The highest capacity cells can be problematic. I prefer to specify a somewhat lower capacity cell with greater longevity under high discharge, high charge, high heat and high shock/vibration conditions. They are sometimes described as commercial/industrial/heavy duty, etc. Most manufacturers can supply such cells/packs and it saves money in dealing with costly returns and repairs.
Digital Camera
- Thread starter sechs
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e_dawg
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Energizer 2500 mAh NiMH AA's can be found in any Best Buy or big box store.
time
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Gilbo said:
This is true in principle but not in practise.
All things being equal, four-cell cameras pull half as much current as two-cell, and voltage doesn't sag nearly as much. But with two-cell, you're operating with very little voltage; the camera will always be closer to its shutdown threshold.
For example, an alkaline battery may sag to 1.15v (75% of nominal), but a NiMH battery may sag to 1.1V (92% of nominal). Across two batteries, that's 2.3V versus 2.2V, which may well be the difference between continued operation and shutdown. Consequently, the NiMH batteries never fully discharge, so you don't see the greatly extended runtime over alkalines you would expect.
Until fairly recently, Canon used four cells for their 'large' digicams and stuck to the higher voltage LiIon packs for compact cameras that might otherwise have used 2xAA. Nikon 2xAA digicams had a fraction of the battery life and became much worse with age. The newer, lower power cameras change this.
time
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e_dawg said:
Most name-brand NiMH batteries, including Energizer and Kodak, are made by Sanyo. Batteries actually branded as Sanyo tend to have more conservative (i.e. realistic) ratings. If the highest rated Sanyo is 2500mAh, then it would be very surprising if any other battery - 2800mAh rated or not - is significantly better.
You also need to realize that many chargers will not be able to fully charge 2500mAh batteries! Although 'smart' fast chargers know to stop charging once a negative voltage delta is detected, they still include a timer to prevent catastrophic overcharging. If the charger was designed when 1700mAh batteries were the norm, there's little chance it will hang around waiting for 2500mAh batteries to charge completely.
time said:
I use a particular "large" Rayovac "3-in-1" model charger for this reason. I found a while back that it can charge NiMH more fully than any of the other various NiMH chargers that I have. The Rayovac 3-in-1 can handle NiMH, Ni-Cad, and rechargeable alkaline.
time said:
Yes, Time, you are correct. I forgot to reply to Gilbo the other day to say, essentially, what you are saying.
I can definitely use alkaline AA batteries in my Nikon D100, but I really can't use NiMH AA batteries. I've tried freshly-charged EverReady 2300 mAH batteries and the D100 did not always want to turn on (not a good sign).
I had already heard from others that NiMH batteries won't work with the D100. As I've been told, the typical scenario with the use of NiMH batteries is that the camera may turn on and even operate for a bit, but it will suddenly shutdown without any warning. This is not the case with alkaline battery usage, where the "Battery Low" warning will properly appear.
The proprietary Nikon Lithium Ion battery pack works like a champ. Actually, I use a pair of battery packs in my D100 grip, which also adds remote and external control capability to the D100.
Howell said:
Holy fréjoles! 1000 mAH AAAs!
The 2600 mAH AA batteries I saw were at a local privately-owned computer boutique. I believe they were Maha brand, which I've occasionally seen around.
A while back, I bought a small package of "Digital" brand NiMH AAA 1800 mAH rechargeable batteries at a rather dubious place that I bought a shovel at, called Big Lots. They were seriously inexpensive at about US$5.00 for a package of 4-each batteries. Most of them work well enough.
mubs
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Powerex batteries are made by Maha Energy. AFAIK, 2500mAh is the top of the line.Onomatopoeic said:
GIANT
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mubs said:
Not only am I too lazy to dig up information on Maha's batteries, I guess I'm also going blind, or no longer responsible enough to write down important numbers and such about something that might be worth investigating. So, 2500 mAH it is.
Otherwise, the only Maha I'm familiar with are Mahavishnu and Mahabharata, which I can assure you have nothing at all to do with batteries. 8)
mubs
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Now, that's interesting. What do you know about Mahavishnu and Mahabharata?
I don't know if Maha Energy intended this meaning, but in India Maha means "great". Gandhi is called Mahathma there: Maha + atma = great + soul.
I don't know if Maha Energy intended this meaning, but in India Maha means "great". Gandhi is called Mahathma there: Maha + atma = great + soul.
Howell
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Gilbo said:
While Alkaline AAs are 1.5V all of the NiMH AAs I have only claim 1.2V "Typical". This makes a big difference.
Howell
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time said:
It is clear that you know your stuff.
