RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: K-x Battery Issue and Tests (YouTube Demos)

Monday, November 16, 2009

K-x Battery Issue and Tests (YouTube Demos)

K-x with NiMH batteries:-

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLPKgoG76bw

The wonky battery indicator may surprise and scare you much! (But not me, as I predicted that in the beginning, long time ago! :->)

View also the same K-x unit with Lithium batteries, by the same tester:-

URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBmLxdUlkW8

And, there is no problem!

Comments (14)

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noou · 802 weeks ago

please have a look at this even wackier experiment (which worked a treat for me): http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=...

1 reply · active 802 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 802 weeks ago

What to do with the manual lens for the battery indicator? I just puzzle..

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noou · 802 weeks ago

yeah totally nonsense... but it works!
my brand new GP batteries now work (green indicator and 30 shots so far), before they resulted as depleted as soon as the camera was powered up or after 15 shots or so.
one thing could be that the camera doesn't read data from the lens (as happens with the kit lens)... but again, not very clear why this should affect the battery identification.

2 replies · active 801 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 802 weeks ago

This must be the most technically unexplainable thing to me in this year! Yes, utter nonsense afterall!

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noou · 801 weeks ago

update: indeed the manual lens trick allowed my brand new GP 2700mAh to work (they were previously unrecognized by the K-x), but only for about 50 shots...

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potential · 802 weeks ago

Hmm, it is a real sudoku. So strange and funny, even ridiculous... But is there any comment or statement by Hoya/Pentax on the issu"? If they know the trick, they have to share it...

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noou · 802 weeks ago

the only official statement I found is here: http://support.pentaximaging.com/documents/906
it has nothing to do with the trick above, still it is pretty ridiculous.

3 replies · active 800 weeks ago

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Anonymous · 802 weeks ago

the official statement seems to refer to situation where change of battery type is involved, but unrelated to changing from 1 set of Nimh to other Nimh set battery. In practise, does this trick works when its the same battery type ?

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RiceHigh 110p · 801 weeks ago

I fully agree that the official statements look totally absurd. So don't be too serious for what are stated.

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Walter · 800 weeks ago

The official response is indeed embarassing. I am becoming more and more frustrated with Pentax as a company. I have some beautiful old PEntax glass, but it seems they have not gotten anything right in the last few years. The SDM problems alone are enough to make me consider making a change - and I have used Pentax products since 1966.

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Stephan · 802 weeks ago

Hi, I've just got my Pentax Kx. It's supplied with Eneloops always ready batteries and it's works fine!!
The specifications of the Eneloops always ready is similar to the Gp repko+ (1,2 volt, 2000 A). In de movie on youtube the Gp Repko+ batteries don't work with de Pentax Kx. Why?? Is it the camera?

1 reply · active 800 weeks ago

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noou · 800 weeks ago

apparently there's a lot of randomness in the battery issues, or better, too many factors can affect the cells behavior since the K-x is very picky, so to say.

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Frank Plant · 793 weeks ago

Hey in the end what would you guys recommend with the battery issues? I just got my K-x and was stunned at how short the batteries lasted. Any reccomendations? Also I tried retrofitting an old pentax zoom and it somehow doesn't let me snap shots. The F*** spot on the monitor just keeps blinking. I'm a bit confused, any comments would be great, thanks, F

1 reply · active 793 weeks ago

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RiceHigh 110p · 793 weeks ago

I think it is just a complicated case than it could be easily concluded, which I think I should need to write more to tell my experiences in my coming full K-x review. But in short, my recommendation for you is to update the firmware and buy and try new batteries the following models of NiMH:-

1. Sanyo Eneloop;
2. Camelion AlwaysReady;
3. Energizer 2450 mAh

The third one, which is bundled by Pentax in HK, seems to work best in my K-x, whilst the other two battery models are quite usable in the two K-x units I have used, although not as good.

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Monday, November 16, 2009

K-x Battery Issue and Tests (YouTube Demos)

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