Which is better for the Battery?

Is it better to:

1. Turn the camera on/off all the time
OR
2. Keep it on

One time I was at an event and walked around for 20 minutes, I keep the
camera on the whole time and took about 10 pictures and then it ran out
of battery.

Would it have been better if I kept turning it on and off instead of
keeping it on the whole time?

Thanks

wrote:
: Is it better to:

: 1. Turn the camera on/off all the time
: OR
: 2. Keep it on

: One time I was at an event and walked around for 20 minutes, I keep the
: camera on the whole time and took about 10 pictures and then it ran out
: of battery.

: Would it have been better if I kept turning it on and off instead of
: keeping it on the whole time?

: Thanks

It is a bit of a balancing act. Compare it to your car. Letting the engine
run while you are parked does use up gas, but a higher consumption of gas
happens durring start up. So if you are only going to set in your car and
idle the engine for a few min (while you check the mailbox, for example)
you use less total gas to let it run. But if you are going to leave it run
for 15 to 20 min, you would save gas by turning it off and then
restarting. Of course if it is cold outside and you want to keep the
heater running durring the wait, that would influence your decision. As
would the fear of leaving it running unattended with "shady" types lurking
nearby.

The same is true of your camera. Depending on the brand and settings of
the camera (display always on, flash charging, etc) there will be a
constant drain. Depending on how frequent you plan on shooting you may
save battery charge by turning off and on. But other factors may make the
question lean one way or another. For example, if the events you are
trying to catch happen quick with little warning, the start up time of
your camera could cause enough delay to make you miss more oportunities.
Also I have found that temperature variations can reduce the available
charge which can be somewhat reduced by the slow trickle of energy used,
causing the chemical reaction in the battery to slightly warm the battery.
Also some batteries have more "depth" of charge which can react to bursts
of energy use quicker. So if you use a flash with a lesser battery the
sudden higher draw to recharge the flash may drop the available charge
below the limit, and cause the camera to report a dead battery sooner.

To summarize, there is no hard and fast "go/no go" point for all cameras
and conditions. Depending on your camera, settings, extra energy draws,
and environment the "idle" draw may be less than the innitialization draw
from turning on the camera. In general I feel that if my camera will be
idle for more than a min, and the subject matter allows me the warning
period to allow me to react in time to turn the camera on and get it
running, I then turn it off between shots.

JMHO

Randy

==========
Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL

wrote:
Is it better to:

1. Turn the camera on/off all the time
OR
2. Keep it on

One time I was at an event and walked around for 20 minutes, I keep
the camera on the whole time and took about 10 pictures and then it
ran out of battery.

Would it have been better if I kept turning it on and off instead of
keeping it on the whole time?

Thanks

My Nikon Coolpix goes into "standby" mode after a pre-set time (I have it
set at 3 minutes).

This solves the problem of whether to turn it off/on.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Is it better to:

1. Turn the camera on/off all the time
OR
2. Keep it on

One time I was at an event and walked around for 20 minutes, I keep the
camera on the whole time and took about 10 pictures and then it ran out
of battery.

Would it have been better if I kept turning it on and off instead of
keeping it on the whole time?

Thanks


Do you leave the LCD screen on? Does your camera allow you to set the time
the LCD is on until it times out to save the battery? Most cameras I've used
shuts off the LCD after several seconds of not using any controls in order
to save battery power. You should be able to leave the camera on this way
and still get 100s of shots per charge unless your camera is an older model
(power hog) or your batteries were weak to begin with or if rechargeable,
near the end of useful life. If you set the camera to leave the LCD on for
extended periods, you will run down the batteries quick.
-S

For the Nikon Coolpix I believe it is better to leave it on so long as
you are careful (the lens stays extended). Once it is on standby mode
there is very little drain and the camera can be ready quicker than it
can when you turn it on. Also, turning the camera on and off causes the
lens to extend and retract which uses more battery (standby mode leave
the lens inthe extended position). Of course as a previous poster
pointed out there is a point hwere it would be better to turn off the
camera, but generally, if I am taking pictures every few minutes I let
it go into standby.

- Barry

wrote:
Is it better to:

1. Turn the camera on/off all the time

Yes.

OR
2. Keep it on

No.

One time I was at an event and walked around for 20 minutes, I keep the
camera on the whole time and took about 10 pictures and then it ran out
of battery.

