Terrible Battery Life

Worked okay for the first 1.5 years I've owned it, albeit with poor battery life. Now, for some reason, I can't even take 2 pictures with fresh batteries. Will not be purchasing another Nikon Coolpix product." -from 3100 Users' Comments.

I am having _exactly_ the same problem as many users have had with the Coolpix 3100, although the two models use different batteries. In the case of the 3100, the problem was likely not from the batteries, but that the cameras shipped with defective firmware, according to the discussion thread's consensus, for the 3100.

I am now waiting for a response from the Nikon Customer Support forum and will gladly change my review to "five star" if they offer a reasonable fix for the camera. The camera used to take great pictures, but right now I consider it unrepairable and it's headed for the trash bin.
Any ideas from other 3500-users??

- from a formerly happy Nikon user.