How often do people ask me to look at their camera and asked me to trouble shoot it? ya don’t want to know. I’m tellin ya, ya don’t wanna know. Sometimes they even ask about their camcorders too! Very often when people ask me to look at their non functioning camera it’s the battery. Ayup, the battery. So next time before you ask me, check your battery. So you’re thinkin’ to yourself, “gee Zim, thanks for tellin’ us you won’t help. That’s a GREAT photo tip!”

Well hold your horses, here’s the advice:
1. Carry a spare battery. If you are on a particularly long trip, consider NiMh or Lithium rechargeable batteries; but still carry an extra one. Make sure your charger works in the right voltage of your destination, like if you were traveling to Europe vs. Asia. If it is a really important trip (ie. life long dream vacation), make sure that the extra battery is reasonably new (under 3 months old) as these things do die with use and time.
2. If your batter fails, take the battery out, let it sit for about 15 seconds and put it back in – it actually works like magic.
3. If you failed to bring extra batteries or if you spent both of your batteries and chaos has ensued, try cleaning the contacts. The what? the contacts, the parts that touch the battery. If you can get a pencil with an eraser use the eraser to clean them otherwise just use your fingers or a t-shirt. Often the contacts will get dirty which prevents you from getting the last few minutes out of your battery or your camera won’t even see a new battery. Try cleaning the ends of your battery as well. This has worked for me 90% of the time in getting through that shoot. If that doesn’t work, well then you better find new batteries or recharge the one you got.

So ya think I might have dealt with this in Turkey last week? Good Luck!