D300 Rapid Battery Depletion... Is this normal?

[marcward]

Hey Folks,

Just upgraded to a new D300... so far I love the ergonomics, focusing, and general ease of use from such a

jam-packed optical machine. The battery use has not been what I was led to believe. The manual gives guidelines

and usage parameters that I ain't even close to. On a fully charged battery I have used almost 50% of the

battery's charge with 85 shutter activations. I went for a hike to a small waterfall to do my maiden test run.

Shot RAW, lengthy exposures, used a VR lens, and (mistakenly) had it in continuous focus mode. I understand each

of these things drains more power. So is less that 200 shots on a fully charged battery what I should expect when

shooting like this? Any thoughts or experiences would be appreciated. Thanks...

[michael_huizenga]

Shooting soccer with an 80-200, I get 1000 frames easy with power to spare.

[Matt Laur]

Early in the battery's life, performance isn't usually so good. Believe it or not, it can improve dramatically after a few use/charge cycles. Are you using the live view, or chimping a lot?

[diane_madura]

Marc, I think in order to compare, the people who respond should have been using a VR lens in continuous mode.

[daverhaas]

Marc -

 

I shoot swimming meets with a D300 - 2500 photos a day on a single battery VR Lens in Continuous Servo mode. Granted I don't do 5 / 10 second exposures, but ....

 

I do carry a 2nd battery along in case, but haven't had to go to it yet.

 

Dave

[marcward]

All,

Your examples are what I was expecting in battery usage... don't know if the continuous focus on long exposures is a battery problem. I know it was a shooting mistake. I should shoot a waterfall in spot focus for long exposures. The continuous focus caused blurred images as the focus changed back and forth while following the moving water.

 

Matt- this was the battery's first charge, so I'm hoping that is a contributing factor. I'm not using live view and as far as chimping??? That's a new term on me. Unless of course you mean running around screaming while loosely shaking my hands over my head. Nor have I (at least since I've gotten the D300) been hurling feces at my keepers. Maybe after a few more cycles things will improve.

[Peter_in_PA]

long exposures absolutely can deplete the battery faster. How long?

[marcward]

Peter- I was running anywhere from 1/4 second to 6 seconds....

[Peter_in_PA]

If you had a lot of multi-second exposures, that would explain it. They drain a battery much much faster.

 

btw, chimping is what they call it when you take a picture and then look at the LCD immediately.

 

Check out this entertaining and informative article.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimping

[frank uhlig]

Continuous focus does not, cannot work/change anything during long time exposures, only in the set up phase; so that is not

the issue here.

[SolaresLarrave]

Hmmm... I thought chimping was to take the photo while looking at the LCD screen.

 

In any case, if this is your first charge of the batteries, expect better results as the batteries get a little older.

[marcward]

Frank,

 

From what I read in the manual, I had understood continuous focusing to work on moving objects by "projecting a track" of motion and compensating focus accordingly. During the long exposure, I assumed that the focus was moving because of the motion of the water and producing blurred images. Other images were very sharp. Long exposures were taken using a manfrotto tripod and ball head. Perhaps the D300 has more mirror shake than I'm used to and need to do a mirror lockup.

 

Peter - thanks for the "chimping" enlightenment.

 

Thanks all.

[dave wyman]

Chimping - it's more than just checking out photographs on the camera's LCD. There's an audible aspect to it. As in,

"Ooh, ooh!." the sound a chimp makes when it's happy, which is the same sound the happy photographer makes when reviewing a good image.

[Peter_in_PA]

Let's be clear, we're getting some misinformation here. This battery depletion is not related to AF, it's related to the high amount of

energy used by the sensor during long exposures. It's real simple. The sensor uses a lot of power for those exposures.

 

Also... AF shouldn't operate while the shutter is open. You do not WANT it to. Otherwise your picture will be VERY blurry all over.

 

As far as mirror shake, that is actually not generally a factor in multi-second exposures. It's a factor on 1/125 to 1/2 or 1 second

maybe (google it)... A long exposure doesn't suffer so much, but those long exposures ( 2 seconds or more ) will produce blurry water

(of course, the water is moving!), but if the camera is steady as a rock, everything that is standing still in the frame will be sharp,

unless you shook the camera inadvertently by using the shutter button (try a remote or the self-timer), or if the tripod wasn't as

steady as you thought it was.

[marcward]

Peter,

 

I've always used the timer to prevent shake and my Manfrotto 0550PROXB and Ball Head is a steady beast... though not the lightest thing to drag uphill. No wind. So I was surprised at the out of focus results on stationary objects and assigned it to the continuous focus issue. An MC-30 remote cord will be the next purchase, Though the timer has always served me well. All in all. I love this camera...

