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ZEISS DTI thermal imaging cameras. For more discoveries at night, and during the day.

E-520 battery level indicator, and battery life (1 Viewer)

P

pshute

Well-known member
Australia
The battery level indicator on my new E-520 seems to only show either full charge or near empty. If there a way to get a more accurate indication, e.g. a percentage?

Also, should I bother turning it off between shots to conserve power? How long will the battery last if I leave it turned on the whole time?

Any other considerations for maximising battery life? I haven't fiddled with any sleep settings, etc, yet. It seems to go to sleep after a minute or two. I find the slight delay (2 seconds or so?) to wake it up again a bit annoying. My previous camera was an S3, which had an EVF. It's taking me a while to remember that just because I can see through the viewfinder, it doesn't mean the camera is even turned on.
 
There's no way to tell how much charge is left in the battery. I always carry a spare fully-charged battery. I find that a fully-charged battery will easily last a whole day's photography.
 
Cristian Mihai said:
With a fully-charged battery you can take around 500 pics or more.
Click to expand...
I was under that impression too, but what I want to know is how much it drains the battery if I leave the camera turned on between shots. E.g. how many shots can I take in, say, 12 hours, if I leave the camera turned on the whole time?
 
I don't know how long it will last if you leave it on the whole time. Try it and let us know!

As far as the batteries, from what I've read, it is best with this type of battery to NOT use them till they need recharging. In other words, unlike NIMH batteries, where the best way to use them is to drain them down to fairly low and then fully charge them, batteries like the one in the Oly DSLR work better if you only use them down to say about 40% power and then recharge them. They have no "memory" problem like the old NICADs or even the NIMH, so there is no problem "topping" them off, and might even be good for them. Just what I've read.
 
pshute said:
I was under that impression too, but what I want to know is how much it drains the battery if I leave the camera turned on between shots. E.g. how many shots can I take in, say, 12 hours, if I leave the camera turned on the whole time?
Click to expand...

I recall experimenting with my E-500 a few years ago by switching sleep mode off. The battery didn't last the whole day. OTOH, there's probably not much difference in power consumption between a sleeping camera and one which is switched off. I've occasionally left the camera on when putting it back in it's bag and there's been plenty of life in the battery when I've used it again a day or two later.
 
I bought a spare battery off ebay "just in case" I needed one. They are very cheap compared to the "real" Olympus version but it works fine. I can now carry a spare fully charged battery with me and not have the worry of a flat battery spoiling the day. Using live view will really eat into your battery time too.

Pete
 
RAH said:
As far as the batteries, from what I've read, it is best with this type of battery to NOT use them till they need recharging. In other words, unlike NIMH batteries, where the best way to use them is to drain them down to fairly low and then fully charge them, batteries like the one in the Oly DSLR work better if you only use them down to say about 40% power and then recharge them.
Click to expand...
And how do I do that if I can't tell what % has been used? :)
They have no "memory" problem like the old NICADs or even the NIMH, so there is no problem "topping" them off, and might even be good for them. Just what I've read.
Click to expand...
I've read that the memory effect is either non-existant or only occurs when automatic charging circuit continually top batteries up from exactly the same level every time.
 
paulthomas said:
I recall experimenting with my E-500 a few years ago by switching sleep mode off. The battery didn't last the whole day. OTOH, there's probably not much difference in power consumption between a sleeping camera and one which is switched off. I've occasionally left the camera on when putting it back in it's bag and there's been plenty of life in the battery when I've used it again a day or two later.
Click to expand...
Thanks, that's what I wanted to know. I'll continue leaving the camera on between shots, and allowing it to go into sleep mode. I'll just have to get used to waking it up as I raise it for a shot.
 
