Always Have Battery Power

Your camcorders battery life is very important. Without battery power you can quickly become useless. Here are some tips for making your camcorders batteries last as long as possible.

Buy the Longlife Battery

Buying an additional long life battery is the easiest way to ensure that you have enough battery power to get you through your event. When you buy a long life battery keep your original battery charged as a spare for emergency situations.

Charge The Battery

Camcorder batteries can lose charge when they have been stored for a long period of time. Even if you stored the battery at full charge plug your camcorder in the night before to make sure you get the most you can out of the battery when it matters.

Use the Viewfinder

Using the LCD screen can be tempting to do when you are recording an event. The LCD screen uses more than twice the battery power than your camcorders viewfinder does however. If you are in a situation where you want to conserve your camcorders battery power then try to close the LCD screen and use the viewfinder instead.

Watch Your Movie Later

It can be tempting to want to watch the funny event you just recorded. If you wait and watch the event later once your camcorder is plugged in then you will be able to save your battery power for recording more fun events.

Make Your Movement Uniform

Turning your camcorder on and off and zooming in and out can take up a lot of battery power. You are going to want to zoom, and turning your camcorder off when you are going to stop recording for a while is a good idea. Try to keep things like that to a minimum when you can.

Buy an External Battery Charger

If your camcorder uses itself as a battery charger then you may want to consider purchasing an additional external battery charger. If you have two batteries then you can leave one on the charger in the hotel room while you and your family are out for the day, stop back by in the afternoon and switch the battery on the charger for the battery on your camera. With an external battery charger you are able to have a battery constantly charging and also always have use of your camcorder.


Article by :About.com

Memory Effect in Nicad Camcorder Batteries

Yes, it does exist. And, yes, your batteries could possibly have the effects of it. It's the memory effect. The term "memory" basically is described as the battery "remembers" its usual discharge point and superficially "needs" a charge whenever it hits that point. In other words, if you have a NiCd that always gets discharged to only 50% of its capacity, it will eventually not run below that 50% mark if you ever wanted to discharge it to a lower point. Many people who do not know about this effect just throw away the battery because they think it is dead. More than likely, the battery can revived providing that the battery isn't completely damaged (i.e. from years of memory buildup). The most simple way to get rid of memory is to discharge the battery to 1.0 volts per cell (VPC) on a minimal load, and then charge it fully. Repeat this procedure until you notice the battery lasting longer and longer on the drain, until it holds its correct capacity and not the "memorized" one. Unfortunately, unless you have good equipment, it is hard to discharge to 1.0 VPC without accidentally "reversing" a cell. (See the Universal Camcorder Battery Charger Page) Now, if you were only working on one cell at a time, discharging to 1.0 VPC would be easy, but most batteries nowadays for cellular phones and such are multiple cells in a plastic case. This makes it hard to get every cell to 1.0 VPC. No batteries are created equal, and what will most likely happen in a multi-cell battery is that one or more of the cells will "reverse" because they are weaker than the other cells. The reversed cell begins to accept a "backwards" charge from the other better charged cells around it. This is really bad for a battery if you don't catch it, because chances are it won't charge again while in the pack. If you are going to discharge a pack and you cannot open it to test individual cell voltages, please discharge to approximately 1.2 VPC. This will help prevent reversing cells. If you do reverse a cell and can access each individual cell, I have found that giving that cell about 4.5 volts (up to 1 A current) in the right direction, it will probably set itself straight. Measure the voltage of the cell after the "shock" charge. If it doesn't improve, try again. If you are still unsuccessful, try a higher voltage. I've needed 9 volts in some cases to get a cell working again. Once you get the cell at > 1.2 volts, immediately put the pack on charge now so that battery won't have time to reverse again. Charge the pack fully for 24 hours on a trickle charge to make sure that the reversed cell(s) have recovered fully. Also note that the once-reversed cell will never be the same. It will now always be the first one to reverse in the pack, so you might want to be aware of that when you try to discharge/cycle it in the future. Remember this: if you treat your battery well from the beginning by never letting it acquire memory, you won't have to worry about these weird procedures. Also, remember that all batteries have an expected life. NiCds have a life of approximately 1000 cycles as long as they are treated very well. So, if your battery is really old and doesn't hold a charge anymore, chances are it's not memory, but a tired battery. Let it retire at a recycling center.