Comprehensive Look At Battery Life w/ Heavy Camera/Flash Usage

[mashoutposse]

ArK's results in the other thread greatly interested me, so I thought I would try to replicate them. I was able to take exactly 280 pictures with flash from full charge down to a 32% reading, where the camera application wouldn't load anymore. At 32%, the NZ estimates that it can run another 2 hours doing basic PIM work at 50% brightness.

It's also interesting to note that I am only on my second cycle (technically, this is the first time I have gotten the battery under 75% since the initial 4 hours charge), and that I had to exit and enter the program every 24 shots to empty the RAM (which means that the application had to go through its startup and shutdown 12 times).

Here are my notes:

-Took first 119 shots w/ flash without problems.

-The next 71 shots w/ flash were interrupted occasionally by "Battery Too Low For Flash" warnings.

Total: 190

-Upon trying to enter the program for the ninth time, the NZ gave its first "Battery Too Low For Camera Application" warning. I immediately made another attempt to open the app, and was successful.

-Took 24 shots with flash. Flash battery warnings became more frequent (nearly one for every shot taken).

Total: 214

-Tried to enter program for a tenth time. Had to actually wait a few seconds for the charge to creep to 40%.

-Took 23 shots with flash. Flash battery warnings occured once for every pic taken.

Total: 237

-Tried to enter program for the eleventh time. Waited several seconds for charge to creep; stalled at 38%. Turned backlight all the way down; entered program as soon as the charge hit 40%.

-Took 24 shots with flash. Every four shots or so would be followed by two straight warnings (every shot followed by at least one).

Total: 261

-Tried to enter app for a twelfth time. Charge stalled at 38% again. Turned backlight and Beam Receive OFF; charge creeped up to 41%. Started the camera app.

-Took 19 shots w/ flash (warnings actually decreased in frequency) until I got a "Battery Too Low For Camera" message, which kicked me out of the program.

Final Total: 280 w/ flash

So that's 280 shots w/ flash. I don't care about the warnings; the power necessary to take those 280 shots didn't just pop out of thin air. Almost as impressive as the 280 shots taken is the fact that the NZ can still do another 2 hours of PIM work.

As far as I'm concerned, the NZ90 has excellent battery life.

[pSYc0de]

did you charge for 4 hours initally? did you charge like ark did?
i get mine on wednesday so i want to do it right :)

[oneeyesquare]

Wow. Thats alot of pics!!!! What resolution were you using?

[mashoutposse]

Actually, I charged it overnight the very first time (but I did turn it on before it was done, hence the two cycles reading). That was the only time that I have really had to charge (just bought it yesterday).

I took the pics at 1600x1200, Standard quality. I'm thoroughly impressed by the battery! Forgetting the camera app bug (and it's definitely a bug), the battery readings seem to be very accurate, too.

[ArK]

darn. look what we started mash. I gave my results in the other thread and I'm too tired to repost. Nite

http://www.cliesource.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=82402#post82402

[mashoutposse]

Davy19, you, and I can't be the only people to see this type of battery performance...

[SprSaiyan8]

no you are not the only one i love my batery performance

[mashoutposse]

Yeah; maybe I'm crazy, but I think the NZ has excellent battery life, all things considered (extra bright screen, fast processor, etc).

BTW, I think I could have taken 500+ pics without flash from a full charge.

[mashoutposse]

Redmond, you might find this thread interesting.

[Redmond]

Absolutely!! All this is refreshing news.

Thank you for your "in-depth" evaluation of the Camera/Flash/Battery discovery.

As I mentioned in another thread, I will continue to monitor my usage. Maybe I should just ignore the warnings and keep on clicking away.

You know how that goes after you get a Warning Warning Warning Red Alert Message?

It's your brand new baby and you heed to the warning messages. Don't wanna upset the baby.

I'm gonna assume that your figures are correct and I might be able to duplicate your performance.

[GoldenTiger]

I too have good battery performance. Taking 14 shots with a 2-3 second wait betweens hots of varying subjects in my room with highest flash level and 1600x1200 Fine quality resulted in a battery level of 96% after exitting the camera app within 4 seconds of using the Clie. I just wish the battery warning would go away... if I take a bunch of shots it pops up even though there's tons of power left!

[starstreak]

mashoutposse- You you just did a normal 4 hour initial charge?

[Unregistered]

"-Took first 119 shots w/ flash without problems.
"

is that with or without flash. sorry, i'm not english :S

[GoldenTiger]

With flash. No problems.

[mashoutposse]

Yep, with flash.

Star: I charged overnight the first night (about 10 hours).

