FZ20 – 12,420 pix on 1 charge!

[frumious]

FZ20 – 12,420 pix on 1 charge!

You read that right. I just finished attempting to set the world record for the number of shots taken on a Panasonic DMC-FZ20 on a single charge of the factory-supplied battery. I took 12,420 shots in 2560 size and HI-RES mode. Hard to believe? You can probably do better. Here is what I did: Set the camera to AE. Used the EVF only. Turned off Auto Focus. Turned off Continuing Auto Focus. Turned off Image Stabilization. Turned ON Infinite Burst Mode. Inserted a 512MB high speed (SanDisk Extreme) SD card. Aimed it at a bright light source. Held down the button – for a couple of hours! Drain on the battery was limited to 1) shutter action 2) writing to the card 3) turning on and turning off the camera 47 times to remove the SD card and erase if when it each time it filled up. Yup: I filled the 512MB card 47 times! One charge!

I’m sure that you can do even better! I started to try to beat the record but ran out of time and my finger got tired of holding down the button. To beat my record do this: Use all the above settings, except change the picture size and resolution to 640 and LOW RES. I quit after filling the 512MB SD card once with (are you ready for this?) 6,306 shots in ONE NON-STOP BURST! This left the battery with 2/3’s REMAINING! Assuming that I could get another two SD cards-worth of shots, that would be 18,913 shots!

And this is a new battery (and new a camera - well not so new now) only on its third charge cycle. I’ve read that after it has had a half dozen discharge/charge cycles, that it will be up to full capacity. Imagine!

Obviously no body will take pictures with the FZ20 in this manner (although my 12,420 identical shots were sharp) , but it is interesting to know how many shots are possible.

One more thing worth noting: I started out using a standard speed SD card. The Infintite Burst Mode could only take 4 shots before the pixels hit a traffic jam at the card. High Speed cards are a must for this camera.
:) :)

[keiffer]

You have waaaay too much time on your hands LOL But interesting bit of trivia.

[24Peter]

My thoughts exactly :) Then again, he is in Anchorage in the middle of the winter... ;)

[frumious]

You are both right! Too much time on my hands today (New Years Eve). Not enough daylight and too cold to go out and use the camera outdoors much. I did get out a bit this afternoon and burned through half the same battery in about 100 shots. Big difference in real world shooting. In the cold the battery's output drops. The "Extreme" SD cards on the otherhand are nice: They supposedly work to 13 degrees below zero (and 185 above - but I don't suppose I'll be testing that).

:)

[JavaDan]

Hey Frumious,

When your finger heals, mabey you should try it with an 800 mAh CTA battery to see how much better it is than the stock 680 MAh battery. :p [just kidding]

That was pretty darn interesting.

[John_Reed]

You are both right! Too much time on my hands today (New Years Eve). Not enough daylight and too cold to go out and use the camera outdoors much. I did get out a bit this afternoon and burned through half the same battery in about 100 shots. Big difference in real world shooting. In the cold the battery's output drops. The "Extreme" SD cards on the otherhand are nice: They supposedly work to 13 degrees below zero (and 185 above - but I don't suppose I'll be testing that).

:)I think you might do better with an external battery pack like the DPS9000, anything that could be mounted to connect to your body heat; the camera would probably perform fine, if the battery didn't crap out.

[frumious]

Thanks John. Do you know if the DPS-9000 works with the Panasonic DMC-FZ20? I did not see it on the list of compatible cameras, but several reviews of the ingenious product indicate that far more cameras are compatible with it than are listed. The voltage is right. Just needs a connector that works with the DMC-FZ20. Thanks again for the clever product idea.

[keiffer]

I think it was a joke.

[genece]

Thanks John. Do you know if the DPS-9000 works with the Panasonic DMC-FZ20? I did not see it on the list of compatible cameras, but several reviews of the ingenious product indicate that far more cameras are compatible with it than are listed. The voltage is right. Just needs a connector that works with the DMC-FZ20. Thanks again for the clever product idea.


Not John here .. but the DPS 9000 works fine on the FZ20 and the cable comes with it. (DP1u if I remember correctly)

[frumious]

Thanks Genece -

Good to know. I'm still evaluating whether or not I need a high capacity external battery like the DPS-9000. Today I shot over 200 pictures outdoors using about a third of the capacity of the Panasonic factory battery. It was warmer today - near 30 degrees - which helped. I could have easily gotten 500 at this rate. That's a pretty good number of shots, one that I am not likely to exceed often. I did not use the flash and only used the LDC for review and for menu setting. That conserved power. But I had the continuous auto focus and image stabilization (#2) on which are both power hungry.

[genece]

I really agree, since I quite looking at photos on the LCD, and not bothering with them untill they are on the computer. I am amazed how many shots you can take on 1 charge.
I do not agree on mode 2 being a power hog however.
I will just keep my DPS 9000 for a backup.
I need a trailer just to take my accessories along.