Digital cameras are powered by batteries and are limited in the number of digital photos that can be taken between either replacing or recharging the batteries. If you are planning for a long digital photo shooting session or are traveling learning some habits that can save on power will help you conserve energy and squeeze more digital photos from your batteries.
Digital cameras have many features and options. Some features consume more energy than others. Some of the greatest features are power hungry. Learning which those power hungry features are and using them with caution can help you get more digital photos from your camera battery.
Digital camera LCD screen: The digital camera LCD screen is one of the biggest energy consumers. Digital cameras provide viewing of digital photos on a small LCD screen. You can also shoot digital photos using the LCD instead of the viewfinder. An LCD screen consumes a lot of energy. This is the reason why all digital cameras turn off the LCD screen after a certain amount of no usage time. In order to conserve energy try the following: Turn off the LCD and use the viewfinder whenever possible. Only use the LCD when you must for example when taking an overhead digital photo when the optical viewfinder is not usable. Minimize digital photo viewing. When you view photos on the LCD you are wasting energy. Only use the LCD to view photos when you need to do so for the benefit of the next digital photos shooting – for example to check if a composition was right or if the lighting was good.
Digital camera mechanical motors: The motors that move the mechanical components of the digital camera such as the lenses when focusing or zooming are also a big power consumer. Motors consume a lot of energy when moving the digital camera optical components. In order to minimize the motors movement try the following: Do not use continuous focus when not necessary: The motors that move the optical components in order to focus consume energy. You can not avoid focusing but you can avoid focusing that is not necessary. For moving objects such as in sport events continuous focus is used so your can stay focused on the object until you are ready to take the photo. In those cases as long as you press the shutter button half way down the camera will continue to focusing on the object. To save energy minimize that time to the minimum necessary.
Digital camera flash: The digital camera flash unit is also a big power consumer. Shooting photos using the flash consumes more energy than shooting photos without flash. You can not avoid flash photography when it is needed but in many cases you will find yourself shooting digital photos in situations where the flash is not needed but it is fired because it was left in automatic mode and the camera fired it for no reason. When possible set the flash to manual mode and control its usage.
False shutter button usage: Every time you press the shutter button half way down and do not take a photo you waste energy. When pressing the shutter button half way down the camera goes through a series of processes getting ready to shoot a digital photo. It focuses the lenses it wakes up electronic components and gets the flash ready if needed. Avoid pressing the shutter half way down when you do not plan to shoot a photo.
In conclusion until there is a breakthrough in battery technology you will have to keep in mind power consumption when going on long shooting sessions without being able to change or recharge the batteries. Fortunately you can follow the few simple usage tips given in this article to significantly extend your digital camera battery life.
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