canon s70 battery life...

[isom]

Hi everyone...
I just bought a canon powershot s70 (actually haven't even recieved it yet) with the canon wp-dc40 housing and I was wondering how much actual time others get out of the stock battery. From what I've read these batteries only last 35-40 minutes with the camera set at high res. Is this true? Can anyone recommend a better battery? I would hate to only get half an hour out of a battery. Most dives last longer than that!

Also, any personal experience with this setup or a similar setup would be greatly appreciated as i am a total newbie to underwater digital photography. We're heading to the carribean in about a month and I'm trying to do as much research as possible before the trip.

thanks...

 

[isom]

Also, can anyone recommend an external strobe for this setup. This camera is fairly new, so I haven't been able to find too much info on it through the search feature. I don't want to spend a ton of money, but most posts say that backskatter is a major problem when using the internal strobe. I've read that inon makes pretty good strobes. Any other advice?

 

[archman]

I have an S50, which is pretty much the same camera. If you want to eke out more battery life while underwater, try the following two "tricks".

1. Turn off the LCD display often (punch the display button)
2. Turn off the power altogether (if you push and hold down either the WB or the button above/below it, I forget which), the camera will turn off. To turn back on, just toggle the mode shifter.

The S70 likely has some button and/or hardware changes from the S50, so you may want to consult your manual. But the turn-off option works great when using the underwater housing. 90 minute dives are a snap, and I've got leftover power to boot!

 

[isom]

thanks for the advice. I haven't recieved the camera yet, so I haven't had a chance to mess with it. I'm sure it's fairly similar to the S50 though. You get 90 minutes out of the battery? That sounds pretty good. How long does it take to fully recharge?

 

[archman]

You get 90 minutes out of the battery? That sounds pretty good. How long does it take to fully recharge?

To get that 90 minute+ time, I've been turning the camera off when I'm not doing photography, and turning off the display between actual photo-taking.

I've never actually run down the battery on a dive, but the recharger usually green-lights after an hour or less. I don't really pay much attention, as I always keep a spare battery ready to go. Spare batteries are WONDERFUL.

 

[Shaka Doug]

Spare battery is a good idea. Be conservative and you won't have to worry about a dead battery on one dive, maybe two. My friend has an S50 in a housing and he's been using his old slave strobe from his MX10 camera. It seems to work great. I forget the model number AS4 or YS 4 or something like that. I used to have one but it was years ago. Anyway, rather inexpensive way to go, just make sure you rig up some kind of reflector for the built in flash.

Nice avatar by the way. Haven't seen that album cover pic in a few years!

 

[diveanytime]

While this is an old thread, I will leave my info anyway.

Canon S70 using NB-2LH 7.2V 720Mah Li-ion battery, manual exposure mode, internal flash output on manual (Low), using Ikelite Substrobe50 4 AA NiMah 2600mah batteries and Heinrich Weinkamp DA2 digital adapter for strobe - similated TTL? I get 240-270 flashed images captured in jpg mode with subject distance of 2-4ft.