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Batteries - The good the bad and the cheap

 

Every 18 months electronics half in size and double in performance unfortunately batteries take 7 years to do the same, there letting the team down! So it’s important to know which battery will give you optimum performance.

 

15% of all power problems with digital cameras are simply incorrect batteries (that’s 4 a day in our work shop) I can understand the confusion there are many brands of batteries, each brand has around 5 different ratings for the same battery and none of them explain the difference very well.  

 

Heavy duty, extra heavy duty, long life or rechargeable batteries? 

 

Battery information:

 
Carbon batteries are inexpensive and simply won’t run a digital camera.
 
 
  
 

 
Alkaline batteries present themselves in many different capacity ratings, unfortunately there is no standards to help sort the ratings, the general rule is only the best quality battery will run a digital camera logically they are the most expensive.
 
 
 

 
Lithium batteries will run a digital camera they are not to expensive however they last longer than alkaline.
 
 
 

 

Rechargeable batteries are the best option for digital cameras, high current, short recharge long discharge times and hundreds of recharges. The capacity of all batteries are measured in milliamps and displayed on the battery eg: 2700mA

There are many different types of rechargeable batteries Rechargeable Alkaline (don’t use)

Ni-Cd (ok), Ni-MH (best choice), Li-Ion (not available in AA) 

They are also better on the environment.

 

 
Ni-Cd Nickel cadmium batteries are low capacity compared to other rechargeable, they will run a digital camera however suffer from discharge memory affect (wont charge beyond the lowest discharge level) typically 600mA to 1100mA

 

 
 

 
Ni-MH Nickel metal hydride batteries high capacity will run a digital camera, quick recharge no memory well priced. Typically up to 2700mA (2000mA capacity and up will run all digital cameras very well). Battery of Choice

 

 

 
 

 
Lithium ion batteries used in dedicated battery packs because of there high capacity and long life, they are expensive however they run digital cameras very well.