Fujifilm S9000 Low Battery Life

[Manjo]

I have a S9000 Fujifilm Finepix and I have this issue with the battery life, even with fresh Duracell Optimum
AA Alkaline batteries. Just a few frames shot will give a low battery message and shortly the camera
will shut off. I put the batteries on a reliable battery tester and they show good with plenty of life left.
Would it be a good idea to invest in rechargeable batteries and work it that way? Another question:
do cameras develop internal electrical problems, ie, component breakdown? I haven't dropped or otherwise
abused the camera. Some input please. Thanks.

 

[PJM]

It is certainly possible that it could have developed an internal electrical problem.

Is the camera new? Has it always had this problem? Or it it new behavior in an older camera?

 

[Manjo]

Pete, thanks so much for your email.
The camera is not new. Maybe 6 years. It has had this problem for a while now. Since I shoot photos only of special family events, it get sparse use and I would imagine it is in good condition. Since I am a novice, actually, this camera has many features which I haven't yet begun to explore. Maybe one of the settings is not correct.
Manuel

 

[Paul-H]

Go into the menu and look for an option to do a factory reset.

Mind you it does sound like it's developed a fault in the battery monitoring circuit if it shutting down for low power with known good batteries.

Probably not worth the expense of getting it fixed though.

Paul

 

[Manjo]

Paul, thanks much for your advice. I guess I'll just have a lot of extra AA's with me when I use the camera. I agree it's not worth fixing it. I'll try the menu and factory reset though. Thanks again.

Manuel

 

[Nikon photographer]

Seems to be a common problem with these Fuji cameras, the fault is usually down to the dc converter on the circuit board in the camera, not sure how much it would cost to repair, but probably cheaper to buy a replacement camera.

 

[Manjo]

Thanks for your info. I've already made up my mind not to seek to repair the camera
should the trouble point to the camera electronics. The camera itself has many features
and in the hands of a good photographer would be an excellent tool. Thanks again for reacing out.

Manuel

 

[Paul-H]

Just a thought, have you tried another brand of battery. I know you said you used Fresh Duracell Optima, did you get them from a reliable source, if you got them from Amazon or eBay they might be counterfeit, it might be worth trying another brand from another supplier, just in case. Counterfeit batteries often have a very high internal resistance which would upset the cameras battery management function.

I would be tempted to just make a dummy battery pack with a flying lead to a big pack in the Camera bag or other external supply, just to keep it going until you find a replacement.

 

[Manjo]

Good clues Paul. I have other brands of AA batt that I'll try. I did get these from Amazon! The dummy pack is a good idea that I will consider.
Thanks.
Manuel

 

[RacePhoto]

Consider getting to 2000mah NiMH batteries and see if things improve. They should be good for up to 1,000 charges on slow. Two sets of four and even though it's kind of a nuisance, label them (marker dot is easy) and keep using in the same sets of four or twos.

An alkaline battery starts at 1.5 volts and gradually drops to less than 1.0 volts. NiMH batteries stay at about 1.2 volts for almost 80% of their discharge cycle. Once alkaline batteries discharge to 50% capacity, it will be delivering a lower voltage than a NiMH battery.

If that doesn't work, you still have some nice batteries that will work in something else.

 

[Manjo]

Thanks for the great info.
Right now I have other alkaline AA's from my local WalMart and so far the camera seems to like them. Another thing I'm going to do is use an adapter connected to the camera when I'm downloading the photos to the laptop to save the batteries. Thanks again.

Manjo