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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
D300 Battery Issue
Bill McGuire, Photographer, Assistant
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Atlanta | GA | USA | Posted: 3:38 PM on 12.01.07 |
| ->> Has anyone had a d300 keep shutting down while shooting with a dead battery? I am currently shooting a soccer tournament and my D300 keeps cutting out on me. I checked the battery in my D200 and they work just fine. I am shooting with no battery grip. |
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Delane B. Rouse, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Washington | DC | US | Posted: 6:55 PM on 12.01.07 |
->> I have NOT had this problem, but I am shooting with the grip and an EN-EL4a
dbr |
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Geoffrey Bolte, Photographer, Assistant
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Spencer | MA | USA | Posted: 7:19 PM on 12.01.07 |
| ->> I shot with just a battery in the grip and I had no problems. But if the battery is dead, since there is only 1 battery wouldn't it shut down? |
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Delane B. Rouse, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Washington | DC | US | Posted: 8:24 PM on 12.01.07 |
| ->> Geoffrey...Bill does not have the grip, so he's using just the (1) battery. |
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Doug Holleman, Photographer
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Temple | TX | USA | Posted: 8:37 PM on 12.01.07 |
->> Lately, I've been having a similar problem with my D200. I believe it is the fault of a funky battery, and I think I finally located which one it is. It's one of my older ones, so it probably needs to be replaced or reconditioned...if that's possible.
Batteries would be fine, with two in the grip and one fully charged, and the suddenly I get the "dead" battery warning and it locks up. Sometimes I can mess with it a while and it will come back on, and the battery level says the dead one is about 50% or something. Or it could be cruddy contacts or something...I still haven't figured out for sure. But lately I have one battery that only gets about half as many shots as the rest. |
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Geoffrey Bolte, Photographer, Assistant
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Spencer | MA | USA | Posted: 8:40 PM on 12.01.07 |
| ->> Delane... I know just referencing I was just using one battery and that if the battery is dead then the camera would shut down. Then again I might be misinterpreting the question. |
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Doug Holleman, Photographer
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Temple | TX | USA | Posted: 8:42 PM on 12.01.07 |
| ->> As long was we're on batteries, today I shot parts of two football games with my D300, on one battery (I don't have the grip yet), plus a little bit of playing around on the same charge last night. I have 736 shots in jpg large/normal on it and now it's down to 56%. So it looks like battery life is pretty dang good. Maybe about twice as good as what I would get with the D200. |
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Chuck Steenburgh, Photographer
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Lexington | VA | USA | Posted: 8:45 PM on 12.01.07 |
->> I think Bill is saying that the camera shuts down "as if" the battery were dead - although when I first read it, I too, thought "Well, what do you expect it to do when you shoot with a dead battery"?
Bill - is this the battery that came with your D300, or an older battery? Or a knock-off? A couple of us have already discovered that non-Nikon EN-EL4's which work fine in the D2 series won't work at all in the MB-D10. |
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Matthew Ginn, Photographer
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Matthew Ginn, Photographer
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Portland | OR | USA | Posted: 9:59 PM on 12.01.07 |
| ->> I should add that I can usually fix the problem (temporarily) by simply turning the camera off and then back on. |
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Jon L Hendricks, Photographer
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Merrillville | IN | USA | Posted: 10:11 PM on 12.01.07 |
| ->> I've had that exact same problem with the D200. The battery indicator suddenly starts flashing and the camera locks. I have to turn it off then on again to restart it. |
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Andrew Bright, Photographer
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Auckland | New Zealand | New Zealand | Posted: 2:18 AM on 12.02.07 |
->> I've had this problem too, across 4 of my 5 batteries, and occuring on two different D200 bodies.
So we've figured out there's a problem; has anyone found a solution? |
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Derrick den Hollander, Photographer
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Melbourne | VIC | AUSTRALIA | Posted: 4:39 AM on 12.02.07 |
->> I have 3 batteries for my D200, don't have the MB-D200. I rotate all 3 batteries equally.
Funnily enough, the genuine battery that came with the D200 has given up the ghost, but my two thirds cheaper OEM batteries are still going strong!
