Digital Focus: Make Your Batteries Last

Strategies for saving power; plus, how to take low-light photos.

Dave Johnson

Feature: Power Play--Making Your Camera Batteries Last

As you frame a picture and start to press down gently on the shutter release, you see the battery indicator flash madly--then the whole camera shuts off, leaving you with an expensive paperweight at a crucial photographic moment. It's a terrible feeling to lose power in the middle of a photo shoot, I know. If you're lucky, you lose only a few minutes while you run into the next room, find a spare set of batteries, and power back up again. But if you don't have batteries handy, you're done for the day. How can you extend the runtime of your digital camera as much as possible? This week I show you how to do just that; read on for my favorite battery tips.

Avoid the Digital Display

If you're looking for the culprit responsible for most of the drain on your batteries, it's that big LCD display on the back of the camera. The single best way to conserve power is to leave the LCD turned off. Use your camera's optical viewfinder as much as possible, and only switch to the LCD to review pictures afterwards. And speaking of reviewing your pictures on the LCD: Don't do that either. If you really need to make your batteries last as long as possible--and unless it's absolutely necessary to make sure you got each picture just right--wait until you get home to look at your pictures.

Don't Access the Memory Card

Some folks like to erase bad pictures right away to free space on the memory card. That's a good strategy, except that it consumes a lot of battery power. If you're stranded near Klamath Falls trying to take a picture of Bigfoot and you're on your last set of batteries, it's better to save the file management stuff for when you get home.

Save the Non-Photo Stuff for Home

Starting to see a trend? In general, the best way to maximize battery life is to just take pictures with your camera and save the other stuff--reviewing images, deleting pictures, formatting the memory card--for when you can plug into an AC adapter. You can do most of the memory card stuff at your desktop PC (if you have a memory card reader, that is); if you need to do it from your camera, remember to plug it in to an AC adapter first.

Run Batteries All the Way Down

Batteries will lose their charge even when the camera is turned off, so check your camera before you take it out. I like to keep two sets of batteries with my camera so I can quickly replace the partially charged batteries with fresh, topped-off cells right before I use it.

But beware: Nickel metal-hydride batteries were supposed to eliminate performance problems associated with charging partially depleted nickel cadmium batteries, and they do, to some extent. However, you'll still get better performance and a longer lifespan from your rechargeable batteries if you run them all the way down at least once every few weeks before recharging.

How can you do that? To be sure that your AA rechargeables are dead before you charge them, put them into a flashlight, turn it on, and wait till the batteries run down. For batteries that fit into a specific camera only, once a month I sit in my favorite chair and just click the shutter until the batteries breathe their last--then I charge them up again. (Lithium ion batteries are truly memory-free, so you don't have to use these tricks on them.)

Keep Similar Batteries Together

It's important not to mix up rechargeable batteries. Never, ever combine NiMH batteries with lithium ion or ordinary alkaline batteries: Make sure they're all one kind. And even if the batteries are all the same type, it's a good idea to keep them together as sets. For example, if you mix a pair of Epson rechargeables with newer Rayovac batteries, the older cells will drain faster and not perform as well--you can even damage the batteries.

Dave's Favorites: Store Your Photos on PicturePad

You already know the drill: When you go on vacation, you're supposed to bring spare memory cards so you can take lots of pictures. But even a handful of memory cards run out eventually, and it can get awfully expensive to cart around a gigabyte of cards whenever you travel. Worse, those postage stamp-size cards can be easily lost. Now that I've had a chance to play with Delkin Devices' EFilm PicturePad for a while, I can assure you that there's a much better way to manage your vacation photos.

The PicturePad is a small portable device, about the size of an MP3 player, with a hard disk (capacities range from 20GB to 60GB) and a 1.75-inch color LCD screen. When your digital camera's memory card is full, you insert it into the PicturePad and transfer the images to the portable hard disk. Then erase the card and stick it back into your camera to continue shooting.

