Please LOCK: Digicam eats batteries (fixed)

[Spidey]

Anyone else have the problem of their digicam eating batteries fast. Mine seems to go through my rechargeables very fast. If I go out for the day, take my cam and dont take spare batteries, I wont be able to shoot pictures all day becaue the batteries die. I think I may get about 20 pics or so before it dies.

I have an HP 320. Thing is it uses 4 batteries instead of 2, so its real hungry.

Anyone else have same problem with their cam. I know they use more power than a regualr cam, but I think a person should be able to go out for the afternoon withour taking spare batteries along.

Ken

[jory29]

Anyone else have the problem of their digicam eating batteries fast. Mine seems to go through my rechargeables very fast. If I go out for the day, take my cam and dont take spare batteries, I wont be able to shoot pictures all day becaue the batteries die. I think I may get about 20 pics or so before it dies.

I have an HP 320. Thing is it uses 4 batteries instead of 2, so its real hungry.

Anyone else have same problem with their cam. I know they use more power than a regualr cam, but I think a person should be able to go out for the afternoon withour taking spare batteries along.

Ken

OMG! Is it too late to get rid of the damn thing? My Canon Powershot A70 goes for at least a week - 10 days on one charge of the NiMH batetries. IS it NiMH you are using? Nickel Cadium are awful! I take around 20 photos on average daily, plus video clips of my kids; your batteries should last a lot longer. Maybe your batteries are defective? What are they? What kind of charger are you using? I use an old fashioned re-charger; takes many hours, perhaps 8 or longer. But WELL worth it! I use both energizer, and duracell, and I have one set charged [extra set] to keep in my camera bag to be ab;e to replace as needed. Good luck!!!! I used to have an HP camera, but hated it; the photos were grainy, green hued, etc. How do you like the photos, are they o.k.?

Edited to add: Mine also uses 4 batteries.

[Spidey]

OMG! Is it too late to get rid of the damn thing? My Canon Powershot A70 goes for at least a week - 10 days on one charge of the NiMH batetries. IS it NiMH you are using? Nickel Cadium are awful! I take around 20 photos on average daily, plus video clips of my kids; your batteries should last a lot longer. Maybe your batteries are defective? What are they? What kind of charger are you using? I use an old fashioned re-charger; takes many hours, perhaps 8 or longer. But WELL worth it! I use both energizer, and duracell, and I have one set charged [extra set] to keep in my camera bag to be ab;e to replace as needed. Good luck!!!! I used to have an HP camera, but hated it; the photos were grainy, green hued, etc. How do you like the photos, are they o.k.?

Edited to add: Mine also uses 4 batteries.

I have been using my old Nickel Cadiums, because I havent had time to go get a good set of new rechargeables. Even the Good Energizers they sent with the cam, after a night of taking pics, about 40 or 50, the batteries were dead.

I phoned HP and they gave me the runaround, saying things like, dont use the LCD screen except to view, take the batteries out everytime you dont use it, etc, etc. I know these things can save battery life, but if I cant take my camera for a day for some shots here and there on a trip or something without taking extra, theres got to be something wrong.

On the quality note, the camera take good pics in my opinion. I still have my good film camera anyways for the good shots. This camera is just for taking misc shots, etc.

[yiggy]

i think that's your problem, the ni cad batteries...

try using the NiMH batteries, that's what i use and they work great. i don't really have a problem with battery drainage.

i use the A70 as well.

[Defiant]

My Powershot G1 is pretty efficient. There are times I dont charge it for awhile and it still has more than enough juice to take pics. Buy some better batteries I guess or get a new cam.

[jory29]

i think that's your problem, the ni cad batteries...

try using the NiMH batteries, that's what i use and they work great. i don't really have a problem with battery drainage.

i use the A70 as well.

I agree; we have ni cad for our mp3 player, and we ended up having to buy the rechargeable NiMH in the end, I couldn't believe how poor of a quality ni cad are; they ought to be outlawed, they are almost as bad as the energizer so-called rechargeable alkalines. Once you get the NiMH you won't have any probs. I don't think. Good luck, and let us know how it turns out.

[ShadedNine]

All of the old HP cams, and some of the new ones eat through batteries like this. It's not your camera, it's the model in general. There is no solution or fix. I'm sorry to say that you bought a cheap camera, and now you're paying the price. Next time fork out a few extra bucks for something decent.

If it makes you feel any better, I've seen photosmart 635s get less than 20 shots on a pair of 2000mAh NiMH batteries. Part of the problem is how fast they eat the batteries. The rest is their habit of calling the batteries dead when they're still half-full. Put those batteries that your HP is reading as dead in another camera and it'll fun fine for some time.

Sorry to sound rude, but you brought this on yourself. Caveat Emptor.

[Spidey]

All of the old HP cams, and some of the new ones eat through batteries like this. It's not your camera, it's the model in general. There is no solution or fix. I'm sorry to say that you bought a cheap camera, and now you're paying the price. Next time fork out a few extra bucks for something decent.

