camera batteries and chargers

Did you buy a genuine replacement battery for the camera or a cheapo chinese one? In my experience some of the chinese copies are not very good.

Cheapo IIRC

In article , stuart noble writes

That's a shame, I like that range and internal zoom optics but got the AA bat version for easy spares and swapping. Sad that Sony bought it then smothered it

Your logic sounds good, maybe check the output of the charger and see if it is as spec'd on the body.

I could see it being either the charger or the charge control circuitry in the camera. If the unit o/p is as spec'd it would point to the cam.

Even if the cam is at fault, I see there are plenty of external chargers available cheaply eg: (first hit):

I've not come across a charger that still works, but not properly. They normally work properly or fail totally. But, of course, everything is possible.

What you need to do it look at the voltage it's delivering while charging

- or better still the current. But it's likely the new battery you've bought is also faulty.

I guess that means trudging off to the shops to buy a multimeter? Job for the new year then

No multimeter? You mean you only have an angle grinder?

:-)

Strange that the two batteries are equally inefficient though. Yes, I must get myself a meter...

I only have tools in areas where I have a modicum of competence. That rules out electronics and anything to do with cars :-)

doesn't

I've a Minolta Dimage XT battery has been essentially useless from new. Very short life and doesn't appear to hold charge when in the camera.

Just boughta cheap (=A39.99 delivered from the UK, well channel islands) chinese copy for my iPaq from eBay. Knocks spots of the old chinese one that would be lucky to last 30 mins. Time will tell how long the new one lasts of course but I'm happy ATM. B-) A HP branded battery is in the order of =A330...

Was it the official one?

It's all pot luck it seems to me

Could be. I needed a new battery for my Acer laptop - the original only lasted two years or so, but was left on charge. Ebay had a bewildering variety from about 15 - 150 quid. So i just picked one at random, and it seems just fine. Certainly got as good a capacity as the original. But I'm now keeping it on the shelf when not needed. ;-)

I should hope so, it came with the camera. B-) I can see what I typed can be read two ways.

At least with eBay you can dig through the feedback and see if the goods match expectations in general. Personally I don't use the ships from HK sellers and check reasonably rigoursly any potential seller.

What makes me suspect the charger is that it doesn't seem to take long for the charging light to go off

Agree about feedback. Most of the stuff I've had from HK has been absolutely fine. It's never been rubbish, just once or twice a bit tacky or underperforming slightly.

I presume that you are talking about 7dayshop there

What sort of battery is it? Lithium based batteries/chargers try to be rather too clever to protect the battery and the user. They have a "fuel guage" abd protection circuitry. The "fuel guage" can get out os step with actual battery charge level and te protection can get triggered accidentally. Leaving things "on charge" for 24hrs or more sometimes sorts things out, until the next time.

It's a lithium battery. Perhaps I need a stupid charger rather than a smart one

trouble is the batteries are also smart..for elfin safety reasons.