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How do you charge your camera battery?

jwolf6589

jwolf6589

macrumors 601
Original poster
Dec 15, 2010
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Colorado
I have not asked this question before but how do you charge your camera battery? ? Do you charge it immediately when it drops below 100% or do you let it drop to 25-50%? One advantage my Camcorder has over Mr. Powershot and probably other still shot cameras is that there is a system preference that tells me the exact percentage of the battery. My Powershot has bars but there is no system setting that tells me the EXACT percentage of the battery. Do your still shot cameras? Or perhaps this is a camcorder only feature with some models. Oh and yes I have discovered other features lacking in still shot cameras in regards to video, hence a good reason to also own a camcorder.

Camcorder is presently at 50% and normally I charge it, but perhaps I may wait this time till it hits 25%.
 
how?? i use the battery charger.

how often? (not what you asked in your title) when it drops to low-ish. i don’t pay attention to be honest and it depends if i’m shooting for 5 minutes or an outing.
 
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Why do you keep asking questions? Why the obsession with battery percentages? Some things are just common sense. If shooting casually around home, but planning to go out for a day's excursion, one checks the battery level in the camera and depending upon what is noted, either leaves the battery in there or swaps it out for a freshly charged one. Simples, yes?

Since you DID ask, here's an answer as to how: I take the battery out of the camera and slide it into the external battery charger which came with my camera. (Higher-end camera bodies come with external chargers; I don't think others do any more.) In the meantime I slip another (charged) battery into the camera so that the camera is ready for action immediately. Nothing magical or mysterious about this process. This is how photographers who do a fair amount of shooting handle things. It's the same as with needing to swap out memory cards in the middle of a shoot -- presumably one is prepared with both extra batteries and extra memory cards so that it's a quick and simple matter to take care of this.

When do I charge the battery? When it indicates that this is needed. Sometimes before I set out for a casual stroll around the neighborhood I'll check the battery level in the camera, especially if I've been using it a lot at home, and if it's at a level which suggests it'll run out of juice at probably an inconvenient time, I'll go ahead and put in a fresh battery right then. Even when just taking a walk around the neighborhood I always carry a spare battery and spare memory card with me, anyway, though. Always before I set out on a day-long excursion or longer trip I make sure all batteries are charged and ready to go, including the one in the camera. When I'm out in the field shooting and the camera notifies me that the battery is exhausted, I'll quickly pop the tired battery out, drop it into my pocket or camera bag and slide a fresh battery into the camera so that I can continue shooting and after I get home (or if on a trip, to wherever I'm staying) I charge whatever batteries need to be charged up. Nothing very complicated about this.
 
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mollyc said:
how?? i use the battery charger.

how often? (not what you asked in your title) when it drops to low-ish. i don’t pay attention to be honest and it depends if i’m shooting for 5 minutes or an outing.
Click to expand...
Then this is not damaging to battery to let it drop lower.
 
Clix Pix said:
Why do you keep asking questions? Why the obsession with battery percentages? Some things are just common sense. If shooting casually around home, but planning to go out for a day's excursion, one checks the battery level in the camera and depending upon what is noted, either leaves the battery in there or swaps it out for a freshly charged one. Simples, yes?

Since you DID ask, here's an answer as to how: I take the battery out of the camera and slide it into the external battery charger which came with my camera. (Higher-end camera bodies come with external chargers; I don't think others do any more.) In the meantime I slip another (charged) battery into the camera so that the camera is ready for action immediately. Nothing magical or mysterious about this process. This is how photographers who do a fair amount of shooting handle things. It's the same as with needing to swap out memory cards in the middle of a shoot -- presumably one is prepared with both extra batteries and extra memory cards so that it's a quick and simple matter to take care of this.

When do I charge the battery? When it indicates that this is needed. Sometimes before I set out for a casual stroll around the neighborhood I'll check the battery level in the camera, especially if I've been using it a lot at home, and if it's at a level which suggests it'll run out of juice at probably an inconvenient time, I'll go ahead and put in a fresh battery right then. Even when just taking a walk around the neighborhood I always carry a spare battery and spare memory card with me, anyway, though. Always before I set out on a day-long excursion or longer trip I make sure all batteries are charged and ready to go, including the one in the camera. When I'm out in the field shooting and the camera notifies me that the battery is exhausted, I'll quickly pop the tired battery out, drop it into my pocket or camera bag and slide a fresh battery into the camera so that I can continue shooting and after I get home (or if on a trip, to wherever I'm staying) I charge whatever batteries need to be charged up. Nothing very complicated about this.
Click to expand...

