K-50 Non-OEM battery life at the airshow

For anyone with a K-50, I got the following number of shots out of these batteries last weekend:

4 AA NiMh rechargeables, comprising 2x Ansmann Photo (green) 2400mAh and 2x 2500mah - 500 shots

1 Maxsima foto D-Li109 compatible, 500 shots...exactly the same number as 4xAA by strange co-incidence.

I then put in 4x JCB AA NimH rechargeables and took another 139 shots, plus another 90+ on the following day...they are still in and showing amber on the battery indicator...i'd guess another 150-200 to go.

Most of my images were taken with Tamron 70-300 Di LD...half AF and half manual. I also took about 75-100 with Sigma 150-500 again about 50:50 auto and manual, my third lens was SMC M 75-150 f4 about 60-80 all manual of course, then for the static about 50 -60 shots with SMC 18-55 WR mainly AF.

I took the original Pentax D-Li109 fully charged but never used it.

Might be of interest to someone?

What I have found is that the rechargeable AA batteries don't hold the charge for as long as the Pentax battery so if the camera has stayed in the bag for a while it is always best to check them first! Same problem with flash batteries.

I have found that third-party lithium batteries in my K3 are a false economy. Of the two I bought when I bought my K3, one stopped working completely in around 18 months and the other only gets a few score photos before it dies. I bought one extra genuine one at christmas when there was an offer on them at SRS and now I have only one spare, but the genuine ones last for ages.

I bought my old K200D for it's ability to use AA batteries but that decision was a very bad one - I found all types of AA batteries to be very unreliable and many times found myself unable to take photos because batteries which were supposedly fully charged would not work in the camera.

I find the opposite, very difficult to separate the OEM batteries with the much cheaper copies, although I don't use a K3, they've lasted years in a couple of K5's, a 645z and a K1

Update: As of August 4th the 4x JCB AA 2400mAh NiMh I had in K-50 ran out.

They were in camera for virtually 3 weeks and lasted for 435 shots in total, over 5 separate sessions...so not bad really...probably 50:50 manual and auto focus.

The July issue of "Which?" has a test report on rechargeable NiMH batteries. Of the AA size they report Energizer Recharge Power Plus, GP ReCyko+ProAA, Varta Accu AA 2100mAh, Panasonic Eneloop Ready-to-use and (very inexpensive) Ikea Ladda HR6 AA to be the five best. They tested AAA batteries separately.

There are some strange features in the tests. Eneloop Ready-to-use and Energizer Recharge Power Plus came out well in both the AA and AAA tests. The AAA size Varta was way down the list. Energizer Recharge Extreme did well in AAA size but poorly in AA class. Maplin and Morrisons batteries did poorly in both groups, as did Panasonic Eneloop Pro batts.

Like RobL, my own experience is that NiMH batteries loose charge rather too quickly if one only uses a camera occasionally, though Eneloops seem fairly good.

Given what appear to be inconsistencies in the results of one brand in the AA and AAA classes, I am wary of putting too much reliance on the Which? results - I know that I share this caution with many others.

If anyone feels like looking at the results in detail, good public libraries usually take the Which? magazine.

I've used various AA rechargeables in my Kr, and K50 but found that 3rd party D-Li109 equivalents are quite reliable and similar price.
Now that I have a K70 I can't use AA's any more so I looked for more D-Li109 's and found a DSTE USB charger plus two batteries for about £15 on Amazon. These seem perfectly OK and the USB charger means I can now even recharge in the car if the need arises.

Peter