1. The Start Load
When you start your camera, the starting load is considerably more than what it takes to capture an actual photograph. Some people take photographs at regular intervals, but have a habit of switching off their camera when they feel that they won’t be using it for a few seconds. This practice decreases the battery life significantly, and should be avoided.
2. The Lens Movement
Many of us use point and shoot cameras for our day-to-day photography, and the most battery consuming thing in these types of cameras is their optical zoom lenses. Since these lenses use mechanical parts to expand and contract, every time you do so, it eats up significant amount of your battery charge. Try not to experiment too much with zooming when you’re running low on battery.
3. Standby Mode
Almost all cameras out there have a standby mode as an in-built function. This puts your camera in a state of “sleep” if it senses that the device hasn’t been used for a while. This is not remotely similar to turning off your camera and turning it back on, and the standby mode saves a lot of battery power.
1. Check Your Batteries Before Hitting the Road
Batteries lose their charge continuously. That means you shouldn’t charge up a battery, put it in your camera, and set it in the closet for 3 months. When you eventually reach for your camera, you might find that the battery is already dead, or nearly so–and you haven’t taken a single picture.
If you’ve already had this happen to you, don’t worry–it’s the way that batteries work. All batteries slowly lose their energy when they’re sitting idle, but how slowly depends upon the kind of battery. Alkaline batteries are extremely stable–they’ll only lose 1 or 2 percent of their total capacity over an entire year. And that’s a good thing, because they need to work well after sitting on a store shelf for a long time.
Rechargeable batteries, however, are far more volatile. Typical NiMH batteries, for example, can lose about 1 percent per day–so a fully charged battery will be depleted after 3 or 4 months just by sitting idle in your camera. Keep that in mind when you grab your camera bag before your next trip.
6. Network Connections
Turn off unused connections when not in use, i.e. GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth
Use Auto On/Off
Use single mode only (1XEV, 2G only, 3G only)
7. Shortcuts
Use shortcuts instead of activating Java menus (Browser – Options – Browser Configuration)
8. Camera
Turn off flash (Camera – Options)
Set picture size to Small (Camera – Options)
Set Color Effect to Normal (Camera – Options)
Set Picture Quality to Normal (Camera – Options)
9. Applications
When exiting, be sure to close the app, not leave it running in the background (close with ESC key, not red End key)
Log out of third-party applications when they are not needed (Instant Messaging, etc.)
10. Indicators
Set Audible notification to Off (Profiles)
Turn off coverage LED (Profiles)
11. GPS
Use the zoom out function to get the largest viewable area that you can still use usefully
1. Don’t Wait Too Long to Switch Out Batteries
Charging digital camera batteries requires electricity and most people try to not waste this resource. Thus, many people will wait until batteries are completely empty before they change them out for charged batteries.
While it makes obvious sense to conserve energy, waiting until the last possible moment to switch out digital camera batteries can pose a problem. As you frantically start to take photographs, oops – your batteries completely run out. Now you’re missing the moment, frantically scouring through your camera bag for fresh batteries to switch out, and by the time you replace the drained batteries the event is over.
By bringing along extra batteries and switching them out during photography downtime as your digital camera displays its low-battery warning, you’ll be more likely to have charged batteries if an extraordinary event occurs. You won’t have to think twice (as long as you have enough memory) before hurriedly pressing the shutter button, or before activating your camera’s drive mode to take multiple photos in succession.
2. FAA Flight Rules for Batteries
For USA travelers: while it is always a good idea when shooting digital photos to keep extra batteries handy so you don’t run out of power, when taking a flight, you may have to limit the number and types of batteries.
The FAA requires certain types of lithium batteries to be placed in carry-on baggage. Although there may not be limits for other batteries such as AA batteries, the number of allowed “larger” lithium ion batteries may be limited.
The SafeTravel website contains information on which types of batteries are considered “larger”, as well as types of lithium batteries that are completely forbidden on flights.
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