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I'm just wondering how many shots roughly are people getting out of there Nikon batteries on their D200 (not flash, or VR) shooting jpeg ? I have a high volume event coming up, and just wondering if my 3 batteries will be enough. (This might be best answered by some of the motosports guys, given they shoot thousands of jpgs in a day.) But anyone's feedback is appreciated.

Hi Craig,
If it's any help, I shot 980 JPEG shots on the last day of the Noosa Festival of Surfing from 2 x D200 batteries.
The setup was Battery grip with both Batteries on-board, 70-200 VR, with the VR on for all shots, any flash was done with a SB600. I pretty much had the camera on all day and tracked surfers (focus and VR) and didn't always take a shot, there was some sequence shooting on CH but maybe 8 frames max at a time.

Hope that gives you a bit of an idea.

Not exactly the question you asked, but I'm getting around 400-500 shots from a single battery with a mix of chimping and onboard flash (both have the most impact on which end of the range I end up in). I probably chimp less than some others here, but also use the flash in more situations than most (usually for fill) - and I shoot exclusively in raw.

Thanks for the info, more then happy to hear from anyone, even if your usage is a little different.
I'm starting to worry I don't have enough batteries.

Craig, does your camera take EN EL3 A or E? I could probably lend you one. I have a sprained foot though so cant get it anywhere.

Craig,

did some photos at the ice rink yesterday. I did about 600-700 per battery with each battery having about 15-20% capacity left over. I had three batteries and that was over a span of over 8 hours. This was in cold conditions, using an AF-S and VR lens all the time. I was also shooting RAW.

cheers,

André

Hi Craig,

Can't comment regarding jpgs as I never shoot jpgs but I get in excess of 400 compressed RAW. According to Thom Hogan's D200 book though, shooting RAW is what consumes battery the most, i.e. the longer saving to CF card process compared to jpgs, so you should get plenty more in jpgs.

Alex

Craig, at an estimate I would get between 800 and 1000 shots from one fully charged battery with large fine jpgs, maybe 600 for NEF? Can't really remember and they're only approximate: I have two EN-EL3e in the MB-D200 at all times and never need to change them in a day. HTH.

Craig,

Can you not bring your charger along to the event and recharge your first battery while using the others?

gstark wrote:Craig,

Can you not bring your charger along to the event and recharge your first battery while using the others?

Sadly Gary no, I did think about that but it isn't an option, given the shooting conditions, location and the fact its all in a big block of shooting. I think I'll just borrow additional batteries, turn off the LCD, (don't chimp unless necessary), and avoid VR.

Craig, I believe one way to get more shots out of the EN EL3e is to remove it from your D200, then replace it in a D300. Just don't mention that to Katie

in the space of three hours, I notice I get around 200 shots out of two in the grip, shooting RAW, LCD on after each shot lots of chimping, AFS lens, no VR, no onboard flash. RAW is a lot more battery hungry.

Thanks for all the feedback, I'm thinking I might have to go downtown and invest in another spare, just so I'm really covered, as it would be embarrassing and costly to run out of juice prematurely.

Sounds like I can extend the battery life by :
Not using VR (I shouldn't need it)
Turning of image review and only chimping when necessary (shouldn't be too much)
Shooting Jpeg (at this time probably Large - Medium or Large - Basic)

Interesting reading! I upgraded from D70s to D200 and wondered if the battery was faulty. After a few experiments I found I can get about 450 - 500 from a charged battery. Used to get a lot more with the D70s!

i used to get about 700-1000 shots per battery. jpeg, lots of chimping, 30% VR usage.

An Update from the Weekend.

On 1 fully charge EN-EL3e I took 2750 Jpeg, Large, Normal Compression (Optimize for Size), I got similar mileage from the second one as well, and by the time I started using the third I only had 100 odd shots to take. (So packing 6 EN-EL3e plus 12 AAs was slight overkill ) Image review was off, I chimped a max of 10 photos, no VR using the 24-70 and for 50 odd shots the SB-800 (not that that should change battery usage much).

ewm3 wrote:Interesting reading! I upgraded from D70s to D200 and wondered if the battery was faulty. After a few experiments I found I can get about 450 - 500 from a charged battery. Used to get a lot more with the D70s!

That is an expected outcome, and certainly was a point of many complaints when the D200 was first released, it just doesn't get the same mileage the good old D70 did. But considering the bigger LCD, the larger file size to write to CF, etc everyone just took it, from what I've heard the D300 is better on battery usage, but I haven't had a chance to test it myself.

1500 average with 70-200 VR on, Bit of chimping and LCD on.