A80 drains batteries while turned off

[georgio]

I find that the batteries on my A80 are dead after the camera has been left idle for a couple of weeks. Is this normal? Any suggestions for a remedy? I thought about buying the AC adapter and leaving it connected all the time, but 40 ukp seems a lot to pay to remedy a fault that shouldn't be there.

Georgio

[Jon]

What kind of battery are you using, and what is its rated capacity in MAH? NiCd cells have a very high self-discharge rate (loss of power over time) even when unused. NiMH have somewhat less, but still do wear down even while unused (including not in camera). Many alkalines just don't have the burst power for more than a few photos at a time with a digital camera (digital cameras are more demanding than most other electronics), but will "bounce back" after a rest period. I find that freshly-charged NiMH cells (1600 MAH or better) are good for a month or more with light use in my A80.

[georgio]

Thanks for the comments on this topic. I'm using two sets of NiMH batteries, rated at 1800 and 2100 MaH. The 2100's are relatively new and the others are quite old. Both sets exhibit the loss of nearly all their power after 2-3 weeks. The reason I raised this is that I didn't experience this problem with my previous Nikon digicam.
Maybe I should try another new set of NhMH's.

[Jon]

Double-check your Power Saving (Menu | Set Up) setting and make sure it's set to turn off after inactivity. If you keep it somewhere the power button can be jostled on, it might just be running down that way.

[tazzmenn]

I purchaed my A80 in Jan 04. I bought two sets of NIMH 2100mAh and a single charger. Just recently I have been having issues with the batteries and leaving them in the camera for 5-6 days and the batteries are dead. So now I have been leaving the batteries out of the unit and putting them in when I gear up to go. Last time I used the camera I took maybe 10-15 non flash macro shots and the batteries went dead. I went and grabed the extra set which had just come out of the charger before gearing up and they wouldnt even fire the camera up. Now I am using alkaline.

Is it noraml to burn through a set of these NIMH in such a short time. Or is there something wrong with the camera unit.

[bresmith]

Sounds to me like a problem with the batteries or the charger since your using alkalines and they l am guessing have been fine. Can't see why the camera would operate normally with one type of battery and not another. I leave my 2100 NiMh's in the camera for weeks at a time and still get 300+ photos from a charge. Only other thing can think of is that maybe it's very cold where you store your camera as cold temperatures signicantly effect NiMh performance.
I'd look into the batteries and make sure they are being fully charged.

[georgio]

Ok. I've solved the problem - the high-tech electronically controlled charger that I was using didn't fully charge the batteries before switching itself off. I reverted to the old manually controlled one and the battery duration is dramatically improved.
So thanks to those who responded for their suggestions which led me to this solution and apologies for posting a thread with a misleading title - the problem had nothing to do with the A80.
Now I just need to figure out a way to get the water marks my camera's screen and I'll be totally happy with my A80 :)

[georgio]

Ok. I've solved the problem - the high-tech electronically controlled charger that I was using didn't fully charge the batteries before switching itself off. I reverted to the old manually controlled one and the battery duration is dramatically improved.
So thanks to those who responded for their suggestions which led me to this solution and apologies for posting a thread with a misleading title - the problem had nothing to do with the A80.
Now I just need to figure out a way to get the water marks off my camera's screen and I'll be totally happy with my A80 :)