D5100 battery life

[Kowari]

Hi . I am a complete novice to DSLR and last week bought a Nikon D5100 online. The battery didn't last very long and seems to take 3- 4 hours to re-charge. Is this normal?
Thanks
kowari

[ricktas]

what is 'very long'? The battery should be able to take around 600 photos, but that depends on LCD screen/flash usage etc which will drain the battery much faster.

[Kowari]

what is 'very long'? The battery should be able to take around 600 photos, but that depends on LCD screen/flash usage etc which will drain the battery much faster.

Rick - I got 188 pics from the battery life. It lasted a few days

[arthurking83]

The number of days is irrelevant.

The number of shots is the only measure of a battery's performance that counts.

That is, my battery lasts months if the camera is left on but isn't used.

188 exposures is definitely an issue tho.

Is it a genuine Nikon type, or a cheap ebay purchase?

Are you using the viewfinder for all your images, or using liveview(the rear LCD screen) to take all your shots.

If you use Liveview for all your shots, and it's on for very long periods of time, then the 188 images per charge could make sense.

Also number of exposures per charge depends heavily on the length of the exposure too.
If you've shot 188 exposures all at 1 minute each, then this could be normal for battery life.

The other question would be: if you leave your camera in the on position, does it automatically go into a sleep mode.
Nikon DSLRs go into a sleep mode, where most features shut down after about 6 seconds.
If you press the shutter button it auto wakes up almost instantly.
In this sleep mode, it's as good as the camera being turned off, and the battery should last for a few weeks with the camera in such a state.
As long as the camera enters this sleep mode.
The setting is called Auto meter off. You should find this setting in the Custom Setting Menu(spanner icon). If this is set to off, it means that the camera may not be entering sleep mode when not being used.
The metering system uses power.
The D5100 is a bit different to many other Nikon's I've been used too, in that it has a generic auto off system, where image review+meter off are linked.
The length of time set for image review, determines the auto meter off setting as well.

Also! any accessories you connect can also drain battery faster too.

Anyhow, if none of these things apply to your situation ...
For the initial few charges, it can take a bit longer to charge the battery up properly. I've never experienced this myself, but I'm pretty sure it's stated in the manual.
After that, even a totally flat battery should only take an hour or two to charge fully again.
And the battery may need a few of these cycles to operate at it's peak.

If this 3-4 hour recharge continues after the first two or three cycles, there could be a problem with your charger, or battery .... or both.