D90 with grip faster with AA batteries?
Focus
"Higher frame rates are available with AA batteries; note, however, that in
the case of AA batteries the frame
rate will decrease as battery level drops."
That's all. Nowhere it reads how many frames or how much difference between
EN-EL3e and AA batteries and which kind.
Does anybody know? I tried but I can't feel hear or see a difference.
However, I do have a theory: it seems the D90 manual is a copy of the D300
manual and a bad one. They left things in that a clearly about the D300.
On page 178:
"Exposure can be fine-tuned separately for each Custom Settings bank and is
not affected by
two-button resets."
I searched high and low, but I'll be a donkey's ass if I can find any custom
settings bank on the D90. However, the D300 did have 4 custom settings
banks.
--
---
Focus
ASAAR
> If you can believe the manual: on page 184:
>
> "Higher frame rates are available with AA batteries; note, however, that in
> the case of AA batteries the frame
> rate will decrease as battery level drops."
>
> That's all. Nowhere it reads how many frames or how much difference between
> EN-EL3e and AA batteries and which kind.
> Does anybody know? I tried but I can't feel hear or see a difference.
DPReview generally checks the frame rate using an oscilloscope
that tracks the shutter sound. With fast cards (and the camera's
buffer) you can take long bursts before the frame rate slows. At
some settings you can take the maximum 100 shot burst with no
slowdown at all. I've done this with the D300 and the MB-D10, and
it clearly shows the frame rates, up to 8 fps. You can also hear
the difference. The D90 with an MB-D80 filled with AA cells
probably won't go much above the D90's max. frame rate of 4.5 f/s,
the main reason being that to get fast frame rates the DSLRs need
considerably higher voltage than the EN-EL3e battery packs provide.
Only the MB-D10 (for the D300 and D700) use 8 AA cells. The others,
including the MB-D80 use only 6 AA cells. Freshly charged NiMH
batteries provide about the same voltage as an EN-EL3e (7.4v).
While alkaline AA cells provide 9v, that's under no load. In the
D90 under load there should be enough of a drop that even fresh
alkalines may be pretty close to the EN-EL3e's voltage level.
There's no good reason for Nikon to specify the actual frame rate
using AA cells, since the frame rate probably varies depending on
the alkaline brand, if alkalines are used. You may get higher frame
rates using lithium or oxyride AA cells, but don't expect anything
close to the 8f/s that the MB-D10 allows.
> However, I do have a theory: it seems the D90 manual is a copy of the D300
> manual and a bad one. They left things in that a clearly about the D300.
>
> On page 178:
> "Exposure can be fine-tuned separately for each Custom Settings bank and is
> not affected by
> two-button resets."
>
> I searched high and low, but I'll be a donkey's ass if I can find any custom
> settings bank on the D90. However, the D300 did have 4 custom settings
> banks.
No, the D90 manual isn't even close to a copy of the D300 manual,
and not just because the former has 278 pages and the latter 421.
If you read a little further in that paragraph on page 178 you'll
see that it refers to exposure compensation on page 90. The D90's
manual does talk about exposure compensation on page 90. The D300's
manual doesn't. There could have been a mixup using cut & paste
from another manual, or the technical writer could have been
confused, temporarily thinking that the D90 supported settings
banks. Or Nikon could have initially designed the D90 with settings
banks but later changed their mind, after its mention was included
in the manual.
BTW, one of the reasons I checked the frame rates (using the
technique mentioned above) was because of a YouTube video that
showed how it was possible to take 8f/s bursts without having to use
the battery grip. It actually works!
Paul Giverin
<do...@mail.me> writes
>I searched high and low, but I'll be a donkey's ass
Stop searching............ you've made it!
--
Paul Giverin
dou...@fair-dinkum.com.au
What it doesn't tell you is the life (number of frames) is no were
near that of using a pair of genuine batteries!