K100D super power consumption

Hi all,

wondering if anyone has this same problem if they have this camera. I am using 2700 regarchable batteries but only get around 20 or 30 'best jpeg' shots in daylight without flash. It's a real pain as I've lost the opportunity of shots when releasing shutter and nothing happening! camera display indicates dead batteries but if I switch it off then on it can be ok for a bit.

Any ideas? the camera is almost 11 months old.

thanks folks,
mushmagic.

According to the manual, the K100D should deliver over 400 shots on 2500 mAh rechargeable batteries (NiMH) at room temperature. This is also my own experience with my K100D. My present K200D camera seems to be even better (lower consumption).

Are you using the NiMH type of batteries, or the older NiCads?

Hi terry, I'm using NiMH, do you think it may be a fault with the camera?

thanks,
mushmagic

Difficult to say, could also be a faulty cell among your NiMH's. Try a set of Alcaline AA batteries. These should give approx. 80 shots without using flash. (See page 27 in the manual).

I'd put money on there being a faulty cell amongst your four; have you tried running a meter across them to see if one is failing to hold its charge?

I've had many NiMH cells fail over the years and even a couple that have been faulty from brand new - including one from a well respected (and expensive!) manufacturer who you'd think would exercise better quality control.

The best rechargeable AA's that I used in my K100ds were Energizer 2500 mha, with the Energizer charger. I would get more than 600 shots with a set (mainly without flash). The next best thing was/is a 'Ansmann Battery Grip' which gives more than a 1000 shots before needing to be recharged I think a new set of batteries should determine what the problem is.

Mick

Test each cell individually after the camera has shutdown due to insufficient power. I'll almost guarantee you have one or more faulty cells.

Also, is your firmware up to date?

Thanks everyone. I currently have 3 sets I use, so there must be a faulty one in each set?! I will try a different make and also buy regular AA's and see how that goes.

Probably look a bit daft here, but whats the firmware? Thought I'd thoroughly read the manual.

thanks all
mushmagic

I've just started getting almost exactly the same problem with my K100D. I use NiMH batteries, have three sets, four each of: 2300, 2500 and 2700 mAh. Three different brands.

They've all given decent service for a year or so, but lately I've been having to top-up their charges frequently to get any shooting time at all.

My charger gives an LCD readout for the charge state of each cell as it charges. Invariably, one cell will take ages longer to charge up. That's pretty much been the case since I got the batteries, but up til recently they would last a few hours of shooting.

I still think it's the batteries, but it's odd how all my sets of batteries seem to be affected. I'm not a heavy user, though, so it could be a characteristic of my usage pattern.

I just bought myself a K10D, so am hoping I'll not have similar problems in future.

Andrew

Another test is to get a set of Eveready Lithium AA batteries and try these.

I have used rechargeables for years in various devices and they do deteriate over time and power fall off at the end of their drain is very fast going from showing full power to empty in a few minutes. Rechargeables also drain while not in use!

One of my K10D batteries gave me the same problem, however this was the low cost one!

The firmware is effectively your camera's operating system. Once a new camera is released the manufacturer will periodically update the firmware to fix issues that have arisen and (sometimes) add new features that weren't included at launch.

You can download new firmware from Pentax at this link.

Follow the instructions carefully and you should come to no harm. It's worth knowing that revisions to firmware are cumulative so you only need the latest one, not all of them.

Good luck - and given your recent battery experience I'd use a fresh set for the update process - just to be on the safe side.

Just another thought...

This is a behaviour I have had with the *ist-D (which uses AA cells) - sometimes the camera thinks the batteries are Alkaline (because the cell voltage is higher than expected).
Typically they'll run for a while then show "no battery" very quickly.

Turning off the camera and then back on seems to solve the problem.


If it's not that, then it'll be down to a failed cell.

And finally...
Recently I've been using the Hybrio / Eneloop type NiMH cells because they have a MUCH longer shelf life. Regular NiMH will flatten themselves in a couple of weeks (you don't have to do anything at all!). It's a real pain when you fully charge regular AA NiMH, come to use them a couple of weeks' later and find there's pretty well no charge left
The Hybrio/Eneloop have a shelf life of at least 6 months

Matt

Thanks matt, that's great, sounds like what I may be looking for

mushmagic

I agree there, Matt. I've had terrible problems with my NiMH batteries losing charge after a few days. The hybrios hold their charge and I generally get at least 400 shots from a charge.

The good thing is if you shop around you can pick them up pretty cheap. I got some from 7dayshop for about £6, but my local Wilkinsons were selling packs of 4 for £5 - bargain!

You maybe need to suspect your charger too. I use an Ansmann charger which monitors/charges each cell individually. The chargers that require the cells to be charged in pairs are not ideal in my opinion.