I forgot to power off the camera.

[riz]

<p>This morning I figured out the battery is drained, and then I got the idea that I forgot to "power off" my Nikon D60. Just want to know that continuous "power on" harmed the camera in anyway? I just recharged the battery for couple of minutes and checked the camera and it did "powered on", but couldn't check other functions as I was already late from office.</p>

<p>Thanks,</p>

<p>Riz</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Shouldn't hurt anything. I've left my D2H on for a week at a time, no problems. Battery was still more than 50% charged. I usually leave it on throughout the day when I'm out shooting.</p>

[riz]

<p>Thanks Lex. Relieved!</p>

[daverhaas]

<p>The only thing that you harmed is the amount of time it will take to recharge the battery - but honestly it's actually probably a good thing since they recommend that you completely drain the battery before recharging anyhow. </p>

<p>I've left my cameras on for weeks at a time - especially the vacation one... D40. No harm - just a dead battery when I wanted to take a quick snapshot.</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[nishnishant]

<p>I had a thread on this a few months ago and was truly surprised to find that the majority of folks "never" power off their Nikons. No, I am not kidding! In fact, some even leave it on while changing lenses.</p>

[nishnishant]

<p>Here's the old thread:<br>

<br />Keeping the camera turned on all the time<br />Nish Sivakumar , Feb 12, 2010; 04:18 p.m.<br /><a href="../nikon-camera-forum/00VkuT">http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00VkuT</a></p>

[shineofleo]

<p>You will be fine! No problem at all!</p>

[jay_poel]

<p>Out of curiousity, how long did you leave it on for? I've left my D80 and D90 on for periods of at least 2 weeks and they barely showed any discharge from the batteries.</p>

<p>But no, no harm done.</p>

[pge]

<p>My experience is that I loose about 3% of my battery a day. My camera is at home and on right now.</p>

[SCL]

<p>I never leave it on except when shooting....hate the thought of wanting to take a shot and finding it dead. Likewise, there was a poster who pointed out a real problem with leaving it on...his camera was in his bag and something pressed against his shutter release and it took several hundred pictures in the dark ;-)</p>

[SolaresLarrave]

My D700 goes on sleep mode if I leave it on for longer than, say, three minutes. I've left it on overnight several times with no major harm other than the battery coming down some small percentage of its previous power. In short, Japanese engineers have already taken this into account when designing these cameras' systems.

[wpahnelas]

<p>the engineers at nikon are pretty smart. they've fixed it so that if you don't touch any buttons on the camera for a minute or two, it goes to sleep. until you do something to wake it up, all the processes that would deplete the battery shut down -- so in effect the camera isn't using up the battery unless you're doing something.</p>

[mark liddell]

The camera is never totally off when switched off anyway, you can tell when you change the card and the light blinks. Sleep mode is probably not far off 'off' in power consumption.

[tom_boston1]

<p>David Haas said</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>The only thing that you harmed is the amount of time it will take to recharge the battery - but honestly it's actually probably a good thing since they recommend that you completely drain the battery before recharging anyhow.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>This is wrong! It used to apply to NiCads and even for NiCads it's not necessary to drain the battery <em>every</em> time. But lithium and NiMH batteries do not need to be discharged fully.</p>

<p>The instructions that come with Nikon's EN-EL3a even say do not discharge the battery completely. Partly for that reason, the cameras that use that battery will even stop shooting when the battery gets down to about 10% power to prevent damage to the battery. The other reason is to guarantee there is always enough power to finish writing files to the memory card.</p>

<p>NiMH batteries can also be damaged if they are completely discharged. And since NiMH batteries self-discharge when sitting on the shelf, they should be charged at least every three months or so to prevent damage.</p>

 

[stank]

<p>+1 about the Li-Ion batteries. There are two degradation factors with Li-Ion. One is cycle life and the other is calendar life. Long term deep cycling the battery will reduce its capacity and life. Also, the Li-Ion battery will degrade just sitting on the shelf after 2-3 years. Therefore, only buy them to use them. Don't stock pile spares away with the intent to use them after you have worn your every day battery out. you will be disappointed.</p>

<p>I had not heard that or experienced what you said about the NiMH and I have treated some poorly. But I won't doubt you. They do seem more fragile than NiCd in some ways.<br>

Stan</p>

[riz]

<p>Thank you all. Jay, I think I left it on for around 2 weeks or so.</p>

[miserere_mei]

<p>+3 on the recharging LiIon batteries. They should NEVER be drained. If you want them to last you as long as possible you will recharge them after every time you use the camera, even if the battery is still at 75% capacity. Multiple shallow charges are what these batteries want.</p>

<p>I've followed this protocol with the batteries I got with my camera in August 2007 and have noticed no significant degradation in power capacity or delivery; that's almost 3 years. Others who routinely drain their batteries before recharging kill them in a matter of months.</p>

[tom_boston1]

<p>Misere - that's not quite accurate. Lithium's do well if fully recharged when used regularly. But storing them with a full charge reduces their lifetime. Of course, storing them with a partial charge is inconvenient when one actually wants to use the camera.</p>

<p>I'm surprised no one has mentioned <a href="http://www.batteryuniversity.com">Battery University</a> yet. Their <a href="http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm">lithium battery advice</a> is <a href="http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm">here</a>.</p>