Are the Lithium type of AA batteries up to the job? I have seen Energizer L39 offered at £3.29 each for 2000mAH, which is a lot compared with (good) standard alkaline types (Maximum, Powermax etc.) at about 40-50p. each. I'm considering the L39 for a power-hungry digicam, instead of buying 2 sets of NiMH and a good charger, or sticking with multi-packs of alkalines.
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I use L91's in my digital camera, which is rather power hungry. Not sure what L39's are. L91's are 1.5V AA, and I think they are
4000mAH. I buy them in the USA though -- they are less than half the price there. They seem to last very much longer than 2000mAH NiMH -- much longer than twice as long.
To my environmental shame, I've given up on NiMH for my digital camera, as I could never seem to keep a spare set charged. I just buy Alkalines from Toys-R-Us, who do a seemingly perpetual 2 for 1 offer giving you 32AA for
5.99 and don't use the display unless I have to.Christian.
Hmm. Assuming reasonable discharge rates, have you any figures to prove this? I must admit to only using alkalines.
So have I, again to my shame, because they simply didn't last long enough.
I think that's a very important point. The display eats power.
Mary
I'm really surprised at this actually... I've run my camera (Canon Powershot A40) on NiMhs ever since I bought it. I always carry a spare set (4) of charged cells around, and never worry about how long the display is on for or how much I use the camera; if I have to change the cells during the day I can always guarantee there'll be more than enough juice available from the second set to last till I can get back to my charger that evening. (Only problem comes when I find the kids have raided my AA's to power their GameBoys again! cue sense-of-humour failure from pa...)
I guess it depends on how much you use the camera during the day, whether it auto-powers down (mine does), etc etc - but to be honest I've never felt that alkalines lasted any longer than a set of freshly charged NiMHs.
David
I've found that the cheap plug-in chargers don't charge NiMHs sufficiently. They use a timer rather than monitoring the state of charge of the cell. I charge them twice, giving them time to cool down in between.
New NiMHs also require half a dozen or so full charge/discharge cycles before they achieve full capacity.
Roger.
I've just switched from Minolta Dimage 7i which has a reputation of being a battery eater. (Not really justified IMHO) I used a variety of NiMh and fast Ansmann charger and had no problems.
I've never had a digital camera yet that didn't require a spare battery. Rarely did I have to use a 3rd set with the Dimage.
The current camera, a Canon EOS 10d came with a Li-ion battery which far out lasts the NiMhs in the Minolta. Though I still carry a spare, one fully charged battery will easily do me for a days shooting if not more.
I got the spare one from Germany via ebay. It was very reasonably priced compared to the pukka Canon job.
Paul Mc Cann
Ampere-hours far from tell you the whole story on the suitability of a particular battery - discharge rate - type of load (resistive or inductive "looking" and it will be the latter in a lot of consumumer products - DC to DC convertors etc) - constant current to constant power load ?
Have a look at some data sheets at:
Reply at foot.
Thanks for all the replies to my original message: I think I'll get a set of Lithium from 7DayShop (my favourite supplier anyhow) and see how they go in my Canon A40. As I understand it lithiums 'recover' a lot better when not in use. If they don't outlast Alkalines by a long way I'll look for a good NiMh charger. Hopefully the prices of the good ones will have come down by now.
mutley
Recently got one of their hama nimh chargers + 4x 2000mAh cells. Excellent for digicamera use. Can charge in car too.
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