First time use - what am I doing wrong??

I'm starting to practice with the new camera (before I head off on a cruise next week). I started with a fully charged battery and an empty 16GB card. I took 55 pics at dinner. I copied the pics to the computer ( USB cable to Win 7) and was quite surpised/dissapointed to see the following:

1) battery drained to 20%



2) Storage showing 1/3 full !! yet only showing 200MB used on the details! Are there hiddin files I inadertantly created??



What am I doing wrong??

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Have you read the recent thread where batteries need to be charged and discharged a few times in order to get them up to speed? Perhaps this is what is going on...

If the cruise is next week you better figure it out fast!

You must be shooting some big files to fill up that fast...

55 photos shot in RAW on my D5100 average about 975mb total. Not really sure how you got up to 5GB with 55 photos. I would reformat the card IN THE CAMERA because it sounds like you got some extraneous data on there. Also keep in mind, video files will eat up a huge chunk of memory card space. I get about 900 photos on my 16GB card.

If you're using your camera to download your pics to the computer, you'll really drain the battery. Better to use a USB card reader to download to your computer.
In your camera, you have a setting for Large, Medium, and Small photo sizes. If you want a lot of pictures on a single card, use the Medium setting.

What brand of card? Did you know that there are counterfeit cards out there that will not have the memory they advertise? Where did you buy the card?
Are you shooting just raw, or raw+jpeg Lfine?

I'd check the card carefully if I were you, and buy a few spares for your cruise just to be on the safe side.

Free space as reported on PC
All options are default
All I see on the card are JPG files...not shooting RAW ... menu setting says Image quality/ JPEG Normal
Card is Lexar from the largest most reptuable dealer in Toronto - I hightly doubt it counterfeit.

One observation - perhaps its a Windows 7 thing. Note the two screenshots in my OP. One says 5GB used... but the details on the DCIM folder shows 200MB used, which makes more sence. Why the difference?

Tried the ViewNX software for clues - its pretty useless, its getting removed.

I reformatted the card- seems normal now.. but I only have a few pics on it
I switched cards - also normal with a few pics - but that card was out of the box- not reformatted - but I will reformat it as well

Battery
I would imaging the auto focus has a big effect here, and I hear it going all the time when ready t take the shot. Is there a setting ( other than off on the lens) that I can play with re autofocus??

Im agreeing with Jack. When the camera is hooked up via usb cord the battery drains even if you arent downloading. I was doing the same a few weeks ago and left it plugged in while looking at pictures. I went to take care of things and the battery was almost dead.

A new camera... mmmmm.... most people start taking a few pics and study and play... testing the flash... loads of time checking the
pics on the veiwer. The chances are, the camera did a lot more than just take pics. I think 9 times out of 10, people kind of forget
just how much they played with the new toy. I find using the veiwer to be the biggest drain. Ive never had a problem with batterylife
on the D300. A fresh battery runs all day and night with ease under normal use. I have two spare third party batterys as well that work
better and longer than the genuine artical and were very cheap. I doubt very much charging and disscharginging makes any differance.
Its prob more you simply play less ! As for the card, some come with junk on them. Some even have a program you can download for veiwing pics.
Just open it up on PC and delete all files

I am no pro but I use autofocus MOST of the time and take hundreds of pictures in a weekend and I can go two to three weeks before my battery indicator loses even one bar! So I doubt autofocus. Maybe, as someone else suggested, you are reviewing every picture as you take them, although I do a little bit of that too and still no battery problems. I agree about downloading from camera. Doesn't your computer have a slot you can stick your memory card in to download? I think most new computers do. My laptop does so I download all my pictures that way. I never hook up my camera to my computer. Just my two cents. Also, I have an 8GB card and shoot raw most of the time and I can fit about 450 pics. If I shoot JPEG at the highest quality, I can fit 1,000 pics on the card.

Originally Posted by newbshooter

Im agreeing with Jack. When the camera is hooked up via usb cord the battery drains even if you arent downloading. I was doing the same a few weeks ago and left it plugged in while looking at pictures. I went to take care of things and the battery was almost dead.

This really sucks as all four transfer options have issues:

1. USB cable - not good as it drains the battery
2. Card reader - okay, but its a pain to have to remove and insert chips all the time
3. Wifi adaptor Wu-1a - not compatible to D5100
4. Eye-fi - not available in higher capacity faster memory cards.

Hmmm, very dissapointing for a Nikon.

I am hopeful that:

• a future fimware issue with fix the battery problem
• a future wi-fi-adaptor will be introduced
• an improved selection of higher capacity faster memory eye-fi card will be made available