Battery problem

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dvus - 02 Apr 2008 00:07 GMT

I have a Kodak Z812 that I'm happy with except for one problem that's
cropped up, it seems to be using the batteries inordinately fast.

I have both Sanyo 2700 mAH NiMH and the newer Eneloop 2000 mAH NiMH types
that I have charged with a LaCross BC-900 on the Charge/Refresh mode to be
sure the batteries were fully charged.

If I put them in the camera and set it aside by the next day they will
usually not even extend the lens, or if they do I get the low-battery
indicator after a very few shots. If I use the camera right away it works
fine, taking however many shots I need, whether the flash is needed or not.
But if I put it away, the next day the batteries are dead or nearly so.

I let my sister use two of the eneloops in her Kodak P&S and they worked for
a week or so until she gave them back, so I don't think the batteries are
bad. The camera has worked fine for a year or so, actually it still does
other than this battery problem which started about a month or two ago.

I wonder if the 2 Gig memory card that's installed could be the problem? Has
anyone had a problem like this that could give me some ideas?

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Dave Platt - 02 Apr 2008 00:46 GMT

>I wonder if the 2 Gig memory card that's installed could be the problem? Has
>anyone had a problem like this that could give me some ideas?

I remember seeing a report of exactly this sort of problem a while ago.
See

http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=11693034

I saw another mention of a similar problem in a posting at Steve's
Digicam Forums but I can't find the article at the moment.

The problem seems to depend both on the camera brand/mode, and on the
SD card brand/model. I don't know why, but hypothesize that some
characteristic of certain cards can cause a camera's firmware to fail
to power the card/socket down when the camera goes to sleep ("switched
off"), and that the static current drain of powering the card
eventually flattens the battery.

Try a different brand or model/type of card.

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homepc - 04 Apr 2008 01:45 GMT

I'm glad you pointed this problem out. I recently got a mail order memory
card for my new Canon A720IS and was worried that it wouldn't work properly.
The camera manual stressed using only Canon SD memory cards. I only
anticipated loosing picture files, but this is another issue to look out for
that I never considered. The Dane-Elec 2 GB SD card I got seems to work OK.
so far.

>>I wonder if the 2 Gig memory card that's installed could be the problem?
>>Has
[quoted text clipped - 16 lines]
>
> Try a different brand or model/type of card.

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dvus - 05 Apr 2008 22:11 GMT

>> I wonder if the 2 Gig memory card that's installed could be the
>> problem? Has anyone had a problem like this that could give me some
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>
> http://www.jlaforums.com/viewtopic.php?p=11693034

Very interesting. I brought up the SD card on a whim, but this info makes it
worth investigating. For now I'll just pull the card and see what happens
using only internal memory.

> I saw another mention of a similar problem in a posting at Steve's
> Digicam Forums but I can't find the article at the moment.

If you look you'll see that I've been talking to a few people in there and
the feeling of some is that the Z812's voltage requirements are more than
some NiMH batteries can handle. I can't dispute that specifically, only
anecdotally in that the camera worked well with NiMH for a year or so brfore
this problem started, and I had the same 2 Gig SD card in it from day one.
That doesn't preclude something from having changed within the card that
could cause a leak, however, so I'm going to see what happens without the
card installed.

> The problem seems to depend both on the camera brand/mode, and on the
> SD card brand/model. I don't know why, but hypothesize that some
> characteristic of certain cards can cause a camera's firmware to fail
> to power the card/socket down when the camera goes to sleep ("switched
> off"), and that the static current drain of powering the card
> eventually flattens the battery.

Interesting theory. I guess it's certain that the internal cpu in the camera
has an input sensing the presence of a memory card. What it does with that
information is anyone's guess. Another friend told me about a guy who's
camera would apparently turn off but remained on internally to some degree
for some unknown reason, so your hypothesis seems feasible. Man, do you have
to be an electrical engineer to take snap-shots these days?

> Try a different brand or model/type of card.

Or none. That's as significant a change as I can think of. If it seems to
make a difference, I'll go get a Kodak SD card. *That* brand had better work
well!

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