Rechargeable batteries

gromituk

NiCds do tend to last longer than that, but have a lower capacity and, indeed, contain nastier chemicals. They have a lower self-discharge rate than NiMH though I think, but this is only significant for low-current devices.

I doubt the un-branded ones will cause any damage; they may have a far lower capacity than claimed and not last for that many cycles, however. If you have a charger designed for alkalines then they will be OK.

barisax_al

https://www.7dayshop.com is excellent for good chargers and batteries, and you don't have to pay VAT either!

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Hi there,

I know it's not totally green, but I got a charger a few years ago that will recharge ordinary batteries about 10-15 times (I think - memory's bad )
It cost about £35 & you can put different sized batteries in it.

It works ok for us but longer term I do plan to change over to "proper" rechargable batteries - ie when all my current batteries run out!

AFAIK it does rechargable ones too but is quite slow - i remember waiting ages for my camera batteries when i lost the camera charger.

I'll look up the details if anyone wants them.

gromituk

Alkaline battery chargers are reasonably common but I'm not sure they are up to much.

It is always better for rechargeables to charge them slowly, if you can afford the time.

Skiduck

we bought a Nikon camera a few years back, they used their own 2000mAh rechargeable batteries - lasted about 20 shots!!
Bought some more batteries recently, 2700mAh, they last at least twice as long. But my question is, does anyone have a camera or other device that seems to drain rechargeable batteries in a short space of time? is it me? is it the camera?

[Deleted User]

I re-charged 4 batteries in 3 hours using a solar charger. Fantastic

tim_n

Skiduck wrote:

we bought a Nikon camera a few years back, they used their own 2000mAh rechargeable batteries - lasted about 20 shots!!
Bought some more batteries recently, 2700mAh, they last at least twice as long. But my question is, does anyone have a camera or other device that seems to drain rechargeable batteries in a short space of time? is it me? is it the camera?

You can cut down the amount of power your camera uses by using the view finder rather than the digital display. If however your camera only has a digital display and doesn't give you a choice, you're stuffed. Avoid viewing the photos as well unless they really mean something to you!

I have a canon SLR which takes these tiny little batteries which cost about £2.50 on ebay. I get about 700 shots from them = )

I wouldn't say that 20 shots (or even 40) was a lot. There's not much you can do about it really except research your camera fully when you make a purchase. I spent about three weeks sorting myself out my current camera - I paid £185 for an underwater 5mpix pentax optio WL. Battery lasts about 200 shots & video.

gromituk

Yes - when I want to be able to take pictures reasonably quickly I walk around with the camera on but the screen turned off. It saves an awful lot of battery power. You may also have selected a mode where auto focus/exposure is operating continuously. That's bad for battery life, too.

Skint1

Hi maplins have reduced the price of their battery charger .

http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=10438&doy=19m8

greentomato

Reviving a bit of an old thread here, but I just needed to buy a battery charger and I've found all this advice really useful so thanks to all posters. We are getting through far too many batteries lately and have finally persuaded my husband to try the rechargable ones, as it seems from what I have read they are much better than they used to be.

I went through 7dayshop in the end, and will see how they perform. (don't forget you can get 1% back through Quidco on 7dayshop purchases - not much but it all helps).