I have also noticed from time to time, maybe once every week (and I shoot pretty much every day) to two weeks, a battery will suddenly flash low - so I turn the camera off and on and all goes fine. |
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Harry Bloomberg, Photographer
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Pittsburgh | PA | USA | Posted: 3:57 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> I had the same problem with my D300 last night in Morgantown. Every so often the camera would just go dead and I'd have to turn it off and then on again. I was using an MB-D10 grip with an EN-EL4 battery. It started happening towards the end of the game. The D300 reports that the battery charge is at 78%, so this does not appear to be an issue with a bad battery.
I'll have to keep an eye on this problem. I'm delighted with the D300 so far and I'd really hate to have to send it back for repair. |
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Richard Shiro, Photographer
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Pelzer | SC | USA | Posted: 8:19 PM on 12.02.07 |
| ->> Well there is definitely something wrong. I am not sure if it's the battery or the camera because it did the same thing on my D200. I shot the Panthers today and it started up this time when the battery was getting towards the end of the charge. Once I changed the battery it still did it, but only a few times. I hope it is not a problem with both the battery and the camera. I was also using the MB-D10. |
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Bill McGuire, Photographer, Assistant
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Atlanta | GA | USA | Posted: 8:43 PM on 12.02.07 |
| ->> OK sorry for the late reply.. I was shooting all day today.. anywho.. I was able to swap out the body with a store demo they had and I was able to shoot again today.. Just to clear up some things. I had 4 batteries all nikon brand that worked fine in my D200 grip and they all got rotated today with the new body and D200 and things went fine.. just to give more info on what was going on with camera... I had a fresh battery off the charger and put it in.. I would get 10 to 20 frames with it and the auto focus would go out for a second and bam it would just shut off. I would have to turn it off then back on again and I would get another 10 frames out of it.. it also would give me a black frame every once in a while as well.. it really drove me nuts b/c it always would shut off just when I was trying to get a shot. and this again did it with all 4 batteries.. 3 that I had for my d200 and one that came with the camera.. I swore to myself that I would never buy a first generation camera after I had 3 D2H bodies before I finally got a keeper but I just couldnt resist this one. |
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Harry Bloomberg, Photographer
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Pittsburgh | PA | USA | Posted: 9:18 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> I unscrewed the MB-D10 grip, reattached it, and then fired off a lot of shots. I've not seen a reoccurence of the problem. I'll speculate that maybe the grip wasn't attached as firmly as I had thought or that maybe one of the contacts wasn't making solid contact.
I have two basketball games this week, so that should help me determine if this problem has gone away. |
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Yamil Sued, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Peoria | AZ | USA | Posted: 10:11 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> Bill,
Looks like you have a bad body!!
Ask your store if they will replace it with a new body.
Y |
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Denny Medley, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Kansas City | MO | USA | Posted: 10:15 PM on 12.02.07 |
->> I was hoping this wouldn't happen to me as well, but I shot the Rams game today, and the same battery issue happened A LOT! I've not received my grip for the D300 yet, so I was just using the Nikon EN-EL3 batteries (I had two, both fully charged). Into the second quarter, it started flashing the battery indicator light, then would just shut off. Turning the camera off then back on temporarily fixed the problem, but it re-occurred very frequently. Second half I switched to the other battery, but the problem still occurred.
Other than this issue, the D300 is awesome - very fast AF response, AWB is incredible, and the 51 point AF system is awesome.
Just need to get that battery issue resolved... |
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Paul Anderson, Photographer
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Münster | Germany | Germany | Posted: 3:32 PM on 12.04.07 |
->> I used my D300/MB-D10/D2x original EN-EL4 (from March 05) on Sunday.
Not one problem.
2500 frames from the EN-EL4 battery before it switched automatically to the internal battery.
I really love the new battery features of the D300!
Paul |
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Rick Giase, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Arvada | CO | USA | Posted: 11:49 PM on 01.19.08 |
->> Has anyone figured out this problem yet? I'm shooting with
two new D300 bodies with the MB-D10 grips and new EN-EL3e batteriees and both cameras were shutting down continously today. All the batteries had plenty of juice. I have another big shoot tomorrow and really need a solution. |
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Rob Bye, Photographer
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Winnipeg | MB | Canada | Posted: 2:00 PM on 01.20.08 |
->> I've started experiencing the exact same problem as Bill, with my D300. It's very frustrating!
