Gadgets A tale about batteries

[John King]

Like most of us, I have a myriad number of batteries.

Fortunately, all my FTs cameras used the same batteries, the BLM-1. I've got about six of them. Mostly, I find my FTs cameras with flat batteries, so I charge them all up again in my multiple chargers.

Unfortunately, my three mFTs cameras take three different batteries, BLS-5, BLN-1 and BLH-1. These live in their respective camera bags.

I have car chargers for all these.

About 8 to 12 weeks ago, I decided to rationalise my camera bags and cameras, sorting all the bits and pieces out so that all were together with each other in their specific bag.

Some time after this, I decided to use my E-M1 MkII and noticed that the battery could do with a charge.

I could not find either of my two OEM batteries ...

Since then, I've all but torn my 10+ camera bags apart, upended everything in every part of the house where they could possibly be, removed all the cushions etc off two couches, moved piles of papers, searched both cars, all my jacket and pants pockets, all multiple times!

I've repeated this exercise at least three times over about a month. It's driven me crazy!

No sign of them ... 😫

This afternoon, I put my E-M1 MkII plus 75-300 MkII away in its case, having carefully charged my single remaining battery.

While doing so, I noticed a well disguised flat pocket on the back of the case.
Felt it. No batteries.
Hmmm. Opened it.
Voilá, two batteries cunningly hiding, exactly where they were supposed to be ...

What a goose!

I had very carefully hidden them from myself, exactly where they were supposed to be!

Please feel free to have a laugh at my expense.
However, this has driven me to distraction for many weeks.

 

[Ad Dieleman]

Like most of us, I have a myriad number of batteries.

Fortunately, all my FTs cameras used the same batteries, the BLM-1. I've got about six of them. Mostly, I find my FTs cameras with flat batteries, so I charge them all up again in my multiple chargers.

Unfortunately, my three mFTs cameras take three different batteries, BLS-5, BLN-1 and BLH-1. These live in their respective camera bags.

I have car chargers for all these.

About 8 to 12 weeks ago, I decided to rationalise my camera bags and cameras, sorting all the bits and pieces out so that all were together with each other in their specific bag.

Some time after this, I decided to use my E-M1 MkII and noticed that the battery could do with a charge.

I could not find either of my two OEM batteries ...

Since then, I've all but torn my 10+ camera bags apart, upended everything in every part of the house where they could possibly be, removed all the cushions etc off two couches, moved piles of papers, searched both cars, all my jacket and pants pockets, all multiple times!

I've repeated this exercise at least three times over about a month. It's driven me crazy!

No sign of them ... 😫

This afternoon, I put my E-M1 MkII plus 75-300 MkII away in its case, having carefully charged my single remaining battery.

While doing so, I noticed a well disguised flat pocket on the back of the case.
Felt it. No batteries.
Hmmm. Opened it.
Voilá, two batteries cunningly hiding, exactly where they were supposed to be ...

What a goose!

I had very carefully hidden them from myself, exactly where they were supposed to be!

Please feel free to have a laugh at my expense.
However, this has driven me to distraction for many weeks.

I often can't find something. A battery, screwdriver, you name it, I lose it. When I'm searching, I memorize the place where I looked first; when I finally locate the item (sometimes days later), I put it where I looked first. That helps a bit. But still. I even couldn't find a lens at some point in time. The logic of what is a good place for something, changes in time, due to a change in how I photograph or live my life in general.

 

[Richard]

As I get older I find I'm searching for things more than I used to. Maybe it's because I've just accumulated more stuff over the years and the house is more cluttered rather than mental decline, but who knows ...

Anyway, to counter this I sort of scold myself into putting things where they are supposed to be, or where they would normally be - ie "Don't leave your car keys on the worktop in the laundry room, someone will put clothes on top of them and you'll be searching for half an hour for them. Put them on the chest of drawers where they would normally be." Not leaving things in random places, and moving them when you do, is a good habit to get into.

-R

 

[rayvonn]

The amount of times a backpack with too many zips/ compartments has caught me out.

 

[Panolyman]

I am always "losing" things and it often takes me days to stumble across them when I'm not looking for them.
If I'm desperate to find something I need, it's always my wife who locates it in the most obvious place that I've already inspected numerous times.

The other day, she came in from the garden, upset that she'd lost her favourite secateurs.
She'd gone over everything she'd been pruning all afternoon in the flower beds and searched and searched for them.
She asked me to help and we looked in, under and around all the plants and they were nowhere to be seen.
We looked in the compost bins and upended the council garden waste bin where she's put some weeds, but no, no sign.
She went over everything she'd done all afternoon and we re-inspected everywhere.
Later in the evening, I walked around the vegetable patch and there they were, in full view.
When I showed them to her, she said "oh yes, I went to get the caterpillars off the cabbages and must have put them down there".

So, I've finally got one back on her!
Now where did I put that wotsit down and what was it I was actually looking for before I typed all this?

 

[Richard]

The amount of times a backpack with too many zips/ compartments has caught me out.

Avoid such backpacks, they are nothing but trouble. Particularly at airports.

-R

 

[AlwaysOnAuto]

The other day I switched out which cameras I had out ready for use. Checked the batteries and charged them up too. Checked the cards using the computer to see if I needed to format them to gain space.
Went for a bike ride down at the beach, taking one of those aforementioned cameras of course. Went to take my first shot of the day and.................... no card in slot 1.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!

Thankfully my cameras each have two slots in them and rarely is one not containing a card.
Saved my bacon again.

I try to leave stuff out in plain sight rather than hide it away where I'll forget where I put it.
Drives my wife batty.

 

[doobs]

As I'm getting older, I have to restrain myself from getting too "clever" when storing things away.

Cleverness, I'm finding, is fleeting capability....

And yes, bags with a lot of storage areas are definitely an anathema.