D80: Leave it on VS. On and Off?

[Kawi_T]

I had my D80 at the race track this weekend and I found myself turning it on and off over and over again. Is it better to just leave it on the whole time? I was worried the battery might go dead but at the end of the day it was still nearly full strength.

T

 

[Mav]

The current draw on most modern DSLRs is no different in ON than OFF. Serioulsy. While on they'll shut off metering and AF after a certain timeout after which they're effectively "off" or on standby. So just leave it on.

 

[mrodgers]

Even my little superzoom running on 4 AA batteries lasts forever. My camera is LCD in the back or in the viewfinder, so it is always sucking down the juice.

I went on a 6 hour car trip to Detroit and left it turned on the entire trip. I played around and snapped pictures the entire trip. I messed about once we arrived in Detriot. I went to a 3 hour (roughly) hockey game when we got there and left the camera on the entire game. I don't have a battery meter, it only tells me when it is almost done. I do have a discharge function if I use NiMH batteries, and I let it discharge for about 2 hours once at the motel room after downloading the pictures onto the laptop and the batteries were still good. I put them in the charger overnight for the following day.

I would think that as long as you are not using flash, my camera would eat battery power faster than a dSLR beings that my viewfinder is LCD and not optical such as on a dSLR.

 

[Garbz]

The D200 lasts about a week when left on. More if you have a battery grip. Don't ask how I know this.

 

[Socrates]

I had my D80 at the race track this weekend and I found myself turning it on and off over and over again. Is it better to just leave it on the whole time? I was worried the battery might go dead but at the end of the day it was still nearly full strength.

T

I have the D80 and I'm absolutely amazed at how well the battery holds up. Leave it on.

 

[andrew99]

I think the LCD is the biggest drainer of the battery. There is a menu setting which sets how long the timeout is before the LCD blanks, as long as that is set to a reasonable time, you'll be fine leaving it on.

 

[Socrates]

I think the LCD is the biggest drainer of the battery. There is a menu setting which sets how long the timeout is before the LCD blanks, as long as that is set to a reasonable time, you'll be fine leaving it on.

Mine is permanently off unless I push the button.

 

[bhop]

I've left my d70 on for over a week (accidentally of course) and it still had a full battery icon when I picked it up again. I can't imagine the d80 uses too much more juice..

 

[andrew99]

Mine is permanently off unless I push the button.

I'm the opposite -- I have the timeout set to Long so I can take a good look at each shot on the LCD, often I zoom in, check the histogram, check the highlights, etc. Maybe as I get more experience I won't need to do that as much!

 

[Rogan]

Even my little superzoom running on 4 AA batteries lasts forever. My camera is LCD in the back or in the viewfinder, so it is always sucking down the juice.

wierd cos i used mine non stop for about a day and the 4 AA's ran out after one day

but im assuming its cos i was playing with the zoom alot, bet that uses alot of power

 

[andrew99]

Actually, besides the LCD, the flash will suck a lot of juice.

I wonder how much power it takes for auto-focus on an SLR. It's actually a motor physically moving some gears, so it must take some.