After reading the discussion about battery packs I had a question.
I am looking for feedback on battery life of the NiCD versus the NiMh.
I use NiMh batteries in my camera flash and find that they have more power but don't keep a charge very long.
Andy
Try Sanyo Eneloop NiMh they hold a usable charge for maybe a year
On 7/1/2009 8:22 PM WhiteTea77581 spake thus:
Read the following for everything you could ever want to know about batteries:
Look for NiMh batteries with the word "hybrid" on the package. The hybrid batteries have a much slower self-discharge rate. My standard batteries will go dead within a day or two after charging. The hybrids are _advertised_ to stay charged for up to a year. YMMV
Thank You!
Lou - who happened by
Thanks, the site is very informative.
Andy
Thanks.
Those batteries are not all that much more expensive and I like that it can be charged up to a 1000 times.
Andy
My old nimh I was getting 5 shots, my Eneloops ive recharged 3 times in one year and get maybe 100 shots. Sanyo Energiser, Duracell, Panasonic are known commercial brands, stay away from brands not established they may be selling seconds of the main producers and poor products. Also you need a charger for specificaly Nimh to get them to
100% charge, My cheap sony is a nimh charger that also does nicad, but NiMh is its design, many say dual purpose but are designed for Nicads profile, the profile is different to peak them to 100%....
... Yeah, it is but it surely could use a good technical editor/editing. The non sequiturs (the Egyptians weren't "prehistoric", there's actually quite a bit of their history albeit not complete) and other odd constructions/phrasings and the occasional units problem (at least one case of "current" of "1C or 2C" as only one example), etc., really detract from the overall document.
But, it does have quite a lot of basic info in a concise form for general information...
On 7/3/2009 9:28 AM dpb spake thus:
I agree with you, being an (out-of-work) copy editor myself. Many small annoyances there.
Regarding the 1C, 2C, etc., I take the "C" in those cases to represent the current capacity of the particular battery, no?
It wasn't perfectly clear, actually, in the particular place I noted, at least w/o more in-depth reading, just what actually was the intent.
"Current" should, of course, be in A, while "C" is coulombs, or charge. (And, if one's forgotten, 1A 1C/sec).
It wasn't entirely obvious to me while simply scanning whether he was intending to mean a limiting total charge storage capacity because of an energy storage limit (which would be units of C, but not a current) or a limiting rate of discharge (which would be current, but not units of C).
--
My two cents after owning three dozen nimh batteries, and taking about
10,000 pictures with them.The charger is the most important thing. Refresh batteries occasionally, which drains them flat and then recharges them. After a refresh, let them sit for two days, and discard any that are not fully charged. Yes, there are better ones than others. Sanyo Eneloops are supposed to be good. But I have a set of 15 minute recharge Ray-O-Vacs that I have had for about two years now, and they are still going strong.
Two things drain power very fast on my Sony DSCH1 ........ using the LCD instead of the viewfinder, and using the flash.
I take pictures of real estate developments, some as large as 1200 acres. I may take 500 pictures in a day on a job. Batteries are important, and having a ritual and becoming almost anal about having them charged and in good working order will come back in spades when you don't have to stop and go buy some cheap alkalines to finish. Or the deer aren't there when you come back. Or you just miss that one in a lifetime shot.
Which reminds me, I'm going to buy three of four four packs the next trip to WallyWorld.
Steve
We're in about the same ballpark. I got introduced to NiMH batteries when I bought a Nikon CP950. It would eat 4 duracell aa's in about
45 minutes using flash, LCD & constant focus.
Yep-- I swear by my MAHA chargers. I've had 3 in 10[?] years- one got stepped on- 2 are good. They run off AC or plug into a 12v DC socket. I leave 2 sets in the chargers so I always have a hot set of batteries. I've gone months without touching a set and they have been fine. [ think the charge time is 4 hours or so for a dead 2000ma battery]
I bought my first set [of 600ma] batteries from
This is the charger I use-
Thanks for some good info
"SteveB" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@news.infowest.com:
kinda ignores the inherent self-discharge rates of both types. IIRC,around 5% per day.
two things I've observed(both at home and work) in using rechargables;
My two cents. I've been using NIMH batteries for years. With the introduction of inexpensive low self discharge NIMH batteries there really is no drawback to using them. These batteries are the Sanyo Eneloops, or any other brand termed to be hybrid.
As far as chargers go......Buy the cheapest, slowest dumb charger/chargers you can and plug them into the cheapest electrical timer you can find. Set the timer for a couple hours a day and you'll always have a fresh set of batteries, you'll never have to worry about overcharging, and you'll have more money in your pocket for other toys.
The cheapest charger may only get Nimh near 90% charged if its a Nicad profile
The cheapest slowest dumb chargers can easily overcharge a NIMH battery. That is why they are dumb. By using the timer set for just a couple hours a day you nullify any damage caused by overcharging.
So, if I understand you correctly, the battery is charged a couple of hours a day every day? If that is what you are saying, the amount of charging FAR exceeds the daily or even weekly natural loss of the battery. Sounds a little overkill to me, but if it works for you .......
Steve
Some manufacturers warn that slow charging will damage NimH by overcharging. I've read that slow charging will damage NiMH in a way that increases the self-discharge. I've never slow-discharged NiMH, but that drawback seems to apply to the NiCds I've had.
I bought a lot of AA NiCds between 1981 and 1998. Self-discharge limited their service life. Perhaps after a year a cell would hold a charge only a week. Eventually the plates would short and it wouldn't take a charge at all.
In 1998 I bought a fast charger and two sets of 4 NiMH; one set didn't even have a brand. For nine years I used them heavily for a camera, a
4-cell light, a walkman, a CD player, a cordless mouse, a cordless keyboard, a 2-cell flashlight, and other uses.I don't recharge them often these days because my heavy users (primary flashlight, camera, mouse, and walkman) no longer use these batteries. Those old NiMH cells still hold their charge several months in my keyboard, in my standby flashlight, or on the shelf. What's more, I discovered that when I quit slow charging my NiCds, their service life was much longer.
When nickel batteries sit in storage, part of the plate can dry out. That may be why the OP has problems. Charge/discharge cycles can remedy it. Some are not properly formed when manufactured. They may gradually improve over dozens of charge/discharge cycles.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.