Rapid depletion of batteries

[Neville Bailey]

I have recently acquired a Pentax *ist DL camera from a family member.

When I got it about 3 weeks ago, I inserted 4 new non-rechargable Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries into the camera.

As an enthusiastic beginner, I have shot almost 400 pictures so far, and the battery indicator has always been a solid icon.

In the past few days I have started shooting in RAW and I have been using my 100-300mm zoom lens quite a bit. Today I was shooting some surfers on the beach and suddenly I got the message "batteries depleted" and the camera switched off.

I replaced the batteries with brand new but slightly cheaper Duracell Alkaline batteries and continued shooting. I had hardly reached 50 more shots when those batteries went dead!

Is this normal? Or does RAW mode drain batteries that much faster?

[i speak in math]

Originally Posted by Neville Bailey

I have recently acquired a Pentax *ist DL camera from a family member.

When I got it about 3 weeks ago, I inserted 4 new non-rechargable Energizer Ultimate Lithium AA batteries into the camera.

As an enthusiastic beginner, I have shot almost 400 pictures so far, and the battery indicator has always been a solid icon.

In the past few days I have started shooting in RAW and I have been using my 100-300mm zoom lens quite a bit. Today I was shooting some surfers on the beach and suddenly I got the message "batteries depleted" and the camera switched off.

I replaced the batteries with brand new but slightly cheaper Duracell Alkaline batteries and continued shooting. I had hardly reached 50 more shots when those batteries went dead!

Is this normal? Or does RAW mode drain batteries that much faster?

I'm not sure how the *ist DL works, but I had a K200D, and have a K20D and K-5 and they wouldn't not give much warning that the batteries were almost dead. Like you said, they would appear solid and then give out in a day. I usually got around 1000 with my K200D with lithium and around 700 with eneloops. But with regular alkaline, it was closer to 50. They don't have the power needed to run modern complex electrical devices. My K20D and K-5 have a LION battery and run great.