D300 Rapid Battery Depletion... Is this normal?

All of the responses can be contributing factors. My experience (with two D200s, two D300s) has been that out-of-the-box battery performance is very low. The D300's internal battery is charged from the EN-EL3e, so initially a bit of power will be used to bring the internal battery to full charge. Additionally, as Matt noted, the EN-EL3e's performance increases over the first few cycles. If this is the case, then purchasing a new battery in order to rule out problems with the supplied battery will only yield further frustration for the first few cycles. In my experience, the battery doesn't achieve it's maximum potential until the third, fourth or fifth full charge.

All of the responses can be contributing factors. My experience (with two D200s, two D300s) has been that out-of-

the-box battery performance is very low. The D300's internal battery is charged from the EN-EL3e, so initially a bit of

power will be used to bring the internal battery to full charge. Additionally, as Matt noted, the EN-EL3e's

performance increases over the first few cycles. If this is the case, then purchasing a new battery in order to rule out

problems with the supplied battery will only yield further frustration for the first few cycles. In my experience, the

battery doesn't achieve it's maximum potential until the third, fourth or fifth full charge.

Longer exposure, and if the NR was activated, will use more battery than normal shooting. Also another factor is outside temperature, when colder, the batteries will run empty quicker than in warmer situations.

I know my D300 runs low on batteries much faster than my D80 or D50 did and that's with the battery grip attached. I used to be able to shoot several shoots with one charge now I'm down to one.

Marc - something's wrong with your battery. I'll shoot 500-700 shots on a single charge.

Thanks to all that have given suggestions and posed queries. Here's all the shooting parameters I can think of that contributed to the drain:

 

1st full charge on battery.

Spent awhile exploring the menu (bright setting)

took about 90 shots RAW with shutter speeds of 1/60 to 6 seconds (battery at this point at 50%)

NR off

VR on @ lens

Live view off

Lots of chimping (new camera... checking results of D Lighting, Vivid Settings, ISO sensitivity, ect.)

 

Today I shot 30 or so small JPEGs for a ad project. Those shots consumed 2% of the battery. That's more of what I expected. Thank all of you for your input and experiences. Here's what I feel is going on from everyone's help:

 

First charge might not "soak" the battery as much. My exploration of the menu with bright settings may have eaten up as much battery as 200 small JPEGs. My long exposures ate up as much battery as my older Nikon DSLR... I was thinking this wouldn't happen after reading other's reports. Real good chance I was wrong about that. Again, Thanks to everyone that chimed in.

Marc (with a spare battery in his pocket)