Extending Battery Life

Extending battery life of the digital camera can be done by some simple and common steps.

A digital camera needs battery power for some basic task and some more power for camera's extended facilities. Basic task for a digital camera is to read brightness of light, operate shutter, remove mirror by swinging it out of the path of light (in SLR type of cameras), operate and step down aperture, capture image on the digital image sensor, process the data to digitize it and transfer the digitized data to camera's memory card. It also has to display the image on LCD screen.

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These are bare minimum tasks a digital camera has to do, and for this, it needs battery power. We cannot do anything to save power for these tasks except we can save some power by using a faster shutter speed.

The camera consumes the battery power to up hold the reflex mirror and to keep shutter open. Longer the shutter speed, more is the power consumption.

LCD screen also takes lots of power. This power consumption can be reduced, when we reduce the brightness setting of the screen. However, the quality of an image is difficult to judge.

As most of digital cameras use in-built flash, battery power is used for it. When flash setting is on "red eye reduction" then more power is used, as the flash is fired for multiple times, before taking picture, in order to reduce "red eye" effect.

Auto focus, and auto focus on "continuous mode" take lots of power. Heavier lens with long focal length consumes more power as compared to a lighter lens. So shift to manual focusing, when using a heavy lens for extending battery life.

If the camera has added facility of press button zoom, then power is used when we zoom in and out. So use a zoom lens, which has manual zoom setting.

Image stabilizer in modern cameras require lots of power. This facility provides stability to the lens when we use slower shutter speed. Switch it off when the camera is mounted on a tripod.

Power is used when we use self timer. Longer the timer setting, more is the consumption of power.

And, finally the most important part. When we switch on the camera, it takes good amount of power to start the system and upload the software. Some cameras also use power to open the lens cover. Here we cannot do anything but be sure not to switch on and off the camera frequently for extending battery life.

Please read this page about camera battery care

Read more about:

Accessories in photography

Aperture

Auto and manual mode

Auto focus mechanism of camera

Camera lens

Camera support

Depth of field

Exposure

Exposure meter

Flash light

Flash light meter

Lens hood

Light

Light attachments

Other photographic accessories

Shutter

Studio flash lights

Telephoto lens

Tripod

Types of cameras

Wide angle lens

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