Re: OT: Camera batteries

On Sun, 10 Jul 2005 07:39:21 -0700 in <jsOdndY3HLGMrkzfRVn-qw@xxxxxxxxxxx> K Barrett <mormodes@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> OK, Off topic, I know, but I *was* going to go take pictures of my SBOE
> purchases for apbo, when this vexing problem arose, so its kinda sorta
> orchid related.
>
> The battery on my digital camera won't hold a charge. It that a symptom of
> it being just too old?? Do batteries do this when they've been recharged
> too many times?? I have my 'backup' battery that I'll switch out for this
> one - once I can *find* it. But its pissing me off. The camera sits on my
> desk for days on end, just as always, but these days whenever I switch it on
> the battery charge has drained away. Camera in question is a Sony DSC-S70.
> Probably 3 yrs old. Same battery.
>
> Sheesh, in the time it took for me to write this (like 5 minutes) its fully
> charged.... so now I wonder if the internal workings of the camera aren't
> shot.

Looks to be a lithium ion battery. And it may be time for
you to get a replacement.

Lithium ion batteries have a limited number of charge cycles (~300 for
the one in my cell phone).
Continually charging a lithium ion battery from say 95% to 100%
seems to make for very short battery life (Atleast for laptops).
This is different than from nicads in that a few complete discharges
will not help.

Lithium ion batteries have, in my opinion, screwball requirements for
charging, and if the electronics on the charger have gone a little
south, it can eat batteries faster.

How are the noise levels with the camera? I've had friends that are
more into photography complain that with the current technology the
new higher megapixel numbers with sensors of the same or smaller size just
make for noisier photos and insufficient pixels to average out the noise
and retain a reasonable size picture.


--
Chris Dukes
Suspicion breeds confidence -- Brazil
.