11 replies to this topic

[Tony]

I have two of these guys and they appear to acting somewhat peculiar.  I decided to drain one of the batteries down to 

 

depletion and then re-charge to full capacity.  No problem there.  Now when shooting and using the built-in flash, I looked at

 

the battery power level indicator and it showed the battery to be at half power.  I resumed shooting, was only able to take 

 

two snaps, tried for a third and nothing happened.  The "Battery Low Indicator" in the viewfinder was flashing and the battery

 

power level indicator on the LCD showed maybe 2% remaining.  There was not enough juice to even bring up the Menu.

 

What causes this problem of being at nearly half power and then down to almost nothing?  

 

I just tried the other battery and the same situation happened.

 

Thanks,

 

TT

[Merco_61]

Why would you deplete a battery with lithium-based chemistry? They can be damaged by deep-discharge.

 

I don't remember, does the D200 have a battery health monitor or was that new in the D300? If there is one, what does it say?

[Tony]

Well sir I have read numerous articles stating that it was a good practice to every so often run the battery down as close to zero power as possible and then

 

re-charge to full power.  This method seemed to extend the service life of the battery.  Getting into the D200's Battery info., in the Set Up Menu, it shows the

 

Battery Meter to be 100%, Pic Meter 1 and charge life 0~4 then the word "new" on the battery icon.  Could it be that the battery is at the end of its service life?

 

Thnx,

 

TT

 

I also need to add that prior to depleting the battery of power, I was only able to re-charge the battery to 85%.  After depleting the battery

 

it is now at 100%, but the question is, for how long?  Both batteries are now at a 100% charge capacity.

[Bengan]

Tony, Peter is correct. What you have read referres to NiCd or NiMh batteries. Li Ion batteries should never be completely drained

 

Since you haven't mentioned how many times the battery has been recharged to date it's hard to tell if it's at end of life, but my guess would be that it is. Old batteries can show 100% which really is a voltage reading and for old batteries has no bearing on the actual capacity. As the battery drains quickly, my guess would be that it has to be replaced.

[TBonz]

Correct.  Don't do that to a Lithium Ion battery.  In addition to that, you are using the built in flash which can drain the battery very quickly.  It also will not let you continue until it has fully recharged the flash which can give the appearance of the battery being dead.  

[Tony]

Okay, well thank you very much.  I believe the next thing for me to do is to drain one of the batteries down to 46% and see how many snaps I get before it runs dry.  This way I will know that it needs to be replaced.  Actually, I did indeed read an article that clearly indicated that it is a good idea to power down the

battery and then recharge it.  I will see if I can find the article.

 

Again, many thanks to all of you.

 

TT

[Tony]

Okay, well thank you very much.  I believe the next thing for me to do is to drain one of the batteries down to 46% and see how many snaps I get before it runs dry.  This way I will know that it needs to be replaced.  Actually, I did indeed read an article that clearly indicated that it is a good idea to power down the

battery and then recharge it.  I will see if I can find the article.

 

Again, many thanks to all of you.

 

TT

I did manage to locate one of the articles.  It does clearly state that it is not a good practice to completely run the power out of a lithium-ion battery and then recharge it to full capacity.  However, it does state there is one exception and that is ; every 30 or so charges, to go ahead and completely drain the battery and to recharge it to full capacity.  Now I have been using the camera with a fully recharged battery.  The battery health indicator shows 15 snaps, one of which was with the built-in flash and the power level is holding steadily at 100%.  Prior to draining and recharging the battery, I could only recharge to a maximum of 85% I believe.  Now that was with my using the built-in flash to expedite the process.  So now what I am doing is leaving the camera on and perhaps once a day take three snaps without the use of the built-in flash and see what happens when the level gets down to approximately 46%.

 

There is one other issue.  The article also stated that the Chinese are becoming very adept and proficient at replicating OEM Nikon Lithium-Ion batteries.  That fact was brought on by their batteries reaching 30% and then suddenly after two snaps, the power was kaput.  Something for all of us to be aware of.

 

Thnx for reading.  Tony

[ScottinPollock]

Been planning to write an article on this for quite some time. Instead, I posted a video that should hopefully answer any questions you may have.

https://youtu.be/W8gOFNRy_9Y

[Tony]

A very informative and interesting video.  Thnx a million.

 

TT

[Tony]

A bit of an update.  I have had the camera on for three days now and each day I take several snaps, most of which are without the use of the built-in flash.

 

The battery health indicator shows 60 snaps with 93% power remaining.  Quite an improvement over the previous experiment.  We will see whether fully

 

draining the battery and then fully recharging it has actually proven to be of a benefit.

 

Back later and thanks for reading.

 

Tony

[Tony]

This evening I started using the camera as I normally would when taking photographs.  I checked the battery health monitor and it showed 120 snaps with 

 

47% power remaining.  I decided to live dangerously and see what would happen if I took another shot.  After the shot, the battery went completely dead from

 

being at 47% remaining power.  Okay, so much for battery #1, which is now on the charger and battery #2 is in the camera.  One more to go to see if both

 

need to be replaced.  As Arnold would say, "I'll BE BACK."  )

 

tt

[Tony]

Well, it is apparent that with the test results I experienced, the batteries need to be replaced.  )

 

Thanks very much to all who contributed.  I do very much appreciate the willingness to be of assistance.

 

TT