Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Using CR2 Batteries with Nikon D50

Disclaimer: Follow and try at your own risk! I am not responsible for whatever that happens! Don't say you have not been warned. On the brighter side . . . nothing bad happened to my D50 though.

Today is 18-Jul-06. And I am certain I am the first one to invent this mod. So if you wish to refer to this mod, at least refer to my site. :-)
Now, here is how it's done . . . (time required: approx 15 mins)
(1) Buy a Nikon 'MS-D70' CR2 Battery holder. These came bundled with the Nikon D70. Or you can order them from any Nikon Dealer.
(2) There are only four tiny screws in the holder, remove them. Not shown here . . . you will surely find it!
(3) Wrap a piece of wire around red circle no1. To hold the wire in place, use a blunt object to dig a shallow ditch for the wire to bury itself into. So that it stays in place!
(4) Use an exacto knife to break off the plastic as shown in red circle no.2.
(5) Use an exacto knife to remove a piece of protruding plastic in red circle no.3.

Now you are done!

So how much life can you get using this this battery holder?
According to D70's manual P205 . . . if you fire the speedlight at full power for every other shot, image size set to L . . . bla bla bla . . . you should get 160 shots.
So in real life . . . I think I should at least get 250 shots using the MS-D70 battery holder. Who on earth is going fire the flash at fullpower so often?

So with this mod, the Nikon D50 can now use CR2 batteries.

Background:
The Nikon D50 normally cannot be used with MS-D70 battery holder. The MS-D70 holder was designed as an emergency backup battery holder for Nikon D70. But heck I figured, if it worked with the D70, it should work with the D50 . . . (and any other Nikon DSLR using the EN-EL3). So this mod shows it does work! Have fun!


Manfred