Have you considered the Lithium AA Eveready's? They have near the same capacity as the CRV-3's and cost considerably less.
I can say that my two *istD's that I have had since they were available for sale have never had the problems you describe. I take that back - more recently I was finding one camera to discharge batteries at a fairly rapid rate. By experimentation, I found that one of the battery grips was the culprit. You should try a shoot without the grip to see if there is any difference. There have been issues before with the battery power in the grip and body together. I would also try just one set in the body with the grip and in the grip, but not the body. See if that has any impact. But also consider the AA lithiums. -- Best regards, Bruce Wednesday, December 20, 2006, 4:00:04 PM, you wrote: JS> I should clarify that I have several sets of Ni-MH rechargables. I use JS> them in sets of 8 - 4 in the camera and 4 in the battery grip. I have JS> two sets of 8 Duracell rechargable AAs (2300 mAh), one set of 8 JS> Energizer rechargable AAs (2300 mAh) and several sets of house brand JS> batteries I acquired in various places (US, Scotland & Iraq - 1500 to JS> 2000 mAh). JS> None of these will give me a full charge indicator on the camera. I've JS> acquired them over a 3 year period, and have recharged them enough there JS> should be no further burn in period required. The higher rated batteries JS> I acquired in 2005 & 2006. JS> With the Energizers & Duracells, if I install them fresh off the JS> charger, I can get just about 4 gig of raw images (282 raw) ... two 2 JS> gig cards full before I have to change out batteries; IF I'm filling the JS> two cards in one outing. JS> I get significantly less with the OEM batteries, but I expect that's due JS> to the lower capacity. And, if I'm shooting and taking several days to JS> fill the cards, self discharge does seem to reduce the number of images JS> I can get off of a charge. JS> Filling the camera and grip with Duracell alkaline batteries *does* give JS> me a full charge indicator on the camera and gives me almost the same JS> number of exposures as the 2300 mAh rechargeables, and there's no JS> problem with self discharge. JS> Because of a recent project where I had to be sure the camera would JS> perform and continue to perform, I broke down and filled it and the grip JS> with disposable CR-V3s, which have so far given me about six cards worth JS> of images. JS> OTOH, that burns through $50 USD every time I have to change batteries. JS> I don't know if I can afford that, especially as I need to carry a spare JS> set. JS> I'd really like info from anyone who has used rechargable CR-V3s in the JS> *ist-D. If I have to, I'll continue to use CR-V3 disposables and back JS> them up with Duracell Alkaline AAs. JS> I'm not really interested in alternative versions of Ni-MH AAs. I've JS> tried too many different ones already that just don't do the job. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
