battery life dismal

[catberg23]

Hello: this is my 1st post. I tried checking past posts but didn't see precisely what I was looking for. We have 3 new digital cameras between us Nikon P60, Canon S5 IS and Pentax K100D. All take AA batteries. We have Sunmark and Kodak rechargeables and generic and Duracell alkalines. It seems that we can take 1 photo on auto and then the camera "thinks" and we miss the next shots. We've had Sony Cybershots, a Canon Powershot and a Kodak for the last several years so we've used digital point and shoots regularly in the past. Since upgrading we've recharged and replaced batteries and still seem to have the same problem--one shot, possibly 2 and then a stall resulting in missed shots. The light seems ok--at least the 2nd shot is usually in the same light conditions as the 1st which was successful. It's very frustrating. Any ideas?

[Franglais]

What makes you think it's the batteries? If the battery runs out a camera would normally shut down totally, not pause. It sound more like:

1. Waiting for the processor to finish treating the image
2. Waiting for the finished image to be written to storage

Are these point-and-shoots? Normally with a DSLR you have a buffer big enough to fire off at least 10 shots having to pause

[JamesV]

I would have to agree with the above statement.

What size memory cards are you using for each camera? The brand might also cause this but the size of the cards would be a big difference.

James

Also, Welcome to the forum

[freygr]

You listed three cameras, which of the three camera are giving you the problem. But filling up your in camera buffer, with a slow memory card or very small sized memory card or a filled up memory will all cause your problem.

[another view]

I agree with the others. Unfortunately, this is just how a lot of cameras like this work. My little Olympus 720SW does this too, and it can get frustrating.