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QV3500EX battery life
Hello there. I've just bought myself my first digital camera - the QV3500EX. I've hardly taken any number of photos with it at all really (probably 30?) using a combination of the alkaline batteries that came with it and some 1500mAh Ni-MH batteries I bought with it (once they were slow charged overnight). I have to admit that I'm a bit gutted about the apparent battery life. When I put the alkalines in (which have been used, obviously, but not horrendously in my opinion) the battery meter shows full but if I switch the LCD display on the battery reading drops to "one notch left". The Ni-MH battery performance was even worse - I can't have taken more than 5 photos today, plus some fiddling around in the menus (granted, LCD usage, but still...) and the thing won't run with the LCD enabled any more - with it off the battery meter jumps to full, with it on I can take one, maybe two photos and it shuts down on me telling me to replace the batteries.

I'm also kind-of panicking that maybe I have a faulty camera but proving that to the staff at the store could be a bit difficult ... "it seems to eat through batteries quite quickly" isn't much of a persuasive argument. So - could anyone enlighten me? I assume the battery life shown in the manual is with the LCD display switched off does it really consume that much power that a set of fully-charged Ni-MH's will last maybe 30 minutes of LCD use? Also I've been switching the camera off and on between my fiddling (thinking it would save power) but of course that means the lens has been driving in and out. So, basically any hints appreciated - could I just be expecting too much? I bought my Dad a Kodak DC3400 about three weeks ago for his birthday and a fully charged set of the same type of Ni-MH battery lasted ages - even with heavy use of the LCD - we spent a day taking photos of our family at a get-together and then I borrowed the camera for a week to take photos of my daughter, all without recharging the Ni-MH's... Any help gratefully received..

Comments (8)

Having just had a little play with the beast again it would seem that it's not "the LCD display" that eats most of the power. It's using the LCD in Record mode that does it. Apparently it's all too much for the batteries to have to power the CCD continuously to feed a live image to the LCD display... Is there any way to make the LCD display update less frequently? Normally I'll be using the viewfinder but when I "need" the LCD for framing I'd be happy to have a once-a-second update for most of my needs. (Aside - knowing this now I wish that the "preview" button would bring up the LCD without having to first go into "live view" when recording and also it would seem that using play mode to coupon your images isn't such a bad thing after all - it's way less power intensive than that live image feed to the LCD). Rob..

Comment #1

Hello Rob,.

Are you using an IBM microdrive, these are notorious for power drain. If not then something is wrong! With my 3500 I use NiMh batteries and have two sets, usually I get about 60 shots with a recharge with the screen on, with the screen off I get about 100. I mess about with my camera as well checking this that and the other but still get much the same number of shots I do have the flash turned off all the time cos this is a big power user.

When the battery level starts to fall switch off your screen and only put it on when necessary.

Regards.

Peter..

Comment #2

Unfortunately I'm NOT using a microdrive so no power-drain problems there. I've a 64Mb CF card and the 8Mb one that came with the camera. It is possible that the alkaline batteries I'm using (they came with the camera) have been in-use (including record mode LCD) for around an hour with my fiddling around so I'm not too concerned that they drop from full-battery symbol to one-notch-left when the LCD is in use, but the Ni-MH's surprised me no-end. I don't think I took more than, say, 10-15 photos (mostly testing the thing hence there is associated playing around) before the thing decided it was too flat to use the LCD. Am I jumping to conclusions blaming the camera for this or is it much more likely that the Ni-MH batteries just weren't happy with their first charge and/or they're poor batteries and/or the charger (which trickle charges for a fixed duration of 15 hours then switches itself off) either hasn't charged them OR has drained them when it's off (the charger and the four cells cost me around 10 - that's around $13 - so it's not exactly a state-of-the-art combo) ... or ...

Or ...... so many possibilities. It is also not beyond imagination that I've actually been "playing" with the camera in record mode much more than I think I have. However, I don't think my memory is that bad. How can I resolve this I wonder...

If I can get figures for someone elses camera then I can measure my own consumption from a mains power supply and see if the camera appears faulty or not. That would seem an objective way to go Rob..

Comment #3

Aaaand another silly question... how come some people say "hell yeah, this thing sucks up juice and I never have the LCD turned on" but others (like you, Peter) say "mine works fine and I don't have a problem with the LCD"? Could it be purely down to the make of Ni-MH battery that you chuck into the thing? Rob..

Comment #4

Hello Rob.

Have a look at the Casio FAQ on the following URL http://world.casio.com/pacific/qv/faq/faq_3500ex_01.html theres lots of useful info including battery usage.

Regards.

Peter..

Comment #5

Hello Rob.

Just a point on NiMh batteries, these come in different power outputs from 1200 to 1700mAH the commonest being 1500mAH. In general a camera will use about 1000mAH so from the 1500 you would get 1.5hours of continuous use. This is a gross simplification however and you need to add for other power using facilities such as flash, screen and memory.

A point that needs to be considered is how long you charge your NiMh batteries for. A typical charger will charge at 150mAH so it will take about ten hours or longer to charge the batteries fully. The so called fast chargers (i hour to full charge) are doubtful and possibly dangerous since they can overheat the batteries.

I bought the Jessops ( a large Uk Photo Retailer) Charger and battery set when I bought my camera and this is intelligent in that it switches off after 14 hours, I always have a reliable charge in my batteries.

Regards.

Peter..

Comment #6

Ahah - a Jessops man too! "I bought the Jessops ( a large Uk Photo Retailer) Charger and battery set when I bought my camera and this is intelligent in that it switches off after 14 hours, I always have a reliable charge in my batteries" I bought that one too. I charged the batteries overnight the very day I bought it (used the Alkalines in the box in the mean time). Got up that morning and unplugged the charger (both charging lights out by now), used the batteries only to have them fail within - oooh - half an hour of use? 15-odd photos? I've nabbed some other Ni-MH batteries off a friend (that he charged for me) so I'm going to see how those perform instead. Rob..

Comment #7

Just to say that mAh is a capacity measurement.But Effectively, if your camera drains 1 A, a 1.5Ah battery will last around 1.5 hours.

And again, a charger will charge with Amps, not Ah.....

Comment #8


This question was taken from a support group/message board and re-posted here so others can learn from it.

 

 

 

 

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