As of 1/05, the 2500 mAh Energizer AA was the exact same cell as the Sanyo HR-3U (white and orange label). The HR-3U is labeled 2500 mAh as well, but in very fine print, "typical 2500 mAh, minimum 2300 mAh." I also have OEM Sanyos with tabs that are listed as 1700 mAh and some others listed as 2000 mAh. They are supposed to be more tightly binned to prevent cell mismatching problems in battery packs.
I have not purchased any NiMH AA cells in 5 months, so there may be Sanyo or other brands with more capacity. I am starting to lose interest in the capacity race. After purchasing and testing thousands of NiCd/NiMH AA cells over nearly 30 years, I have a lot of confidence in Sanyo cells. For the most part they last for many years without significant performance degradation or leakage. OTOH, some of the high-capacity Chinese crap is unusable after 2 years.
time said:
It is clear that you know your stuff.
As of 1/05, the 2500 mAh Energizer AA was the exact same cell as the Sanyo HR-3U (white and orange label). The HR-3U is labeled 2500 mAh as well, but in very fine print, "typical 2500 mAh, minimum 2300 mAh." I also have OEM Sanyos with tabs that are listed as 1700 mAh and some others listed as 2000 mAh. They are supposed to be more tightly binned to prevent cell mismatching problems in battery packs.
I have not purchased any NiMH AA cells in 5 months, so there may be Sanyo or other brands with more capacity. I am starting to lose interest in the capacity race. After purchasing and testing thousands of NiCd/NiMH AA cells over nearly 30 years, I have a lot of confidence in Sanyo cells. For the most part they last for many years without significant performance degradation or leakage. OTOH, some of the high-capacity Chinese crap is unusable after 2 years.
mubs
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Where do you buy your Sanyo rechargeables, LM?
LunarMist said:
I have 4 "old" Olympus 1600 mAH NiMH batteries that have always worked exceedingly well for years -- "old" being defined as 2000 vintage.
On the other hand, I somewhat recently bought a couple of bargain packs of Energizer 2100 or 2300 mAH NiMH AA batteries during a post-Christmas sale at a local Target department store. Out of the 16 AA cells (there were some 9-volt and AAA cells included), a couple have proven to be duds, as they won't hold a charge.
As far as the Digital brand batteries (made in China) that I referred to earlier, I have 8 of those and at least 3 have recently began to show what appears to be a very small brownish-rust-like leak around the positive pole. It could be electrolyte leakage, but they still seem to work fine.
I haven't thoroughly read this thread, but I wanted to interject a point that was touched on above. The charger seems to make as much difference as the type of batteries you buy. A bad charger can easily overcharge or undercharge your batteries, so I can't recommend enough on getting a good charger to start with.
I'm using a Maha "cool charger" that has a switch that lets me choose fast or slow charging and charges up to 4 AA or 4 AAA batteries. Each battery is charged independent of another and "smart" technology is used to ensure overcharging does not occur.
Plus the charger comes with some great Powerex/Maha batteries.
http://www.thomas-distributing.com/mhc401fs.htm
I've heard some really bad things about the Rayovac chargers, while they are cheap and readily available I wouldn't touch them.
I'm using a Maha "cool charger" that has a switch that lets me choose fast or slow charging and charges up to 4 AA or 4 AAA batteries. Each battery is charged independent of another and "smart" technology is used to ensure overcharging does not occur.
Plus the charger comes with some great Powerex/Maha batteries.
http://www.thomas-distributing.com/mhc401fs.htm
I've heard some really bad things about the Rayovac chargers, while they are cheap and readily available I wouldn't touch them.
blakerwry said:
Are you talking about the silver Rayovac chargers or the quick chargers?
I have a *large* black one-piece Rayovac charger with intergrated power supply that pulse-charges (a.k.a. -- digital charger). When I first plug it in, it does a quick diagnostic and all its LEDs flash. At that point, I can put up to 8-each AAA or AA cells, or 4-each C or D cells. I have not seen these for sale for about 2 years, just the various small silver Rayovac thingees that use a wall-wart power supply -- many of which I believe feature "quick charge" capability (which I distrust).
By the way, last year, I recharged some truly old black General Electric Ni-Cad D cells in my large black Rayovac charger. These were Ni-Cad cells from the early-to-mid 1980s that my father had laying around for years uncharged. Incredibly, they held a charge and powered a flashlight acceptably! As far as he could recall, they had not been recharged since the late 1980s or maybe 1990 at the latest. My Rayovac charger will recharge NiMH, Ni-Cad, and rechargeable alkaline batteries.