Canon A570IS, 200 shots on eneloop, 10 shots on Alkaline

On Thu, 10 Jul 2008 22:45:21 -0500, John Turco, hoarder of yellow
boxes wrote:

Electronic flash can genuinely clobber batteries, of any type; even
my Kodak P850's KLIC-5001 (proprietary Li-Ion pack) absorbs a severe
beating, from the camera's xenon tube and its big capacitor.

Hence, I "shutter" to think how poor, helpless alkaline cells would
fare! :-J

Say goodnight Gracie.

John Turco wrote:

Electronic flash can genuinely clobber batteries, of any type; even
my Kodak P850's KLIC-5001 (proprietary Li-Ion pack) absorbs a severe
beating, from the camera's xenon tube and its big capacitor.

Hence, I "shutter" to think how poor, helpless alkaline cells would
fare! :-J

I often turn the flash off on my P&S cameras, but not just because of
battery life. The camera often decides to fire it unnecessarily. With
OIS, or on a tripod, flash usage can often be eliminated, and better
results can be achieved with natural light. Just as there are menu
settings for image quality in order to reduce memory usage, there should
be a menu setting that is used to make the flash usage less aggressive.

John Turco wrote:

Furthermore, although there may well be other planets in the universe,
populated by beings whose wisdom rivals that of SMS, himself...it's
highly questionable whether any of these hypothetical creatures, could
ever hope to match his divine grasp of all battery-related matters.

You are correct.

SMS wrote:

I'll find out when I get the camera back. I guess it's possible that the
cruise line was selling some no-name AA batteries, but I doubt it.

Got it back yesterday. The AA alkalines were Duracell batteries with an
expiration date of 2015. I tried the camera, and indeed the low battery
indicator comes on after 15 photos (so she was exaggerating when she
said 10). But after the low-battery indicator comes on, I could still
take 12 more, so that's a total of 27, which isn't too bad though a far
cry from Canon's claim of 120.

I could send it back, as it's still under warranty, but since I get at
least 250 shots with a set of AA eneloops, I don't think there's
anything really wrong with it, and since everyone else has experienced
similarly dismal battery life with alkaline batteries, I presume the
Canon estimate of 120 shots is just completely bogus.

ransley wrote:
On Jul 13, 10:51 pm, SMS wrote:
SMS wrote:
I'll find out when I get the camera back. I guess it's possible that the
cruise line was selling some no-name AA batteries, but I doubt it.
Got it back yesterday. The AA alkalines were Duracell batteries with an
expiration date of 2015. I tried the camera, and indeed the low battery
indicator comes on after 15 photos (so she was exaggerating when she
said 10). But after the low-battery indicator comes on, I could still
take 12 more, so that's a total of 27, which isn't too bad though a far
cry from Canon's claim of 120.

I could send it back, as it's still under warranty, but since I get at
least 250 shots with a set of AA eneloops, I don't think there's
anything really wrong with it, and since everyone else has experienced
similarly dismal battery life with alkaline batteries, I presume the
Canon estimate of 120 shots is just completely bogus.

Try it with lcd off, one shot focus, one shot IS, no photo review. 250
with eneloops makes me think there is no issue, if you reset
parameters for least drain and used high amp Nimh you might go 500
shots or more. The batteries your friend used are probably still
good.

I could, but it's a non-issue for me now. I just won't use Alkaline
batteries, except in an extreme emergency when I have no eneloops or
lithium AA cells available.

SMS wrote:

John Turco wrote:

Furthermore, although there may well be other planets in the universe,
populated by beings whose wisdom rivals that of SMS, himself...it's
highly questionable whether any of these hypothetical creatures, could
ever hope to match his divine grasp of all battery-related matters.

You are correct.


Hello, Steven:

Delusions of grandeur, eh? Oh, well, I see that I've escaped your crowded
killfile, somehow. g


Cordially,
John Turco

SMS wrote:

John Turco wrote:

Electronic flash can genuinely clobber batteries, of any type; even
my Kodak P850's KLIC-5001 (proprietary Li-Ion pack) absorbs a severe
beating, from the camera's xenon tube and its big capacitor.

Hence, I "shutter" to think how poor, helpless alkaline cells would
fare! :-J

I often turn the flash off on my P&S cameras, but not just because of
battery life. The camera often decides to fire it unnecessarily. With
OIS, or on a tripod, flash usage can often be eliminated, and better
results can be achieved with natural light. Just as there are menu
settings for image quality in order to reduce memory usage, there should
be a menu setting that is used to make the flash usage less aggressive.


Hello, Steven:

Hell, yes! There are many times, unrelated to power issues, when I
want to disable the flash (with close-up shots being a prime example).

Although, the P850 does a particularly good job of "squelching" its
output, in such cases; it doesn't "blow out" the subject, the way a
lot of digicams do.


Cordially,
John Turco