I got to the Fair yesterday morning with the Sony a700 and, after my customary morning lemonade I wandered over to the Pioneer Village show to start taking pictures, and the camera wouldn't power on. I pulled the battery and reinserted it and it had just enough charge to illuminate the screen with the "battery is exhausted" message.
The a700, which is really just a Minolta Maxxum 7D successor in Sony drag, is one of those cameras that will slowly drain a battery as it sits. Put a fully charged battery in it and in four or five days it'll be spent. I'd last checked the battery on Sunday around lunch and by 10AM on Tuesday morning it was kaput.
Fortunately it was Two Dollar Tuesday at the State Fair yesterday so I wasn't out a sixteen buck gate fee.
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