[Peter_in_PA]

I'd love to see a sample, Marc. perhaps a crop at 100%, too.

[joseph_smith3]

You might want to change the brightness setting for the LCD to a lower setting. That will save battery power. Also change the duration it is visible. That will save the battery. Joe Smith

[marcward]

Peter-

 

Thanks for the offer... Two things prevent me from posting some images. My laptop with the images are at home (with only dial-up) and I'm at work plus I'm a ruthless editor when I first download images and deleted all of the badly out-of focus images. The closest image I have to what I was trying to shoot this weekend is at:

 

<a href="http://www.photo.net/photo/6862886l" >hyperlink</a>

 

Thanks for your input...

[bruce_margolis]

Marc, another thing you might want to check is whether you had long exposure noise reduction on. If so, that would add to the drain as would live view, flash, and maybe cold temps. VR does drain the battery but not drastically.

 

Oh, and just curious...... Did you fully charge the battery before the first use?

 

In any case, you should have much more exposure time after a few charges.

[aaron l]

You might have an issue with the battery contacts. This was an issue in a tiny percentage of D300's a while ago. Get some contact cleaner like DeOxit and go to town. That seems to have helped most D300 owers.

[johncrosley]

I have some suggestions.

 

1. Do an experiment. Try a different battery and shoot the same subject/scenes the same way. If the result is different, it's a battery problem.

 

2. Recently at San Francisco International Airport I spoke with a guy from Intel who is a world reknowned Lion battery expert. He told me that if for some reason a lion battery is charged with slightly too much voltage (and he stated the uppper parameter which I won't repeat) it will cause the battery to fail or not hold much of a charge.

 

In addition, he said if the battery ever gets hotter than a certain temperature, it will degrade its performance ever after and that's irrecoverable. That exposure is not always something you would be aware of. It could happen sitting in a hot car, or on an airport tarmac during shipping from a factory or on a factory loading dock. New sensors being developed (about which I know overmuch, incredibly) will be placed with such loads when they are perfected to continuously monitor things such as temperature, humidity, etc., so manufacturers, retailers, etc., can check for potential 'bad cargo' when they accept delivery. All they'll have to do is 'read' the Radio Frequency Chip that is sent with the cargo, and those most expensive chips will cost under $10 for a complicated one. At some point, maybe every individual box of goods or carton will have such a chip, though maybe only the more expensive ones will test for temperature . . . . (good for shipping with, say,frozen foods, etc., as well as lion batteries).

 

So, I've shot like you have with the same battery and never encountered such low performance -- at least as I read that you've shot, but I cannot be sure about exactly how you've shot. I've also never encountered much 'recovery' after using a battery subsequent times. It may be a documentable phenomenon, but in my personal experience, it ain't so much.

 

I'd get another battery and use it for the same shooting soon, wihle that battery is under warranty. It's about a $38 item and not so hard to replace under warranty, but once it gets older, it's a harder argument to win.

 

I wouldn't accept such performance, and I've had about 12 or 13 of those suckers -- maybe more.

I'd be careful with any 'cleaners' if you ever expect a warranty replacement - ask the manufacturer for a recommendation first, so you can pin the blame back on them if they 'kick' for having used such a product as recommended above (and document the recommendation -- time, person agreeing you should use it, etc., from the manufacturer's help desk). Many warranties disclaim repair/replacement if you tinker with the product, but if they 'agree' then you're mostly home free, so just document it first.

 

John (Crosley)

[jamie bushley]

I shoot Canon so I can't compare notes directly, but I see that you say that the battery is 50% depleted. It can be hard to get an accurate idea of battery life without fully using the battery. On my canon there are only a few lines for the battery indicator, but it seems that it drops from full to almost empty quite quickly, but the camera still shoots for hundreds of shots once it reads almost empty on the battery indicator.... Just a thought... :-)

[nsibulo]

I make sure I fully charge my Nikon D300 batteries before going to wedding or quinceanetas with battery grip I can take lots of pictures and not worry running out of battery.

[Richard Williams]

There have been quite a few reports of the D300 giving false low battery warnings under certain conditions:

 

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/634727/999999

 

Try swapping lenses and cleaning the contacts, and update your firmware to the latest version. If the problem persists, contact Nikon for servicing.

[paulomarx]

I also think that something this with the battery of my D300. My photos are editorial, not use low speeds and when using the Nikon D70 had more than 600 shots per charge of battery. With the current machine, with 100 photos, I have 50% of charge.Camera and battery are new (less than 1000 photos)