Is there some way to get a *much* better battery for my old digicam?

Question

I bought a Canon IXUS 255 HS eight years ago. The picture quality is quite sufficient for my needs, but the problem is that the battery lasts a ridiculously short time.

Even if I charge it fully, I feel extremely stressed whenever I have it powered on to take photos. Especially if I'm recording video. Within half an hour, it's basically drained. If I'm lucky, it might last a couple of hours. It's hard to tell because I use it so little.

If I were to finally go on vacation somewhere, I would obviously bring my camera with me. But it would have to be charged constantly and I would (hopefully) not constantly be inside my cheap hotel room. I'd want it to last for many hours on a charge.

I know that the battery has probably become worse over the years, and that there are replacement batteries to buy. But aren't those just going to be the same kind?

Maybe nothing spectacular has happened in the last 8 years, but I'm wondering if there is perhaps some sort of much physically larger thing that fits into the battery slot but also extends way beyond it, to enable a full 24 hours of video recording and photo-taking, for example. Does such a thing exist for my camera? Does it exist for any camera?

It feels like I just bought this thing. I've barely used it. Perhaps the real issue is that I've barely lived... But I don't want to just throw it away and buy a new camera. And even if I do, all affordable ones will most likely have similarly bad batteries, no?

Answer 1

I bought a Canon IXUS 255 HS eight years ago... the battery lasts a ridiculously short time.

After eight years, it may be time to replace the battery, especially if you haven't kept it charged to 40-60% during that time.

Especially if I'm recording video.

Most cameras have a video recording time limit of about half an hour for tax classification purposes. If your primary objective is to record video, use a camcorder.

Within half an hour, it's basically drained. If I'm lucky, it might last a couple of hours.

That's a big difference. Use a stopwatch to obtain more precise timing.

If I were to finally go on vacation...

Consider carrying a spare battery.

... some sort of much physically larger thing that fits into the battery slot but also extends way beyond it, to enable a full 24 hours of video recording and photo-taking... Does such a thing exist for my camera? Does it exist for any camera?

They're known as dummy batteries or DC couplers. One end fits into the battery slot of your camera. The other end attaches to an AC adapter or battery pack.

Many camcorders have extended batteries. These are possible because of the position of the battery at the back of the camcorder.

Flagship DSLRs and mirrorless cameras often have battery grips available. Runtime is unlikely to extend to 24 hours though.

Answer 2

On a compact camera you can usually take 200-300 photos on a battery. The biggest power drain is the rear display so your best strategy for power saving is to find the setting that shuts it off quickly when not in use.

Then as others say batteries are consumable so your current battery is likely dead, but you can find decent compatible batteries (avoid the cheaper ones, though) and possibly an external charger if you haven't got one already. And start the day with a couple of spare batteries in your bag (IMHO the "Power bank" solution is way too bulky to be used with a camera, unless you use a tripod).

Answer 3

In the first instance, 30 mins video recording actually sounds about right. At the time, video recording was very much a "nice to have" for those devices; while they can be pretty good at it, it was very rarely discussed in reviews.

Then too, since they're compact by both name and nature, their batteries are pretty small and realtime video encoding is very energy intensive!

(And, at least in the EU, the video recording features were sometimes deliberately crippled, since the import duties for a "stills" camera were lower than for a camcorder...)

Beyond that, the 255 uses the standard NB-4L battery; I probably still have a half-dozen of these sat in a drawer somewhere, though I'd be surprised if they still hold a useful charge.

I used to love my Canon Ixus compact cameras; I used to always carry one, since they made for great little camcorders at gigs and the like. And I steadily upgraded through the years, until they switched from a mono to stereo microphone, since for some reason, the newer microphones were significantly worse at handling "gig" volume levels.

(Not sure if I ever owned a 255; it looks familiar in the photos, but then, the Ixus range all looked pretty similar to each other! Equally, finding a good replacement proved tricky, since as per above, few if any reviews looked at the video quality and virtually none discussed the audio quality...)

Anyhow, since I did a lot of video recording with these cameras, I generally carried a spare battery or two around with me. All of which came from Ebay, and were both unbranded and a fraction of the cost of the official batteries.

And they all worked fine.

Did they hold as much charge as the original battery? I don't recall any being particularly different - I tended to make a point of avoiding the batteries which claimed to hold a significantly bigger charge than the OEM ones, since it was most likely either a blatant lie (as happened a lot with SD cards - a cheap 32GB card could be a 4GB card with some hacked firmware), or they were pushing the limits of the battery tech and I had no desire to find my pocket bursting into flames.

And there still seems to be plenty of said NB-4L batteries on Ebay. Even ones which are branded (e.g. Duracell, Energiser).

So my advice would be to just grab a couple off Ebay or Amazon. And to steer clear of any which claim to have more than 850mah capacity!

Answer 4

You'll probably need to use a third party manufacturer for a replacement battery. Some brands are decent quality.

If you didn't take care of your battery by keeping it charged at least 50%, or higher, then the battery capacity will suffer - especially if it drains down to zero charge.