What has happened to my battery life?

[Vicelord John]

My D90 is only a year old and both batteries were new when I got it. I have a battery pack and two batteries in at a time. They seem to last about a week in the camera with it off most of the time, and only about 100 shots. They charge fine and all that, and I don't think they are old enough to be damaged or worn out, but yeah... is that normal? I keep the screen off but I do review pics somewhat.

 

[IgsEMT]

It sounds a bit odd. Contact Nikon in regards. The only thing I could think of, and its a long shot, is that you're shooting RAW and when you're shooting, you putting a lot of strain on the camera but its a long shot for effects as you described.

 

[Vicelord John]

It sounds a bit odd. Contact Nikon in regards. The only thing I could think of, and its a long shot, is that you're shooting RAW and when you're shooting, you putting a lot of strain on the camera but its a long shot for effects as you described.

you know what, that could be it. My girlfriend has been using it for school projects, which require her to shoot RAW. Now that you mention it, this battery life issue was first noticed around the same time she started this class.

 

[cdino88]

I shoot in RAW without a battery pack and my battery will last me an upwards of 800-1000 shots. They are lithium ion batteries so they will eventually lose power. Try conditioning your batteries, let them both fully die, then fully charge them, and repeat that process like 3 times. If you don't get better battery life out of that then your batteries are most likely shot.

 

[Overread]

RAW or not you should be able to get well over 100 shots with two batteries - heck even on one battery you should be able to get more than 100 RAW shots with the popup flash as well.

It sounds like something is wrong with either you batteries or the charging unit (ie its not fully recharging them). The only other possibility (as there are two of you using the camera) is that one of you is taking a lot lot more shots and maybe deleting them so that it only looks like 100 have been taken?

 

[IgsEMT]

In JPGs, my battery will last me about 800-900 frames. In RAW I'll be lucky if I hit 600.
I contacted Nikon in regards and was told that when shooting raw, more juice is being sucked out of the battery.
Try to test this out and see what happens.

 

[Big Mike]

RAW shouldn't use up any more power than JPEG. Some might even suggest that JPEG would take more because the camera has to process the files as it saves them.

Check that both the batteries are draining; check them individually. It may be that one of them (or one bay in the grip) isn't connecting well and isn't getting used properly. Or it could be the connection between the grip & the camera. If it's not a perfect connection at the contacts, it might cause a problem with the batteries & power usage. Maybe try it without the grip and see how long it lasts.

And maybe it's just your batteries. Try a new one and see how that goes.
I've been using cheap off-brand batteries for 5 years and they still work just fine.

 

[Vicelord John]

they are fully charging (camera will say 100% in the menu) and she is only shooting like 10 pics at a time. Do the batteries lose life while the camera is off?

They were each at 65% + and then I took about 30 shots with my SB600 on top of the camera. The camera sat for 3 days, then this morning the batteries were dead.

 

[Big Mike]

they are fully charging (camera will say 100% in the menu)

This could be part of the issue. I've heard of scenarios where the camera shows the batteries as full, but in reality, they are not holding a full charge. This is usually with off-brand batteries though...are you using actual Nikon batteries?

 

[Vicelord John]

yes, both are Nikon batteries... I tried them each without the grip and they still were both dead. Did not have time to charge and try them individually though.

 

[bazooka]

Maybe you could take them into batteries plus and have them do a load test?

 

[rainking]

Have the batteries been stored in cold temperatures?

 

[Vicelord John]

Have the batteries been stored in cold temperatures?

one word answer, Arizona.

 

[el_shorty]

I know you said that you turned the camera off, but what about the grip? did you turn it off too? leaving it on will drain your batteries.

 

[Vicelord John]

I know you said that you turned the camera off, but what about the grip? did you turn it off too? leaving it on will drain your batteries.

I always assumed when you turned the camera off, it cut the power... I have to turn both the grip and the camera off?