Whats the best kind of batteries that you can buy for a digital camera?

Question

I recently bought a digital camera, but it eats batteries. One pair of batteries takes about 10 pictures, then they are dead. Is there a different kind of battery that I can buy. Or are the rechargeable ones the best?

Answer 1

Normal alkaline batteries just don't do it for digital cameras because of the high instantaneous current required to run a digital camera. (This includes all batteries such as "Duracell" and "Super Heavy Duty" etc) These types of batteries will appear to the camera to be flat even when they aren't because they just don't have the capacity to give the camera what it wants.



Some places still sell rechargeable Nickel Cadmium Batteries (NiCd), and these batteries cannot cut it for digital cameras. There are also rechargeable alkaline batteries and these aren't great either.



The only type of rechargeable to get is Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH), and the higher capacity the better. This capacity is typically rated in milliamp hours. A medium capacity battery for a camera will have say 1600 MAH whereas a high capacity battery will have more than 2000 MAH. Some even go as high as 2600 MAH. Get the highest that you can.



One downside is that NiMH batteries go flat in the camera if you do not use them. In a camera that uses 2 batteries, this can happen in as little as a week.



My advice is get a couple of sets of high capacity NiMH rechargeable batteries (2000 MAH or higher) and use these as much as possible. Also however buy one or two sets of Lithium batteries (non rechargeable) these last a long time but are wickedly expensive. Have one set of lithiums for backup in case you need the shot but the rechargeables are all flat. Soon as you can put freshly recharged batteries in and again keep the lithiums in reserve. Unused lithium batteries will last for years.



Many cameras have a menu setting which can flatten the batteries for you prior to recharging. ONLY IF you are using NiMH batteries is this a good idea. Vendors tell you that NiMH are not prone to "memory effect" and therefore do not need to be totally flat before being recharged, but this is not true. NiMH bateries should be discharged before being recharged. If the camera can't automatically discharge them, then keep using the camera until it won't go anymore, then recharge them.



Hope this helps.

Answer 2

Do you have an optical viewfinder? Turn off the monitor and use it if you do. LCD monitors are battery hungry devices. The longer you leave it on, the quicker the batteries will drain. If you don't have an optical viewfinder so you MUST use the monitor, set it to turn off after the minimum time offered, such as 5 or 10 seconds. Don't spend too much time reviewing your pictures on your camera. Save that for the computer when you can use a card reader and not drain your camera batteries.



Rechargeable batteries are certainly the best, but if you do not use rechargeable batteries, get Energizer e² LITHIUM batteries (or the Duracell equivalent) and you will get much better battery performance. They cost twice as much as alkaline batteries, but they last four times as long.

Answer 3

rechargeable are the best. I recommend getting a couple of sets. That way you always have a charged set. The intial cost is a bit more, but in the long run you will save much more and are not adding non-bio material to the landfields.



I have a small photography business and I only use rechargables in all my cameras.

Answer 4

definitely rechargable. Take your camera with you to the store. This way you can show the salesperson and you'll get the correct battery.

Answer 5

I have an hp digital camera, and it came with ni-mh rechargables. So far they have worked flawlessly. I reccommend them. Nickel metal hydride, or something close to that spelling.

Answer 6

Lithium batteries also work very well. I have the same problem and lithium will allow me to take 100's of pics without an issue.

Answer 7

you need rechargeable ones

no way around it