Thursday, December 06, 2007

Dead Again! I Want A New Charge Out of Life!

Don't you hate that when that happens - you grab your recently charged rechargeable batteries, throw them in your portable flash and you get about twenty shots out of them. I have been using the EverReady rechargeable batteries in my gear for the last three years or maybe even longer. When they are fresh, they work great, but as they age, the memory makes them a little less reliable. I literally charge all my batteries on the day of the job just to be sure I get the sustained flash power I need. Don't get me wrong, all works well, but it is a bit inconvenient if I load up a nearly dead set of batteries.

I do keep my batteries numbered in sets as Brian Auer suggested last week over at EpicEdits - not doing that really adds to the possible headaches of what's dead and what's not. Usually I pitch the set at the end of the evening, head to Sam's Club the next day and pick up a few more sets. A few months ago, I saw a couple of stories talking about these new Lithium-Ion rechargeables that hold their charge quite a bit longer and "memory" is not such a problem. Then I was cruising our buddies, 1001 Noisy Cameras, and saw they were selling several versions of the new batteries in the right hand column of their site. Not two days later, a review of the Sanyo Eneloop batteries over at Imaging-Resource. There's was quite a lengthy review with some very helpful reader feedback.
These batteries do seem to be the way to go for us wedding and event shooters. Hey, they don't break the bank, and they make a small portion of our lives a bit simpler - I would go check them out. Here is the Imaging-Resource review right here. Here is the 1001 Noisy Cameras link right here - just scroll down a bit, the batteries are on the right side.

2 comments:

  1. Very useful post, David. However, with good batteries you also need a good charger, and I hope that's the one you are using -
    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00077AA5Q/giftfella-20

    I don't have it yet, but David "Strobist" have been raving about it, and Santa is bringing one this year, I hope.

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  2. These things really do work as advertised, and they're _awesome_. They seem to put out a bit more current than my other 2500+ mAh batteries, so I might not get as many shots on a full recharge, but flashes recycle faster. And since you only have a "full" recharge on normal NiMH if you use them that day (or that week) they're almost always better.

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