[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: >Mine does this on occasion -- depleted indicator that shows full again when >the camera's turned off and back on.
That's because the batteries can recover from short periods of high discharge after a short period of rest. Here's the lowdown: You're never going to get a really accurate battery indicator ever*. Reading the output voltage of the batteries will always be only a crude approximation of the amount of useful life remaining because the discharge rates are curves that get steep very quickly and they fail to predict the future discharge rate to a significant extent. Having the option of several different *kinds* of batteries makes this kind of battery life prediction even more of a fool's errand (albeit a necessary fool's errand, because we obviously need *some* kind of battery indicator). This is the reason the battery life indicator is only two segments: A display with more steps is technically possible, but wouldn't provide any more real information. Basically, we just have to deal with three indications: 1) Batteries have a good, solid charge 2) You need to change batteries very soon 3) The batteries are dead; you should have changed them when you reached stage two. * One way to get more accurate battery life display is with dedicated batteries with built-in chips that measure not only output voltage but also things like current draw, temperature, time of use, etc. Laptop computer batteries typically have this kind of system, as do some DSLR's with dedicated, proprietary batteries, I suspect. But then you give up the universality of AA and CRV3 batteries. Personally, I unhesitatingly prefer the latter. I always carry a spare set of freshly charges NiMH AA's with me when I'm shooting digital. My camera bag also has a set of new CRV3 lithium batteries stashed inside, just for extra backup. (I haven't needed them yet...) -- Mark Roberts Photography and writing www.robertstech.com
