OT: Digital Cameras and Batteries

In article <[email hidden]>, Joe Bloggs <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

There are a few photography buffs in here, so.....

My digital camera (Olympus Camedia C3030) seems to eat its way through a set of AA batteries quite
quickly, so I'm thinking of using rechargeable ones instead. Am I likely to hit any problems? I've
lost the manual, but I'm sure it said not to use rechargeables for some reason, but this may have
been before NiMH batteries came out. I recently came across some 2100mAh batteries that last for
ages in the cordless phone, so I was toying with the idea of getting a couple of sets of those.

Any ideas?

A few years ago I used an old Camedia at work which had appalling battery life on alkalines. When I
tried 650mAh NiCds in it they seemed to last for ever by comparison.

pc4d.comc3030 digital zoom camera s.shtmlOpen ↗

Says 4 NiMh batteries are fine.

You might be able to find the user manual on the Olympus website.

--

dscs.demon.co.ukdscs.demon.co.ukOpen ↗

Joe Bloggs said:

There are a few photography buffs in here, so.....

My digital camera (Olympus Camedia C3030) seems to eat its way through a set of AA batteries quite
quickly, so I'm thinking of using rechargeable ones instead. Am I likely to hit any problems? I've
lost the manual, but I'm sure it said not to use rechargeables for some reason, but this may have
been before NiMH batteries came out. I recently came across some 2100mAh batteries that last for
ages in the cordless phone, so I was toying with the idea of getting a couple of sets of those.

Any ideas?

Any secondary cell is going to have a greatly reduced capacity from primary, especially if the
current drain is high. Mh have a higher terminal voltage than NiCd which will make them more
suitable, however I expect that you would only get half the battery life than if you were to use
alkalines. However of course you can recharge them and there are a number of people doing fast Mh
chargers that go into card cigar sockets as well as mains so on the road charging is quick and easy.

Have a look here ..

battery-force.co.ukresults.htmlOpen ↗

I use the RB102746 AA NiMH 2300mAh myself

Ricky

Joe Bloggs <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

There are a few photography buffs in here, so.....

My digital camera (Olympus Camedia C3030) seems to eat its way through a set of AA batteries quite
quickly, so I'm thinking of using rechargeable ones instead. Am I likely to hit any problems? I've
lost the manual, but I'm sure it said not to use rechargeables for some reason, but this may have
been before NiMH batteries came out. I recently came across some 2100mAh batteries that last for
ages in the cordless phone, so I was toying with the idea of getting a couple of sets of those.

Any ideas?

I use them in mine. Whether each charge lasts as long as a Duracell is debatable, but that doesn't
matter. The other point is that once they go flat, a rest will not allow them to recover for that
vital shot, unlike dry cells, which _might_ recover sufficiently (I've never tried it though).

Two sets is a good idea.
--
Gordon

In article <[email hidden]>, Joe Bloggs <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

There are a few photography buffs in here, so.....

My digital camera (Olympus Camedia C3030) seems to eat its way through a set of AA batteries quite
quickly, so I'm thinking of using rechargeable ones instead. Am I likely to hit any problems? I've
lost the manual, but I'm sure it said not to use rechargeables for some reason, but this may have
been before NiMH batteries came out. I recently came across some 2100mAh batteries that last for
ages in the cordless phone, so I was toying with the idea of getting a couple of sets of those.

Any ideas?

You *must* use NiMH batteries. You will get many times the running time of alkaline batteries.
Although alkalines have a capacity of 2500mAh you are lucky to get over 500mAh out of them in a high-
drain application such as digital cameras.

Basically alkalines are not the right chemistry. Basically they will produce the current required
for a short time, maybe 30 minutes, then the chemicals around the electrodes are depleted and the
battery can't mix the chemicals fast enough.

Which explains why they

a) recover a bit after leaving off
b) still have loads enough charge to power a torch or a radio for hours.

NiMH are the ideal batteries for digital cameras except that they are a trifle heavy.

The rating is only important as price per capacity. Ratings these days are 1300mAh to about 2300mAh
but they simply last longer if higher rating.

Bernard Hill Selkirk, Scotland

In article <[email hidden]>, Chris Street
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

however I expect that you would only get half the battery life than if you were to use alkalines.

No, many times the life. Alkalines can't sustain the high current for very long without getting
chemically clogged up.

Bernard Hill Selkirk, Scotland

Joe Bloggs said:

My digital camera (Olympus Camedia C3030) seems to eat its way through a set of AA batteries quite
quickly, so I'm thinking of using rechargeable ones instead. Am I likely to hit any problems?

I've used NiMH rechargeables with my Olympus C3040 for over a year with no apparent problems.

