D200 Battery

[bushman]

According to Nikon the D200 should be able to get 1500 shots out of a fully charged battery. Due to the bad weather recently I haven't been out much and when I checked the frame counter on my D200 I found that I've only taken about 200 pictures since I bought the camera.

In that time I've recharged the battery THREE TIMES. Every year around July I spend about three weeks away from mains power. At this rate I'll have to load the Land Rover with spare batteries, as I don't travel far enough each day to charge one battery. I've seen similar complaints on other sites, no wonder people are switching to Canon!

Before someone mentions AA batteries, forget it because they're a waste of time. When the battery died this afternoon I put in a new set of Duracells and they died about five minutes ago without even taking a single picture. All I had used them for was to download the pictures I had taken lunchtime check the settings in the menu for about ten minutes.

When I go to Focus On Imaging next weekend I shall make a point of finding the nearest Nikon rep and telling him what I think of their batteries, preferably within earshot of anyone who is thinking of buying a D200.

I'm not vindictive, I just want a camera which is billed as being professional to do what it says on the box.
Cheers, John

[Sleeping Bear]

Did you perhaps get a 'bad one', John? Or are others having the same problems? Sorry to hear about it and I hope to see you when you are in SoCal next month. We might be able to swing our schedule a little earlier in order to catch up with you for a day. :cheers:

[AzRich]

I've started to keep track of how many shots I'm gettin' with my battery.

Mind you, I focus a LOT and don't shoot. That and I use a VR lens. With VR on!

So far, 400+ shots and it's down only one part. Still shooting, weather providing. :D

[proberts]

According to Nikon the D200 should be able to get 1500 shots out of a fully charged battery. Due to the bad weather recently I haven't been out much and when I checked the frame counter on my D200 I found that I've only taken about 200 pictures since I bought the camera.

In that time I've recharged the battery THREE TIMES. Every year around July I spend about three weeks away from mains power. At this rate I'll have to load the Land Rover with spare batteries, as I don't travel far enough each day to charge one battery. I've seen similar complaints on other sites, no wonder people are switching to Canon!

Before someone mentions AA batteries, forget it because they're a waste of time. When the battery died this afternoon I put in a new set of Duracells and they died about five minutes ago without even taking a single picture. All I had used them for was to download the pictures I had taken lunchtime check the settings in the menu for about ten minutes.

When I go to Focus On Imaging next weekend I shall make a point of finding the nearest Nikon rep and telling him what I think of their batteries, preferably within earshot of anyone who is thinking of buying a D200.

I'm not vindictive, I just want a camera which is billed as being professional to do what it says on the box.
Cheers, John

Bjorn whatshisname had a very good battery life test and reported results, you may want to dig that up:

http://www.naturfotograf.com/index2.html

His conclusion though:

Finally to give my own answer: I got on the average about 170 shots per charge with the D200, compared to 390 with the D2X. This is using each camera for a typical mix of shooting applications in sub-zero weather. As far as I'm concerned, the D200 (with EN-EL3e) has slightly less than half the shooting capacity of the D2X (with EN-EL4). Thus I will have to carry at least one extra spare battery for each D200.

(He shot manual focus only)

This doesn't really jive with his graph, which shows ~650, and adding in about 2x drain for AF would still be up over 300.

I'm on my third battery change (first recharge of the second battery) and I seem to be getting over 350 shots/battery, but I haven't been keeping close count, next battery change, I'll try to. Autofocus, AFS-II lens, aperature priority, no LCD preview, almost no LCD review, formatting cards in camera.

Paul

[Swampy]

John, this just doesn't sound right. I think something might be wrong with your camera (I hope not) or your battery.

I had to charge the batteries up in my 1Ds last weekend. Last time I charged it was the day before Xmas before I went to Yosemite. I shoot a LOT of Stabilized images with contrinuous focus and I quite often sit (stabilized but one shot focus) on a subject for 2-5 minutes at a time waiting for that perfect moment. I love my batteries, but they're probably 10 times the weight of the D200 battery too. Hahah. But, still, over a month of shooting, 1200 images probably. I love it. :getdown:

You should be getting much better performance though.

[bushman]

When I had the D2h for nine months, even with a lot of 8fps burst shooting I only had to charge the battery about every couple of months. As the battery was completely flat yesterday, it should have a full charge now, so I'll see what I get out of it. According to Jessops my spare battery should be here this week, so I'll run them individually and see if one is better than the other.

I did pick up on one thing yesterday though, apparently Nikon are shipping the new batteries out as replacements for the En-El3's which were recalled, which is why they are in short supply.
Cheers, John

[Swampy]

Yeah, keep us informed on how this battery does from a full charge.

Remember, I have an inverter for you to use in the car so charging while driving won't be a problem and when staying in a hotel, they've got plenty of outlets.

BTW - I think I only have one European power to US power converter plug. I'll dig it up and try and find some more.

[MikePL]

Please tell us about the picture format you use. Another thing is to take 300 shots with JPG's and another thing is 300 RAW (NEF) pictures. I've found out that recording the file consumes an enormous amount of energy.

[AzRich]

Please tell us about the picture format you use. Another thing is to take 300 shots with JPG's and another thing is 300 RAW (NEF) pictures. I've found out that recording the file consumes an enormous amount of energy.


Good point. I shoot raw (no jpg included).

[Glasseye]

John,

I wonder if your electro static or something? Every thing you pick up that uses batteries goes flat very quickly. :rofl:
Mind you they are quite small batteries, they look less than half the size of the ones in the D2x. and you do tend to be using long tele zooms most of the time.

see you 4 lunch tomorrow I have a great CA field guide to show you

Andy

[AzRich]

Just for comparison... This is what I got from my d200 using VR lenses most of the time.

Battery from #1545 2/13/06 to #2029 2/19/06 484 over 6 days.