Digital Focus: Make Your Batteries Last

Feature: Power Play--Making Your Camera Batteries Last

As you frame a picture and start to press down gently on the shutter release, you see the battery indicator flash madly--then the whole camera shuts off, leaving you with an expensive paperweight at a crucial photographic moment. It's a terrible feeling to lose power in the middle of a photo shoot, I know. If you're lucky, you lose only a few minutes while you run into the next room, find a spare set of batteries, and power back up again. But if you don't have batteries handy, you're done for the day. How can you extend the runtime of your digital camera as much as possible? This week I show you how to do just that; read on for my favorite battery tips.

Avoid the Digital Display

If you're looking for the culprit responsible for most of the drain on your batteries, it's that big LCD display on the back of the camera. The single best way to conserve power is to leave the LCD turned off. Use your camera's optical viewfinder as much as possible, and only switch to the LCD to review pictures afterwards. And speaking of reviewing your pictures on the LCD: Don't do that either. If you really need to make your batteries last as long as possible--and unless it's absolutely necessary to make sure you got each picture just right--wait until you get home to look at your pictures.

Don't Access the Memory Card

Some folks like to erase bad pictures right away to free space on the memory card. That's a good strategy, except that it consumes a lot of battery power. If you're stranded near Klamath Falls trying to take a picture of Bigfoot and you're on your last set of batteries, it's better to save the file management stuff for when you get home.

Save the Non-Photo Stuff for Home

Starting to see a trend? In general, the best way to maximize battery life is to just take pictures with your camera and save the other stuff--reviewing images, deleting pictures, formatting the memory card--for when you can plug into an AC adapter. You can do most of the memory card stuff at your desktop PC (if you have a memory card reader, that is); if you need to do it from your camera, remember to plug it in to an AC adapter first.

Run Batteries All the Way Down

Batteries will lose their charge even when the camera is turned off, so check your camera before you take it out. I like to keep two sets of batteries with my camera so I can quickly replace the partially charged batteries with fresh, topped-off cells right before I use it.

But beware: Nickel metal-hydride batteries were supposed to eliminate performance problems associated with charging partially depleted nickel cadmium batteries, and they do, to some extent. However, you'll still get better performance and a longer lifespan from your rechargeable batteries if you run them all the way down at least once every few weeks before recharging.

How can you do that? To be sure that your AA rechargeables are dead before you charge them, put them into a flashlight, turn it on, and wait till the batteries run down. For batteries that fit into a specific camera only, once a month I sit in my favorite chair and just click the shutter until the batteries breathe their last--then I charge them up again. (Lithium ion batteries are truly memory-free, so you don't have to use these tricks on them.)

Keep Similar Batteries Together

It's important not to mix up rechargeable batteries. Never, ever combine NiMH batteries with lithium ion or ordinary alkaline batteries: Make sure they're all one kind. And even if the batteries are all the same type, it's a good idea to keep them together as sets. For example, if you mix a pair of Epson rechargeables with newer Rayovac batteries, the older cells will drain faster and not perform as well--you can even damage the batteries.