If it makes you feel any better, I've seen photosmart 635s get less than 20 shots on a pair of 2000mAh NiMH batteries. Part of the problem is how fast they eat the batteries. The rest is their habit of calling the batteries dead when they're still half-full. Put those batteries that your HP is reading as dead in another camera and it'll fun fine for some time.

Sorry to sound rude, but you brought this on yourself. Caveat Emptor.

Well for $80 the camera was a good price. And I still have my Fuji film camera for shots that really matter. Maybe the different batterires will make a difference, and Ill let everyone know.

And I know you sorry to sound rude, but you still did make some rude comments that I did not appreciate

[Icedawn]

I've used a lot of different rechargeables for my camera, my favourite has become the maha powerex ones. They're really expensive (4 AAs go for ~20 - 25), but hey, you woudln't want to miss that crucial picture would you?

www.memoryexpress.com and www.paulsfinest.com sell them as far as I know, don't know where else.

[AudiDude]

Powerex are the best, but I would almost want a new camera to put them in first :razz:

[webdoctors]

i got some no-name rechargeable 2100MhA batteries of ebay and they work great, on my Fuji FinePix A210 I get like a week or 2 before the battery dies....really even with constant usage of several days the batteries don't die.

the battery brand is digipower...if that helps.

Try switching battery types....

[midget_man]

Read this (http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM)

[miss_swan]

Yikes.

Sorry to hear about your battery/digicam problems.

I would just invest in a decent set of NiMh batts and charger. The Sanyo 2hr charger plus 4 2100mah AA batts is ~27 bucks at Costco and represents an awesome deal. You can pretty much get the same Energizer combo around many places for the same ballpark money.

This combo will last longer than what you have already and will hopefully tie you over until you get a "real" digicam. :cheesygri

Like the Canon a75. I have the a70 and I get a billion shots with my 4x1850mah Energizers. Hell, my backup set probably naturally discharges to ~50% while waiting for the present set to die. A good problem to have I suppose.

[Blunt]

Time to get the 2400maha batteries..............
I had them in there for over 3 weeks, including a wedings!...
approx 250 pics.. and still not dead yet...
and this is with everything on.. all the time..
I wonder how long it will has for!

I Love my A70 when I hear horror stories like the HPs!
:twisted:

[Rockstead]

Aren't rechargeable CR-V3 batteries the best solution now?

[ghosty]

Aren't rechargeable CR-V3 batteries the best solution now?

They are still expensive. You can buy 2-3 sets of Ni-MH for the price....

[Rockstead]

They are still expensive. You can buy 2-3 sets of Ni-MH for the price....

Really, I found a Charger kit which Includes Charger, Car Charger, and Cr-V3 battery for 20USD on ebay. Are the Ni-MH that much cheaper?

[Spidey]

Well got some more info from HP, and they said a firmware upgrade will help. I installed it so we will see. I just think its my rechargeables that are crappy. They are one from over the years used in the kids toys,etc.

I think this summer Ill price out and get a good set of batteries and a charger. Something that handles triple AAA's as well.

Anyone have some good recomnedations. It doesnt have to be a qucik charger, just something that has batteries that hold a charge well.

I know I should of done some more research on cams, but the price was so low I thought it wouldnt hurt. Wish I could just do a trade up on it.

Thanks for all the info everyone

Ken

[ShadedNine]

That review posted a ways up listed a few good chargers there. As I understand the Energizer chargers aren't bad either.

Don't get your hopes up too much with the firmware upgrade. It may work, but that actually just happens to be HPs answer to anything and everything.

[Spidey]

Well ther firmware upgrade seem to of helped. At least now when there is some battery life left it still takes pictures. Before if the batteires were at half it wouldnt even turn on. I know the next step is better batteries, but for now this helped.

Thanks for all the info everyone

Ken

[ShadedNine]

As far as NiMH chargers are concerned, if you want the best capacity from your batteries, get a trickle charger, not a quick charger, or both. A quick charger won't bring batteries to the same top-level as a trickle will, but you can use the quick for the bulk of the charge and then toss em in a trickle to top em off. Do make sure your charger is designed for NiMH though, otherwise you'll damage the batteries, and possibly burn your house down.

[Spidey]

Bought the Duracell trickle charger and 4 AA NiMh batteries at Futureshop for $30 this weekend. Ill let ya know how much extra I can use the cam between charges. If it lasts awhile, I wont bother getting another AA set.

Thanks for all the help everyone.

[Spidey]

bump

[Homer88]

You're just too bored, aren't you? :|

[Carnage]

You just going around bumping up all your old threads?

[Spidey]

You just going around bumping up all your old threads?

Nope, trying to get them locked. Thought it would help the mods, but it pissed them off instead

[Homer88]

I think those ancient threads are better left untouched...

[Spidey]

I think those ancient threads are better left untouched...


I should of left them and they would of diappeared eventually. Thought bumping them and adding please lock to them would help the mods. On my forum that I run I try to be helpful

[JayPatel]

I should of left them and they would of diappeared eventually. Thought bumping them and adding please lock to them would help the mods. On my forum that I run I try to be helpful

you are not helping anyone out. leave em be. You are bumping other threads down for no reason