1D Mark ll Battery Conditioning ?

[Paul Sumi]

The same battery pack is used in the 1D2 as in the original 1D and 1Ds.  I don't have the manual in front of me, but the same practice probably holds true.

BTW, the battery life in the Mark II's (ID and 1DS both) is markedly improved over the original versions.

Paul

[paulbk]

I read in Michael’s review of the original 1Ds (Sept. 2002) that the battery needs to be “conditioned” in order to get best performance:
see Batteries - "Something that 1D and 1Ds owners need to be aware of is that the Nickel Metal Hydride batteries need to be conditioned before they can provide optimum power. That's what the Refresh button on the charger is for." - M.R.

Is this also true for the 1D Mark ll batteries?

I can’t find anywhere in the pile of literature where is says, in effect, REFRESH battery 3 times before use (i.e. “condition” the battery by running several refresh cycles).

p

[Jonathan Wienke]

All the 1-series digitals use the same battery pack, the NP-E3 12v NiMh. A new one needs a few charge-discharge cycles before it reaches optimum capacity, but there's no reason you can't do the bulk of that in-camera. I run the battery down in the camera, and then refresh when I put the battery on the charger. The refresh goes a lot faster and you get to use most of the charge in the camera.