MB-D200 AA batteries disappointing performance

Hi all.

I've just got my D200 along with its vertical grip. All very fine but

the back up batteries.

 

I found the possibility to run on standard batteries to be a clever

emergency solution (just like the D70's CR2 battery holder), but I

was disappointed.

 

On fresh Alkaline batteries, it went dead pretty soon (60-90 min).

Had to switch off, let it rest a while and shoot again for 5-10 min

more. That was it.

 

The battery cherge indicator wasn't much of a help, ranging from full

charge to empty in a short while (I had set the proper battery

settings in place, of course). it's not much worth to carry around

extra weight for just that lousy performance.

 

Any other experience, maybe on NiMh bats?

What about Lithium AAs? That would be my first choice along with rechargeable NiMhs.

Check out some threads on the this MB-d200 grip. Apparently it discharges the batteries by just sitting there.

 

Scott

Alkaline AA's simply can't handle the drain of a DSLR. If you want acceptable performance from AA's, you need to use either Lithium disposables or NiMH Rechargables.

 

I used to shoot an *istD, with the D-BG grip (8 AA's or 4 CRV3's for power). Lithium AA's were king, you could hit 2000 exposures if you didn't chimp, and 1100 or so if you did. 2500 mAh NiMH's were good for 7-800 exposures in groups of 8 or 3-400 in groups of 4.

 

Alkalines were good for 60 exposures in groups of 8. maybe 30 with 4 AA's in the body.

Mine had 6 lithiums in it and they were just fine but I took them out Sunday and at 4 p.m. put in 2 E:-En3e battereis.

 

Last night I took it class for one of my students wo is a wedding photographer to play with. He chimped and took pics over a 3 hour period. I haven't taken the battereis out nor did I unlatch the door. I want to see how it goes.

 

But I'd never try to use alkalines in this camera (or any other that would accept lithiums).

 

Conni

Conni? you have a D200? what's it like?

I do. I got it on 12/17/05. It replaced a very low-mileage D70s, which I had very good luck with, BTW. It had no problems at all.

 

I really like the heft of the D200 and every camera (AF) that has a base, I get the base. I like the balance with the base. I like the extended program options which were pretty fast to learn. I also appreciate the larger lcd screen but I understand that it sucks more juice but so far, I haven't had the battery drain problems (2, I beleive) that have appeared on the forum but I started my second testing on Sunday. The buffer offload is considerably faster than the D70s so unless your doing some rampant shooting, you probably won't overrun it. There has been no banding and the first week I had it, I think I tried everything I could think of with it so maybe I'm one of the lucky ones (I hope). It performed quite nicely with my 17 - 35 AFS 2.8, 28 - 70 AFS 2.8 70 - 200 VR, the kit lens from the D70s and a 20 mm. I haven't tried any of my AI/AIS lenses yet but I will weekend after next. The build quality is very good and given that I'm not doing many things that would be considered extreme, I can't think that it won't be up to the job. It might not be so, but it seems to me to have a better balance than the F100.

 

It will go with me on my next road trip along with my F6.

 

It's unlikely I will want another dSLR for a long time.

 

Conni

Marco> I experienced a similar behaviour with the F6 grip last year. The battery indicator would go from full to empty after a roll or two. I had the right battery settings and the problem appeared with both Alkaline and NiMH. Strangely this only occured within the first month of use, it seemed to correct by itself after that.<br>

I use 2500mA NiMH cells and the problem is gone, only exception are negative temperatures for which lithiums are still the best.<br><br>

Conni> Glad to see you still bring your F6 along ;)

Ah, Frederick:

 

If I could only take one camera, it would be the F6. Before that it was the F5. The D200 is a really fine beast and I have times and places where I use it and I wouldn't want to give it up. But I truly enjoy my film cameras and the F6 in particular.

 

Conni

The buffer offload is considerably faster than the D70s so unless your doing some rampant shooting, you probably won't overrun it. -- Conni

 

Excellent point, and not to hijack the thread, but this is what convinced me to opt for the less expensive "regular" blue Sandisk CF cards versus the more expensive Sandisk Extreme III CF cards for my D200.

 

KL

It's indeed difficult to make the D200 say "no" to taking another picture. This can have dire consequences as you realize that yet another memory card is full ... ;-)

 

My first charge only lasted 5GB of images. I wasn't chimping much, but I did use VR on most shots. VR seems to eat up a lot of power in the cold.

 

It's a dream camera for snapshots. No restraints to taking bad pics (or good ones, for that matter). Lots of editing to do though.

<i>Lots of editing to do though.</i>

 

<p>You ain't just kidding.

Just a comment, I got 400 images on my first charge, while >750 on my second. On the second charge, I was doing extensive deleting of images on my CF cards and definitely used the LCD much more than on the first charge. However, the first charge was shot in somewhat lower temperatures. I have always been under the impression that li-ion batteries do perform poorly on the first charge. This is what I was told on my cell phone purchase as well as my D70. In any case, 750 shots with editing is definitely good performance.

Recomendation> if you spent the money for the grip use two

EN-EL3a , Got close to 1000 shots, buy two of the above as back-ups. it bad enough that we have to use the AA's for a flashlight let a lone for our cameras

just to update: I got myself two EN-ELe AND 6 Duracell NiMh 2300mAh rechargeble. the two sets last more or less the same amount of time. The only thing is the recharge time for the AAs is almost 7 hours and the D200 charge level is not reliable for NiMh batteries (the dischare time is not progressive).

As per my post above, I put my batteries in on March 9th. I have taken it to the university twice for my students to play with because they are wedding/event photographers. They did loads of chimping and shooting in low light while a video was playing. They showed their pics to other students during the break periods. Over the two evenings, they took close to 900 oics. I checked the batteries yesterday and they are still OK. So at least as far as my camera with the base goes, there is no battery drain beyond what you would expect with rechargeable batteries.

 

Conni