billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I leave my batteries inside the camera. Have ever since they came out with rechargeable batteries and not AA or AAA batteries.

turp77 Loc: Connecticut, Plainfield

I use my camera all the time so my battery stays in all the time. Now my display cameras I remove the batteries but I will install the batteries just to use them.

drobvit Loc: Southern NV

Or... grabbing the camera on the way out only to later find you forgot the battery.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

That would be bad, wouldn’t it? I’ve forgotten to put a card in the camera, but never a battery.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Based on all the replies here, it looks like the nod goes to leaving the batteries in and just checking the charge level from time to time if not used regularly.

I appreciate all the good feedback.

turp77 Loc: Connecticut, Plainfield

With my D1, D2 and D3 that gets very little use I even take out the clock battery

nadelewitz Loc: Ithaca NY

The only battery that SHOULD be removed is alkalines. Nothing else leaks. No danger from leaving lithiums in a camera.

Norm Rosenberg

I have also never had a leak, but I have had batteries that go dead swell. This has happened with both OEM and clone batteries (clone more often). Makes them very, very hard to remove from the camera.

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

So far I never had to reset the clock in my cameras! I might check it once a year or every couple of years!

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

I check their levels twice a month weather I use them or not.Anything longer, I remove them for safe storage out of fear of the damage to the contacts ,otherwise and it's costly conclusions.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

And IF on one of those checks, they have become harder to remove then don’t put them back in the camera.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Nope! They’re not so expensive that I can’t afford to replace one gone bad.

wdross Loc: Castle Rock, Colorado

I usually leave the battery in. When I know I will be using the camera in the next day or two, I turn the camera on to check the battery. If the battery indicates 75% to 80% of charge left, I usually will do nothing. But I will check the spare. If the spare is 97% to 100%, plus the battery in the camera is 75% to 80%, if feel I am prepared for 8 hours of shooting. If they are not in that range, I put the battery with the most charge into the camera while the most depleted battery charges.

Of course if I am dealing with carbon / zinc battery or alkaline batteries, I will remove the batteries if they are to stay in the items for any reasonably long period of time.

Paul Diamond Loc: Atlanta, GA, USA

Always remove non-lithium batteries from anything - camera, flash, slave, etc. Wonder when our cameras will be like my newer car. It seems to have a network of computer chips that, at least in part, can be affected or lose data if the car battery fails or is disconnected. The dealership had to reset many controls, etc. - not just the clock or radio presets.

Doc Barry Loc: Huntsville, Alabama USA

Hi Greg,

Typically, the Lithium-ion battery sitting on the shelf will self-discharge about 3-5% in the first day or so and then 2-4% per month thereafter. Never let it get below about 20% of its capacity or else life time and total capacity will be degraded. The ullage rate is increased when the battery is stored in the camera. It seems I recall reading that the D500 battery discharged rather rapidly yield few shots than users expected. Nikon swapped batteries and such, but didn't explain the why. I expect that it was the battery's internal resistance was higher than specified and that affects both self-discharge rate and apparent capacity. I have seem this problem on Li-ion batteries we obtained from a vendor that were to be used in construction battery packs for communication radio systems. Our tests found these did not comply with our specifications and were rejected.

I have three battery packs for my D800 and rotate their use in the camera. On the first of the month, I check the one in the camera and swap it out if at two bars or less. It is then recharged. When in use, I always have one or both of the backup battery packs.

Bottom line is that I would keep a battery pack in the camera at all times.

Doc Barry