Dead battery! Yargh!

[sly]

I spent a leisurely few hours setting up for an 8x10 still life.

Ate dinner and then got serious about finishing touches, got out the flash meter...... And it's dead.

Lithium battery, not available at corner store or anywhere else until tomorrow.

Grrrr, grrrr, grrrrr.

[desertratt]

Batteries will drive you batty. I was in a small town on the Colorado River getting ready for a big shoot when I found out my Nikon N70 battery was dead. At that time at least you couldn't buy them in any drug store like they were AA batteries. I sweated blood but finally found some. I had purchased a N50 as a backup body but I learned they use different batteries although they are somewhat similar cam bodies in many ways. Grrr.

[R.Gould]

I hate camera battery's, they always give up at the most awkward times, I now do not own a camera that is battery dependant, I sold my last battery dependant camera a while ago, now all my cameras are over 50 years old, bar a couple of old Pentax's, and they only need meter battery's and I always have my hand held, a Weston, and my flash meter uses a AA battery, available anywhere,
Richard

[benjiboy]

I know this is infuriating when it happens but there's no law against having the forethought of keeping at least one spare Lithium battery in stock.

[Dan Fromm]

Um, sly, that's why I've always tested my flashes to determine their guide numbers and learned how do add GNs so I could use multiple flashes. Old fashioned, I know, but it still works.

[benjiboy]

I'm in my seventys, and It amazes me at the beginning of the 21st century that so many photographers are so battery averse, one of my cameras a Canon A1 that I have that's completely battery dependant I've used regularly for twenty five years has only ever had the battery changed three times, and it's not rocket science to always have a spare new one in stock for any item of equipment..

[bobwysiwyg]

I'm in my seventys, and It amazes me at the beginning of the 21st century that so many photographers are so battery averse, one of my cameras a Canon A1 that I have that's completely battery dependant I've used regularly for twenty five years has only ever had the battery changed three times, and it's not rocket science to always have a spare new one in stock for any item of equipment..

+1

About to enter my seventies and have always carried spares which sometimes come in handy for extended cold, winter shoots.

[sly]

Yeah, most of my frustration is directed at myself. It's possible that I have a spare battery, but don't remember the safe place I tucked it away 3-5 years ago.
I bought 2 batteries, and am set now for quite awhile. The new spare is in the drawer we keep AA's and AAA's in. That was my husband's idea. I was trying to come up with a new "safe" place that I'd remember for years, as if my memory is likely to get any better.

I could have taken the photo with a loooooong exposure using the modelling lights, but I just felt too angry with myself to go ahead.

Hope to get into the darkroom to develop the negs in the next day or so.

[mgb74]

What frustrates me a bit is the variety of batteries that serve the same function. Granted, each type may be slightly advantageous for it's particular use but those benefits are outweighed by needing to keep a variety of batteries around. So give me 1 lithium coin size, 1 button battery size (maybe a 2nd for watches). Does the world really need a CR2 and a CR123?

I'll go back to spitting into the wind now.

[JBrunner]

I always carry spare batteries for my cameras that take them. Only once has a battery given it up unexpectedly in the field. Smugly, I fit the spare battery, which, of course, turned out to be dead.