[starstreak]

(I posted this in another thread but pertains to this one too. Skip it if you read it or responded to it)

k guys 3rd unit. I'm gonna leave it on the charger overnight. Amazingly Compusa hasn't thrown up a fuss with me being this is my 3rd unit. They can see how fast it kills over. The only thing it COULD be is this is all in the same batch as this store ordered over 20 units. And maybe they are all bad? I wish SOny would address this as its the norm that people can take around 30 shots if its at 100% battery, but can't take more than a few if below 75%.
I see a few people, myself included whos unit couldn't do more than 10 without killing over.

And a few that gets an unreal 10+ hours in actual use.

Note: while on the charger and orange light off, I checked and it has 2 cycles on it. (Box was sealed and battery was so drained that I couln't even turn on the unit.)

When I checked at that time, it shows 5:09hours of use. If anybody who is reading this has something greater than that, how do you have your settings? At 50% light? BT on?

[ArK]

50% backlight on, bluetooth on and just drain it a few nites. It should go up. Maybe its not the main battery thats bad. You could also try to repalce the secondary battery and see if it improves the time you get. Sorry to start a crusade.

[starstreak]

ark- as long as youre not lying, its helpful.   If I could do 10 shots with flash (without worrying about needing to be at above 75%battery) and last a day at work with 75% battery, I would be happy.  If I guessed, yours should be at least around 85% at the end of the day with taking only 10 shots. :)  Also, I'm nonna resist saying anything bad about this one till at least my 3rd chrarge.  I have a feeling, that since I got it with a dead battery, my backup is being charged and I'm loosing battery life cuz of it.  Although I don't think it should be putting any hard drain on my main as I think it only charges while on the charger.



I took it off the charger after I installed a few apps.  Then played and set some preferences and BT.  after doing that for about 10mins, power was at 97%

After 10 shots with flash, battery droped below 60% (which is normal) and when I got done, it went to 93% after 4 minutes resting.  Does that seem normal?

[starstreak]

just went out and came back. I used the unit for like a total of 5minutes and did one voice recording for 10 seconds. My battery went from 84% to 80%.Its been on 80% for 15mins so I don't think its going up...

[LITTLESIX]

I've purposely tried to stay out of the Battery Summit meeting and just lounge about, but it's finally sucked me in.

I can take my NZ to work with 100% charge, use it for PIM work, snap off approximately 45 shots (all with flash) and still come home with a 70% charge. During that day I've also recorded about 20 voice memos and listened to approx 1/2 hour of mp3's.

I've done a deep drain on my battery exactly ONE time, and it hits the charger to get back up to 100% maybe every two days.

There are soooooooooooooooooooooooooo many variables to the unit as well as the cam that you will never get a straight answer on the total life of the battery. It's like trying to approximate a laptop battery's life. Guess all the do-dah day - you'll never nail it down. The combination of pic res, flash strength, MS or ram, autofocus or MF, etc., etc. make nailing it down a lesson in chasing your tail.

Now those of you that have it konk out - either a./ you got a crap battery or b./monkey with the settings - I'm talking SERIOUS monkey with them. Then bring up the battery life indicator setting change-by-setting change and watch what it does to the battery life. ;)

Back to lounging now - adios.

[starstreak]

Lil6- Ha. I would be happy if I could do what you do. In the past 4 hours, I did take 24 shots w/flash), and use the calc and voice memor once. And a total on time of about 10 minutes. I'm at 80%. I do not know how much more tinkering I can do. all the normal stuff is done. 50% light,I leave BT on(but not in turn-on mode), and IR off. Not much more I can do. Can you recommend something? (I'm going to suck you into this. hehe)

[rodger_copp]

:D

My NZ was in a factory sealed box, battery was dead, unit wouldn't power on. I charged according to user manual. Upon initial power-up, the recharge cycles were at 2.

Taking flash photos killed my battery very quickly. I didn't count, but I remember 5 or so disabled the flash. I was disappointed with the battery's performance. I read all the pertinent posts here and drained the battery a couple times to less than 10% before re-charging for 4+ hours. I cycled the battery twice like this. The battery's performance increased slightly I believe, but nothing had as much of an effect on the ability to take multiple flash pictures. I have charged the battery "normally" the past couple of days, starting when the batt was at about 70% or so. I don't know how there could be any connection, but when I put my new Lexan Memory stick in today, all I can say is wow!! Get this!!

I just took 51 flash pictures in rapid succession and never got a disabled flash alert!! I removed the MS and took 33 more. The battery recovered to 75%, and a 5 hr. 19 minutes life left when in datebook mode. The charge cycle count is at 5. Brightness is at minimum setting. It must just be a coincidence that my battery suddenly jumped to life on the same day that I installed the MS.

I highly doubt it, but maybe we will see some coorelation between those with great battery life and a MS and those with poor battery life and no MS. I doesn't make sense to me though.

Anyway, I'm a happy camper now and if this type of performance continues, I'll stay happy. I LOVE MY NZ!!

