K-x NiMH battery problem

Now I have disharged GP ReCyko, Tronic 2500 mAh and Sony Eneloop batteries with La Crosse RS-900 intelligent charger using 500 mA discharge current (maximun with four batteries). Curves are not perfect, because I have to write voltages down manually, but anyway here are results:




In my knowled at least ReCykos and Eneloops should work fine, if electronics are designed properly and tested to work with NiMH batteries.

I'll put Eneloops to Sony's charger now and to morrow (on Saturday) I can try K-x with charged Eneloop batteries. Thumbs up.

Now is the Eneloop batteries charged by Sony's own charger (a total charge time 14 h) and the cells should be full.

I put Eneloops in the camera and the battery indicator is now green. After a few more picture taken with flash and also Liveview experiment the battery indicator is still green.

We'll see how long it takes until indicator goes to orange.

I don't start take more picture to test batteries, but I guess that on Cristmas I'll take couple on ten pictures and then I can see if K-x works or not with Eneloops

I updated the discharge curve (missing ReCyko start voltage):



I will come back after Christmas, and tell what happened.

And if Eneloops dosen't work as they should, I have package of new Ultra Energizer Lithium batteries in my camera back.

Merry Cristmas to all

Ricehigh has done some extensive testing of K-x batteries.
You will have to search the site, because there's more
than 1 article.

http://ricehigh.blogspot.com/

Thanks Algi

I found one interesting link and trick: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=33709815

"To solve my problem I put on a Manuall lens, so you get the "Enter focal lenght" screen. After that the camera finds the NiHM batteries every time and I have been happily shooting 400 pictures, 4 minutes of video and alot alot of chimping. And the batteries are still showing full."

I haven't any manual lenses and I can't try this trick, but interesting anyway. Maybe one reason for K-x battery problem is still the firmware and I wonder why Pentax cannot solve the problem. Last firmware update was on last december (2009).

You don't need a lens on the camera. It mentions it a few posts down. Just switch the camera with no lens and it will ask for the focal length. I can't see that working though.

I haven't got a K-x but the *istDS I had before the K20D used to be fussy about batteries. It used to work perfectly on Japanese made Panasonics similar to the Panasonic 1950's shown on this page. These were really good batteries unfortunately the current Panasonics seem to be Made In China and aren't as good. On the DS it was down to the battery and how it had been charged. You will have noticed on RH's site that he recommends removing the battery and then recharging for another hour or so to get the maximum.

I never had any problems with Eneloop either.

1) As you have a very good battery charger, the problems you were having with the GP batteries were clearly not caused by something basic like one uncharged cell.

2) Also, with your charts we can see that your four cells all supply a decent voltage at 500mA.

3) And from what I gather from your next-to-last message, a different set of batteries (the Sanyo ones) seems to work fine, so it's probably not the camera.

So perhaps the problem is that the tests you used to validate your GP batteries are not correct? Your tests were conducted at 330 - 500 mA, but perhaps the camera uses a much higher current (maybe 1-2A?), and at this higher current the GP battery's voltage drops significantly, whereas the Sanyo ones are able to cope better.

I have no evidence for any of this, but it's the most likely explanation I can think of based on all of the observations posted so far.

Now I have taken about 60 photos with Sanyo Eneloops and battery indicator is still green. Let seen what's the situation after new year.

What is the power rating of the Eneloops are they 2,000mAH?

Mine are.

Yes, they are 2000 mAh, rating capacity of 2000 mAh (minimum 1900 mAh).

Now I've taken 70 shots with the Eneloop and indigator is green. That's not much, but better than nothing.

My brother-in-law has bought a K-x and after weeks of shooting, close on 800 images now, the batteries supplied with the camera still show full power. It seems to indicate that they are a sound choice.

Now I have taken 100 shots with Eneloops and battery indicator is (half) orange. After 80 shots indicator goes orange, but after shutting down the K-x for a while the indicator was green again.

I haven't use internal flash and LV at all and now I reduce LCD's brigthness to minimum (-7). I also switch off the Shake Reduction function.

Standard Procedure for Measuring Digital Still Camera Battery Consumption:
http://www.cipa.jp/english/hyoujunka/kikaku/pdf/DC-002_e.pdf
link

Assuming they're delivered with Energiser Lithiums then I'll second that. My K-m came with a set which lasted for about 800 shots and six months. I've bought the same type ever since and generally get similar lifespans. At this rate my running costs are about £5 per six months, so I'm not overly worried about buying Eneloops.

Meanwhile the set of conventional Duracells I tried while unable to get the Energisers lasted for about two days and under a hundred shots. They just couldn't cope!

Now Eneloops run out and I had taken about 330 pictures with them. Maube I have been little bit lacy, because I put Eneloops to K-x 18th of December and it takes over four month to take that number of pictures. When Eneloops are in charger, I tryed Ansmann's Max E 2500 mAh batteries, but first they dosen't work at all, K-x was totally black. Then I put Amsmanns to my Metz flash and fired couple of times with full power, and put then back to camera and now battery indicator was green (bw. Ansmanns was new). Anyway I put recharged Eneloops back to K-x and they worked right a way, of cause.