Question on D300 + battery pack + Nimh AAs

[Desmond Chan]

Hi all,

It didn't happen to me, but a fellow I know just bought a battery pack for his D300. He said after 50 shots shooting with the battery pack + the Nimh AA batteries, the batteries were depleted and the camera went back using the en3L in the camera. He shoots jpeg and uses a 500mm. He wonders if it's because of the lens he uses that caused the result he got. He is very disappointed obviously. My experience with the D300 and the battery pack is totally different from his (I find the D300 uses very little power), but I mostly shoot raw and and I don't have the 500. I'm wondering if any of you with similar set up experienced the same thing my guy did.

Thanks !


Desmond

[Alfred Forns]

There is something eles going on Desmond The combo would not make the difference. My experience is very much similar to yours, good perfoemance !!

[James Shadle]

Desmond,
I had something like that happen. I figured the grip was to loose.
As it turned out, once I eased back or loosened it a bit, my batteries lasted like they should.
Go figure.

[John Chardine]

The AA battery pack (6) for the Canon xxD (and xxxD?) grips does not last anywhere near as long as the standard camera batteries. It's just for emergencies I guess.

[James Shadle]

I also failed to mention that you need to go to the custom function menu and tell the camera if you are using Lithium Ion, Alkaline, Nickel Metal Hydride or Nickel Cadmium.

James

[Grady Weed]

John hit this one on the head. the AA batteries are for emergency shooting only. The regular batteries for the grip will last the longest. And James is correct; loosening and then tightening, not a death grip or should I say a Darth grip, is all you need to do if you get low performance.

[James Shadle]

John hit this one on the head. the AA batteries are for emergency shooting only.

Negatory on AAs as emergency only with the D300 / D700.
I use rechargeable AAs and get 8 frame per second.

James

[John Chardine]

I think the difference with the AAs is the number of exposures rather than the frame rate James. Nikons could be different but the rating for example on the Canon 50D is 1600 exposures with the 2 standard batteries in the grip and only 400 with the 6 alkaline AAs.

[Desmond Chan]

I think the difference with the AAs is the number of exposures rather than the frame rate James.

Per D300 manual page 414:

Under CIPA standard, 8AAs give you the same number of shots as one EN-EL3e (camera or battery pack) can (1000 shots), while one EN-EL4a (battery pack) gives you twice the number of shots.

Under Nikon standard, one EN-EL3a (camera or battery pack) gives you 3000 shots, 8AAs 2500 shots and one EN-EL4a 5900 shots (battery pack).

As for the guy that I talked about, it turned out he got some bad AA batteries :) He tried the pack with some Alkaline batteries and things worked well as expected. Still, I think he also ordered the EN-EL4a already.

I myself use the rechargeable Nimh AAs :)

Thanks for the replies and info, guys !!

[Grady Weed]

Thank you John Chardine. That was the thought I was trying to get across as to exposures, in regards to Canon products. It apperas as if the Nikon , according to the manaul at least, will get you the same exposures, see the reply from Desmond. I have tried AA's in both my 5D & MK2n with not so good results. I got much better with my double batteries in the grip.