Do settings in digital cameras erased when you remove batteries to save battery life?

no. some digital camera have a small batteries inside in case you take the main batteries off. This is used for time settings and so you won't lose your camera settings whenever you take them off.

No , feel free to take them out

no you do not lose settings,maybe time and date,nothing else.

YES
don't do that
get a spare battery

YES! (Qualified) It depends on how the settings are stored & preserved. Some digital cameras have a small rechargeable battery built into them that helps keep the settings while the main batteries are removed, others use a capacitor that may only hold a charge for a short period of time. In either case, if the batteries are removed from the camera long enough for the charge on the built in battery/capacitor to be lost any settings that have been added by the user will be erased if they are stored in volatile memory. Capacitiors generally lose their charge in a few hours/days while the small rechargeables may last for days/weeks/months depending on the battery type, capacity, circuitry and type of memory chip.

Best bet is to keep the batteries in the camera unless they are non-rechargeable (alkaline or other disposable bateries) because rechargeables will SLOWLY lose their charge over a period of time anyway.

If you have standard chemical batteries make a copy of your settings on paper or save to computer (if possible) before removing batteries and reset from the saved data when you reinstall batteries.

If they do disappear, you have a cheap camera that probably should be thrown away.

My NIKON D50 battery is charging now. It will take an hour or so. And I will lose NOTHING!

The Rat

No but you have to turn off the camera before taking the batteries out
second thing why to do that - If the camera is off is the same like you took the batteries
out - unless you put the batteries in the fridge which is the best place for them to be