me a signal the batt's r empty.
this is not true.
i put new batt's in it.
still the same.
put it on ac, still no live in it.

perhaps the cam needs a hard reset?
someone know what to do?
any advice?

i hope you can help me!

tnx in advance

Jean-Paul

What kind of batteries do you use? Normal AA's or NiMH AA's or something different?
Best thing to do is to let Pentax check the unit out to see what's wrong.
Which firmware version do you have on your unit? (hold down 'menu' and turn on the camera, then you will see the firmware version. In my case 2.01)
Or does the unit fail to power on completely?

i have used batteries of GP - Ultra alkaline battery's (not rechargable), and also duracel, ultra M3, also alkaline.

sometimes i also use rechargable batt. this kind of batt live shorter, i know, but that's no problem. but it musnt be 50 pics and batt r empty...

firmware is the latest one.... 2.02

at this moment the cam works again...
i also send an email to pentax.
hope they dont charge 80 euro research....
without repair cost....

unit totaly doesnt start. when i switch to on, the first (and only) thing that happens is the "empty batt" goes on

Alkalines arn't really any good for DSLRs, you want to be using NiMH (Nikel Metal Hydride) re-chargables or Lithium single use batteries. These will last 4-5 times longer than Alkalines.

NiMH's in my DL2 give me more shots than I can be bothered to count, they self discharge before the camera ever drains them.

ok,

so my problem can be in the alcalines......

can i use every NiMH? or is there also any different in?
something can be adviced?

originaly pentax delivers 2 "think" batt's with the cam.
r these the best for usage?

something else?

I use generic ones from www.7dayshop.com which have a rated capacity of 2600MAh. I doubt these are the best, but they do work very well.

Any NiMH battery should do the trick, they are available in different capacitys from about 1700 to 2700 MAh, mostly the higher the better although the companys do sometimes use biased testing methods to make their cells look better than they are.

You need a charger which can charge NiMH batteries, you can't charge them in older chargers designed for Ni-CAD batteries. These chargers aren't expencive, just thought I should point it out.

Hi Jean-Paul,

you can get Uniross AA 2500 mAh batteries for around £1 a cell. A dedicated charger for maybe £10 (I can't remember off the top of my head how much exactly).. that's 2 sets of batteries and charger for around £20. You'll get anything up to 7-800 shots off one charge, I think someone here had over a 1000. You'll get perhaps 1000 charge cycles per set, so £20 will get you 1,400,000 shots.. ish. The same price as alkalines for maybe 2-300. Not a bad deal. They're readily available in most decent electrical or camera stores as well, or just buy off ebay.

Hope that helps,

Cheers

Liam

hi folks,

x-mas is over, now i have time again..

tnx for all your good reply's.
i also put a Q to pentax. still wating for there reaction.

Mongoose told that alkalines r bad for DSLRs. why is this?

a frend of me told me about Lithium-Ion accu's. he told they r the best.
some of you have used them before?

during x-mas my cam told me a few times the accu's r empty... after shutdown the cam for 30-45 mins, the accus where ok again... very strange...

thanks!

Jean -Paul

Hi Jean-Paul, I use CR-V3 batteries in my Ds. They cost a bit to buy but last for ages. Maybe not as enviromentally good as rechargeables (accu's - are you Dutch?) but I've never had a problem with them.
Pentax recommend Alkalines purely as an emergency option - not all functions will be supported with Alkalines.

I have used 2300 mAh NiMH batteries since I bought the *istDS maybe 18 months ago. Follow the instructions and there is no problem!

right gwyn...
im using accu's and i am dutch...

but, rechargeables is a better word...

tnx!

Jean-Paul

Accus? Dutch?

would you care to elaborate?

for example, turning the camera on can present a problem.

Seriously the Alkalines which came with my DL2 never even went in it, I think I put them in a TV remote.

Car batteries are called accu's in Dutch (accumulators I assume), and sometimes people also call rechargeables accu's instead of herlaadbaar. And since Jean-Paul referred to accu's in his posting I guessed he was Dutch. Simple.

I had this problem with my IstD. I sent it in to Pentax and they ran some tests and blamed it on my using rechargable CRV3's. They said that they did not do anything to fix it....they just ran tests and everything was working OK. Well It worked fine for awhile longer using rechargable NiMH's and regular CRV3's and then suddenly it again registered no charge with the regular crv3's. I am not certain what is going on!