NiMh are evil!

[SilverFoxCPF]

Hello Romphotog,

You seem to have some misinformation...

Alkaline cells are designed to give up their capacity slowly. When you camera wants to gulp capacity, the alkaline cells can not do that. They resist high current and heat up. Under higher loads, their voltage drops like a rock, they heat up, and they only give up about half of their rated capacity.

NiMh cells are made with lower resistance due to the chemical differences. When you want gulps of current, they deliver. They hold voltage higher than Alkaline cells, and run cooler.

You may ask when you want gulps of current? Gulps are required for zooming, flash recovery, and writing to memory. All of these functions occur rapidly with NiMh cells and sluggishly with Alkaline cells.

On top of that, you can recharge a NiMh cell to use it again.

Lithium cells are also capable of gulps, but are only single use. Li-Ion cells can be recharged and handle gulps without problems.

If you don't use your camera very much, Lithium cells may work best for you. If you are going through a set of batteries every day, a rechargeable option will be less expensive.

You have a lot of choices and can decide what works best for you. As others have pointed out, the cheapest price sometimes is not the best value. I look at performance first, then look at price. I may pay more for quality cells and a quality charger, but I don't end up frustrated, and my batteries perform as I expect them to.

Tom

[Tom LaPrise]

I keep two sets of NiMH AAs for regular use (one in the camera and one in the bag) and a set of Energizer E2 Lithium AAs as a backup.

[guybon]

Can you give more specifics on the battery and chargers brand.

There is a lot of questionable products out there.

[kassandro]

NiMH batteries are very sensitive against overcharging. When you overcharge them they get hot and when they get hot the quality of the batteries deterioates. In the above case the batteries were ruined by overcharging. You have to blame yourself instead of the batteries because you have selected a too cheap charger. A good charger constantly monitors the batteries during charging. Once they are fully charged it automatically stops charging to avoid overcharging and overheating. The best chargers even control the temperature of the batteries. These chargers are very expensive and in view of the very low NiMH batteries they are overkill. With a cheap charger you simply select a time for charging. In this way the batteries either get undercharged (if the time was too short) or undercharged (if the time was too long). I recommend to buy good charger, which uses either the PVD or the Delta U method to monitor each battery cell selectively. It costs more but it is worth every penny and your batteries will be grateful to you for not torturing them.

[Carskick]

You need a charger that automatically goes into trickle mode once they are charged. I bought a Duracell 1hr set at wal mart over a year ago that did just that and it worked fine, the charger and 4 2050maH costing $30. I gave that charge to a friend, as I did not need it for a time, and now I own a Maha C204F and a set of Powerex 2700maH batteries. I cycle between both sets of batteries. Even my 2050maH batteries last MUCH longer than alaklines, easily more than double. There is also less flash cycle time. Do not go back to alkalyne and waste money, and sarifice performance. A good charger can be found for $20 or more. Don't go for ones that charge any faster than 1hr, as they tend to only partial charge and cause batteries to have short longivities.

Stick with name brands, or well reviewed models. Maha, Energizer, Duracell, Sanyo, etc are generally good names in chargers and batteries.

[itsme000]

romphotog wrote:

My brand new NiMh batteries were charged over night.
One leaked and melted the plastic bag it was in.
Thank god it wasnt inside the camera.
They did feel hot after charging.
I have a $10 charger which came with 4 2700 AA.
It doesnt shut off when done.

I am fed up with NiMh, I get same amount of shots as with
Alkaline. When I replace them, the camera shuts off several times.
I carry lots of them, which takes up space, and
I always mix them up.
charge/temp sensors, chips, trickle charge, etc. and other bs.

options: A)get another charger B)get CR-V3
C)use Alkaline D)use Lithium

You got a knock off. Many garbage NiMH cells don't even come close to the claimed capacity. You can get 2AA + 2AAA Rayovac Hybrid & Charger combo for $12 or an Energizer or a Duracell charger + 4AA combo for $20. Usually, you can't go wrong with Energizer or Duracell. The only restriction cheap chargers have is that you have to charge batteries in pairs.

[dperreno]

Since you need new batteries anyway, and depending on how much you use your camera, you may want to stick with the lithiums (the AA Energizers are cheaper than CR-V3s). You won't have to worry about a charger, and they don't self-discharge (maybe over 10 years...) And they are lighter than the Nimhs.

I only use my camera on weekends (and not every weekend, either) and I found that the rechargeables would be discharged if I hadn't just charged them up (like the previous day). I'd pull out my backup set and they would be dead also! It was extremely frustrating. I switched to lithiums and my problems were solved!

About a month ago I heard about the Eneloops, so I got a set (at Ritz) to try them out. After 5 weeks and around 200 shots my camera still showed a full charge, but I topped them off anyway and they were still at 75%+. I'm sold! Now my lithiums are my backup.

BTW I use the LaCross charger - Maha makes a very good charger also. Look here for reviews: http://www.steves-digicams.com/nimh_batteries.html

[Catbells]

romphotog wrote:

internal resistance to what? I dont get it.

Internal resistance is the impedance that is internal to the battery - the higher the internal resistance, the lower the output voltage becomes under an increasing load.

Imagine an internal resistance of 0.1 ohm - sounds low but at an output current of 5A, that means that a drop in voltage of 0.5V i.e. 1.2V off load reducing to 0.7V on load.