Santa made it today.

[MN Shutterbug]

UPS delivered my 30D and 100-400 lens today. What a monster, at least compared to my Panasonic. I inserted the battery and CF card, turned it on, aimed it out the window, and wow, did it focus fast. I haven't actuated the shutter yet. I have a lot of reading to do. I do have one question. Of course it came with just one battery. Does it hurt to recharge the battery when it's still got a half a charge? I haven't checked the price of batteries, but I assume they're not cheap.

Canoga Camera were great to deal with. All they talked me into, along with the lens, was a UV filter. I used to always have sky filters on my lenses for my 35mm Nikons and I figured for the $$$$ I spent on this lens, it's cheap insurance. Also, the owner's wife called me a couple hours after the purchase to thank me and verify the address. I'll deal with them again.

[Dbl]

Congratulations X!!!!! Don't worry about the battery, just charge it. I carry 6 extra batteries for my 20D. The ones you want to buy are by Sterling Tek. Do the search you will find it. They are cheap, but good and fast to deliver. BP-511 I believe is the battery you want.

Shoot me an e-mail will you X

[email protected]

[finnbay]

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! You are going to have a blast! I have also used Sterling Tek BP-511's and have good luck with them.

[Dbl]

We can thank Steve for that tip

[Moose]

X Tackle, Congrats on your new camera hope you enloy your new toy. What are you planning for your Panasonic? Shoot me an email [email protected]

[MN Shutterbug]

Wow, those are cheap batteries. Does $11.99 sound right? The Canon brand are almost $50.

[finnbay]

Yeah, that sounds about right. I bought half a dozen for just about a buck more than that three years ago. They've held up well. Haven't had a problem and can get 600-800 shots from a charge, depending on how much chimping I do.

[Dbl]

Sounds about right, haven't bought one for 6 or 8 months but they do get more shots than the original. I don't think my original has not been used in a year and a half.

[polarsusd81]

Have fun with the new combo. And yes, the sterling teks are great batteries, I bought two of them three years ago after blowing through the canon batteries and they make a big difference. You get pretty easily twice the life out of them.

[Steve Foss]

X, great when Santa comes early, eh?

I have one set of Canon batteries and two sets of Sterling Tek for six batteries in all for the 30D. My oldest set of STs is nearly three years old and still going strong.

Now, I'm pretty obsessive about battery charge (getting caught on a shoot with depleted backup batteries is worse than getting caught with your pants down in the Mall of America!).

But my rule is: If you are done shooting for the day, even if you only shot a few images, charge the batteries. Every couple of weeks, if you haven't used your spare batteries, charge them. It takes hardly any effort. You just pop them in the charger (I have two chargers to I can charge a set at a time) and forget about it.

This is especially important as winter hits, because those batteries lose some muscle in cold weather.

OK, that's just me, but when in doubt, charge them. You will do more harm leaving a battery at half charge for two weeks than continually keeping them topped off, because batteries that are allowed to stay flat for a long time eventually lose their ability to regain a full charge.