# EN-EL3e Battery drained out.



## BrianLy (Aug 22, 2011)

Yesterday I fully charged both of my Nikon EN-EL3e batteries and this morning I was using it fine, and I just got home and both of them are completely drain? What could be the problem. One of them is only a few months old. It was both in my D200 with the MB-200 grip. I left it on "ON" but I always did and this never happened before. I have a third party charger that was given to me when I bought my D200 from Adorama. It worked fine before.


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## aliancer (Aug 24, 2011)

Practically speaking, if you shoot from fully charged, it would go for 400 raw shutter before you got the 30% left, and 600 non-continously shutter. The vertical grip would not give any drain possibly unless it's 3rd party product. The main problems are either the feature of the lens (af, vr, etc) and the how often you're using the preview screen. 

Even it's fully charged on your charger, don't forget to check the battery status on your camera as well, and check how's the performance after the first 100 shutter (raw) or 250 (jpeg) from the fully charged. If it's above 75%, it's still quite normal...

Sent from my iPad using PhotoForum


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## joealcantar (Aug 24, 2011)

Label the batteries and label the chargers so you can tell how it was charged etc. , and do your testing to see if it is a certain combination. 
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shoot well, Joe


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## IgsEMT (Aug 24, 2011)

Shooting RAW eats more juice and as joe said, label them.
By the way...
If you're using 3rd party batteries, that could be an issue. My Nikon batteries still last me after 3 yrs, my 3rd party - crappy garbage


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## BrianLy (Aug 26, 2011)

I shoot in jpeg fine, it was fully charge when I left and got home they were drained dead.


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## ghache (Aug 26, 2011)

your grip could be the problem. I know that d200 is pretty bad on battery life but if you didnt use the camera they shoulnt have drained out of power.


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## BrianLy (Aug 26, 2011)

ghache said:


> your grip could be the problem. I know that d200 is pretty bad on battery life but if you didnt use the camera they shoulnt have drained out of power.


This was the first time, but it hasn't happen since.


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## paul85224 (Sep 11, 2011)

The D200 battery has a history of draining much quicker than Nikon's estimates.  I purposely won't leave the camera on at all to conserve battery life and typically take a spare body as backup.


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## Overread (Sep 11, 2011)

Did you use the popup flash more than normal? That will certainly put a bigger drain on the batteries if you did use it.


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## BrianLy (Sep 11, 2011)

I either don't use flash or if I do I use my SB600. But it hasn't happen to be again, it was just that one time.


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## fotomanjack (Oct 15, 2011)

What firmware version do you have on your camera? It should be 4.01. This version "solved" a bit of the battery drain problem inherent to the D200. Also, third party batteries aren't micro chipped like the Nikon batteries are. Ask me how I know.  As stated by others, leaving the camera on for an extended period, using the view screen constantly.......will drain the batteries. Also, third party chargers are not wired like the Nikon chargers. They ARE different, even though they work the same.
I have learned over the years to take out my batteries from the grip when not using the camera for a week or more.


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## rgregory1965 (Oct 15, 2011)

Someone used your camera when you werent home......


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