Rechargeable Batteries - which are better...?

theMusicMan

theMusicMan

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I am wondering which are the better rechargeable batteries: Nickel Metal Hydride or Nickel Cadmium ones...?

I seem to be going through quite a few Duracel AA's on my FL-50 flash unit and thought I'd look into rechargeables.

Any advice...?
 
theMusicMan said:
I am wondering which are the better rechargeable batteries: Nickel Metal Hydride or Nickel Cadmium ones...?

I seem to be going through quite a few Duracel AA's on my FL-50 flash unit and thought I'd look into rechargeables.

Any advice...?
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NiMH have a higher capacity, I think about 3 times that of cadmium (someone correct me if I'm wrong). Accordingly they cost more.
 
Ni-MH are considered the better of the two due to their ability to deliver sustained high discharge levels and lack of 'memory-effect'
 
NiMH John. NiCd suffer from memory effects (if not completely discharged everytime, the 0 point gets set above 0 after a while) and this will cause a loss of available capacity. NiMH don't suffer from this. I've used a set of high capacity NiMH I got from ebay in my Z2 and a number of other devices for several years without any problems. These are the ones I'm using. HTH.
 
If you need a lot of clean power then NiCad are good but they discharge quickly and as others have said you need to run them down completely every so often They also don't hold their charge for long (so charge the night before)

NiMH batteries are the best compromise atmo they hold their charge well, last longer than NiCads, no memory effects (though some would dispute that) but don't deliver quite as much punch.

There's a new type of Lithium Sulphide battery which has major advantages over Lithium Ion but as far as I know they are not commercially available yet (I read about them being used in the MOD UAV tests last week)
 
I didn't think you could get NiCd's anymore.... I had heard that due to some eu ruling they couln't be made anymore...
Please correct me if i'm wrong.
 
Diabolos137 said:
I didn't think you could get NiCd's anymore.... I had heard that due to some eu ruling they couln't be made anymore...
Please correct me if i'm wrong.
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NiCds are getting thin on the ground as they are a pain to get rid of due to the cadmium content (I think it's covered by the rohs/weee directives)
 
admirable, that's a good read. Some useful info there on looking after your batteries too.
 
I'm pleased with my Fujicell 2700 mAh AA rechargeables, they work out about a quid each and so far have been excellent...
 
I bought a load of rechargeable AA batteries from ebay from hongkong which ended up costing about 40p each. Wish I hadn't bothered as half are now dead after about 9 months. I have found a supplier in the UK of FUJI 2700mah batteries and they can supply 48 for £48.95 then £21 for 3 x 4 battery chargers and £8 postage. I think I am going to need that many when I buy the external battery pack for my SB800
 
cowasaki said:
. I have found a supplier in the UK of FUJI 2700mah batteries and they can supply 48 for £48.95 then £21 for 3 x 4 battery chargers and £8 postage. I think I am going to need that many when I buy the external battery pack for my SB800
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Sounds like one of the places I bought mine from
 
What the others said, NiMH are what you want. Powerful ones.
 
andrewc said:
I keep seeing reference to Sanyo Eneloop rechargable batteries as being pretty good
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I've got the Uniross Hybrios which are the same sort of thing as the Eneloops, you can charge them and leave them for a long time and the hold their charge, unlike normal rechargables.

Having said that I use Energizer photo lithium AA batteries in my flash gun and they last loads longer than the normall AAs I had before (like 5 shoots rather than 1 and they are still going)
 
I've got one set of Uniross Hybrios, and they seem more reliable than my several sets of Vapextech Instants, in that more than once I've found the Instants have lost their charge in storage, when the whole point of them is to retain the charge longer than a conventional NiMH.

I can get NiCd rechargables easily enough from a Pound shop for run of the mill usage, but some have leaked electrolyte.
 
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