The lesson I learned today...

[TamiyaGuy]

I know how you feel. If I ever go "pro", then I'll almost certainly get a spare battery, although my D40's life seems to be fantastic. I just took 200 photos yesterday, leaving it on all day, and the battery is still reading 3 bars out of 3. Although when it gets down to 2 bars I take a safe bet and say it's half full. Still lasts forever, though.

 

[nab_55]

That has happened to me before. Its a good lesson to learn!

 

[grimm5577]

Car chargers are also a great resource. Even if you have a back up battery.

 

[Fox Paw]

"ha! I learned that one a couple of weeks ago when I started to shoot in RAW, and my whopping 2gig card got full real quick."

I started shooting in RAW two months ago and I hadn't thought of that potential issue. I'll get a spare before I go on vacation. Thanks.

 

[Joves]

Yeah learning to carry an extra battery is usually the first lesson. That and extra storage.

 

[mrodgers]

Why you should get yourself a backup battery........

Working on the exterior of the house with the wife, kids (7 and 4) are inside enjoying being "alone". I'm on a ladder, wife is handing me tools when she barks out, "A blimp!"

She runs inside yelling to the kids, "Hurry! There's a blimp outside!" We live in a very rural area (40 miles from anything) and, well, a blimp really excites us

She's trying to get the kids outside, I'm running to the back of the house for my camera. We have a huge field beside and behind our house. We can hear it coming from above the trees across the road. It breaks past the trees and there it is. The kids are excited, I'm excited. I've got the camera, setting the aperture in A mode because anything in the sky gets very bad purple fringing at low apertures. Snap.....

I'm going to get tons of shots as it passes by us over the field. Or so I thought. I bring the camera back up to my eye for a 2nd shot and it's dark. Turn it on and I see the battery indicator (only indicates when batteries are dead).

I don't have backup batteries. They are 4 AA batteries. I have a giant pile of AA batteries in the garage from the RC airplanes. I run to the garage, frantically tossing batteries in the camera and nothing. None of them have any life left to run the camera. The only shot I got was the first shot even though I use 4 AA NiMH batteries which are dirt cheap to buy....

 

[christopher walrath]

Change the ISO setting on the frickin' light meter.

 

[christopher walrath]

Aw, hell. On the camera too.

 

[CanonSnob]

you should also have a back up camera... oh yea and a back up strobe, and might as well have a back up pocket wizzard. Well, you always need back up AAA and AA batteries not just one for your camera. And you should back up all of your work on to a back up hard drive, or some back up discs. I also have a back up car just in case mine breaks on the way to a shoot too.

 

[CanonSnob]

just backing up my previous post...

you should also have a back up camera... oh yea and a back up strobe, and might as well have a back up pocket wizzard. Well, you always need back up AAA and AA batteries not just one for your camera. And you should back up all of your work on to a back up hard drive, or some back up discs. I also have a back up car just in case mine breaks on the way to a shoot too.

 

[Dmitri]

Anyway my backup battery arrived today (finally!) and its charging overnight. So now I feel all safe and warm and secure, and should get a good night sleep

 

[chrisburke]

Interestingly enough the D200 is right on the mark with how full the battery is when in the camera, but add the grip and it seems the battery goes from full to empty in the last 20 minutes of a daylong shoot.

I suggest to all who buy grips, take the AA adapters with you. You can get AAs at the local SevenEleven in case of emergency but they don't stock Nikon LiIons

my grip has the option for AA's but I've found them to be absoutley useless, as I've only tried it once, but I think with the AA's I got about 4 pictures then they died...

 

[Overread]

AA in your camera might only get a few shots granted, but they could be those prize winning shots you get!
Most of the time though they go in to your flash - its amazing how quick you can drain 4AAs worth in a flash unit!

 

[Garbz]

my grip has the option for AA's but I've found them to be absoutley useless, as I've only tried it once, but I think with the AA's I got about 4 pictures then they died...

Indeed were these taken with a flash? I was in this situation once and easily got 80+ photos out of them. And were they bought from seveneleven because batteries have a shelf life, and if your stores are like ours then seveneleven is where batteries go to die from self depletion. I sware I saw a pack one day which had a manufacture date more than a year earlier.

 

[usayit]

Yes... a good lesson to learn indeed. Its happen to me several times at my own doing. One time, I completely forgot to recharge and just repacked the drained battery in my bag... DOH!

Lucky for me, the few times I made that mistake I had a film (mechanical) camera backup and/or another camera that takes AAs. I also have a Samsung Pentax-clone DSLR that takes AAs. It is a nice feature/option to fall back on AND the AAs seem to last a long time with regular use (non-flash).

I've walked out the door with a camera (all charged up) with no media card/film on several occasions.