Digital Camera Batteries
There is a lot of talk on the net about digital camera batteries. If you've got a digital camera that uses AA batteries and you prefer to use nickel metal hydride rechargeable batteries, then I would strongly recommend PoweriZer brand "Professional for Digital Camera" batteries.
The performance of these batteries is nothing less than incredible. I've used these batteries in two different cameras for almost four years and their performance has remained phenomenal.
I bought a Minolta DiMage Z1 in the late summer of 2003, with an extended warranty. It came with a set of Alkaline batteries which it completely sucked dead in fifteen minutes. I quickly realized that feeding it Alkaline batteries was going to be an extraordinarily expensive proposition so I went and bought a set of Radio Shack NiMH rechargeable batteries. They only gave me 15-20 minutes per charge which was quite frustrating.
It became clear that I was going to have to buy multiple sets, but Radio Shacks were pricey so I went looking on the web for something more reasonable. I found a 24-pack of PoweriZer "Professional for Digital Camera" batteries, rated at 2250 MaH for $24 (with free shipping), so basically $1/battery which was about 1/5th Rat Shack's price.
These batteries provided about four hours of service in the Minolta DiMage Z1, or about 300 photos depending on how much active shooting / idle time. After about two years of usage, the Minolta broke and so I sent it in for warranty repair. Good Guys managed to lose the camera, or accidentally sell it, and after a year finally admitted to it and it was replaced with the Cannon PowerShot S2 IS, which overall is a superior camera except I think the Minolta lens was better (the Cannon PowerShot S2 IS tens to be subject to chromatic aberration and vignetting under certain circumstances).
With the Cannon, I get at least eight hours of camera time with these batteries. I can fill up a 1GB memory card, with 500 or 600 (sometimes more depending upon resolution) shots, download to the computer on battery power, clear the card, and still have battery power left over.
These batteries are four years old and still going strong. While I bought enough to have multiple sets in practice I never use them. One set stays in the camera because I can shoot all day on one set.
I have no affiliation with the companies that manufacture or distribute these batteries. I have just been very happy with the performance of these cells and they're inexpensive. They are made in China but they way outperform the Radio Shack cells and from what I've read most of what else is out there.
I've read many instance of people using 2600 MaH batteries and only getting 100-300 shots with the PowerShot S2 IS, while I'm getting 500-600 plus (and probably more if I had more than a 1GB memory card) with these batteries rated at 2250 MaH. I've read of people having to replace batteries only 2-3 years old, I use these heavily and they're still going strong towards the end of a fourth year. Absolutely no hint of decreasing capacity.
The performance of these batteries is nothing less than incredible. I've used these batteries in two different cameras for almost four years and their performance has remained phenomenal.
I bought a Minolta DiMage Z1 in the late summer of 2003, with an extended warranty. It came with a set of Alkaline batteries which it completely sucked dead in fifteen minutes. I quickly realized that feeding it Alkaline batteries was going to be an extraordinarily expensive proposition so I went and bought a set of Radio Shack NiMH rechargeable batteries. They only gave me 15-20 minutes per charge which was quite frustrating.
It became clear that I was going to have to buy multiple sets, but Radio Shacks were pricey so I went looking on the web for something more reasonable. I found a 24-pack of PoweriZer "Professional for Digital Camera" batteries, rated at 2250 MaH for $24 (with free shipping), so basically $1/battery which was about 1/5th Rat Shack's price.
These batteries provided about four hours of service in the Minolta DiMage Z1, or about 300 photos depending on how much active shooting / idle time. After about two years of usage, the Minolta broke and so I sent it in for warranty repair. Good Guys managed to lose the camera, or accidentally sell it, and after a year finally admitted to it and it was replaced with the Cannon PowerShot S2 IS, which overall is a superior camera except I think the Minolta lens was better (the Cannon PowerShot S2 IS tens to be subject to chromatic aberration and vignetting under certain circumstances).
With the Cannon, I get at least eight hours of camera time with these batteries. I can fill up a 1GB memory card, with 500 or 600 (sometimes more depending upon resolution) shots, download to the computer on battery power, clear the card, and still have battery power left over.
These batteries are four years old and still going strong. While I bought enough to have multiple sets in practice I never use them. One set stays in the camera because I can shoot all day on one set.
I have no affiliation with the companies that manufacture or distribute these batteries. I have just been very happy with the performance of these cells and they're inexpensive. They are made in China but they way outperform the Radio Shack cells and from what I've read most of what else is out there.
I've read many instance of people using 2600 MaH batteries and only getting 100-300 shots with the PowerShot S2 IS, while I'm getting 500-600 plus (and probably more if I had more than a 1GB memory card) with these batteries rated at 2250 MaH. I've read of people having to replace batteries only 2-3 years old, I use these heavily and they're still going strong towards the end of a fourth year. Absolutely no hint of decreasing capacity.
posted by Nanook at 7:21 PM
2 Comments:
For those of you that are experiencing the same "burn through" rate on alkaline batteries there is help.
You can use a Battery Xtender to recharge regular alkalines. For optimum performance of the Battery Xtender you must recharge the alkaline batteries frequently and well before they are depleted.
See www.batteryxtender.com and the following review http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/review/battery_xtender_alkaline_battery_recharger
While you CAN do this, I'm not sure why you'd want to.
You can get decent NiMH batteries for $1/cell, you can hardly buy regular alkaline batteries for that. I easily get 16x the operating time out of a set of charged NiMH batteries as I do a new set of alkaline batteries.
This isn't because NiMH have a higher total energy capacity (although marginally they do), it is because the voltage of alkaline batteries rapidly drops below the minimal operating voltage of the camera but NiMH maintains a relatively constant voltage across it's discharge curve until it gets right to the end.
The PoweriZer cells are actually a little unusual in their discharge curve, I see their voltage actually increase slightly during the first hour or so of use then very gradually fall off.
When you recharge regular alkaline batteries, each charge gets considerably less capacity than the one before and they don't perform well in digital cameras anyway because their voltage falls off so rapidly.
Beyond that, when you recharge them, they have a tendency to eat through the case rapidly, and I can testify to this because I had a battery charger for "regular" alkaline batteries that I used with a radio and the batteries leaked in the battery compartment, corroded the contacts and made a big mess.
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