That doesn't sound good. 20 minutes and 10 pictures isn't much...

Would it have been better if I kept turning it on and off instead of
keeping it on the whole time?

Turn it off.

How much difference it makes depends on the camera, and simple
one will probably not be affected as much as more complex cameras
(with more electronics). But there is just no getting around the
fact that it doesn't draw *any* energy from a battery when turned
off.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

Randy Berbaum wrote:
wrote:
: Is it better to:
: 1. Turn the camera on/off all the time
: OR
: 2. Keep it on

It is a bit of a balancing act. Compare it to your car. Letting the engine
run while you are parked does use up gas, but a higher consumption of gas
happens durring start up.

True for the car, and not true for the camera (to any
significant extent).

....
Depending on how frequent you plan on shooting you may
save battery charge by turning off and on.

Definitely it will save the battery to turn it off.

But other factors may make the
question lean one way or another. For example, if the events you are
trying to catch happen quick with little warning, the start up time of
your camera could cause enough delay to make you miss more oportunities.

And that is the only reason to consider leaving it on:
convenience. The balancing act is only between saving the
battery and making it easier to get off an exposure quickly.

Also I have found that temperature variations can reduce the available
charge which can be somewhat reduced by the slow trickle of energy used,
causing the chemical reaction in the battery to slightly warm the battery.

That works wonders when the trickle of current is a *charge*,
but it is a loser when the trickle is discharging the battery.

Also some batteries have more "depth" of charge which can react to bursts
of energy use quicker. So if you use a flash with a lesser battery the
sudden higher draw to recharge the flash may drop the available charge
below the limit, and cause the camera to report a dead battery sooner.

That is true. Sometimes if the battery indicates low, just
turning the camera off for a few seconds will result in the
indicator saying it is okay when turned back on.

Unfortunately that is not actually extending the battery's
ability to provide energy, and it has no effect unless the
camera has an interlock that shuts off the system at some
minimum voltage level. In that case cycling the camera off and
on may indeed get a few more shots before the battery voltage
goes down to the point were it will not work without a recharge.

To summarize, there is no hard and fast "go/no go" point for all cameras
and conditions. Depending on your camera, settings, extra energy draws,
and environment the "idle" draw may be less than the innitialization draw
from turning on the camera.

The "idle" draw for merely a few seconds, never mind many
minutes, is going to be significantly greater than any
"initialization draw". The only real initial draw that would be
greater than normal idle would be any movement of motors (auto
focus etc) to calibrate the electronics, and charging of
capacitors. The motor movement actually is extra, but the
capacitors draw exactly the *same* amount as leakage would draw
over the time period that it takes to discharge them, and past
that period of time it is all in favor of lower current when
off.

Hence "initialization" draw can be ignored.

In general I feel that if my camera will be
idle for more than a min, and the subject matter allows me the warning
period to allow me to react in time to turn the camera on and get it
running, I then turn it off between shots.

That short a time doesn't seem to follow from your discussion
above though. :-)

The paradox is that I probably don't worry about turning off the
camera unless I know the idle time will be at least 3 or 4
minutes!

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

I measured the current drain in standby on my Olympus C750 a while ago and
it was zero on a DVM set to a high current range with the smallest digit
being 10mA, so I can confidently say it's less than 10mA, probably less than
5mA as the last digit never budged from zero. That makes the battery life
400 hrs or more in standby.

"SteveB" sbrads@nildramDOTcoDOTuk wrote:
I measured the current drain in standby on my Olympus C750 a while ago and
it was zero on a DVM set to a high current range with the smallest digit
being 10mA, so I can confidently say it's less than 10mA, probably less than
5mA as the last digit never budged from zero. That makes the battery life
400 hrs or more in standby.

Standby mode can be considered the equivalent of "off" for practical
discussions.

--
Floyd L. Davidson http://www.apaflo.com/floyd_davidson
Ukpeagvik (Barrow, Alaska)

wrote:
Is it better to:

1. Turn the camera on/off all the time
OR
2. Keep it on

One time I was at an event and walked around for 20 minutes, I keep the
camera on the whole time and took about 10 pictures and then it ran out
of battery.

Would it have been better if I kept turning it on and off instead of
keeping it on the whole time?

Thanks

Try leaving the camera on, and turning the LCD screen off. The screen
uses most of the energy.

Morton