rechargeable AA's

[imsoscared]

so after spending a week or so helping a friend pickout his camera, he bought the same for me as my xmas gift. i think im going to get all crazy with photo's soon with this canon sx10is. but anyways ive always been use to cameras with rechargeables and after searching around i havent seen alot of concise reviews on which brands of batteries or quick chargers to go with. so anyone have any recommendations or other sites with them that ive missed, any help is much appreciated. main thing is im probably gonna pickup 8 or 12 of the batteries along with a decent charger(dont wanna hafta charge up all night).
this camera will be my primary for now so i dont mind paying a little premium for that little bit of extra juice some battery might give. stepping down or sideways as some think it is from a d40 which met its death at the bottom of our pool.

 

[ukcatfan]

First off, do not use a quick charger as your primary charger. They will extremely reduce the life of the cells. It seems that 6-8 hours is the best range. Also, try to find one that charges each cell individually. This prevents overcharging of them which basically ruins a cell. As for brand, may people like the Sanyo Eneloop, but I have never owned them. I do not like Energizer, but have used some Duracells without problems. Many people also like the Maha Powerex brand.

 

[jfinke]

I was just going to suggest the eneloops as well. A lot of people seem very happy with them. Costco just had a pack on sale. They may still be if you have a membership.

The really cool thing about them is that they come with c and d adapters. So, you put the AA into these plastic shells so now you can use them in other devices.

 

[Code]

There are two types of rechargable NiMH... any rechargables that you see labeled as "pre-charged" (like Eneloops) are a newer type called "low self-discharge" that have less overall capacity (around 25% less) but retain charge much longer when not in use (85% retention after a year compared to a standard NiMH that is at 75% within a month). I think it's worth giving up the capacity for the convenience.

Someone on the dpreview forums did a test of all the low self-discharge brands they could get their hands on. I lost the link, but I believe the winner was the Powerex Imedion. Eneloops were an average performer. Another top performer were the Kodak Pre-Charged, which are available at Walmart $8-9 for 4.

 

[Golf4food]

Funny. I bought some Sanyos and they would not charge no matter what charger I used or how long they charged, etc. Threw them away as junk.

I've never had a problem with the Engergizer NiMH 2500 range. My dSLR runs on 4 AAs and I can go more than a full 16+ hours in WDW on a single set and shot over 2,200 photos on our last trip so they get lots of use.

 

[NostalgicDad]

The main ones I use are the Powerex 2700mAh. I also have some of the Powerex Imedion which are 2100mAh I believe. Absolutely thrilled with the performance of both in the Nikon D300 with battery grip.