Unfortunately, the PicturePad is not cheap. The 20GB version that I used costs a whopping $550, and it works with a CompactFlash slot only; if your camera uses SmartMedia, Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, or Memory Stick, you'll have to pay extra for an adapter.

Nonetheless, if your budget is big enough, the PicturePad is a really cool alternative. It stores such a massive number of images that you can choose to shoot in TIFF or RAW format for better quality and transfer images to the hard disk frequently. The LCD screen lets you preview pictures and delete ones you don't like. At the end of the day, you can even attach the PicturePad to your hotel room's television to watch slide shows. The PicturePad comes with an AC adapter and the integrated battery has about an hour worth of runtime between charges.

When I last checked, I found the 40GB PicturePad at the PCWorld.com Product Finder for $670. For more information and complete price lists, see the Delkin Web site.

Q&A: Better Low-Light Photos

I frequently photograph live music performances. These tend to be under low-light conditions. Since most performers request that a flash not be used, it is a challenge to obtain good clear photos with the requisite slow shutter speeds. Do you have any suggestions for improving shots in these low light, action conditions? I have noticed that some camera models do better than others in low light conditions. I assume this is due to the sensitivity of the lens. Is there a camera or lens specification that describes the lens sensitivity? If so, how do you compare one camera to another in this regard?

--Greg Sullivan, San Francisco

Getting a good low-light photo--especially if your subject is moving--is one of the trickiest kinds of shots to get with a digital camera. Fortunately, there are a lot of things you can do to help improve your odds, Greg.

For starters, camera shake will be a major concern, so try using a monopod or a tripod to get your shots. I tend to leave the head of my tripod loose so I can quickly pan around the stage and take my photos, while the tripod keeps the camera from shaking.

You should also bump up the camera's ISO setting (a measure of the sensor's light sensitivity) to maximum. It's great if your camera lets you set the ISO to 800 or so, but even ISO 400 can help a lot. If you fiddle with the ISO setting, be sure to turn on your camera's noise reduction feature if it has one. Many newer digital cameras employ excellent noise reduction to reduce the digital "trash" that crops up in photos taken in low light or with long exposure times.

Set your camera to an exposure mode that gives you some control over the aperture setting, and be sure that the lens is wide open to admit the most light. Remember that the smaller the number, the more open the aperture. So f/2 would be better than f/8, for instance. And whenever possible, use the camera's wide-angle mode. That's because the maximum aperture changes as you zoom in; it might be f/2 when wide, but f/2.4 when you zoom in. To gather as much light as possible, don't zoom.

And finally, the maximum aperture size is what tells you which cameras are better suited for low-light photography. If you are shopping for a new digital camera and do a lot of this sort of thing, then a camera with a maximum aperture of f/1.8 is going to do a better job at night and indoors than one that can only muster f/2.4.

Hot Pic of the Week

Get published, get famous! Each week, we select our favorite reader-submitted photo based on creativity, originality and technique. Every month, the best of the weekly winners gets a prize valued at between $15 and $50.

Here's how to enter: Send us your photograph in JPEG format, at a resolution no higher than 640 by 480 pixels. Entries at higher resolutions will be immediately disqualified. If necessary, use an image editing program to reduce the file size of your image before e-mailing it to us. Include the title of your photo along with a short description and how you photographed it. Don't forget to send your name, e-mail address, and postal address. Before entering please read the full description of the contest rules and regulations.

This week's Hot Pic: "Borano," by John Ciullo, East Haddam, Connecticut

John says that he took this photo while on vacation in Italy last summer. The bright, friendly colors caught his attention and John decided to capture a quick snapshot. "It is a picture of the center of the business district on the island of Borano, which is part of Venice, Italy. I used a Canon A10 to capture this shot while walking past this waterway," he says.

We want your feedback! Send your comments, questions, and suggestions about the newsletter itself to comments@bydavejohnson.com. If you have a question that you'd like to see answered in the weekly Q&A, send it to question@bydavejohnson.com.

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