I have a Sealife DC1000 compact camera + strobe that I'm using in 'spy mode' to track nocturnal urchin foraging by taking a photo every 5 or 30 minutes (apparently there's no 10 or 15 minute interval for this camera ). I've found that the battery life is severely limiting, and seems to only last around 3 hours in spy mode at 5 minute intervals. I have no idea what is normal or expected for this sort of mode as I have not used it before, and the Sealife technicians are also not entirely sure how long it should last in this situation. The battery is brand new, so I assume that it is fully functional. I was wondering if anyone had tips on how I could possibly reduce how quickly the battery drains?
I have set the LCD screen to minimum brightness, and it only turns on for 10 seconds before each picture is taken. I have also switched all sounds off (not sure if these make any difference to battery life). If anyone could help, I'd really appreciate it!
I have a Sealife DC1000 compact camera + strobe that I'm using in 'spy mode' to track nocturnal urchin foraging by taking a photo every 5 or 30 minutes (apparently there's no 10 or 15 minute interval for this camera ). I've found that the battery life is severely limiting, and seems to only last around 3 hours in spy mode at 5 minute intervals. I have no idea what is normal or expected for this sort of mode as I have not used it before, and the Sealife technicians are also not entirely sure how long it should last in this situation. The battery is brand new, so I assume that it is fully functional. I was wondering if anyone had tips on how I could possibly reduce how quickly the battery drains?
I have set the LCD screen to minimum brightness, and it only turns on for 10 seconds before each picture is taken. I have also switched all sounds off (not sure if these make any difference to battery life). If anyone could help, I'd really appreciate it!
I don't see why they would design it so the LCD had to go on at all in such a mode ... can you turn the LCD off completely? Can you set it on manual focus?
is it using an internal flash?
Jeremy is right .. no need for screen to come on if you can keep it off.
those two things are the biggest battery consumers.
Hmm. I found how to turn the LCD off, but the strobe relies on the camera's internal flash to fire. I guess that's all I can do to prolong battery life. Oh well. Thanks anyway!
Hmm. I found how to turn the LCD off, but the strobe relies on the camera's internal flash to fire. I guess that's all I can do to prolong battery life. Oh well. Thanks anyway!
Sometimes it's possible to turn the strobe way down to conserve camera batteries, and still fire the external flashes. On my D90, the internal flash can be set to 1/128th of normal power, and still work fine with Inon TTL strobes.
The problem seems to be how long the camera is inactive but still passively timing. Regardless of whether spy mode is operating at 5 minute or 1 hour intervals (12 photos per hour or 1 per hour) the total life seems to be around four hours. Seems a bit odd to design a camera with a mode to spy on critters if it has such a limited longevity. Bummer.
On second thoughts, does anyone know of a potential setup (starting from scratch) that would run over 12-24 hours, taking a single photograph every 15-30 minutes? Am now having the problem with this current setup that I won't be able to get any nocturnal footage at all, as the camera battery will run out even before it gets dark (site is remote so requires setup while plenty of daylight is still present).
the only setup i can think of with great battery life would be a D3 (or canon 1D series) with its big battery that lasts a very long time. or any other camera where you trigger strobes via hotshoe and turn off live view or image review (generally SLR's). like giles said, flash and lcd are the biggest battery consumers. of course a housed slr is quite the investment.....
). I've found that the battery life is severely limiting, and seems to only last around 3 hours in spy mode at 5 minute intervals. I have no idea what is normal or expected for this sort of mode as I have not used it before, and the Sealife technicians are also not entirely sure how long it should last in this situation. The battery is brand new, so I assume that it is fully functional. I was wondering if anyone had tips on how I could possibly reduce how quickly the battery drains?
