Day 175 – Dead battery syndrome
Dead battery syndrome might not be something you’ve heard of before but if you’re a Nikon user it certainly should be something that you’re aware of.
Firstly what is dead battery syndrome?
Basically DBS is exactly what is sounds like…. you’re camera battery dies for no apparent reason, or at least all fully chargedd battery will appear to be empty.
I have seen lots of reports for this problem for the Nikon D80 and D200 but this has happened to us using the Nikon D700.
So what causes DBS?
Official word from Nikon is…….???????
Some have blamed firmware updates whilst others have blamed third party lenses. The problem of course is that if you’re using a 3rd party lens then Nikon aren’t going to do a thing about it.
Our experience of DBS came from using a Tamron 70-200mm F2.8 SP Di with a Nikon D700….. Well maybe it was to good to be true to only pay £600 for a 70-200mm F2.8!
What happened was that once we tried to zoom the lens the battery blinked, and then shut the camera down. This was before a firmware update which we of course then updated to no avail.
The solution?
I’m afraid it was to stick with Nikon lenses….. not a lot you can do as I mentioned Nikon aren’t going to touch a 3rd party lens.
Bottom line is if you’re looking for a new Nikon fit lens and you’re a little worried about this problem then take your camera body into a camera shop which stocks the lens you’re after and try it out….. make sure you do lots of zooming!
The only problem is that if the only local store to you is a Jessops then it’s unlikely that they’ll have any Tamron or certainly Sigma lenses in stock that’ll fit full frame cameras!
Apparently this is a fairly ‘rare’ problem but if you do want to read up the problems that people have been having then here’s a couple of forums that are worth a look….
