Best Rechargeable Batteries

[Martha Shannon]

Hey folks-
I was wondering if anyone had a recommendation for the best AA rechargeable batteries for digital cameras?

[Terry Johnson]

This link has a pretty good comparison based on their own testing.

http://www.i...TS/BATTS.HTM

At a minimum, make sure they're NiMH-type rechargeables. To help maximize battery life, try to minimize use of the LCD monitor and use a card reader to transfer the image files to your computer. For some reason, hooking the camera directly to the computer to transfer files seems to really eat battery power fast.

[Michael Martin]

Well .. depends where you shop, and it depends on your camera.

If you have a camera that takes standard AA/AAA's then it dosent seem to matter much if you get a recent brand.

At BJ's warehouse, you can get some AA PANASONIC NiHi's (~2300 maHr -(MilliAMP / Hour)) with charger for about $12-$15.  I'm sure that CC/BB/Fry's will have good sales from time to time.  As a general rule, keep 3 sets around (one in the camera, two in spares).  If you have an external flash, get even more sets of batteries.

Terry's right.  Things that eat battery life are using the back LCD, Using Flash, and oddly enough, transferring files when tethered to the camera.

If you have a camera with a "proprietary" battery (Sony, Olympus, Canon, Nikon, etc), then you need to get either an "official" battery from that vendor or get a knockoff that will fit the form and performance factors.  I had a factory recall on my Nikon battery and they replaced it for free (one of the benefits for paying for an overpriced battery I guess).

Other NiHi tricks.  You dont need to run them down all the way or top them off, but they do have a re-charge lifetime of about 500-1000 charges / battery. So, keep them charged, but dont over charge them.  AND BY ALL MEANS, DONT LEAVE THEM IN A HOT ENVIRONMENT (like the front seat of your car on a Ga Summer's day) - that will kill them quickly.

[Martha Shannon]

well I'm a bargain basement kind of gal and I have a Casio QV-R40. I have two sets of NiMH AA's (shoot! left the others on the charger) and they aren't holding charge past a few pix now. Color me stupid, but how do you get your mac to read an SD card? I've been using the mini-usb (love how it charges my pda, but that's off post) and I've also found that the viewer doesn't show everything that is in the picture, like the lcd does, so I do tend to rely on the lcd more. Of course, I DON'T have a 4,000 image photo library, only about 600, but still, I would like to get through an event without changing batteries three times or running out of charged batteries. My sister had gotten a recommendation from her local camera shop... but I've forgotten the brand. Thanks for the advice!

[Michael Martin]

... Color me stupid, but how do you get your mac to read an SD card? ...

Sorry Martha -- the Color Picker on this board dosent have "Stupid" ..  .. (Blue, Cyan, Green , no Stupid)

But Seriously folks, you can get a USB Memory Card reading unit from almost anywhere (MicroCenter, Compusa, Apple Store, Wal-Mart) for about $20 that will read SD cards (and about 7-9 more flavors of memory cards like CF, XD, etc).  If you use an external reader like this, you dont suck any juice from your camera batteries (you use the battery on the laptop or just the AC on the desktop).

Works great.

Mike

[Terry Johnson]

I got my card reader at Wolf. It handles 9 different types of cards, even including Sony memory sticks. I think I paid around $15 for it there, so I bet they can be had even cheaper at other stores. They really do save on battery life -- for some reason, hooking your camera up directly to your computer to transfer image files really drains the battery in the camera.