{"id":580,"date":"2007-09-22T23:43:08","date_gmt":"2007-09-22T14:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-09-22\/580"},"modified":"2007-12-18T23:32:02","modified_gmt":"2007-12-18T14:32:02","slug":"d200-dead-battery-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/2007-09-22\/580","title":{"rendered":"D200 “Dead Battery Syndrome” )-:"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n
\n

Update:<\/b> Nikon has issued a firmware<\/span> update to address this situation. See the “D200” row on\nthis page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n

Today was “Sports Day” at Anthony's preschool, which is a\nfun<\/span> event full of play, silliness, and dance. Like last year's Sports Day<\/a>, it\nwas very hot — 90s in the shade, but the entire event was in the sun\n— but this year I think<\/span> the heat was worse for my camera than for me.\n<\/p>\n\n

I was using my big 70-200\/2.8 zoom<\/a> and Nikon D200 on my monopod<\/a>.\nAfter taking about 830 pictures, I was surprised<\/span> to see the “battery\nempty” symbol. This surprised me both because I expected<\/span> to get more\nshots from the battery (I can<\/span> go weeks without having to change a D200<\/span>\nbattery), and because there was no “battery getting low”\nwarning in the viewfinder for the previous few-dozen pictures.<\/p>\n\n

I swapped to a new battery, and after taking a shot,<\/span> the camera again\nshut down with the “battery empty” symbol. This was highly\ndistressing, because I knew<\/span> the battery was full.<\/p>\n\n

I was eventually able to figure out that if turned the camera off and\non, I could<\/span> get a few<\/span> more shots before it happened again. The battery<\/span> most\ncertainly wasn't<\/i> low, as I was<\/span> able to get 400 more shots with it\nthis way, and even after that, the “Battery Info” menu item\nstill reports that it's 70% full.<\/p>\n\n

When I got home, I posted\nabout it<\/a> on a Digital<\/span>-Photography-Review Forum, and it was immediately\nsuggested that I had<\/span> Dead Battery Syndrome<\/b>, something that I hadn't<\/span>\nheard of.<\/p>\n\n

I did a search\nfor it<\/a> and found a lot<\/span> of people suffering from the exact same problem.\nNikonians has a page<\/span> that explains it\nwell<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

No one really knows what causes it, or what makes it go away, although\nthere is a lot<\/span> of speculation involving all kinds of things.<\/p>\n\n

For my part, I slightly<\/span> suspect that it's the lens overheating. (As I\nsaid,<\/span> it was hot<\/i>, and the sun was unrelenting.). Two hours<\/span> after I\ngot<\/span> home, I pulled<\/span> the lens from its carrying case, and was surprised to\nfind that it was still decidedly warm. The carrying<\/span> case is padded to the\npoint of being an excellent insulator, I guess.<\/span> Anyway, I put it<\/span> on the\ncamera and after one shot I got<\/span> the “empty battery” symbol.<\/p>\n\n

Yet, five minutes later — five minutes in my hyper-air-conditioned\noffice — it was fine, and it's been fine since. I wonder<\/span> whether I'll\nrun into the problem again, and if so, when. It's an uneasy<\/span>\nfeeling. <\/p>\n\n

[Update<\/b>: a user<\/span> with a similar<\/span>-sounding issue with his D300 thinks it's\nrelated to dirty electrical contacts<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n

Although I took 1,207 pictures today, sadly, I didn't<\/span> get anything\nreally great like last\nyear<\/a>. Hopefully when I give<\/span> a second<\/span> look through, I'll find a few<\/span>\nkeepers....<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Update:<\/b> Nikon has issued a firmware update to address this situation. See the \"D200\" row on this page.<\/p>

Today was \"Sports Day\" at Anthony's preschool, which is a fun event full of play, silliness, and dance. Like last year's Sports Day, it was very hot -- 90s in the shade, but the entire event was in the sun -- but this year I think the heat was worse for my camera than for me. <\/p>

I was using my big 70-200\/2.8 zoom and Nikon D200 on my monopod. After taking about 830 pictures, I was surprised to see the \"battery [...]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regex.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}