Charging and caring for your battery: try it yourself
This is the practical for the lesson. Work through it in order. Nothing here is a test of memory. Keep the lesson open if you need it and check the instructions as often as you like.
Aim
You should know how to charge the camera without guessing and be able to check the remaining power before leaving home.
What you need
Your own camera or phone, enough battery power to complete the exercise, and a memory card or free storage space where your equipment requires it. You do not need to buy anything specially for this practical.
Do this step by step
- Find the exact battery model used by your camera.
- Remove and reinsert it with the camera switched off.
- Connect the correct charger and identify the charging indicator.
- Once charged, switch the camera on and find the battery-level display.
- Take ten photographs, review several of them and check the battery indicator again.
- If you own a spare, label or organise it so you can tell charged and discharged batteries apart.
What should happen
You should know how to charge the camera without guessing and be able to check the remaining power before leaving home.
If it does not work
Stop rather than changing lots of things at once. Check that the camera is switched on, the battery has charge and the card or storage is available. Then return to the last step that definitely worked. If a named control is missing, your camera may use a different name or menu location. Check the manual for your exact model. Never force a card, battery, lens, door or control.
Before you finish
Explain out loud, or in one sentence on paper, what you changed and what happened. If you can explain the result in your own words, you have understood the exercise. If you cannot, repeat the part that was unclear.