Quoted message said:

I've lost the manual, but I'm sure it said
not to use rechargeables for some reason,

You can download the manual from cf.olympus-europa.commanuals.cfmOpen ↗

To quote fromthe manual for the 3030:

"This camera uses 2 CR-V3 lithium battery packs or 4 AA NiMH batteries, NiCd batteries, alkaline
batteries or lithium batteries. Performance will be limited with alkaline batteries, especially in
low temperatures. Lithium battery packs or NiMH batteries are recommended."

In article <[email hidden]>, Chris Street <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Bernard Hill said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Chris Street
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

however I expect that you would only get half the battery life than if you were to use alkalines.

No, many times the life. Alkalines can't sustain the high current for very long without getting
chemically clogged up.

I doubt that the current drain on a digicam is goignt o be sufficient to cause any alkaline cell to
polarize itself.

The current drain is around 1 amp. And I didn't say polarised, just the voltage drops below about 1v
which is typically where digital cameras cut off.

Quoted message said:

This may be the case in extremely high drain applications when a low internal resistance cell like
a NiCd would be prefereble but I don't know of any digicam that wants amps of current. Even if you
do get "clogged up" as you say the capacity will still be there.

Yes, but unable to get out at a high current.

All this is well known in digital camera circles.

Bernard Hill Selkirk, Scotland

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

My digital camera (Olympus Camedia C3030) seems to eat its way through a set of AA batteries quite
quickly, so I'm thinking of using rechargeable ones instead.

Sounds like a jolly good idea to me. Plenty of places are doing rechargeable NiMh batteries now - a
set of 4 for around £7 or £8.
--
Fran If you need my email address please ask.

In article <[email hidden]>, David Laight <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Bernard Hill said:

Although alkalines have a capacity of 2500mAh ...

Where did you get that figure from.

From my Psion 5 which logs the mAh used over the life of the batteries you put in.

The best I've got is 2500. Of course it may not be accurate... but you should be able to put some in
a torch and run it down. The wattage of the bulb will give you the amps.

Quoted message said:

I do wish battery manufacturers would put a typical mAh rating (at some specified current) on
disposable batteries, instead of just saying 'longer lasting'.

You'll be lucky.

Quoted message said:

Or maybe then people would be able to work out which brand to buy! (Or be able to tell when a D
cell is actually a sub-C in a big case.)

David

Bernard Hill Selkirk, Scotland

In article <[email hidden]>, Bernard Hill <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

In article <[email hidden]>, David Laight <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

Bernard Hill said:

Although alkalines have a capacity of 2500mAh ...

Where did you get that figure from.

From my Psion 5 which logs the mAh used over the life of the batteries you put in.

The best I've got is 2500. Of course it may not be accurate... but you should be able to put some
in a torch and run it down. The wattage of the bulb will give you the amps.

Quoted message said:

I do wish battery manufacturers would put a typical mAh rating (at some specified current) on
disposable batteries, instead of just saying 'longer lasting'.

You'll be lucky.

Quoted message said:

Or maybe then people would be able to work out which brand to buy! (Or be able to tell when a D
cell is actually a sub-C in a big case.)

The manufacturers sometimes have data-sheets available on their websites but they are not quite as
straightforward as a mAh rating. For example here is a Duracell AA sheet:

duracell.commn1500.aspOpen ↗

--

dscs.demon.co.ukdscs.demon.co.ukOpen ↗

[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

The manufacturers sometimes have data-sheets available on their websites but they are not quite as
straightforward as a mAh rating. For example here is a Duracell AA sheet:

duracell.commn1500.aspOpen ↗

The curve shown as "Discharge current" seems to indicate that at 10mA discharge then you get 250-300
service hours. Which gives 2500-3000mAh.

The figure for 100mA discharge rate is similar: about 200hours, ie 2000mAh.

Since my Psion 5 palmtop was using about 50-80mA when on then the 2500mAh recorded fits well with
this data.

Bernard Hill Selkirk, Scotland

In article <[email hidden]>, Ricky <[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

mmmm, ok so you think it looks good ?

I didn't say that. I said it was consistent with the result I got from my PDA.

Quoted message said:

[censored], I say,

every battery is different, and every test is also different ...

take the normal V=IxR , from this equation you can work out most things ....

BUT, did you know that the tempature had to be constant, as well as the material used in the
construction of the battery. Also what impedance did the measurement device have ?, that also has
to be constant to get a true answer.

If it's giving 100mA I might hazard a guess at 15 ohms...

Quoted message said:

Just a few "know" problems when trying to rate batteries ...

The context of my remarks was that

a) I stated in a post that the capacity of AA is about 2500mAh
b) I was asked where I got that from
c) I replied that my PDA logs the charge consumed and told me that (although I disclaimed all
knowledge about accuracy)
d) Someone posted some graphs and said they didn't help
e) I pointed out that one of them gave a result consistent with (a).

Now, why are you so uptight about my post that makes it worth swearing at?

