Battery update

[Super 2]

Well one week later and the 2000 mah are still going , in fact the fresh set of cr123's i put in last saturday, packed up this morning on a commercial shoot.

I have now shot a total of 725 frames, on this set of batteries,well worth buying.

Pity about the cr123s though. Still I order them in packs of six for around £6 so I am not too bothered.

Just thought I would let you know.

Regards

Nick

[jknights]

Nick,

Have you thought about using the Nikon MB16 battery pack (holds 4 AA batteries) instead of the CR123A.

I have ordered a MB16 as I prefer to reley on only one type of batteries. In future I will carry two sets of AA batteries. 4 for S2, 4 for MB16 and a full spare set of 8 AA batteries.

More info on the attachment/conversion of the MB16 to use on S2 here:
http://www.pbase.com/dannerw

[Topngu]

Remove AA bat pack after shots will save batteries life longer...
because the consumption of bat too high even you shut OFF:rolleyes:

[Gabriel17]

Hi all, I was just wondering if using the MB16 on the S2 Pro with rechargeble batteries will affect the operations on the camera in the long run? Due to different voltage or current consume?Any comments?

[Topngu]

Gabriel17,
No problem...exept you want to save bat life...remove them (ALL)
for a long period that u not use camera...2 days...?...2 weeks..?

[Gabriel17]

thanx for the advice...will be removing the batts when storing the camera...lithium is very expansive here in singapore...

[Frank]

Here is a link to a cr123 battery supplier I use, may be helpful.




battery link (http://botachtactical.com/pebastca.html)



battery link #2 (http://botachtactical.com/toscr123a3vo.html)

[jknights]

I always use the camera with normal internal battery pack attached and AC running in studio, but what happens is that if you use in studio for an extended period the CR123s get depleted by them trying to 'top up' the 5v external power supplied by the external AC unit.
When this happens the camera 'freezes', if you take out all the batteriesthen it is OK . If you take out the CR123s and replace it is OK but if you just take out the CR123s and try to restart nothing happens. Very strange behaviour. Seems like a design flaw !?!


However I have now attached an MB16 battery pack to my S2. This uses 4x2000mAh AA rechrgeables. It is wonderful.

Just got back from Spain where I have given the S2 + MB16 a real test. Great, no problems at all.

I bought an MB16 then pared off the 'lips' on the MB16, in the relevant places, with a sharp knife, to make sure it mated flat with the S2.
Cut off a little peg in the MB16 that stopped the body and battery pack coming together flat.
Put some 2000mAh AA rechargeables in and off I went.


I got more than a full day shooting with the MB16 (and 2000mAh rechargeable AAs) and 2000mAh rechargeable AAs in normal battery pack (approx 250 RAF shots). Batteries had not run out but it was easier to just recharge rather than worry about carrying spare batteries. I have done another test since where I used it for two days = approx 600 shots and still batteries were OK.

I will do an extended test to see how many shots I get from a fully charged set of AAs in both standard battery pack and MB16.

[Gabriel17]

jknights, hi...its nice of you to post on the batteries updates.
I read somewhere that with the MB16, the batt life is just about 1/2 when using cr123. This is a main concern for me as I really hate having any betteries dying on me in the midst of shooting. Looking for ward to your test on the 2000mah batts in the mb16. How many shots can it go will somehow help me in deciding which way to go...either the cr123 or the mb16. Thanx.

[jknights]

Gabriel17,
Always good to help each other as life is too short to find it all out yourself.

re the CR123 v MB16 question. Unless you are worried by the extra size of the MB16 then I would definitely get the MB16 as it make life really easy for battery management.

16x 2000mAh AA rechargeable batteries wil be more than enough as if you have a fast (2hour charger) You can charge them faster than ypou can use them !!!

I wish I had bought the MB16 before. I was trying to decide between rechargeable CR123s and the MB16. What finally decided me was that the rechargeable CR123s require yet another different charger.

[Gabriel17]

well, jknights,siza is not an issue for me...but still, im trying to decide to go which way...i just bought another 4 pieces of the 2100 mah battery..and also ordered 15 pc of the toshiba cr123 from the net...maybe after the cr123 finishes, then i might justy consider the mb16.