"kosh" wrote in message
...
one of 2 problems...

1. less likely.... poor battery charging method..... hence not getting the
most of the potential..
I suspect this is actually the most likely problem.
If he is charging NiMH batteries with a NiCd or Alkaline charger then this
could very likely be the cause. When NiMH batteries reach full charge they
will have a slight voltage drop - a good charger will detect this and switch
off at that point. If a NiCd charger is used, it will probably work just off
a timer, or will charge to 1.2V, or will try to charge indefinitely. NiCd
chargers either undercharge NiMH batteries or overcharge them - both are
bad. The other thing with NiMH batteries is that new batteries take a
couple of charge cycles to come up to full power, so if the OP was just
sticking brand new batteries in his charger then in the camera, it is quite
possible that he would get these sort of results. I've found that with a new
set of batteries, the 2nd and subsequent charges will typically last 3-5
times longer than the first charge.

this happened with both sets of different power batt's.... leads me to
believe...

2. some sort of problem with the camera causing a drain.
If NiMH's are fully charged, and discharged in the time it would normally
take to do 10 shots, then they would be damned hot coming out of the camera.
If they are hot, then it is a fault in the camera draining too fast. If they
aren't hot, then either the camera isn't correctly detecting when they are
empty, or the batteries weren't fully charged to begin with.


kosh


"Giorgio Preddio" wrote in message
om...
Vito Cavallo wrote in message
...
I recently purchased a Minolta Dimage S414. I have tried different
NiMh
batteries with various results. I was wondering if someone can tell
me
if
my problems are normal.

I tried Olympus 1200mah batteries and I can get about 10 pictures
before
camera won't work.

I tried new SunPak 2100mah batteries and I also get about 10 pictures
before
the battery status is low and the camera dies.

I now have new Eveready 1450mah batteries and these last about 40
pictures.

Is this normal? Shouldn't NiMh batteries last more that 10 pictures?
How is it that the lower power Evereadys last longer than the 2100mah
SunPak?

Should I discharge the NiMh before I use them?

Do you think my camera is defective?

Thanx

You will find that the mainstream manufacturers' digital cameras tend
to waste battery power in a rampant manner. Consider the Sigma/Foveon
platform instead. Not only will you get the most efficient battery
consumption out there, but you will see notches of improvement in
image quality. The Sigma SD10 is simply the best camera ever made.

Check out this thread:

http://makeashorterlink.com/?B255549A8