Battery percentages are included on the Mac, iPad, and iPhone, so why not on the camera?
 
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jwolf6589 said:
Then this is not damaging to battery to let it drop lower.
Click to expand...
It depends on the type of battery rather than the camera. If you look at the battery it will tell you the type lithium ion, nickel cadmium etc. Then you can read about the battery type and see how to keep it in optimal condition.

Thing is, a new battery for the powershot is is about $30.

At this price point, just go for it, go shoot, go enjoy the camera and buy a new battery if/when it becomes a problem.

Also, the camcorder percentage may be a numeric read out but it is only marginally more accurate than the bars displays. The calculation to find the remaining capacity is based on the voltage and known discharge rate for that battery. To give a tangible feel, think of a water cooler, when the water tank is full, you open the tap and the flow is strong. As the water tank empties over time, then there is a drop in that rate of flow - not noticeable at first but if you compare when the tank is full vs when the tank is running low, then you can see it. This is the a loose comparison to measuring the voltage coming off the battery and comparing it to a known discharge curve - there are better more accurate ways but for most electronic devices it is this simple calculation to give a rough estimate.

What is true regardless - coming back to the example, if the tank runs dry completely, then that isn’t good -people get thirsty. Most rechargeable batteries dont like being completely discharged. In fact the battery for my fathers mobility scooter went completely flat last month and we had to buy a new one.

The batteries in my i3 car in the literature, state optimal battery life is had when the charge is typically kept in between 20-80%

Fun times are had when you buy a battery for a camera and the manufacturer has changed the capacity. I have an old-ish camera here and the batteries are not cheap. It takes gorgeous images worth tolerating the hiccups for- those who know me probably know what I am talking about - anyway, I bought some spare batteries for it and it’s “sister” so I had spares. The thing is, the battery has slightly more capacity than the original - good thing right? Well no, thanks to some wonky maths and no firmware updates in years, the software in the camera interprets these new batteries as having only 25% capacity when they are full. So, fun and games when you are out and about and the camera is crying out battery low. Takes cojones of steel for an OCD stress monkey like me to push on through that message every time you take a shot. When the battery charge drops down low enough that the wonky maths starts to work again, then the camera stops panicking about charge. Lol… the things we do for this bloody hobby eh!?!? :)
 
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I have a camera that can empty a battery charge in an hour, depending on things like how much I use live view and such so I'm always charging. Luckily, the batteries for said camera are cheap so I have a fair number on hand, always charged and ready to go. Another camera that I often have with me on vacation can go for a couple of days without charging, even with reasonable use. And yet another camera sits in between. My routine is: If I use the camera for an outing, charge the battery and always have at least one fully charged spare to hand. I don't worry too much about percentages or bars. Sometimes I've used a lot of the battery charge on an outing, sometimes I haven't.
 
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kenoh said:
It depends on the type of battery rather than the camera. If you look at the battery it will tell you the type lithium ion, nickel cadmium etc. Then you can read about the battery type and see how to keep it in optimal condition.

Thing is, a new battery for the powershot is is about $30.

At this price point, just go for it, go shoot, go enjoy the camera and buy a new battery if/when it becomes a problem.

Also, the camcorder percentage may be a numeric read out but it is only marginally more accurate than the bars displays. The calculation to find the remaining capacity is based on the voltage and known discharge rate for that battery. To give a tangible feel, think of a water cooler, when the water tank is full, you open the tap and the flow is strong. As the water tank empties over time, then there is a drop in that rate of flow - not noticeable at first but if you compare when the tank is full vs when the tank is running low, then you can see it. This is the a loose comparison to measuring the voltage coming off the battery and comparing it to a known discharge curve - there are better more accurate ways but for most electronic devices it is this simple calculation to give a rough estimate.

What is true regardless - coming back to the example, if the tank runs dry completely, then that isn’t good -people get thirsty. Most rechargeable batteries dont like being completely discharged. In fact the battery for my fathers mobility scooter went completely flat last month and we had to buy a new one.

