Digital Camera Battery review

Jay Millington · #1 04-01-2003, 12:10 PM

Ok, this is not going to be a thorough review, but rather my first impressions after using it for about a week with my recently purchased S2. I use the 60W, and personally, I don't find it that heavy...in fact I hardly notice that I have it clipped to my belt. I like how the cables lock into the power supply, but I have a minor irritance sort of problem with the other end. My cable for the S2 sticks out of the side of the camera, which is certainly no fault of the people at Digital Camera Battery, but it is a little annoying; in fact, I have had to alter slightly how I hold my camera, as I was occasionally knocking the adapter out of the camera altogether. Maybe there is a way to get this plug to 'lock in place' so that this doesn't happen? Anyone have any ideas for a contraption to make it work? All I can come up with is elastics. I have another cable that runs my SB-28 flash, which works wonderfully, and gives me almost no recycle time, even after full out puts, or close to it. The problem that I have with this cable is the opposite of the other cable. This one is next to impossible to remove from the flash when you are done with it, although I must say that I would rather have that problem than it falling out. My concern, and I don't think I am exaggerating this at all, is that I am going to break something one of these days trying to remove the cable. All in all, though, it beats carrying about bundles of AA's for both the flash and camera, and I never feel hesitant to view my photos on the monitor, for fear of batttery power consumption.

MikeHarrold · #2 04-02-2003, 12:53 PM

Jay;

When using the Digital Camera battery with the S2, do you still need the CR 123a's in the camera?

Mike

John_Branam · #3 04-03-2003, 12:32 AM

Jay

I carry a 60 watt DCB from a shoulder strap and the fast recycle cable for the sb28dx or Quantum T2. I take a short piece of velcro strap and strap the flash cable to my shoulder strap just below the box that's inline with the power cable. This keeps the weight of the box from tugging at the end of the cable connected to the flash. As far as the camera connector goes; I use the basic stroboframe (quickflip). If your camera power connector is on the left side I would think this would isolate the connector from bumps and snags and still give you a place to grip. I have the power cable for my D1x but have never used it.

I've been using the DCB's for almost a year and have two 30 watt units and one 60 watt. One of the 30's seems to be getting a bit weak giving me a yellow after only a few shots so guess it's time to send it in for refurbish. I just got a new 60 watt this last week. I recently shot my T2 using the 60 watt and was only about 50 shots from making it all day on the one battery. I did run it back to the trailer and put some juice on it a couple of times for a total of about 1 1/2 hours during the day. Probably got 1200-1400 shoots that day.

John

Sara_Nugent · #4 04-12-2003, 12:15 AM

I am using a Digital Camera Battery to power my S2. I've only used this a couple of weeks. Only had the S2 a month. The first week, everything went fine. The second weekend, I photographed a dog show (about 400 or so photos) and about 1/3 of them had a weird zig zag wavy bunch of lines in the red and blue channels of the color files. Look like overall moire lines.

I sent the camera back to Fuji - they didn't fix this - only the autofocus problem that I was also having - despite a 3 page letter describing my problem, and a CD with sample files. They returned the camera today. Of course we have talked several times today and emailed more sample files.

Fuji thinks there is an electrical interference problem - possibly from the Digital Camera Battery. The Digital Camera Battery people tell me that they have had no complaints from anyone about such a problem.

Tipical of repair depts. - It must be the other company's fault. It isn't OUR product causing the problem.

I am trying to find out if anyone else has ever had a problem like this? Either with an S2, or with an S2 and Digital Camera Battery. Or with ANY kind of battery pack?

Help!

Sara

Roger_Martin · #5 05-15-2003, 05:12 AM

I use 3.2 AMP lead(gelcell)acid 8 volt external batteries. $30-60 each. They last for over 5,000 shots even when I leave the LCD on. Never had one fail on the first day of a shoot. You do have to recharge them soon after use as any lead acid battery does not live long at full discharge. However they will hold their full charge for a year or more in storage.