Bernard Hill Selkirk, Scotland

Ricky said:

Have a look here ..

battery-force.co.ukresults.htmlOpen ↗

I use the RB102746 AA NiMH 2300mAh myself

They are getting seriously impressive on capacity these days - I was quite happy with the 1.8 Ah I
sourced last year until you posted that!

Quoted message said:

Ricky

--
79.84% of all statistics are made up on the spot. The other 42% are made up later on. In Warwick -
looking at flat fields and that includes the castle.

Bernard Hill said:

Although alkalines have a capacity of 2500mAh ...

Where did you get that figure from.

I do wish battery manufacturers would put a typical mAh rating (at some specified current) on
disposable batteries, instead of just saying 'longer lasting'. Or maybe then people would be able to
work out which brand to buy! (Or be able to tell when a D cell is actually a sub-C in a big case.)

David

In article <[email hidden]>, Bernard Hill

Quoted message said:

You *must* use NiMH batteries. You will get many times the running time of alkaline batteries.
Although alkalines have a capacity of 2500mAh you are lucky to get over 500mAh out of them in a
high-drain application such as digital cameras.

From personal experience over the last 3 months with my Fuji, a set of Duracells easily outlasts
fully charged NiMH cells by a factor of at least 2x.

That being said, the NiMH cells were what came with the camera and so probably aren't the highest
capacity cells on the market (capacity not cited anywhere on battery or packaging). Even so, a
factor of 2x is not to be sneezed at.

I generally load up with a set of freshly charged NiMH cells and take along 2 sets of Duracells for
when the rechargeables (inevitably) give up.

- Pete Abingdon

"Fran" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

My digital camera (Olympus Camedia C3030) seems to eat its way through a

set

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

of AA batteries quite quickly, so I'm thinking of using rechargeable

ones

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

instead.

Sounds like a jolly good idea to me. Plenty of places are doing rechargeable NiMh batteries now -
a set of 4 for around £7 or £8.
--
Fran If you need my email address please ask.

Well, I've taken the plunge and bought myself an Ansmann Digispeed 4 charger and several sets of
NiMH 2200mah batteries. I always assumed that I'd save myself money and time on film and processing
once I'd bought my digital camera, but batteries costs always seemed to be more expensive!!
Hopefully I'll now start to see some savings, but at around £70 for the charger and batteries the
Boots hourly service seems quite cheap!!

What did get my attention was how quick the modern battery/charger combination is - about 90mins for
a full charge on a 2200mah battery flat to full. The last time I bought a charger and rechargeable
batteries it took several hours to trickle charge an 800mah battery.

A quick plug for www.digibattery.co.uk if I can please. The batteries and charger arrived the
morning after I ordered them. Excellent service!!!

Dave.

Bernard Hill said:

In article <[email hidden]>, Chris Street
<[email hidden]> writes

Quoted message said:

however I expect that you would only get half the battery life than if you were to use alkalines.

No, many times the life. Alkalines can't sustain the high current for very long without getting
chemically clogged up.

I doubt that the current drain on a digicam is goignt o be sufficient to cause any alkaline cell to
polarize itself. This may be the case in extremely high drain applications when a low internal
resistance cell like a NiCd would be prefereble but I don't know of any digicam that wants amps of
current. Even if you do get "clogged up" as you say the capacity will still be there.

Quoted message said:

Bernard Hill Selkirk, Scotland

--
79.84% of all statistics are made up on the spot. The other 42% are made up later on. In Warwick -
looking at flat fields and that includes the castle.

On Sun, 26 Oct 2003 22:39:16 -0000, "Joe Bloggs" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"Fran" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

[email hidden] said...

Quoted message said:

My digital camera (Olympus Camedia C3030) seems to eat its way through a

set

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

of AA batteries quite quickly, so I'm thinking of using rechargeable

ones

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

instead.

Sounds like a jolly good idea to me. Plenty of places are doing rechargeable NiMh batteries now -
a set of 4 for around £7 or £8.
--
Fran If you need my email address please ask.

Well, I've taken the plunge and bought myself an Ansmann Digispeed 4 charger and several sets of
NiMH 2200mah batteries. I always assumed that I'd save myself money and time on film and processing
once I'd bought my digital camera, but batteries costs always seemed to be more expensive!!
Hopefully I'll now start to see some savings, but at around £70 for the charger and batteries the
Boots hourly service seems quite cheap!!

What did get my attention was how quick the modern battery/charger combination is - about 90mins
for a full charge on a 2200mah battery flat to full. The last time I bought a charger and
rechargeable batteries it took several hours to trickle charge an 800mah battery.

A quick plug for www.digibattery.co.uk if I can please. The batteries and charger arrived the
morning after I ordered them. Excellent service!!!

Dave.

I bought a telcom NiCAD/NiMH charger complete with 8 AAA NiMH batteries for £10 and a further 8 AA
NiMH (1500mah) Dixons brand batteries from Dixons for another £10.

Not bad, £20 for a charger and 16 NiMH batteries.

Paul