Well, I learned a lesson the hard way

[Amy]

Our high school band marched in the "Fall Fantasy" parade at our local amusement park (Kennywood) last night. My Canon S3 uses AA batteries, so I use the rechargeables. Made sure I had an extra set in my camera bag before we left; I had recharged them after the 4th of July parade.

Staked out my spot ahead of time; had a perfect spot, nobody in front of me. Due to bad weather heading our way, they moved up the parade by 1/2 hour, which was great - I could get some good shots in early twilight instead of darker twilight.

The parade starts; I get a shot of the main banner, then the park mascots on their floats. I see our band coming in the distance, and then......

My viewfinder goes dark. "Change the batteries." I grab my extra batteries, put them in and......nothing! Quick check to be sure I put the batteries in right; yep, they were in right. My spare set of batteries was dead. The band was coming, no time to run into a gift shop and buy batteries.

My DS17 is a senior this year, this was his last parade at Kennywood and I don't have a single shot!!

DH is an electrical engineer, and he explained (in simple terms): all batteries use a chemical reaction. Whatever chemicals are used in rechargeable batteries that allow them to accept a charge also allow them to discharge when sitting around not being used. So even though I'd recharged those batteries after the 4th of July, they were totally empty not quite 2 months later.

Lesson learned: from now on, my spare set of batteries will be regular throw-away AA alkaline (or maybe those newer ones made specifically for electronics).

(On the plus side, for once I actually watched the parade instead of being busy snapping pictures. I'd still rather have the pictures, though.)

 

[AZ JazzyJ]

Bummer on the batteries, I wish I could say that hadn't happened to me before but it has. My situation was slightly different. Last winter we took our kids to experience their first real white Christmas. We were going out to play in the snow the next day so I charged all the batteries and made sure I had an extra set so that I could capture everything. We went out and I was able to get in a few shots but for some odd reason the batteries drained extremely quickly. I got less than 1/4 the number of shots I usually got. I changed the batteries with my back-up set and they too drained extremely fast leaving me with 2 sets of empty batteries and a lot of missed photos. Being from Arizona I never realized how much cold weather affected battery life especially in rechargeables.

Jeff

 

[Master Mason]

Bummer on the batteries, I wish I could say that hadn't happened to me before but it has. My situation was slightly different. Last winter we took our kids to experience their first real white Christmas. We were going out to play in the snow the next day so I charged all the batteries and made sure I had an extra set so that I could capture everything. We went out and I was able to get in a few shots but for some odd reason the batteries drained extremely quickly. I got less than 1/4 the number of shots I usually got. I changed the batteries with my back-up set and they too drained extremely fast leaving me with 2 sets of empty batteries and a lot of missed photos. Being from Arizona I never realized how much cold weather affected battery life especially in rechargeables.

Jeff

Altitude will also effect battery life as well.

 

[manning]

Continue to use rechargable batteries

BUT

get set of lithium batteries and put them in you camera bag as backup

They are expensive, but have a shelf life of about 10-15 years.

And are good for about 600 shots give or take.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I have read of the fairly quick 'drain time' of the nickel hydrides just sitting, not being used. If I am shooting most anything, other than a shot or two, I will do a recharge the night before of at least two sets.

That lithium idea sounds like a good one too for backup purposes.

 

[ukcatfan]

They will typically be dead after almost two weeks of sitting arond. I also always recharge the night before. Even without use, your batteries should be charged at least once a month to prevent damage from getting too drained.

Kevin

 

[AndrewWG]

I recently saw the eneloop batteries at Wal-Mart. I have read here on the boards that they are re-chargable but don't lose their charge over time. Is this true? If so, it would be a good investment.

Andy

 

[Amy]

Continue to use rechargable batteries

BUT

get set of lithium batteries and put them in you camera bag as backup

They are expensive, but have a shelf life of about 10-15 years.

And are good for about 600 shots give or take.

Yep, this is my new plan. I saw in today's Target ad that they're on sale this week.

I recently saw the eneloop batteries at Wal-Mart. I have read here on the boards that they are re-chargable but don't lose their charge over time. Is this true? If so, it would be a good investment.