The first month of use went great, but last weekend my D300 started giving false dead battery warnings (even though I had a fully charged Nikon brand EN-EL4 in the grip), then it would just shut-down on me. I'd go through an off/on cycle, and it would be fine again, indicating a full charge. This happened a couple of times, but I just attributed it to the extreme cold conditions I was working under (-30C!).
Yesterday, it happened again. Same false dead battery warnings, but this time, I was indoors, nice and warm, shooting volleyball. I tried switching to an EN-EL3, but the problem persisted. I took one of the properly charged EN-EL3s out of my D80's grip, and that one registered as dead in the D300 too.
From my experience, I can rule out bad batteries - they're all fresh, authentic Nikons, which work fine in other cameras, and it's not because of a faulty charger - I use two different chargers for the two different battery types. I did notice the problem was less likely to occur if I cut back on chimping. Also, in my case, I can't rule out some connection to the CF card, as I just switched to a Lexar UDMA card (I doubt it has anything to do with the card, but I switched to it just before the problems appeared, so I have to at least consider it as a source of the problem).
Working toward a solution, I'm going to remove my grip and clean the contacts. I'm also going to shut off image review, VR, and anything else which draws extra power that I can work without. I'll install a spare EN-EL3 battery into the body, for back-up power. I'll load-up some AA batteries into the holder - as a different power source, and I'll go back to my old CF cards. If the problem goes away, I'll reintroduce variables until I hit upon the one which has caused the fault. If none of these solve the problem, then I'll really have something to worry about. :( |
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Louis Lopez, Photographer
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Fontana | CA | USA | Posted: 4:16 PM on 01.20.08 |
->> Are any of these issues happening without the grips? it seems that if there are no shut down problems with out the grip on, That the grip, either contacts or the grip itself is the issue. I am leaning towards the D3 because of the simple fact that I won't have to deal with any grip contact issues.
The D300 price is a consideration, but I would want the vertical grip, but I definitely would not want to deal with the shutdown problems. |
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Rob Bye, Photographer
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Winnipeg | MB | Canada | Posted: 6:19 PM on 01.20.08 |
| ->> Louis, the occurrance of this problem doesn't appear connected to the battery grip. Bill (the OP) isn't using a grip, and neither are two other people who've responded. I am using the grip, as are a couple of others who've posted. Whether there's a grip on the camera or not, we're all seeing the same issue. The camera isn't loosing contact with the battery. Rather, it's saying the battery doesn't have sufficient power, and the camera shuts itself down. Even after shutting down, my camera has the power to continue displaying the frame count, and an erronious low battery level. This could be Nikon's counterpoint to the Mk III focusing issue. ;) |
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Denny Medley, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Kansas City | MO | USA | Posted: 6:35 PM on 01.20.08 |
->> I did have this same problem with my D300 when I first received it and started using it, prior to receiving and using the grip. It happened quite a bit during an NFL game as I reported earlier in this thread.
I then received the grip for it, and since I started using the grip, the same problem has not occurred at all now. Even though the grip stays on nearly all the time, I have since shot with the grip off the camera, but this battery problem has not re-occurred.
My D3 is my main body, and the D300 is a second so it's not getting as much usage now, but hopefully I can continue to report good news with the D300. I've not received my BL-3 endcap yet, so have been only using EN-EL3 Nikon batteries for this camera. |
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Rick Giase, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Arvada | CO | USA | Posted: 11:59 PM on 01.20.08 |
| ->> The second day of a two-day shoot where I'm making thousands of images and the same problem persists on my D300s. I'm constantly turning the cameras on and off to keep them performing.It appears Nikon has some issues with this camera that need to be addressed. |
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Rob Bye, Photographer
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Winnipeg | MB | Canada | Posted: 6:25 AM on 01.21.08 |
| ->> My D300 has become completely unusable because of this problem. I've looked around and found similar discussions on many Nikon related forums. Many people feel the cause is a bad electrical connection between the camera body and the lens. I believe they're on to something. I can easily repeat the failure in my camera by simply giving the lens a slight twist. A fix I've seen mentioned a few times is to CAREFULLY apply a special contact cleaning fluid to the lens and body electrical contacts. *You may want to leave it to Nikon to handle that!* I'm going to call my dealer and local Nikon rep. to see what they have to say about all this. Has anyone else made similar discoveries? |
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Vincenzo Bruni, Photographer
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Roma | ITA | Italy | Posted: 6:17 PM on 01.23.08 |
->> I got my D300 in mid December 2007.
