S2 improved battery use

[sonnyJ]

Strange thing happened recently and has been a plus.

I got the "change battery" message. Took out batteries and remembered I had just changed them so was not carrying spare set. Replaced the batteries and no longer had change battery message - took lots more shots

So on vacation last week - after only a relatively few shots - got the battery change message - removed two batteries and replaced them - exchanging positions. No more message and camera worked for 100+shots. Then saw the low battery sign in view finder so exchanged the other 2 batteries. Same result - batteries just kept on going. Overall got really full use out of them considering zooming, reviewing shots on LCD, etc.

Don't know why this happens but it worked for me several times.

Next time you get low battery message try the exchange position technique:rolleyes:

[Salleke]

Strange thing happened recently and has been a plus.

I got the "change battery" message. Took out batteries and remembered I had just changed them so was not carrying spare set. Replaced the batteries and no longer had change battery message - took lots more shots

So on vacation last week - after only a relatively few shots - got the battery change message - removed two batteries and replaced them - exchanging positions. No more message and camera worked for 100+shots. Then saw the low battery sign in view finder so exchanged the other 2 batteries. Same result - batteries just kept on going. Overall got really full use out of them considering zooming, reviewing shots on LCD, etc.

Don't know why this happens but it worked for me several times.

Next time you get low battery message try the exchange position technique:rolleyes:

Sonny - I suppose that you have rechargebles batterie's. The only thing that I can think of what
could cause this particular problem is that the batterie and camera contacts are dirty.
Take a clean cloth with some alchol on it and rub all the contacts of the batterie's and the camera.
I hope this will help to solve your problems. Good luck.

[RossW]

At this moment, any S2 is going to be pretty new for dirty battery contacts; of course, if the batteries themselves are old they may be somewhat cruddy. In any case, I've often gotten a little extra life out of batteries in flashlights, walkman-type players, remotes, etc. by switching around the batteries. I just guessed that in addition to making a fresh metal-metal contact, changing the battery order helped "re-balance" the load, and a weaker battery in the series now had a somewhat easier voltage path. (I'm sure an EE would cringe at this idea, but I'm sticking with it.) However, I'm surprised that there was such a dramatic result from sonny's experiment. But don't knock it if it helps.

[sonnyJ]

new camera, new batteries, all rechargable, worked with different sets of batteries.

The first time if happened I had just recharged and changed batteries. Had taken maybe 20 shots, turned camera off as went to new location then when turned it on got the change battery message. I was upset, figured I had a bad set of batteries. Nothing to lose by doing the switch. Might even work if just take battery out and putting it back in same slot.