Andy

What are these? I never heard of them before?

 

[AndrewWG]

Amy,

In a strange coincidence, the ad at the top of this page was for the eneloop battery. The FAQ page for them is here:

http://www.eneloopusa.com/eneloop.html

They seem like a great battery. I wonder how they really work in practice though?

Andy

 

[Amy]

Thanks for the link, Andy! They sound pretty good. Amazon.com has them on sale - 4 batteries plus a charger for $24.99, reg. price $39.99. I looked at the reviews on Amazon, and they seem pretty positive. Maybe once my current rechargeables wear out and can't be recharged any more I'll start replacing them with the eneloop batteries.

 

[Groucho]

I had this happening a few times recently (fortunately not at WDW)... one night it made me insane as there was a thunderstorm and I was trying to get some thunder photos, so I was using bulb mode (which is especially picky about batteries), and I tried three sets and was only able to get a few photos.

Someone here suggested the LaCrosse battery charger, which has the ability to drain a battery then measure just how many mAh it needs to fill it up. (Side note: one of the battery locations died after a couple months but they were quick to replace it and the new one is working fine so far.)

What I did was number all my batteries with a Sharpie and make a little chart. I ran each battery through a test and marked down the mAh of each, as indicated by the charger. I then grabbed the highest-capacity ones and used those as the primaries, and the next group of four as a spare. So far so good... the other day I was at a wedding and shot around 500 photos, and the batteries were still going strong afterwards.

I had plenty to pick and choose from, as I had bought a 20-pack of Lenmar 2500mAh batteries, as well as some 4-packs of various brands. My previous chargers were a Rayovac 1-hour charger (fast but not good for the batteries) and a Maha C240 (?) charger, which was good but could only charge in pairs - which I think left some undercharged.

What was happening, I think, was that I'd grab four batteries and I might have three really good ones and one dud, which would ruin the whole bunch. My Lenmars ranged in mAh from around 1800-2450. I have some Energizer 1700s that ranged from 962 to 1615. Other ones have similar spreads.

So now, the "duds" are set aside for menial things (like toys, etc) and the best batteries are grouped together, ready to serve me much more effectively than before.

I bought the charger from here and it was a good investment, and has saved me a lot of frustration!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Different types of batteries have different shelf lives.

NiCd lose their charge fairly quickly. They suffer from memory problems (they can fail to fully discharge if you charge them before they are empty). They can be reused more times than any other rechargeable. Cadmium is nasty stuff for the environment. Relatively low capacity.

NiMh are similar to NiCd. Fewer memory problems. Higher capacity.

Lithium Ion have much more capacity. They don't have any memory problems. They can't be re-used as often as NiCd but are as re-usable as NiMH. They occasionally overheat and catch fire, but I've never heard of this happening in AA sized batteries, just laptop sized batteries. They perform worse in cold weather than NiMh and NiCd.

Cold weather is hard on batteries. I sometimes find that my camera is reading "low" on batteries when I go out to shoot before sunrise and then a few hours later the same battery now reads full. If your battery fails in the cold, you might try warming it by putting it in your armpit or something. Don't stick in a fire, microwave, or anything really hot - just warm it up.

Another disadvantage to nickel batteries (NiCd and NiMH) is that it is harder to see how much juice is left. With my Li batteries, I get a nice smooth progression on the battery meter. With my NiMH, the meter reads full for about 75% of the time and then quickly drops from there.

I've sometimes had batteries appear to fail because of dirty or lose connections. You can clean connections pretty well with a pencil eraser. You can sometimes bend lose connections back into place. When you can't, a little wad of aluminum foil can sometimes be used to bridge the gap.

 

[Dan Murphy]

I too use and have recommended the LaCrosse charger. It is great. It has helped me detect 'bad' batteries, which were quickly replaced by the battery manufacturer. More importantly, I have a LOT of control over how quickly I want to recharge the batteries, slow overnight as most often, or a quick and dirty if I forgot to recharge a few sets the night before. It really is a nice tool.