Lithium DSLR batteries

I am going away soon - so I am suffering from pre-trip paranoia!

I have taken just over 40,000 pictures with my D2X, and some have even come out. But I have never had a spare battery. I just have the one in the camera. And I think this is a bit risky. Am I taking an unnecessary risk? Or are these pre-trip nerves?

Have any of you ever had a Lithium rechargable DSLR battery stop working?

I cannot flatten my D2X battery in a day - however much I shoot. So do I really need another? Although I have noticed a drop in the battery life recently.

Alex

p.s. a related question. Has anyone tried the new extra powerful D2Xs battery yet? It is backwards compatible. Maybe I should get one?

Spare anything electronic just to be safe. I spare batteries this way:

1 set in the camera/strobe, 1 set ready to go, 1 set charging.

Have you maxed out your battery so you know how many shots you can really get out of it (vs what the manual says)? My D70 battery is good for 2 days or about 750 pics. Some may think I tend to over spare, but I hate messing with stuff more than necessary.

Hi Alex,

Yes, I carry a spare. And pop it in when the first bar goes blank. I've never trusted a battery indicator. Some show that 2/3 full for a while and then the camera dies. Just not worth all the effort etc. that goes into what we do to lose out because the camera battery dies. JMHO

Does the fact that my latest image file reads 5290 mean I've taken that many shots? Holy crap! I'm really slacking. LOL!

Rand

HI Alex,

I would say a back up must be the way to go as you never no

if it will fail & on a boat with no way of getting an other would

surely be gutting & knowing how much you enjoy your

photography & you know how it goes their will be some great

shots missed. YOU KNOW IT MAKES SENSE

Andy

I have had no problems whatsoever with Nikon's lithium ion batteries -- either with the model provided with the D2x or the D200 (though I have a bit of an issue with its so-called life). While I cannot claim 40,000 photos with my cameras, I have yet to hear of them "crapping" out . . .

The battery life menu seems dependable enough (the 1-4 life stages) and e-mails inquiring about battery life to Nikon (I too am freaked out when in the field) suggested carrying a spare when the battery reached "2" on the menu . . .

I too have had no problems at all with my Nikon batteries.

All the same I like having two batteries at least. That way I can keep one in the charger and one in the camera. No waiting to recharge.

The DSLR batteries have incredible life. No way to use them all in a day--even with a popup flash. Still its nice to have a backup. The voltage meter is pretty bad. Once it starts to drop its almost dead. Its highly non-linear.

I actually bought 3 batteries. All of them are Nikon brand. Some of them I'm reasonably sure are fakes. I bought them on e-bay for $15-20. They look exactly like the Nikon ones right down to the packaging. I read about very good fakes of Nikon batteries on DPREVIEW. Still, they work just as well as the real thing so who cares? Even these haven't failed.

Eventually, though batteries wear out. I'm suprised you haven't worn yours out wilth all the shooting you do. So keep a backup.

Thanks guys. Shopping trip in the morning, methinks.

The way to get the frame counter in the EXIF on the D2X (and probably other cameras) is to get the File Info in Photoshop. Go into the Advanced menu (at the bottom of the list) then click on the http://ns.adobe.com/exif/1.0/aux/ menu. Underneath here is a dataline called "aux:ImageNumber:" - that is a record of how many frames you have taken (assuming you have chosen a recent image!).

Alex

I have taken just over 40,000 pictures with my D2X

No wonder that your Subtronics are broken.....

I have a spare battery. It's not that expensive and you don't want to have a broken one on a far away trip. But I agree, I also cannot drain my d2x battery in a day. The only battery I have ever broken was one for my d100. Luckily that was 2 weeks before my Chuuk/Palau/Yap trip.

Here is a picture of the menu.

Good news on the battery Alex:

This is from Rob Galbraith

"Higher-capacity EN-EL4a battery The D2Xs will be powered by the EN-EL4a, a higher-capacity version of the 11.1V, Lithium-Ion EN-EL4 that Nikon has supplied with the D2X, D2H and D2Hs. The EN-EL4a is rated at 2500mAH, for a Nikon-specified 3800 frames, up from the D2X's 2600 frames with the 1900mAH EN-EL4.

Battery life with the D2X is already tremendous; the increased capacity of the D2Xs' EN-EL4a will only improve what was already a good thing.

The EN-EL4a is compatible with the D2X, D2Hs and D2H also, and can be charged by Nikon's Quick Charger MH-21 (the charger bundled with these cameras and the D2Xs too). We don't know if Nikon plans to begin shipping the D2Hs with the EN-EL4a in place of the EN-EL4."

And the Link

I ‘m having a problem with a battery I bought on E Bay. I bought a 2200 mAh battery for my D2X and it looks exactly like the OEM.. The problem is the battery some times does not make a good connection in the camera and the camera does not work at all. Better to be safe than sorry and buy the OEM.

Marc

B&H have them in stock now too.

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/4387...on_Battery.html

I am going away soon - so I am suffering from pre-trip paranoia!

 

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The cavers have a saying... two is one and one is none!

I'd definitely have a backup battery, but then again I have 2 SPGs, three flashlights and two primary regulators.

1 set in the camera/strobe, 1 set ready to go, 1 set charging.

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I follow the same procedure, and it's saved me more than once, either because I forgot to recharge or change a battery <_< , or simply because I couldn't charge a battery in the lost corner of the world where I was at the time...

Bought one. Got one of the old style ones - as they had it on special offer - with the new one available.

Alex