IstDS Battery Problems

I have had an IstDS for about 6 years now and never used it much. I continue to have battery problems with it though and cannot find the answer to my problem in any of these forums or other websites.
I had the same set of rechargeable batteries for 4 years and they finally quit working. I thought that was just because they were so old so I went to a local camera store and they looked at my camera and gave me the batteries I would need and the charger. They were 4 Ni-MH batteries. I have charged them for hours on end and they all show as fully charged. However, when I put them in the camera it shows a low battery indicator and then immediately goes to battery depleted. I have tried waiting a few minutes seeing if they just take a few minutes to get read, I have tried turning it on and off, I have tried updating the firmware, etc. Nothing is working. I have also tried just 4 regular AA batteries hoping to get it to work just to get me through one event I wanted to photograph and that doesn't work either.
I am running into a brick wall trying to figure out what the problem is here. Does anyone have any suggestions? I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

This is probably a silly question, but it would be even sillier not to ask it at all: do you have a battery tester? All three situations would be explained if your first batteries were duff, the second one somehow incorrectly given their initial charge, and the third set old. Were they a brand new set of alkaline batteries?

What power are your Ni-MH batteries rated at. It should be printed on them. I would suggest that you should use 2500mAh or higher rated batteries. Alternatively, but its quite expensive, a set of AA Lithium batteries will definitely have the power needed. I used to run Lithium AA batteries in my Nikon F100 35mm film camera, and they lasted ages and were able to supply enough power for the camera and drive over an extended shoot.

Niimamsi, I do not have a battery tester and I thought about that but what would be the odds of me getting three bad battery sets? I guess it is always a possibility and I'll look into that. Thanks for the reply.

Sprocketdog23, they are 1.2V. I was told that would be the right power for my camera. Thanks for the reply.

I had the same problem when I used to use K110D, and KM seems to have simalar problem, you fully charge a set 2500mah battery and it will only last for perhaps 100 shots, and if you buy cheap alkani batteries then no hope, it will not work at all, the camera will just tell you the batteries are dead even they are brand new.

By the way, I have a K10D for sale, can take about 500-600 shots with a single charge. would you be interested?

From memory, my *ist DS will fill a 2 GB memory card with RAW images on a set of AA rechargeable batteries. That's 268 pictures I think, so you shouldn't have too low expectations. I used either Duracell 2100 mAh 'long shelf life' or 2500 mAh 7dayshop bargain batteries will similar results.

One thing that did improve matters was a nice intelligent charger with a readout which could 'refresh' batteries individually: http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technoline/technoline-BL700.asp (no, I'm not affiliated :wink

I use 7dayshop's own Eneloop type rechargables in my *istDS and they last for AGES. Don't tend to fire off hundreds of images, but the same set stays in the camera for a couple of months (with a fair few pics taken over that timeframe) until I think "I really ought to recharge the batteries just in case". I do also have a set of lithiums ready as spares just in case whenever I'm out and about on something I'm taking piucs of I don't want to miss.

Have you checked that the battery connectors in the camera are clean and free from debris. Wiping carefully with cotton buds might help. Word of warning though DO NOT APPLY WD40 although contact cleaner may help.

Thanks for the replies everyone.
m42geo - I really like this camera and am not interested in yours for sale, thanks for the offer though!

cedricd, I have looked at the connectors and they look fine but I may try your suggesting of using some cotton to clean them. If that doesn't work I may just take it to a local camera shop for more help.

Thanks everyone!

I would also say that Eneloop/Hybrio batteries are the way to go. My wife's *ist-Ds lasts for ages on them (as does my old *ist-D).

The *ist-D and *ist-Ds tried to automatically work out if you have Lithium or NiMH batteries installed by the voltage. Some NiMH when freshly charged have a higher than expected voltage and the camera can wrongly identify them as Lithium cells - that are on their way out. Often, by powering off the camera and repowering it would work (so it'd show dead, then power cycling would come back alive).

Alternatively, if you can get hold of a couple of cheap 3V Lithium cells you can try those (most high street retailers charge a large amount, but I believe 7dayshop has reasonably priced ones). You should get several hundred shots out of Lithium.

A multimeter would help identify the problem...

Matt

The 2500mAh mentioned is the battery capacity whereas the 1.2V is the voltage. Normal alkaline AA's are 1.5V so Ni-MH batteries start off with less voltage. Power is a combination of both these values.

There was some interesting investigation about this on RiceHigh's site including some videos about it. See link and more recently link

The videos do show how to get round this and that your batteries may not be to blame at all. Still worth checking them though with a multimeter as suggested.

John

I think the easiest way of finding if it is the batteries or the camera would be to use a set of new Energiser Lithium (easily available) and see. If the camera works then it is a problem with the batteries but if it still is not working then you know the camera is at fault.
I had a similar problem with my *iST DS but the litium batteries sorted it out and I never used the rechargables again.

Only just noticed this thread.

A few years ago, I had the exact same problem with mt istDL2 as you did, I tried everything but eventually, as it was well out of warranty, I gave up. I am convinced that there was some kind of electronics failure within the camera, nothing to do with the contacts or the batteries themselves.

I replaced it with a K100D super body, (but still have the istD, which looks rather sad after all this time.)