P1 AF/AFDIII Battery life, recommendations?

[dizzyg44]

To the other P1 645 AF/Mamiya AFDIII users here, what do you use for batteries and what typical life span do you get?

I've tried both disposable and rechargables.

With the 2700mah I can usually go the whole day shooting with digi back and 80mm lens showing only half remaining but usually the next day the batteries are flat dead that it won't turn on though everything was off.

I've also tried some rechargable NiMH's at around 2500mah (and set the custom setting for them) and can only go about 3/4's of the day on them before the battery indicator is flashing and it can't drive the focus motor on the 150.

Now that I've also started using the 120/220 film back and older 150mm AF lens (uses bodies focus motor) battery drain has dropped to about 3hrs.

I do tend to turn the body off and on quite a bit, does it use more due to initial power up than to leave it on and let it go to sleep during shooting?

I know I can expect no where even close to my D700's but geesh....

[Ken Doo]

The best AA battery power source that I have found to use in the Mamiya/Phase bodies are Energizer Lithium AAs.  A bit more expensive at ~US$10 for a 4-pack, but lighter and last substantially longer.  I've heard good things about using Eneloop rechargeables, but I have not myself used rechargeable AAs in my Phase DF body.

[michele]

The battery life with the AFD3 is disturbing... I use Eneloop, i guess they are 1900mah, and can do around 400 photos in a day with a P45+. Much more less if i take 10 photos today, 10 tomorrow and so on... But i keep two battery holders always ready and never had problems... even with 600 shots in a day. Give a try to the Maha chargers, in 20 minutes i have a set of 6 batteries full charged and sometimes you can refresh the batteries with the condition mode... So, go for eneloop rechargeble batteries and maha charger. But you also need a lot of space in the bag... one big charger for the body batteries and one not so small charger for the back... I envy the hasselblad users... just one little charger for all

[amsp]

Try taking the batteries out when not in use over night or prolonged periods of storage. At least the older bodies had the issue where the digital back would drain the batteries even when turned off. This was a digital back issue only, not when using film backs, and removing the battery pack at the end of the day would make the batteries last much longer.

[dizzyg44]

Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to try that as I have been in fact leaving the digi back on sans it's battery (aptus 22).

I've been thinking about leaving the batteries/holder out but have been hesitant to do so as the holder just seems really frail to me....

I guess modern battery technologies are a bit much to ask for higher end camera systems 

[michaelnotar]

I have a AFD2 and agree battery life is horrible. I just use disposables and keep an extra set or two on standby. I take the battery magazine out every night with no ill effect. But ya I get maybe a day or two shooting when I am actually shooting. I just use Duracells. I dont have an affinity for doing all the recharging, after being a photo student using flash in college and having to charge for a few days to have a few sets of batteries. Never again.

[Guy Mancuso]

The AFDIII just sucks batteries pretty bad. The newer DF does a much better job in this regards. Also make sure custom function 7 is 0 for alkaline and 1 for rechargeable in your bodies custom functions. 

[dfarkas]

Curious to hear how the battery life is on the DF when using the V-Grip and one of the DB rechargeable batteries. Better or worse than AA batteries?

David