Italophile

Hi fellow Fodorites, since getting my first digital camera in 2005 I've been unsure and have been unable to ascertain what is best for longer battery life with the camera (actual batteries and charging a reusable, as I have cameras that use one or the other):- turning off the camera between uses, or keeping it on but in standby mode?

On a recent trip to China I thought the former and kept on turning the camera on and off, but during the trip something went wrong with the lens and I was unable to use the camera, and wonder if the constant on and off with the lens coming out and retracting all the time contributed to it.

Appreciate any insights!

RoamsAround

I have a Nikon digital camera with a rechargeable battery. When touring around I keep it in the "on" position (turning it off only when I know I won't be taking photos for the next hour or two). My battery lasts all day and still has enough residual power to use for part of the next day. I've been using this method for two years and have NEVER run out of battery power.

Sorry, can't answer your question about the problem with your lens.

thursdaysd

I have had four digital cameras. I have always conserved battery power by turning the camera on and off. This has never caused problems with the lens.

mlgb

Buy a spare battery.

sparkchaser

<i>Buy a spare battery.</i>

This. Always have at least one spare battery.

On my DSLR, I have not noticed a difference between on-off versus standby. On my P&S, it automatically shuts off after five minutes so I don't really have a reference point for that.

Also, aside from the flash, the biggest power drain on a digital camera is the LCD. If you have a digital camera with an optical viewfinder, use that in lieu of the power-hungry LCD. If your camera does not have an optical viewfinder, you can eek out more life from the battery by turning the brightness down all the way.

crellston

Buy a spare battery. I doubt the lens problem was anything o do with standby v on\off. Probably some dust in the lens casing which can be. A problem with some point and shoot cameras, particularly those with long zoom ranges.

Katzgar

what does the manual say? try their help line, the number should be on the manual.

Improviser

This question surprises me. If your camera is on standby, it is ON and using some power. Therefore it is draining your batteries. If it is OFF it is not draining the batteries. Simple as that.

If you are walking around taking several pictures within a short period of time (minutes, not hours) then leaving it on standby is more convenient obviously but at a cost (in battery life).

Really, you can't have your cake and eat it too. But there should be no question as to which conserves battery life.

sparkchaser

<i>But there should be no question as to which conserves battery life.</i>

If it were only that simple.

When you turn a camera on from an off state, it goes through a power-up self-test, runs some diagnostics, tests the onboard memory, starts the camera OS, clean the sensor, zoom lens check (for a P&S), etc.

When the camera goes from standby to on, it goes to its last state and bypasses most, if not all of the stuff that happens when you power up the camera from off to on. The CPU is still active but only running a portion of its code -- it's basically just checking to see if a button has been pushed-- and all of the power-intensive tasks (LCD, light monitoring, image stabilization, etc.) are not running. Additionally, after a certain amount of time (normally 5 minutes and may be configurable from the settings menu) the camera powers off, requiring that you turn it on to use it again thereby going through all the normal start-up tasks.

Which uses more power? Difficult to say but the EE in me would wager that off to on consumes more juice than waking up from standby. Is it significantly more? Probably not.

The solution? Do whichever you feel most comfortable with and always carry spare batteries.

sparkchaser

Forgot to say that when I am out with my DSLR for the day, unless I am changing lenses, I let it go to sleep in lieu of power on/off. My chimping is a far bigger of a drain on my battery than the whole sleep versus on-off discussion so I try to keep that under control. I also carry three spare batteries with me.

When I am out with my P&S, I will let it sleep because of the shorter delay time of waking up versus power up. I also carry a spare battery.

Improviser

While the intitial drain may well be more from OFF to ON than from SLEEP to ON sparkchaser, the question would be at what point in time does the drain while in sleep mode overtake the drain caused by going from OFF to ON.

Indeed a difficult if not impossible question to answer.

But the question still surprises me. Trying to save on drain either way is next to negligible in the long run. It's a camera that uses batteries. The more you use the camera (in any way) the shorter the battery life will be.

I agree with you that the whole sleep vs. on-off is not the issue. Carry as many spare batteries as you find you normally need and that's the end of it.

I rarely bother with taking many pictures any more. I'm not a professional photographer, I take snapshots, probably like most people. I do carry a camera, a small P&S. One set of 2 AAA batteries lasts me WEEKS. On a month long trip I might take 100-200 pictures. If I were taking that many a day then I would expect to change batteries. I would not be worrying about should I use sleep vs. on-off. Neither would have enough impact overall to make any difference.

Improviser

Kind of makes you wonder about progress doesn't it. If you used a mechanical camera (advance the film by hand)this question wouldn't come up. ;-)

We've got away from having to carry film and gained having to carry batteries instead. Left hand vs. right hand.

sparkchaser

Batteries aren't that heavy and for the weight of 3-4 rolls of film, you can have at least one extra battery and the capacity for a few thousand shots.

Italophile

Thanks very much for all the insights folks. I'll check to see if I can purchase another rechargeable battery for my main camera - it's a Panasonic Lumix. Have a bundle of AAs for my other (spare) camera so should be right to go. It's strange that no photography sites I've ever come across have touched on the question of which is best to preserve the battery life!

sparkchaser

<i>It's strange that no photography sites I've ever come across have touched on the question of which is best to preserve the battery life!</i>

I think it's probably because any savings fall within the battery life margin of error.

sparkchaser

Make that "stated battery life".

sidfly

i think you can keep 2 batteries at same time so you can capture more and more pics and if you are in china no worry you can buy battery at very cheap rate like use and through.

Italophile

Actually sidfly I was in China last year when my Panasonic's lens gave up the ghost(and was then a brand new camera). I bought a cheap Praktica and the batteries purchased locally in Beijing barely lasted a day!

sparkchaser

I'd blame the batteries. I think it is far more likely that you purchased some inferior batteries than purchased a fake Praktica.