j4ckos mate

we normally get the crap ones from poundland fior the kids toys,

but i bought my dad a digital camera for x-mas,
the batteries we have in the house can hardly turn it on or off, even rechargeable ones,

what is the best type of aa battery to get, is it this lithium ion ones?

davegtt

Sorry but its completely true when they say Duracell go that extra distance. More expensive but definately worth paying for IMO

haroldhettaturbo

iTrader: (2)

Get some rechargable ones.

2000 mah or above.

my digi cam used to eat normal batteries, lasted ten days on holiday on 2 rechargable batteries.

4 AA 2 AAA and the charger cost me 25 quid.

Well worth it.

cant remmber the make but they had green on them.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

Personally I have a stock of AA NiMH batteries for my Olympus E-10. You really need to get a decent set though. The cheap 1700mAH ones just don't cut it, you need to look for 2500's which are now available. I can't believe that some places still sell 800mAH AA batteries - what worth are they?

INOV8 Rechargable 4 x AA 2500 mAh Batteries : RECHARGABLE BATTERIES : memorybits.co.uk

These work.

Sonic'

For those who don't have the ASDA Snobbery, they are doing the energizer 2000 mah ones with a charger for 10 quid

Ive had two lots of these and they work a treat

Ive used the shoite poundland ones before (or equivalent) in one of the kids toys in the cot, the previous duracell ones lasted a good 12 months every night, the poundland ones lasted 15 minutes

JackClark

Energiser Lithium, without doubt.

j4ckos mate

yes 4 lithium were £6 and poundlands are 10 for £1.

Sonic'

ASDA also sell the 2000 mah Energiser 4 x AA without the charger for a fiver, and 2400 mah (might be 2500 mah) 4 x AA for a tenner without the charger

The 2000 mah ones are normally 7 quid, now I have an external flash for my camera I felt it wise to buy a few packs at that price

GaryCat

7dayshop.com - Online Store

£4.29 for 2800mah.

RichardS2005

Sainsburys have duracell half price at the moment - buy 4 get 4 free!

Shark Man

If your going to £ shops: Don't buy Powercells (look like Duracell, but with green tops) they really are rubbish.


If you use rechargeables ESPECIALLY NiMH. Get a decent charger. And make sure its a peak detect (ΔV) charger, not a dumb charger (usually uses a timer - if that).

Most on the market are just timed chargers which will NEVER charge a NiMH battery properly and will damage them over time.

Unfortunately nearly all the chargers supplied with batteries are timed ones; resulting in poor battery performance and shorter lifespan (Will over charge low capacity or partially charged cells and won't fully charge high capacity cells).

I found out the hard way: I didn't realise the "automatic" NiMH charger that I had was just a dumb charger with automatic timer - I only realised it was no good, when I found out that it wouldn't fully charge 2500mAh cells and my old 1800mAH cells were starting to vent electrolyte from overcharging.

....The only way to correctly use a timed charger is to use a stopwatch to time it yourself, a calculator to work out how long it need to charge for (or use this: Battery charger calculator ), and to 100% discharge the cells to ensure they don't get over charged. Overcharging NiMH cells kills them, which is why its easy to destroy the performance of lower capacity cells withe a timed "dumb" charger.

Peak-detect NiMH chargers ( Also known as "Delta-V" or "ΔV" ) are the only type of charger that will make full use of NiMH cells and ensure they last.

They don't cost much: I bought one for 25euros in spain. So not expensive. Especially seeing that I have a dozen NiMH cells that have lost their capacity from being over charged by using a crap charger

Sonic'

SM

Interesting post, and will probably explain why my old batch of 1800 ones have now split and leaked and dont hold a charge any more

Any particular make of charger to look out for then ?

billythekid

Maplin have 4x2000mAh rechargables on buy one get one free. Works out at £3.50 for 4..

2 4 1 deal applies to AAs AAAs and PP9s

Stocked up at the weekend.

Shark Man

Probably

Couldn't rally reccomend any particular brand: Mine is nothing special (Vivanco CAR2 which I doubt you'll get here), but it is the right type of charger.

But most brands I've seen offer both types are charger. Some more expensive will individually charge each cells as opposed to charging in pairs and have fancy LCD read outs, as well as chaging differnt sizes of cells.

But that doesn't matter much; Just as long as it says on the packaging that its suitable for NiMH and specifically states that its a peak detect or delta-V type charger it will do the job

Santas Elf

Hang on... I'll ask the g/f

SiPie

GazTheHat

2900's are the most powerful i've found.

Most charger sets (see amazon) come with about 24/2800 batteries.

StickyMicky

i think i have 4x uniross 2700`s for my slr camera, i can take 6 photos at max screen res before they are flat

i think i can take 7 photos on fresh duracells and usually keep 4 in the camera bag as spares when needed, obviously turning the quality and screen size down helps quite a bit

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Depends on how you use the product as to which are the best batteries.

Batteries with high capacity tend toward having higher internal resistance, so in a high power application they might actually not last as long as a lower capacity battery, because more energy is lost as heat in the battery itself. In a low current application, the internal resistance is less of an issue and the higher capacity battery will indeed last longer.

Also consider the self discharge rate. Conventional NiMH rechargeables go flat over time even if you don't use them, but you can now get some which hardly suffer from this effect at all. IMHO these are by far the best, and they often come with a suitable charger too. (A conventional trickle charger or fast charger won't charge them properly and might damage them). Look out for Sanyo Eneloop, Ansmann maxE and Uniross Hybrio.

hux309

Was then going to suggest uniross hybrio, they gradually lose charge over months unlike my 2500mah sanyos that will happily lose their charge in 2-4weeks.

When it comes to performance sanyo are top dog, take the mah rating with a very large pinch of salt, my sanyo's easily outrate 2700mah and beyond batteries as they are rated more in line with how they actually perform.

But for disposables lithium all the way.

sarasquares

iTrader: (1)

i have a camera which uses AA batteries, i use Duracell and they run down very quickly. if you can you are better off getting a camera that takes the proper rechargeable camera battery IMHO

Tam the bam

Edited for accuracy.