Digital Cameras

[John Wakefield]

I bought a second hand Sony Digital camera recently model DSC-P52 Cyber shot. only a few quid in in box with charger, extra memory card etc. Takes good pics but battery life is cronic. Put two AA Duracells in and they only lasted about half an hour. According to handbook it should have NiMH rechargables of about 2500 mah, so have sent off for some. The consumption seems to be about 600 ma with LCD screen on & 200 ma with it off. Camera has normal view finder so thats not a problem when taking pics. Is this normal.
I presume its because its an early model that this is a problem. As I plan to download pics to a computor the battery life sould not be too much of a problem as long as it holds charge to take about 20 pics.

[Brian Thompson]

Digital Cameras.

I've had a check on the speck for my camera John, and although it's also a Cybershot I think it's probably a more recent model.

For what it's worth though, I use a Sony Cybershot WS130, about £100 all in, bought in 2008-the memory card was about £20-30 extra (depends on size), and uses a rechargable 960 mAh Li-ion battery. It's good for a weekend (and more) on a full charge, which takes about 4 hours. A replacement battery costs around £30, but so far mine (it came with the camera) has been completely reliable. The power consumption, during shooting, LCD screen on, is 1.0W.

With a good built in flash, and a handy (albeit limited) video facility, it does everything I need and is a really nice bit of kit and easy to use. Highly recommended for the dosh, and the latest models will be even better, with higher resolution (megapixels) etc etc.

Sadly, they don't turn you into a Don Morley as well though.....!

[John Wakefield]

I suppose its ok if you just take a quick shot & switch off till next shot. But if you leave the LCD on to view shots etc that zaps the battery. My camera uses two standard 1.2 volt AA NiMH 2500 mah rechargables so with a 1 watt discharge at 2.4 volts this is 2400 milli amps which = 1 hour life theoretically.
Dont you mean David Bailey!!

[Brian Thompson]

David Bailey doesn't ride a Greeves or take fantastic award winning photographs of motorcycles! Don's a legend!

I switch my camera off between pics too, within reason, and the battery holds it's charge well when not in constant use.

[Ian]

The LCD and also the sensor that records the image will both consume plenty of battery power. You've done the right thing by buying some rechargables. When I had a camera that took AA batteries I bought 8 x 2900mAH AA for under £10 from eBay. They're branded Vapex and very good.

[Buzzer]

Slightly off this particular thread, but it may be relevant to someone. About four years ago I bought a Canon Powershot digital camera. A few weeks ago, the screen went haywire, showing vastly distorted images and a purple cast. I contacted Canon, who advised returning it to one of their UK repair centres. Seems it was a problem they recognised due to a faulty batch of CCD's. I sent off the camera and it was returned within a week, fully operational and at no charge. I thought it was excellent after - sales backup for a four year old camera!

[Brian Catt]

My first digi was a Pentax Optio S50. Lovely little camera, good pics good battery life etc. BUT as the years went on, it started eating batteries to the point where it does not work at all. I went out (by computer) and bought a Fuji finepix S1000. Pretty good so far, but.....it, like most digis, takes the pic when it wants, not when I want! This is pretty important when trying to take action shots....maybe I ought to read the manual.
Batteries, now theres a problem! I gave up with re-chargeables and now use the Energizer Lithium use and throw batteries, they last me months!

OHH, just after writing the above, my creaking memory went back to a conversation with a semi-pro snapper in a forest in Hampshire last November. He was having trouble powering up his Canon EOS megga money kit. His words were, "I should have cleaned the contacts!" So I cleaned the contacts in the Pentax, and inserted 2 of the AAs from the other camera, and Bingo! it works.
MORAL clean the batteries and contacts!

[statik]

My camera is getting old now but it's been really worthwhile owning. It's a Samsung NV3. Still as good as the day I got it even considering the dents and scratches, it goes everywhere with me work and play.

They are quite cheap secondhand and it shocks most users with new cameras. 7mp = 3072x2304 or smaller for more photos on the card, but I have never filled a 2 gb card up. Takes 25 minutes of video on a 2gb card. Never ran out of power on a day out, ever.

One going on Ebay at the moment cheap. I photograph everything these days, must be getting old.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Samsung-NV-3-Digital-Camera-Accessories-/150659276907?pt=UK_CamerasPhoto_DigitalCameras_DigitalCameras_JN&hash=item2313fe206b

[ronwright26]

Digital Cameras

£ for £ digital cameras are better value now than they have ever been. Most digital cameras in the £100 bracket have li-on batteries and come with battery chargers. However there are some bargains out there for battery powered cameras.
I own a number of cameras up to an expensive SLR Samsung but my favourite camera is a Fuji which is battery operated. Run it on duracells and it chews through the batteries. I have run it for the last 2 years on rechargeable batteries bought from Tesco or Morrisons with a charger off ebay and the battery life is brilliant. I always carry as a backup some new AA batteries just in case but I have never needed them.
Digital cameras are heavily promoted in the adverts with claims of 10 and 12 megapixels etc. I have one and they are good but the photos that I have taken of the Beamish Trial over the past 3 years have been taken by my Fuji with half the megapixels and to be frank I cannot discern any difference in quality - see the photo gallery on the Beamish Trial website.
Save your money on buying this years model digital camera and spend it on your Greeves !!

[Rob]

Brian,

You can't take action shots with a digi in the same way as a dear old SLR. I have a Fuji Finepix and my technique (for scrambles) is to pre-focus on the bit of track where I want to take a pic. Holding half-down the shutter button, pan the bike to the spot and click down the rest of the way - instant pic and not just the back half of the rear tyre!

[Brian Catt]

Rob, I do have an DSLR and have taken the best part of 2000 pics on events this Autumn. I also took some with the bridge camera at Battlesbridge with quite good results, but it's nowhere near as convenient. I managed a sequence of pics of a lady passenger coming out of the sidecar at one of the meets, you couldn't do that with a lesser camera. To think I used to go to the ISDT with 3 films in my bag....

[Rob]

.....but I bet you made each frame of each film count!

[Brian Catt]

I certainly tried! In 1970 I took about 100 pics, of which 33 have been featured in the 40th anniversary book published in Spain.

[tammyanddaveky]

Some insight maybe..who knows lol

Hey guys,
So I bought...oohh, 2 yrs ago maybe a year ago a cheap and simple Kodak EasyShare C182, came with rechargeables. It does video too, without sound.

I have an ebay store...and tied up with bikes, not complaining a bit..lol, so I don't add my inventory timely...end up adding 30+ listings at a time.

Sooo while the rechargeables were charging...used disposable AA's...my my..the rechargeables last forever...the disposables, approx 45 minutes of shooting if I am using the flash...an hour without flash. Oddly, I reuse them in something else, anything and get quite a bit more time out of them.??

No idea, tech speaking what that means...layman's or womans term....stick to the rechargables...LOL.

Hope that made any sense at all...

[John Wakefield]

Rechargeable batteries

I found the same, non rechargables even Duracells dont last long but NiMH 2450 mAh rechargable ones last all day. Strange really as usually rechargables dont last anywhere near as long as non RC & they are only 1.2 volt as against 1.5 volt for non RC.