When I had a D60, and, later, when I had a working 5D, I got about 1,500 shots per battery charge out of both of them, on average. Fewer if I used IS a lot, or did a boat load of focus tracking. How old are your batteries? You can get a knockoff BP-511 for about $10, if yours are dying.

Thanks! You don't need a tripod for 99.99 % of the shots people take, but then those 0.01 % look pretty unique. Tripods are useful pretty much all the time, though, and they say a tripod is your sharpest lens, to boot. I wouldn't bring a camera out without a tripod unless portraits or wildlife were the only things I was going to shoot (or unless I was shooting from my tripod), which is why I asked. Other people can do as they like.

By the way, I've been dragging a 10 pound tripod up and down mountain trails for years, and finally got a 3 pound carbon 'pod. It came right after my 5D died.

This isn't a camping photo - it's from a park at the edge of Downtown Seattle, so the only people who camp here are homeless. But it's a 45 minute exposure ( with a shorter one layered over the top to catch the moon ).



Speaking of night photos from my city ... this is my BF profile image. The bridge links a bike trail, one of the best rides in the city, with the road grid. This one is about two miles north of the last one.