The batteries in my i3 car in the literature, state optimal battery life is had when the charge is typically kept in between 20-80%

Fun times are had when you buy a battery for a camera and the manufacturer has changed the capacity. I have an old-ish camera here and the batteries are not cheap. It takes gorgeous images worth tolerating the hiccups for- those who know me probably know what I am talking about - anyway, I bought some spare batteries for it and it’s “sister” so I had spares. The thing is, the battery has slightly more capacity than the original - good thing right? Well no, thanks to some wonky maths and no firmware updates in years, the software in the camera interprets these new batteries as having only 25% capacity when they are full. So, fun and games when you are out and about and the camera is crying out battery low. Takes cojones of steel for an OCD stress monkey like me to push on through that message every time you take a shot. When the battery charge drops down low enough that the wonky maths starts to work again, then the camera stops panicking about charge. Lol… the things we do for this bloody hobby eh!?!? :)
Click to expand...
Well its fortunate that both Powershot and Camcorder batteries are replaceable. The battery in my MacBook Pro is not easily replaced and would probably cost a fortunate to get a new one when the time comes.
 
r.harris1 said:
I have a camera that can empty a battery charge in an hour, depending on things like how much I use live view and such so I'm always charging. Luckily, the batteries for said camera are cheap so I have a fair number on hand, always charged and ready to go. Another camera that I often have with me on vacation can go for a couple of days without charging, even with reasonable use. And yet another camera sits in between. My routine is: If I use the camera for an outing, charge the battery and always have at least one fully charged spare to hand. I don't worry too much about percentages or bars. Sometimes I've used a lot of the battery charge on an outing, sometimes I haven't.
Click to expand...
Yes good advice above.
 
I have I think 5 EN-EL15 series batteries, which fit my D800, D810, and most every other higher end non-single-digit camera Nikon has made in the last 10 years. I should say they all work in my cameras, but IIRC you need the b and c versions in the Z6 and Z7…

In any case, I generally keep the ones not in a camera charged, and if I’m going somewhere and the battery is under half, I’ll generally change it and stick a spare in my pocket.

Before going on a trip, I go through and charge all of them.

If you have multiple cameras, having the same battery is definitely a big benefit. It annoys me that the Df is different.

On percentage read outs-your average camera probably has about as much raw computing power as an early 90s PowerBook. I’m pretty sure my PowerBook 100 doesn’t give a percentage read out.
 
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I charge as needed, or top off before a big project. Like I post a thread when I really need help with a question. In fact I think the number of times I’ve charged my A7III is less than the number of your threads posted, which is incredible!

After market batteries aren’t that expensive either like $25 for my A7III and I have 3 of them all the time, even though 1-2 is actually plenty for photos and videos.

For the RX100 V, I have 4 of those lying around because I bought a pack of them for like a pack of 3 for $20 with a charging dock. But the battery life for that camera isn’t that great especially for working with video so having extras come in handy. Again, I charge as needed. Plus this is the camera I take on vacations to preserve my iPhone battery life being out all day, although I could just carry an external battery pack instead of another camera…
 
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bunnspecial said:
I have I think 5 EN-EL15 series batteries, which fit my D800, D810, and most every other higher end non-single-digit camera Nikon has made in the last 10 years. I should say they all work in my cameras, but IIRC you need the b and c versions in the Z6 and Z7…

In any case, I generally keep the ones not in a camera charged, and if I’m going somewhere and the battery is under half, I’ll generally change it and stick a spare in my pocket.

Before going on a trip, I go through and charge all of them.

If you have multiple cameras, having the same battery is definitely a big benefit. It annoys me that the Df is different.

On percentage read outs-your average camera probably has about as much raw computing power as an early 90s PowerBook. I’m pretty sure my PowerBook 100 doesn’t give a percentage read out.
Click to expand...
Well Powershot and Camcorder use different types of batteries since both are different cameras.
 
My batteries have to deal with lenses that have features that can drain them in a day. Always charged before going out and never go out without a spare. All charged on the Canon charger.
 
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jwolf6589 said:
Well Powershot and Camcorder use different types of batteries since both are different cameras.
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I plead ignorance to Canon batteries, but "different camera" doesn't have a lot to do with it.

I mentioned the EN-EL15 batteries. I've owned 4 different cameras that use these batteries-the D500, D600, D800, and D810. In fact, Nikon even swapped one of my old batteries when I got my D500(there was a weird glitch with the D500 draining some early EN-EL15s fast).

The D7xxx, D750, D780, D850, Z6(II) and Z7(II) also use these batteries. I'm probably missing a few. A lot of these are quite different cameras.

Before that, there was the EN-EL3e used in the D200, D300, D700, and a couple of others. It also made its way into the Fuji Finepix S5, although they will(annoyingly) only work with Fuji brand batteries or aftermarket batteries specifically made for that camera.

The same battery isn't a make-or-break for me, but it's a big plus when looking at a new camera.

I do have one regularly used camera that uses a different battery than my others and it's super annoying...
 
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