Question regarding a digital camera?

I have a HP Photosmart M527 and I have not used it very many times since I've had it, but I had some rechargeable batteries and I charged them the other night because I had an event to go to. Anyway, I put the batteries in after I charged them and it worked. So the next morning I was showing someone how to use my camera and it said that the batteries were depleted. I couldn't believe it. They were dead already. I had to go buy some more batteries and I was able to take about 10 pictures and then those died. I'm not really understanding why my batteries are dying so fast. Is this camera hard on batteries or what? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated because I don't know what to do about it. The camera itself is great, but maybe there's a trick to keeping the batteries going. Can anyone help me?

The other answers are excellent. There is only one point I would add and that is to ask how long you charged the batteries for and how long had they been discharged. If you suddenly realised that you were going out and the batteries were flat and you put them on to charge for say 30 minutes or so, it is unlikely that they would have acquired anything like a full charge. If they had been 'dead' for along time, it is possible that they would no longer hold their charge, however long you charged them for.

You need to buy the batteries the camara can support, one off the store burn up in minutes li-ion check to see what batterys the camara can support

I'm guessing your camera has to be looked at. Is it under warranty? You should be getting about 200 shots on a set of re-chargeables. If you find it's not the cameras fault, please let us know. I,m very curious as to why only 10 shots.

Hi,

Batteries discharge over time, whether you use them or not. When not using the batteries and to prevent shorting them, replace their terminal covers.

When the batteries reach the end of their charge life, you will realise that :
- they seem to complete charging faster than normal.
- even a fully charged battery goes flat very quickly.

I suspect that your batteries (both the main and the backups) have reached the end of their charge life. If your camera supports ordinary AA batteries, you can try them to see if they can sustain your camera.

Most digital cameras consume a lot of power due to their high resolution LCDs, and the navigation of the menus. So getting cameras that support ordinary AA batteries or cameras which boasts of more lasting lithium batteries help a lot.