Thanks to everyone for their help. It would appear that there is an issue using rechargeable batteries in the K200D but this can be minimised by using Eneloops. NiMH do work in my camera, I use Ansmann 2800mah NiMH, as well as the ReCyko and in the Pentax the former are ok for 200 shots as could be expected. However the discharged batteries still work fine in my Canon Powershot S3 so it would seem that it is all down to the cut off settings. Understandably settings used by different manufacturers differ but it is not clear why.

Regards

John

I appreciate Lithium batteries have a very good life but it is surely wasteful to keep buying batteries every few weeks when rechargeables will last years and it still doesn't resolve the issue I and at least Pentaxophile have with 'fully charged' eneloops showing as discharged when in truth they prove to have 400 shots in them.

Again I ask:- Is it just the two of us that are having this problem?

In a way I'm glad someone else has experienced the problem of having to switch the camera on and off again because the display is saying the batteries are discharged when you know they are, in fact fully charged. Do you or anyone else know why this happens?

I have had issues with using Nicads since upgrading from a 1st DL to a K200D. This showed itself in that the battery life display would fequently show the batteries as discharged even when newly charged. Switching the camera off and on then showed fully charged batteries. Occasionally if this did not work opening and closing the battery door did.

In an attempt to cure this I bought some ReCyko batteries but these do exactly the same. However despite this issue the batteries still go on to give 500+ shots even with a mix of flash over several days it's just that it's scary when you get to an event and find that the camera says your newly charged batteries are almost discharged then find they carry on working all day.

Incidently we are talking 3 different voltages between AA Lithium or Alkaline (1.5 volt), Nicads (1.2 volt nominal)and Hybrids (1.4 volt nominal)I understand Pentax digital SLR's are designed for use with 1.5 volt AA batteries and have cut off voltages to suit these. I have also been led to believe that the cut off voltage can be adjusted by a Pentax workshop.

Does anyone know the true facts on this issue?

Thanks for the replies. I was wondering if a firmware upgrade would help it is very evident that it is a preset cut off, as with many devices because as I say we have a Canon that has no problem but we also have a radio that runs on AA's and it's not at all happy with a nominal 2.5 volts from rechargeables working far better with 3v from dry cells.

Regards

John

Hi

I had a 1st DL until last year and used AA rechargeables without any problems getting superb battery life. I got a K200 as a replacement and using the same batteries got progressivly worse life from them. So I bought 8 new 2850mAh Ansmann NiMH batteries. Yesterday we took a trip on a (steam) train and after 100 or so shots the battery light was flashing yet again and the camera duly shut down. The second set of batteries just finished the day off. Checking the 'flat' batteries this morning they were showing 1.23 volts compared with just over 1.3v for fully charged.
The question is does anyone know what voltage the K200 should cut off at? I've put the 'flat' batteries in my Canon and it works fine.

Regards

John

Hi Hefty

Thanks for the welcome.

Well it says in Digital Photography Review about the Sigma lens "Pentax DSLRs which don't support SDM lenses will lose out, and only be able to focus manually (in other words, the lens is effectively of KAF-3 mount specification)". I thought the K200D had KAF-2 mount. It's a lot of money to pay out if they are correct and it will only work on manual focus. Incidently it was the same people who gave a poor review on the Tamron lens.

Thanks for your help

John

Hi
I have been looking for a new lens for my K200D to replace my old Tokina AT-X 80-400 4.5-5.6 which has developed a fault.
It would appear that the above Sigma lens is not compatible with my camera because of the focus motor in the Sigma lens. Tamron do a very similar lens that is compatible but has a poor review because of focusing issues. Can anyone explain what the problems are and perhaps suggest an alternative.
My main interests are photographing birds and aircraft, ( not much difference there).

Cheers John