Pentax K100D Super and AA Batteries
After about a month of usage, here are my initial findings on what you can expect in terms of battery life from your Pentax K100D Super digital SLR camera.
Using the set of Alkaline batteries included with the camera I was able to take approximately 90 shots with about 60-75% flash usage.
I also picked up two sets of 4 Energizer Lithium Ion single use batteries. I plan to keep these as the emergency set in my camera bag. I expect this set to perform close to, or exceed the anticipated number of shots in the manual. If I were to take a long trip, I would also consider picking up a set or two of CRV-3 Lithium batteries as these are supposed to yield 1000 - 1100 shots.
Since they were readily available, I picked up some Energizer 2500mAh NiHM Batteries and a charger. So far, these batteries have worked well for my needs. Typical charge time is about 8.5 hours with the supplied charger. The first two charges were yielded very few pictures, but it looks like the third charge is the sweet spot. I have four sets of the Energizer NiHM’s and all three have taken about three charges to achieve normal usage. Some sets have not been charged beyond the third charge as I am still working my way through them (There have not been too many sunny weekends where I live so far).
To sum things up, the Energizer sets appear to be working quite well. These batteries are affordable, and easily available. The average cost for a set of these batteries ranges from $14 - $20 Canadian, which is comparable to a set of single use Energizer Lithium AA’s. Time will ultimately tell how reliable these batteries are, but so far, I don’t have too much to loose. It should be noted that re-chargeable Lithium ION batteries are not recommended for use in the Pentax K100D Super, the manual claims that this is due to the voltage characteristics of these batteries. In normal use, I don’t find the limitations of NiHM AA battery technology to be a problem, so far I have not needed to break out my emergency set of single use lithium’s, and I don’t expect to any time soon.
If you have been disappointed with the Energizer, Duracell, or other readily available batteries, I would look at trying a set of Sanyo Eneloops, which are available at Costco (last time I checked). These batteries come highly recommended from many forums and photography groups around the Internet. I plan to try a set of these batteries sometime soon.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 29th, 2008 at 11:08 pm and is filed under Pentax, articles, photo, pictures, reviews, tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
