Firmware problem

It's not just Pentax... my 1st digital in 1999 a Nikon 700
would only work on Panasonic or Sanyo batteries.... My 2nd
a Minolta F300 was also fussy.

Pentax aren't to know that you aren't using top grade
batteries in the camera.

I've still got some Ansmann 2200 and Hama 2600 that
won't work in a camera so I use them on LED lights etc.

I've just charged and tested some Panasonic 2000's from
1999 and they are still showing 1650mah after being
hammered for 14 years in about 4 cameras... sadly no
longer available. The latest Panasonic Infiniums aren't
as good.

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I really don't understand what all the fuss is about on this thread. Eneloops (or the equivalents by other makers) are cheap, readily available and do the job in the K-x just fine. Why anyone would need to buy other sorts of batteries is beyond me.

Just buy Eneloops and use your K-x's to your heart's content!

Regards
David

You don't understand the battery culture do you?

What's the battery culture?

Cheers
David

It's not uncommon to have one poor battery in a set of 4.
I've just charged up 4 Chinese made Panasonic batteries
that I only use in LED lights etc. because one had shown
low capacity 1620 instead of 2100. It's improved slightly
on this charge, but unlikely to get much better. This
charger can actually be left running for days and it will
stop when it thinks a battery isn't going to improve capacity
wise from the last charge.

The charger cost £30 from Amazon and has paid for itself over
and over....






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^^^^^
yay, battery culture

I've quite happily used 7Dayshop NiMH 2900s to power my K200D in both body and the grip with no complaints. They are recharged with a£7.99 charger from the BM store. I always keep a couple of spare sets of Energizer Lithiums in the bag in case I run out of power but I've not needed them in a couple of years.

I would find it rather odd if any camera designed to take AA's wouldn't work with a fully or even half charged set of any type, unless of course it specified certain types in the manual given that later model cameras may need more power for video etc.

My istD has worked with Alkalines, (Duracell, Panasonic and Kodak that I can definitely remember) NiCads, NiMhs, and Enloops.

They don't make them like they used to

Depends on the internal resistance and current drain. For example if you were using live view and had a high current drain and had a poor alkaline cell the voltage would drop quite low say 0.5V, even if the off load voltages was high eg 1.78V. A NiMh. Has low international resistance and so can deliver high current, it might start at off load 1.3V but keep its voltage close to 0.8V.

The circuit will be designed with specific tolerances in mind. 4 cruddy 0.5V loaded cells worth 2V in total might not cut it. 4 average rechargeable with a total loaded voltage of 3.2V might.

Specifications and batches will vary, chemistries and internal resistances will vary, the charge put in to rechargeable will vary.

As you turn on more features of the camera, does it use more CPU and memory writes...etc etc

Just because one scenario works doesn't mean they all will, even with seemingly exactly the same kit.

And I though it was all Black Magic!

'

Basic physics I think. (We just need Smeggy to selectively validate/fly off the handle at any "unwitting" use of the word basic!)

Well I've bought a set of Panasonic Evolta 2050mAh low drain batteries from Maplin - they're on sale for £5.99 at present - and the camera works straight off with no charging of the batteries required. The offload battery voltage is only 1.26V . I understand internal resistance can play a part but I cannot understand that it could be that much of an issue with the new Alkalines and almost new Tronic 2500mAh NiMH that I previously tried.

Internal resistance probably isn't the answer (ho humm). Might be with older batteries. However have a look at this graph from CPF, CPF also has other excellent battery related resources.