My experience, for what is worth, is no problem at all on this side, neither with my old D200 nor with newer D300, both mounting a battery grip.
Maybe cameras shipped to Europe are fault free?
Keeping fingers crossed... |
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Erik Anderson, Photographer
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Kansas City | MO | | Posted: 11:12 PM on 01.23.08 |
| ->> I've had a D300 w/ grip and two original Nikon batteries for the past month. I've got around 1500 frames on it with no battery issues. |
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Rick Hiebert, Photographer
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Winkler | Manitoba | Canada | Posted: 11:54 PM on 01.23.08 |
->> In answer to Rob's and everyone else's question..."is there a solution?"
I experienced this exact same problem with my D200; it became virtually unusable. I was able to rule out the lens, battery, and grip. It was returned to Nikon twice within several weeks and the second time the service document simply stated, REPLACE - CONTACTS. I don't know if they replaced the lens or battery contacts, but the problem never returned. Problem solved.
My D300 has now shot over 10,000 frames and no problems...keeping fingers crossed. Battery life? At a hockey tournament last weekend, shot 1600 frames and battery still shows 24%. Great camera. |
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Trevor Little, Photographer
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Peterborough | On | Canada | Posted: 12:51 AM on 01.24.08 |
| ->> I've been having the same problem with my D200 lately, it just started about a month ago (of course while I am touring south east asia) at about 110,000 actuations - have we decided if it is a camera or battery issue? For most of the cameras life I have been using the grip with 3 batterys, and only recently when I stopped using the grip have I started having the problem. All my batteries still say they are new, I gues I will rotate through them to see if it happens with all the batteries or just one, I really haven't been paying much attention to it....but it definitly is a serious annoyance. |
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Rob Bye, Photographer
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Winnipeg | MB | Canada | Posted: 9:31 AM on 01.24.08 |
->> We could be dealing with a number of different issues. The one I was confronted with has now been resolved. :)
I got hold of a product called DeOxIt, which is used to clean electrical contacts. Using a fine paint brush, I carefully applied the DeOxIt onto the lens-body electrical contacts, let it do its thing for a couple of minutes, then put my now completely cured camera back to work. It was that simple.
I took the additional precaution of applying DeOxIt to all the contact points on every lens, body, battery and accessory I have. I'm confident this is a total solution to the problems I was seeing, and it may solve many other camera issues, regardless of make or model. |
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Derrick den Hollander, Photographer
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Melbourne | VIC | AUSTRALIA | Posted: 12:36 AM on 01.28.08 |
->> I'm not sure if this helps, but my 4 batteries, fullycharged, that work fine on my D200, show low battery and won't even power up the D300.
The D300 battery, which is the same as the batteries I have for the D3200, works fine.
This is a mix of both genuine Nikon and after market En-El3e's. Funnily enough, my genuine Nikon D200 battery gave up the ghost inside a year, but the other genuine and two after market batteries work perfect - on the D200. |
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Will Lester, Photographer
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Ontario | CA | USA | Posted: 11:49 AM on 04.22.08 |
->> Have the battery problems with the D300 been solved, or a solution found?
I have a D300 with the grip, only 2 weeks old, and have had real issues with the camera going dead without warning with fresh batteries in both the camera and grip. Like many have described the camera goes dead, turn it on and off and the problem "briefly" goes away. It does make the camera unusable.
Any feedback from users would be great. |
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John Ritter, Photographer
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Vandalia | OH | United States | Posted: 2:12 PM on 04.23.08 |
| ->> Will, I had the problem with my D300. I cleaned the contacts with DeOxit and it helped but the problem did not go away completely. It was fixed completely by cleaning the lens mount on both the body and the lens with alcohol and a Q-Tip. I haven't had a failure since and that has been several weeks ago. The problem is apparently caused by a poor ground connection between the lens and body. |
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