How To Get the Most Life From Camera Batteries
How To Get the Most Life From Camera Batteries
Image courtesy of www.digitalsnaphappy.com
You’re at a wedding or some other special event. You pull out your trusty digital camera, press the power button and … nothing. You press the button again and again, with the same result. Because your camera batteries died, you miss an album’s full of wonderful memories. Horrible. What can you do prevent this from happening to you?
One of the easiest ways to prevent this is to bring extra batteries. Especially if your camera takes regular batteries like “AA’s”, then it’s a cheap way to insure you get every shot you want. You can also get rechargeable batteries which are more expensive at first, but can pay for themselves over time. If the batteries for your camera aren’t common, having extra batteries can make your cost go up quickly. Again, the trade-off is never missing that once-in-a-lifetime shot.
Even if you get extra camera batteries, there are other ways to save battery life, and money. Most digital cameras have the large LCD screen, and a small viewfinder. To save a lot of battery life, turn off the LCD. It eats battery power quickly, especially if you don’t take a series of pictures quickly. Most cameras originally had only the viewfinder, and still took great pictures, so all you really need is a minor adjustment in how you work the camera.
Another huge power hog is looking at every picture after it is taken. The camera uses battery power for every operation it performs, and checking each shot right after you take it takes time and energy. On some cameras, it will actually make the camera take longer to reset before the next picture. With the huge memory that most cameras provide, you can take hundreds of high-resolution pictures without missing a beat, and simple odds say at least a few will be masterpieces.
Probably the single best advice for the longest life from those camera batteries is to turn the camera off when you’re not actually taking pictures. This is especially true when you don’t need to take a series of pictures very quickly, like at a sporting event. While you’re waiting to find that perfect shot, the camera is running the LCD (if you ignored the advice from earlier in the article), and the auto-focus if you have the camera set up that way. Each of these things burns through energy, and together, usable battery time is chopped way down.
With all the functions cameras perform, they use a ton of power no matter what you do. Follow the suggestions above, and you’ll be able to stretch the usable time of your digital camera batteries. If you are looking to purchase the best digital camera then make sure you do a lot of research and have a look at as many different brands and reviews as possible. If you are looking for some great bargains on digital cameras and other electronics then have a look at this cool site called Black Friday Sales. Performing lots of reasearch is the only way that you will be able to make an informed decision that results in the best digital camera for your needs at the best cost.
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Traveling with Camera Batteries
If you’re traveling outside the United States, you’ll definitely want to bring your digital camera. Being able to take great shots of Buckingham Palace, the Eiffel Tower, or the Leaning Tower of Pisa can make for fantastic memories. Bring extra memory cards to take tons of pictures, and don’t forget to bring rechargeable camera batteries.
One thing to remember when traveling is that in Europe and other parts of the world, the voltage is different than in the United States. For example, the voltage in the US is usually 120V while in Europe its 220V – 240V. The plug styles used in other parts of the world are also different. What this means to you is that you’ll have to get a different charger that is compatible with the voltage and plug style where you’re headed. You may find some chargers that are capable of using more than one voltage, and have adapters to make it easy to make the switch. These may be listed as travel battery chargers or international battery chargers. They are probably more expensive than single voltage chargers, but could be worth it, since one charger for each voltage may cost even more.
If your camera uses proprietary camera batteries, you may end up having to spend quite a bit for a charger that works overseas. If you haven’t gotten a digital camera yet, finding one that takes readily available batteries, like double-A’s, might be something to take into consideration if you plan to travel outside the US. You should seriously think about taking extra sets of batteries so you can have a couple sets charging where you’re staying, and one ready to go in the camera so you don’t miss anything.
Be sure to do your research for what type of voltage and plug styles are used so you’re prepared for anything you run across, especially if you plan to go to several countries on this or future trips since there are several different types of plugs and voltages, even in neighboring countries. You can easily find the different voltages online, sometimes on a country’s official website, or from other sources.
Another thing to bear in mind is that wherever you decide to take pictures, you can extend the life of whatever kind of camera batteries you have. You can do this by using the viewfinder instead of the LCD, only using flash when absolutely necessary, not looking at the pictures or video right after you shoot, and turning your camera off when you’re between shots. It is also great to have one of the best rugged digital cameras and some great digital camera accessories with you when travelling as this will mean less problems in harsh environments.
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Make Sure Your Camera Batteries are Charged
Digital cameras have pretty much become the standard for taking pictures in any area of photography. Whether you’re a brand new photographer, or have been shooting for years and make a living at it, you have most likely used one. They allow for great flexibility and with the huge memories available though memory cards, you can take hundreds or even thousands of pictures and not have to worry that most might not be very good. The only thing that might keep you from taking those shots is camera batteries that have given up the ghost, either permanently, or because they need to be recharged.
All batteries, camera batteries included, only have a certain life expectancy. If they are not rechargeable, then they only give you one use. Rechargeables give you the ability to use them over and over, sometimes hundreds of times. This is all well and good, but one thing you need to keep in mind with batteries, is that they can leak their charge over time. Rechargeables are also subject to this problem, and if you haven’t used them in a while, you run the risk of missing that great shot because all the power drained away.
One thing to remember is to check that your camera is working, and, since most cameras have an indicator for low battery, you can usually tell how much charge you have left. This is especially important if you plan to take pictures of your grandkids, a wedding, or Christmas. Another easy thing to do is to have spare camera batteries so you can make sure your camera is always ready to go. You can also remove the batteries when you’re going to put it away for a long period of time. This will slow down the loss of charge when not in use, and if the battery happens to leak, it won’t destroy your camera, costing you money to replace.
Remember to put your rechargeable batteries on the charger long enough in advance that you know they will be ready to go for you when you need them. If you have easily available rechargeable batteries, like “AA” style batteries, get the charger that will recharge more than one set.
If you remember to use other methods to save battery life, like not using the LCD screen as a viewfinder, not using the flash unless it’s truly necessary, turning off the camera between shots, and not looking at each picture or watching videos you shoot right after you shoot them, you can extend the life of your camera batteries.
There are some great places to buy cheap digital cameras online and cheap camera batteries and all you have to do is find them. A little bit of research will help you in the long run when it comes down to getting the best price. Some of the smaller sites like the one above are really good in finding some great deals. The more sites that you look at, the better chance you will have of finding a deal. Another great idea is to find a really good digital camera buying guide. These guides can help you in your journey to find the perfect camera.
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