[starstreak]

I'm gonna bite and say it shouldn't make a difference as I always had a lexar MS inthe camera from day one.

 

ALL- I'm one of the more vocal ones here about the battery as you can see, but I do really want to love this NZ90 (first palm I ever used..).  I'm just hoping that with enough info, the problem can be solved.

I also found it dumb on how Sony can state that it has 12 days of use with no light and something like 15mins per day.  Thats like saying my Maxima can get 100mpg, but you need to drive it downhill without pressing on the gas. 

[ArK]

starstreak I'm def. not lying. However I would advise agaisnt the drain after the info pdagal gave about what happens when you drain the battery. I may be getting incredible battery life now BUT I also may have shortened the lfie of my battery. After reading that... I'm out in terms of dumping the battery or talking about dumping it. THe life is incredible but it may have cost me another $70 in the near future.

[Redmond]

Okay, here's my two bits. . . .

WiFi: Not Installed
Bluetooth: OFF
Screen Brightness: Lowest

The NZ was at 100% charge fresh off the cradle.

I was able to take 150+ pics with at least 100 flash. WOW!

All photos were taken with internal memory 320x240 res.

I did notice my Battery Icon inside the Camera App was at 43% during the shoot.

After the shoot, exited Camera App, I was at 75% power. (I'm thinkin' NOT BAD, the Battery Monitoring Program must suck, I can live with it.)

Now when I go back into the camera App, I'm getting Low Battery Warning Messages, Battery level in the Camera App is now at 38% power.

I exit the Camera App to the Main Menu.

I'm at 67%. I lost 18% in less than 3 minutes with no Camera function.

Tried the Camera App again, Message: Flash will be disabled.

Turned the unit off.

Turned the unit back on, I noticed the yo-yo effect. Translated: I SAW something like a 20% Battery Icon JUMP to about 2/3 full. Checked Battery, now at 60%.

Seems to be steady now at 60-61%

I think the Camera App really has a high current drain on the NZ battery and what we're seeing from the Battery Monitoring program is the "surge" from low to high. (The yo-yo effect)

After it starts to settle, you can carry on normat PDA/MP3/Voice Recording functions with the balance of power left,

But the Camera App is kinda TOAST when you're lower than 50% battery.

I kinda blame SONY for not providing a more heftier battery and for choosing a high drain chipset for the Camera function. !$#%!#$$

One other thing that was different about doing this shoot was I SHOT ALL 150 IN RAPID SUCESSION. I didn't get any Warning Messages in between.

The first time round was a normal shoot. Like - OK kids smile! Look this way! No No ! Stay still. 1..2..3.. Darn it Joey, you moved!! Let's do that again!!! So on and so forth. I was shooting 2 - 3 minutes in between shots. Took 5-10 pictures. Then I started to get WARNING WARNING WARNING RED ALERT MESSAGES.

I think it's interesting between a casual shoot and a rapid shoot.

I guess now that I know that, I have to adjust myself accordingly.

Take my shots early and if I know I'm gonna take some (lots) of pictures late in the day, kinda conserve my power.

One last check before I end, Battery level at 62% from Main Menu and 38% in the Camera App.

Elapsed time: 42 minutes

[SprSaiyan8]

maybe they call it the smart battery because it like to play tricks with people head

[Redmond]

That's the ticket!!

It had me fooled!!!;)

[starstreak]

ark- I think you would need to do a full drain like 10-20 times before damage takes place. So I think your battery is ok. But that does bring up an interesting point. But although mine drains quicker than yours I'm normally the one force draining it once I get home from work, so I don't think Iwill run into that problem. But it was weird seeing my battery ADD an extra cycle when it was off the cradle. So now I have 3 cycles and I only charged it once.

[lisabeth]

ok-my 2 cents (and that's all it's worth).
started at 95% (i'm impatient, so?)
got 129 pix at 320 x 240 w/flash, then flash disabled. batt went back up to 70%. then got 26 pix, all with the nagging flash message that i ignored (that is, hit ok, hit flash, and took pic anyway). then flash disabled. batt rose to 59%. got 51 pix, everyone with flash message, then batt down to 38% and camera wouldn't come back on at all. end result: 206 pix; i'm at 38% with 3 hours of usable estimated time remaining. btw- BT disabled, backlight brightness on low. ok, folks, that's all for now!! see ya later!

[Unregistered]

starstreak wrote:

"But it was weird seeing my battery ADD an extra cycle when it was off the cradle. So now I have 3 cycles and I only charged it once."

Same thing happened to me. It went from 2 to 3 cycles without it even touching the charger. I thought, "What the hey?"

These things are consistently confusing.

[starstreak]

lisabeth- DOn't think you have anything to worry about. Sounds good to me. Btw, when youre at 100% how much battery time does it say you have at 50% light?