R-D1(s) battery empty after 50 photos???

[kds315]

I was away with friends today and took my R-D1 with me. Astonishingly enough after about 50 shots (some at 1600 ISO) the battery was on "E"
and I could not shoot anymore (charged it before for some hours).

Is that normal?

 

[saxshooter]

Is it an original Epson battery? How many seconds did you have the review set on? How old is your battery? Are you shooting RAW+JPEG? I do notice less battery life myself, but I only shoot JPEGS and have the review set for 2 secs.

 

[Gid]

I get a little over 100 raw shots with a full battery (original Epson). I don't chimp much, always have the LCD turned in and switch the camera off between sets of shots. I have noticed a bit more battery drain since upgrading the firmware, that is, it used to be better than this.

 

[kds315]

The battery is the original one, just a few months old. I also upgraded to firmware V2. I have choesen th 5sec preview function but I check images quite often (histogram and zoom mode). I shoot Raw+jpg.

 

[kds315]

I was away with friends today and took my R-D1 with me. Astonishingly enough after about 50 shots (some at 1600 ISO) the battery was on "E"
and I could not shoot anymore (charged it before for some hours).

Is that normal?

OR let me reframe that: How do I know that the battery is fully charged?
[I suspect the charger...]
The Camera shows "F" and the charger showed "GREEN"

 

[iml]

The Camera shows "F" and the charger showed "GREEN"

The battery is fully charged when the red LED on the charger turns off. My charger doesn't have a green LED at all.

I get around 200 shots out of a charge, but I don't use the LCD.

Ian

 

[Steve Litt]

I shoot Raw B/W use the screen for occasional views/reviews zooming if required (when I have a coffee/ lunch etc).I get 101 shots on 1gb card and change the battery then.I have never continued till the battery ran out except when I tried a third party battery when I only got 75 shots.Most of the time tho my camera is in its Leicatime case and I forget I am shooting digital which is the reason I love this camera so much.
Regards
Steve

 

[Terao]

I've never flattened the battery before filling my 1GB card. Shoot RAW, mainly @ ISO200 with 3 second review. Don't chimp that much...

 

[Adam-T]

I`ve found that R-D1 battery life is in the old Canon 1D / Nikon D1X league, the difference being that NP80s don`t weigh a ton or cost £100 - even with the LCD folded inwards (just occasional usage when shooting with the 90mm) the Epson Batt lasts only 250 shots - 300-350 from the Jessops 1500Ma (Pic of which is below)

http://www.cs80.freeserve.co.uk/1D/Jessops-RD1-Batt.jpg

 

[saxshooter]

The battery is the original one, just a few months old. I also upgraded to firmware V2. I have choesen th 5sec preview function but I check images quite often (histogram and zoom mode). I shoot Raw+jpg.

I think the 5 second review, along with checking images quite often (histogram and zooms) compounded with increased camera processing time of raw plus jpeg is your short battery life culprit. Unfortunately a single 1500 maH cell just isn't that much juice...

 

[jlw]

I hadn't thought about it much until I read this thread, but my battery life seems more variable than I would have expected.

Earlier this week I shot about 350 exposures on one Epson battery and one third-party battery; I started with the Epson, switched to the third-party battery when it got low, and the third-party battery still showed about half-charge when I finished shooting.

Tonight I just came back from a session involving about 300 shots; this depleted a fully-charged Epson battery, a fully-charged third-party battery, and a third-party battery that had shown about 3/4 charge when I loaded it.

I might have used the LCD a bit more for tonight's session, but I didn't think it was that much more.

I wonder if pace of shooting plays a role. In the Wednesday session, I was shooting more or less continuously for about two hours. In tonight's, I was shooting sporadically, switching back and forth between the R-D 1 and a DSLR I was carrying for flash shots. One possibility: Shooting X number of shots at intervals, far enough apart for the R-D 1 to go into "sleep mode" and then waking it up again, is less efficient electrically than shooting steadily for the same total number of exposures.

 

[Jim Watts]

I wonder if pace of shooting plays a role. In the Wednesday session, I was shooting more or less continuously for about two hours. In tonight's, I was shooting sporadically, switching back and forth between the R-D 1 and a DSLR I was carrying for flash shots. One possibility: Shooting X number of shots at intervals, far enough apart for the R-D 1 to go into "sleep mode" and then waking it up again, is less efficient electrically than shooting steadily for the same total number of exposures.

This exactly agrees with my findings as posted in an earlier thread on battery life where people were getting from 58 - 300 shots from the Epson 1500Mah. http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29993&page=2&highlight=1500+Mah

I get only 80 - 100 Raw shot over a day with minimal use of the LCD, but this goes up to 150+ if shot over just an hour.

 

[Adam-T]

The biggest powerhog seems to be the card interface, My results posted were for RAW shooting, when the batt is getting low you can see the gauge drop as the card light comes on - RAWs take longer to write of course so this powerhungry part of the camera is running longer per shot..

NP80s weren`t any good back in the Fuji 4900/6900 days (Fuji moved on to AAs in their cams after that) so the fact that one can run an R-D1`s Processor and LCD at all is a miracle - No doubt they chose it as it fits in an otherwise pretty unusable area of the camera (the curvy end) and not having to Motor-cock the shutter or an AF system to run helps no end - the things are cheap anyway and take up no bag room so not a disaster.

 

[saxshooter]

Pace of shooting definitely plays a role. If I do a quick succession of bursts towards the middle to end of the battery's charge, it will flatline. The camera will turn off. Only after a few moments it will power back up again and allow me to continue working. Again, the battery technology in the 1500 maH cell is not very advanced.

 

[saxshooter]

No doubt they chose it as it fits in an otherwise pretty unusable area of the camera (the curvy end) and not having to Motor-cock the shutter or an AF system to run helps no end - the things are cheap anyway and take up no bag room so not a disaster.

It's about the size of a AA cell. I wonder why Epson didn't go with a standard single AA NiMH battery which are up to at least 2500 mah per cell nowadays. Cheap off the shelf. And plenty of lower end digital cameras are powered by AA NiMH batteries.

 

[Adam-T]

Probably because the Digital side wouldn`t run on 1.2V - remember that it would take THREE AAs to match the voltage of an NP80 and give that 2500Ma .. They could have used a flat battery like the NP120 but it would have eaten up valuable PCB real estate, even moreso something like a Canon NB2LH ..

1500Ma seems to be tops for the NP80 and as the RD1 would appear to have been the last camera which uses it (the others are real oldies), I guess no one has the inclanation to make a more powerful capacity

 

[saxshooter]

Adam-T, that's true. Most digicams that take AA use a couple of them.