Wiki: Are rechargeables worth it?

[David.WE.Roberts]

Not quite - just pointing out that the calculation based on the number of charges can be misleading if you never get to charge the battery that number of times.

Simply, if you buy a new device and get a set of rechargeable batteries you only cost in if you recharge the batteries a certain number of times before the device and/or batteries fail or are discarded.

I've had rechargeables from the '90s go all crusty and fail and certainly didn't used them for the maximum specified recharges.

Intensive usage suggests rechargeables.

Intermittent usage can cost in for non-rechargeables.

It is easy to waste money buying something that will "save money in the long run" if you then under use it :-)

Cheers

Dave R

[Windmill]

In which case we need a law to compel such overly-greedy capitalists to print a warning on the case: 'This device contains anti-competitive technology'

[meow2222]

Alkaline 17p, NiMH 50p, so it only takes 3 cycles to be ahead.

not in this case

NT

[Mike Lane]

Clive George wrote on Feb 1, 2013:

What do you mean by a 'decent battery life'? Can you estimate roughly how many shots you would expect to take on one charge? I'd be interested to know.

[Clive George]

I've got two, one with a better life than the other. The worse one lasted 158 shots over 5 days, but I'm not sure if I'd charged it before starting that holiday. The other, dunno, it goes for quite a time - manufacturer claims 280.

There's a standard for battery life for digital cameras - CIPA. Looks fairly thorough, and the one I got 158 from has a CIPA rating of 270.

've got a spare battery for both - not sure if I've ever used the one on the camera with better battery life in anger, but I wouldn't be surprised to use the one for an upcoming 10 day holiday with no power. The batteries for both are the small flat square li-ion ones, ie comparable to three AAAs (AAs are a bit chunkier).

[Mike Lane]

Clive George wrote on Feb 3, 2013:

Yes, that's rather what I thought. My problem is that even with 200 shots or so per charge, going away for several weeks I'd still have to take a charger and adapter with me, and I hate having to mess with those when I'm going from place to place.

My Canon Powershot takes a pair of AAs and I use disposable Lithium cells which really do last for ages - 500 shots easily, and I can take a spare pair in the camera case.

[Adam Funk]

I picked out my first digital camera specifically to take AAs, but I often had problems with it losing the clock setting (& sometimes other custom settings) with rechargeables in it. I got jealous of the long Li-ion battery life of other people's cameras and picked that kind for my second one. (I also got a spare battery, & I occasionally rotate them if I haven't run the one in the camera down for a while, so I always have a fully-charged spare in the camera bag.)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's also much easier to get reliable contacts between one composite battery than a series of individual cells.

[Java Jive]

[Clive George]

Have you checked out the prices of replacement batteries these days? May well be lower quality than OEM, but they can be got for bugger all money.

[Clive George]

Going away for several weeks I'll have a laptop, phone and associated electrical gubbins, so a charger isn't a big deal extra. But yes, if you're trying to go off grid for a long time, the AAs may start to become useful again.