hot hot hot! does your digi cam ever heat up?

[avlena]

Got a brand new Pentax Optio s5i yesterday. I love the camera, but I think there's something wrong with it. Charged it fully, and after playing around with the menus and whatnot for about half an hour, the battery was depleted. Charged it up again... played with it for another 15 min, and then turned it off and left to do something else. about an hour later, i pick up the camera again, and the battery is depleted! While using it, the camera has been getty rather warm (like, the temp your laptop gets when it's been on for an hour type of heat). So this morn, after charging the battery again, i put it in the camera, put the camera in the box, and head to the ritz camera, where I discover... the camera is warm again (didn't use it at all this morn, just put it in the box). And, i discovered that while the manager of Ritz camera is very knowledgable and awesome, her employees are a bunch of morons.

I explained my story to girl at the counter, only to have the following convo:

me: <story of why i think there's something wrong>
stupid girl: oh, it's normal for digital cameras to heat up after use
me: oh... well, my old camera did, but okay. but what about the battery life?
stupid girl:oh, digital cameras take up a lot of batteries, especially with the lithium batteries
me: ... after 15 minutes of use?
stupid girl: oh yeah, the battery life is really short
me: ... and what exactly can i use it for in a lousy 15 min?
stupid girl: oh, it's normal for the battery life to be really short
me: ... oookay... and the fact that the camera has gotten warm just sitting in the box?
stupid girl: oh, it's normal for digital cameras to get warm when use
me:... but i didn't USE it. i woke up this morning, put the battery in the camera, put the camera in the box, and drove here!
stupid girl: oh... well, did you have it in the sun?
me: NO. i put the battery in, put it in the box, and drove here.

this entire time, the girl has been figuring out how to turn the camera on

stupid girl: well, i think it' s okay, cuz look, it's working now, and has full batteries! *excitedly shows me the LCD screen that clearly shows the empty battery symbol*
me: no, that's the empty battery symbol. the full one is green, with bars.
stupid girl: but usually when batteries are dead, it blinks, and says the battery is dying
me: yeah, that's the symbol you get before the battery is about to die. and i charged that just last night, so somehow the battery got depleted

after turning it on and off a few more times, she finally gest the blinking msg, and only THEN, does she admit there might be something wrong with the camera. wow, such brilliance. and i love having to explain the same thing over and over. and of course, since she's stupid, she can't exchange the camera, i have to come in when the manager is there.

anyhow, i did have a reason for posting this... does your digi-cam get warm after use?

[SmokeyDP]

My Canon SD200 doesn't.

What kinda place doesn't have someone onhand at all times to handle returns and exchanges?

[bachviet]

It must be something wrong with your camera because mine don't do that.

[Cheesypuff]

my canon s230 does after about 30 mintues of straight use

[AmRivlin]

Canon S400 HOT!!! if left on for 10-20 min.

[gear02]

The only way I can get my camera hot is when I microwave it...

[g222leav]

prolly the batteriers...i mean, it's perfectly normal for all batteries to discharge, even when not in use...but after 15 mins? that's ridiculous....even if those are the stock batteries that came NIB that's still too short of juice. i hope you get that exchanged...

my sony p92 gets warm...but not AS warm as a laptop...that's really odd...the energy from the battery is obviously being disipated exothermically rather than just keeping it's potential.

[Devhux]

Definately not normal by any stretch of the term.

Sounds like a defective battery for sure -- or one that's shorting out on something.

My Powershot A95 doesn't get warm at all, but then again it uses AA cells -- not a Lithium-Ion battery.

[zippyjuan]

I would first try to see if new batteries make a difference. If they also discharge that quickly, then the camera becomes the suspect. The memory card can heat up with lots of use, but it sounds like you haven't been able to do that. Another thing that drains the battery quicker is using the LCD display. If you have the option, try it with that turned off (with some you can't).

[Showtime]

np/heat with canon sd110 (besides slow shutter speed).

-j