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Notes on photography
By Robert de Gast

Digital cameras drain batteries

Carry a spare! Keep a spare battery in your camera bag so you don’t miss any photographs due to a dead battery. I know, you probably have a charger. But what are you gonna do when the battery gives out while you’re on a bus or a plane, far away from a wall outlet? And that battery condition indicator? Well, it won’t foretell the future: it could go down after a few more shots. Using flash can accelerate running down the batteries, but the worst offender is the LCD (liquid crystal display) screen on the back of your digital camera. Turn it (or the camera) off when not shooting. (Most cameras will automatically shut down if no action is performed for several minutes; you can always change the timing in the Menu’s toolbox.) All proprietary batteries are rechargeable, (but not easily acquired locally). Consider, if your camera uses the ubiquitous AA batteries, switching to the rechargeable kind. You’ll pay for them in a no time.