[Gabriel Rasson]

Hi all,

We are soon buying the famous digital reflex Canon 10D. We have some questions to ask to those who use this camera.
- How long does the battery work? If we go birding all day long, do we need one or two or ... more?
- Is the battery fast recharged (is one charger enough for 2 or 3 batteries to be charged every evening)?
- What type of memory card do you recommend: compact flash or microdrive? Once again, we'll go on birding all day long and we don't want to miss THE great shot because of memory failure.
- What would be the microdrive advantage(s) (except its greater capacity)? Speed?

Thank you to all those who will respond.

Gabriel & Marie Rasson

[digi-birder]

Gabriel & Marie,

The batteries on the 10D last quite some time - in my experience anyway. On my recent trips the battery did not need charging till after almost a week of moderate use. I then usually charge that one overnight and the spare one lasts as long again. One is the original Canon and the other is a compatible brand, which was quite a bit cheaper.

I suppose it depends how many photos you intend to take on your day out. I would imagine that even if you take many more photos than I do, one battery should last at least a day, especially if you conserve power by not leaving the camera switched on constantly. I noticed that the 10D and my previous Canon G3 were very good with battery usage, whereas my Coolpix 995 would run out very quickly during the day, even if I turned off most of the time.

I use compact Flash - I have heard some reports of microdrives failing, but I haven't gone into it in enough detail to say any more. I have a variety of sizes ranging from 32MB (bought originally for my digi-compact camera) to 512MB. Shooting at the next to highest quality I managed over 100 shots on the 128MB card on a recent trip.

[assayer]

Gabriel & Marie,

I use a Canon D60 & Canon 10D, both use the same battery and BG-ED3 Battery Grip accessory (Holds two batteries). I have five 128MB CF-Memory cards and shoot only in the RAW file format...big files. On a day long shoot I may take 300 - 400 photos. In addition, I use one of Canon's image stabalized lens, which operates on the cameras batteries. With this usage and the twin battery accessory, I have never exhausted a fully charged battery pack in a day. (I still carry back-up batteries) I do fill the memory cards, five 128MB CF cards will hold about 100 RAW photos. I use a portable 20GB Hard Drive in the field to download CF cards so I can keep shooting.

Dick

[Geoff Brown]

Battery usage is pretty good but always carry a spare. Can't speak for micro drives as I have never used them but get as big a capacity CF card as you can as the raw files eat up a lot of data space. Useful accessory is a remote switch to minimize vibration when camera is mounted on tripod together with a long lens.

[kit-monster]

I was out yesterday all day with my 10D and 100-400L which has IS. I took over 400 photos before the battery warning came on. I have two batteries, both Canon and only rarely need to use the second. Recharging seems to take less than an hour - I've never timed it, as it's so quick.

As for cards, I use 2 x 256 and shoot RAW. I get 40 to 44 images per card which I then back up on to a 40GB Vosonic X'S-Drive II. Each card takes four minutes to copy. It's worth getting fast cards for emptying the buffer and for copying to a portable storage device or computer. Microdrives are very slow and you might find the buffer filling up. I'll be getting some bigger cards soon as I find I'm having to swap too frequently. You might want to read Rob Galbraith's excellent reviews and performace figures for cards.Here's the link. His database is very useful when purchasing new cards.
The 10D is a lovely camera – happy snapping.

Edward