On 21 Jul 2004 at 0:57, David Miers wrote: > The point I was driving at is that with film or film camera batteries, both are > readily available at local stores, at least at this point and long term storage > is available for both. NiMH on the other hand, don't store well. They drain at > a set percentage every day when not being used. I can't just go buy a battery > source that will work in my digital instantly. I have to charge it first and > wait for that to happen. The *istD does have a battery that can be put in > thankfully right out of the package. I don't remember the number though.
The *ist D takes 4 x AA batteries of any type or 2 x CR-3V, these battery sizes are generally both available pretty easily. But my point was that the same type of person that would go out to shoot with flat batteries probably would not carry spare film or a meter battery. I carry meter batteries, CF cards, films and several sets of freshly re-charged AA cells every time I pack my film/digi-kit, it's just about being organized. I also have to make a lens selection since I don't use zooms. > However many if not most digicams that I have seen take AA batteries and are not > usable with the one the *ist D takes. I have seen one that did use it as an > alternative, but about 30 frames was it. Alkaline AA in my camera give me about > 5 frames, that's it! This is all compared to about 80-100 frames of well > charged fresh NiMH's in the same camera. The *ist D is relatively new technology, I seem to be able to capture at least 400 frames on one set of 4 x 2100mAh Ni-MH cells. > The main digital market is digicams, > not DSLR's and that is what I think is fair to compare here. Both types require > long term planning, but digital is more critical with short term planning for > this reason. Well if you purchase wisely you can find a nice compact little PnS that uses CF cards and AA cells very frugally. I've pointed several friends towards the 4MP Canon A80 with a cheap 512MB CF card for instance it's a really nice little camera and they can squeeze off 240 full res shots on one card. > If I didn't have everything I needed for my trip the other day for film, it > would have been no problem. I could have picked from 20 stores between home and > where I was going to pick up supplies. However some film in the fridge about 6 > months with a battery still in the camera also about 6 months old pumped along > all day at full speed. Well I guess you'd have to be pretty desperate to have to go out and pick up an additional CF card during the day however it's not like they are hard to come by if you need (in suburban Oz). The switch on my MZ-S used to flick to on regularly when I stored it in one of my cases so I was greeted a few times with flat batteries and it used CR2 cells (or 4 x AA in the grip), this is a film camera. Rob Studdert HURSTVILLE AUSTRALIA Tel +61-2-9554-4110 UTC(GMT) +10 Hours [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://members.ozemail.com.au/~distudio/publications/ Pentax user since 1986, PDMLer since 1998
