Dear Stuart, My batteries die so quickly in my camera. Even without the LCD, digital cameras require and use a lot of power. However, there are things that you can you do to reduce battery consumption and ease the cost of battery replacement. Turning off your LCD will conserve batteries. If you want to use your LCD and are taking pictures near an outlet, try running your camera on an AC adapter.
Most cameras use AA batteries, of which there are several types.
Interestingly, alkaline batteries, although inexpensive, are actually not the best choice for digital cameras. Alkalines have a high internal resistance and are best used on lower current applications like a Walkman, making them poor choices for high-current peripherals like digital cameras. Ultimately, the best and most cost-effective choice of batteries are rechargeable ones. It is important to remember that even rechargeable batteries lose a little bit of power every day. So, if you use your camera only once and a while, for example on special occasions and holidays, but leave it unused with the batteries inside for the rest of the time, you will most likely find dead batteries when the time comes to use the camera.