I always try to turn the camera off when I am not shooting, although I have been known to forget. Using the preview screen does seem to run the battery down quite quickly. I always carry a fully charged spare battery and usually swap them over and recharge the part used one about every other weekend (I normally only use the camera at weekends). I always change the battery as soon as it shows part discharged. I have only had a battery completely die on me once and that was a brand new Delkin one. Naturally the time it expired was when a Bittern was walking about in front of the hide. I exchanged the duff battery for a new one and that has been fine since.

Ron
 
Last edited:
900+ shots from a single charge

I'm just back from a week away, and have nearly 900 shots on the camera. I didn't charge it once, and accidentally left it on overnight a couple of times, yet the camera still isn't indicating that it needs charging.

Others have indicated that while it doesn't use much power in sleep mode, I should only expect around 500 shots. Why the difference?

I'm using a manual focus lens, maybe AF uses heaps of power. I also didn't use live view at all, but did regularly review my shots.

I'd leave it to go flat just to see how many shots I can get, but I don't have a spare battery yet.
 
pshute said:
I'm using a manual focus lens, maybe AF uses heaps of power.
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I just took about 600 shots (in an hour!), using a manual focus lens, and the battery is still going strong, so I can pretty much confirm your results.

I suspect that AF does use a fair amount of power, although it is hard to say how much, of course. I seem to remember taking 400 - 600 shots with a regular AF lens in the past.
 
I have just discovered that my E-30 has an adjustment called Battery Warning Level where you can adjust the level at which the camera displays the low-battery warning. It's just a + or - adjustment not a percentage. I don't know if the E-520 has the same thing. That reminds me, I must read the manual one day,

Ron
 
That's an interesting finding, Ron. I just searched the entire E-520 manual (in PDF format), searching on "warning", and got no hits on that battery feature, so it looks like the E-520 doesn't have it. However, I did find: "Do not use the camera near flammable or explosive gases." You definitely should read the manual! ;)
 
1300 shots

I risked not recharging the battery, and it has finally started warning me it's running low. I've taken about 1300 shots on one charge.

I wonder how many more I could take before it stopped working.

Have any of you people with AF lenses tried this? I don't know if the official figure (650?) is lower because they used flash for some shots, or because the AF uses power.
 
pshute said:
I risked not recharging the battery, and it has finally started warning me it's running low. I've taken about 1300 shots on one charge.

I wonder how many more I could take before it stopped working.
Click to expand...

Thats an amazing number for a single charge, excellent in fact. Have you any photos we can view?, I keep seeing SMC Takumas for sale and wondered how they would compare with the old Tair lens I'm using.

Pete
 
Asanuma 300mm lens

Mad_Sunday said:
Thats an amazing number for a single charge, excellent in fact. Have you any photos we can view?, I keep seeing SMC Takumas for sale and wondered how they would compare with the old Tair lens I'm using.
Click to expand...
This is an Asanuma. It's quite likely made by Tokina, but I don't know. I bought it about 15 years ago at a photo market, for use with my Soligor 35mm SLR. It seemed ok at the time, but I never enlarged any photos. I wish I could remember how much I paid for it. Might have been $50, might have been $200 (Australian).

My main complain so far is that the minimum focal distance is about 6m. I've had to step back a metre several times. I also have a 230mm zoom, which can focus much, much, closer, but just isn't long enough to bother with.

I've been meaning to do some systematic experiments with aperture variations, but have mostly been shooting wide open to get enough light. Because the aperture isn't recorded in the EXIF info, I often have no idea what I used. In the old days one would write down the shot number and the aperture, but I've got very lazy about this kind of thing, I just want to take photos.

I also did some experiments, again very ad hoc, with a Soligor 2x TC. No idea if I'm actually getting any more detail in the shots or not. I need to do some proper comparisons.

If I attach some photos, am I expected to crop and resize them, or is it ok to include whole full res images here? Does the forum automatically resize for me?
 
You will need to resize them to 900 pixels wide or less and then compress them a little (I use 95%) before you upload them. I usually just upload them to the gallery area.

Pete
 
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