The Eneloops are generally the best that I have looked at, because they are
rated to deliver a higher current than the competition's cells.
EverReady has just come out with some precharged low self discharge cells, but
I have not got my hands on them or seen full data sheets. I believe Sony has
also come out with some, but again I have not seen specs or evaluated. I have
not looked at Duracell specs either. These are credible vendors , so if
somebody wants to search web for data sheets and post urls, I will be happy to
compare specs.
Some of the Chinese generics are much lower current rated and have higher
internal resistance (voltage drops more with increase current) and some have
higher self discharge and also spec smaller # of cycles, so not as good.
Rayovac, Hybrio,Ultralife etc all seem not as good as Eneloops.
Remember deep discharging these cells, is exactly like doing that to regular
NiMh and it will likely greatly shorten life. Particularly in a long string of
cells where the weakest cell then gets reverse charged and damaged by venting.
Tim hughes
--- On Tue, 12/1/09, Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
From: Chuck Norcutt <chucknorcutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [OM] question for Dr. Battery
To: "Olympus Camera Discussion" <olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tuesday, December 1, 2009, 4:40 AM
I'll second Moose's opinion on the batteries and would also recommend a
charger that handles each cell individually. I have a couple of Maha
chargers that charge 4 cells in pairs. That's better than charging all
four at once but, as some of my older NiMH batteries aged and started to
fail, I would discover that a pair would be extremely slow to charge or
never reach full charge at all. Trying to discover the bad cell means
mixing different pairs until you narrow down on the culprit. On the
other hand, given the high price of single cell chargers and the low
price of NiMH batteries it might possibly make more sense to replace all
the batteries of a given purchase group when one gives an indication of
being weak. When I buy rechargeable batteries I mark them in groups
with a ring of colored tape to identify them as part of a group based on
when they were purchased. When I use the batteries I use all of the
same group. If I had a group of 8 that were two years old and one was
giving signs of weakness I'd have no qualms about trashing all 8 since
the other 7 are probably not far behind.
As to low discharge NiMH I also highly recommend Sanyo Eneloop. I've
been using 8 of them for a couple years. All 8 still charge up equally
and still provide plenty of power in a flash the only gets used maybe
once every 3 to 4 months or even longer. For heavy duty shooting I'd
more likely buy the highest capacity NiMH I could find (are they at 2700
mah now?) and charge them just before the event. That is, if I was
shooting a wedding with NiMH batteries. Personally, I would more likely
use my high voltage lead acid battery packs for shooting a wedding.
NiMH have plenty of capacity but can't recycle a flash from a full dump
in 1.5 seconds. This is like a Quantum Turbo battery at 1/3 the price.
<http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/294330-REG/SP_Systems_SPDCBPRC_Power_Pack_for_SP.html>
I recently added a set of 4 Duracell low discharge NiMH to my Eneloops.
I wanted another set of Eneloops but there is no place where I can buy
them locally and I needed them in a couple of days. A search of the web
told me that Duracell low discharge NiMH were actually rebranded
Eneloops... at least the ones made in Japan. I located some Duracell
2000 mah (same as Eneloop) at Home Depot but they're made in China, not
Japan. So I don't know what I've got although they're working fine so
far. But I've only had them for a few months. I'll give another report
in a couple of years. :-)
Chuck Norcutt
Moose wrote:
> Sue Pearce wrote:
>> What's the latest on rechargable AA batteries for shoe mount strobes? I went
>> to the Thomas Dist. site and found a Maha charger and "low discharge" NiMH
>> batteries that I think I remember from a previous discussion.
>>
>> But that was at least a year ago. What's the latest?
>>
>
> I've been very happy with the eneloops I bought and a combo of the
> charger that came with some of them and a Lacrosse Technology BC-700U
> charger. The Sanyo charger works fine, but with pairs only, and I use
> them in some devices that use one or three cells. The Lacrosse charger
> has full charge info and control individually for each of up to four cells.
>
> Other makers, both name and generic brands, have come out with similar
> sounding batteries. Whether they are as good as the eneloops, I don't
> know. Better, I'd bet not. I haven't kept up, 'cause I'm not in the market.
>
> I very seldom use flash, so I know little about how they fare in that
> use. The one time I used a set in the 540EZ for an event, they breezed
> through. They are certainly great for everything I've tried them in. I
> think that the use where they wouldn't be best is really heavy flash use
> where batteries can be fully charged the night before and maximum
> flashes per charge is needed.
>
> There, one would go with the highest capacity normal NiMh batteries
> available. I read, although I'm not sure where in my initial research,
> thta the highest capacity cells also have a fairly fast drop off in
> usable capacity with heavy use. Still, out of the budget for a major pro
> shoot, one could simply replace them regularly.
>
> Moose
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