My wife just purchased a Fuji E550 digital camera; she is new to digital photography and I can't help her since I know absolutely nothing about the subject. Anyway, she tried for the first time to discharge the NI-MH batteries that were running low in her camera. For some reason all the steps went smoothly except for the very last one that would have started the discharge process; it just would not allow her, nothing would happen and it remained frozen on the second to last step. Could it be that these batteries simply did not need to be discharged? You folks that have such cameras with such batteries, will they only allow you to discharge when they really need discharging? We tried the Fuji website and even Google, and could find no help, so she is simply going to recharge the batteries without discharging. Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks. Acadia
Sorry I can't really help you out. I've never heard of having to "discharge" batteries, at least not for our digital camera. We just recharge ours when they get too low to work.
Hi Acadia, I don't have a discharge option on my Olympus, but I do like to 'flatten' the batteries pretty well before charging.. This simply stops the battery developing a 'memory' and increases battery life...same as phones, cordless tools, laptops etc.. When mine is getting low/flat, the camera shuts down...so I pretty well know the batteries are flat or close. Apparently new NiMH's need a few charge/discharge cycles before they reach full capacity.. http://www.shortcourses.com/choosing/batteries/13.htm ....Also some NiMH chargers also have a discharge cycle anyway. Not sure why it didn't work for you, but maybe it takes a little time? Couldn't imagine dropping all the juice out a battery at the touch of a button?? I don't think I would worry too much... BTW, Looks like a nice camera! Look forward to seeing some snaps. big battery read fuji forums Cheers, Brad
Both your wife's manual and this web site will give you some great info with screen shots.. http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E550/E55A.HTM You camera does havw a discharge mode..as soown and explained below..your next step even iff it appeared not to work..is take out the batteries and put them in the charger to charge them..good idea to even have a second set of batteries..the acre cheap enough..and good back up. Fuji E550 digital camera For power, the E550 uses a pair of high-capacity NiMH batteries, a set of which are included with the camera, along with a charger. Battery life was a very pleasant surprise, with a worst-case run time (capture mode with the LCD turned on) of three hours with the included batteries. Very impressive, but I do still recommend that you purchase a second set of high-capacity NiMH cells as spares. Frame Number: Renews frame numbering with each new memory card, or continues numbering from card to card. USB Mode: Sets the USB mode to Printer (Direct), DSC (Storage device), or PC Cam (allows the E550 to be used as a webcam). CCD RAW: Sets the image quality to RAW, which captures and stores the full image information from the CCD without any processing. (CCD RAW-format files can be converted to standard JPEGs via Fuji's provided software.) Language: Sets the menu language to English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese. Video System: Sets the video output signal timing to match either the NTSC or PAL standard. (NTSC for the US and Japan, PAL for Europe.) Discharge: Allows user to fully discharge NiMH batteries to avoid reduced capacity due to the "memory" effect. Reset All: Resets all camera settings to their defaults http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/E550/E55A.HTM In the Box In the box with the E550 digital camera are the following items: Adapter for Picture Cradle camera dock. 16 MB xD-Picture Card. NiMH batteries and charger. Extra port cover. Wrist strap. USB cable. Software CD-ROM. A/V cable. Pack of Fuji 4" x 6" paper. Instruction manual, Quick Start guide, and registration card. Battery Life: Excellent battery life, but still plan on buying an extra set of batteries. The E550 sips power pretty sparingly from its batteries, with a worst-case run time (capture mode with the LCD turned on) of about 136 minutes on my "standard" 1600 mAh NiMH cells, and almost six hours with the LCD turned off. In playback mode, runtime is a very impressive 4.5 hours. Better yet though, the E550 ships with a charger and pair of very high-capacity NiMH batteries (rated capacity of 2300 mAh, actual capacity of 2200 mAh in my tests), which should push the worst-case run time to more than three hours. This is excellent by any standards, let alone for a relatively compact camera. I do still strongly recommend purchasing a second set of high-capacity NiMH cells, so you can always have a spare set fully charged, but the E550's battery life is quite remarkable for a camera powered by only two AA cells. (See my Battery Shootout page for a listing of actual performance figures for a large number of NiMH AA cells, as an aid to finding high-capacity cells.) The Great Battery Shootout! by Dave Etchells http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM
My Fuji dig. camera has the discharge feature also but I usually just put the two batteries and the two back up batts. in a flash light when i go to bed and let them run all the way down to assure that they will fully charge and not get a memory.The NI-mh batteries don't get a charging memory as bad as NI-Cads but they will if not fully discharged every so often. And the flash light works well at running them down.
