How to Maximize Your Digital Camera's Battery Power

Digital cameras are wonderful for family trips and vacations allowing you to capture hundreds of pictures on a memory card rather than tote around roll upon roll of film. A disadvantage of digital cameras however is that they tend to have a much shorter battery life than your traditional camera. Here are a few tips to keep you powered up during all of your photo taking adventures.

Turn off the LCD screen:

This is by far the simplest thing you can do to make your battery last longer. Most people think that because the camera has an LCD screen they should use that screen to frame their pictures and leave the screen on in between taking pictures. The LCD screen on your camera uses an incredible amount of power. By simply using the viewfinder on your camera to take pictures, just like you did before you purchased a digital camera, you can double if not triple the battery life of your camera.

Wait to look at your pictures:

One of the benefits of having a digital camera is the ability to instantly look at your pictures, and delete those that you're not interested in keeping. Scrolling through pictures, deleting, and passing the camera around for everyone to see the picture that was just taken…takes a great deal of battery power. If you can, wait until your home and can plug your camera in before you review your pictures.

Plug it in:

It may seem like a simple thing, but many people don't plug their cameras in when AC power is available. Especially when your downloading pictures onto your computer, connect your camera to AC power. You'd be amazed at how much power it takes for your camera to transfer pictures to your computer.

Buy a card reader:

A card reader is like buying a floppy disk drive for your cameras memory. A card reader usually connects to your computer through your computers USB port, you remove the memory from your camera, put it in the card reader, and voila your pictures begin to download onto your computer. A card reader completely takes your camera out of the equation when you are downloading pictures onto your computer, and saves you an incredible amount of battery time.

Charge before you leave the house:

Camera batteries can loose power, even when they've just been sitting in storage. Even if you charged you cameras battery right after its last use, plug it in a few hours before your departure or the night before just to make sure it's charged to its full capacity. A camera that hasn't been used in a few months can loose half, or even all of its battery power while just sitting in a closet.

Buy Lithium ion batteries:

Lithium ion batteries will last almost twice as long as traditional batteries. Lithium Ion batteries are also rechargeable, so you can use the same set of batteries over and over again. While the batteries may be more expensive than nickel batteries at the onset, you will be amazed at how much longer they last and if you charge them and use them again even just a few times you will have more than made up for the price difference.

Have extra batteries:

No matter how hard you try to conserve you cameras battery power, inevitably your camera will run out of power, right when you find the perfect picture. Carry around at least one extra set of batteries as a backup just in case your original set runs out and you need to re-charge.

Digital cameras take a lot of battery power, but you don't have to let that stand in the way of your picture taking adventures. Conserve your battery power, be prepared, and you'll be taking pictures well into the night!