Another trip with no pictures, thanks Sea Life

[DandyDon]

I have tried to get mAh ratings on Duracell, Energizer, and Panasonic batteries but they just don't make those easily available. Battery companies are big on advertising and gimmicks it seems, everyone knows the rabbit and his drum - not facts that can be easily compared. For my emergency lights and anything else in which batteries will stay unused for long periods requiring good storage abilities, I use Panasonic Alkaline Plus.

The AA battery type was standardized by ANSI over 60 years ago and Wiki offers an informative article: AA battery - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Here is one ad that claims the AA Copper Top is rated at 2850 mAh: Duracell Size AA Alkaline Battery (Package of 8) in Alkaline and Rechargeable Batteries at JR.com but then another article explains...

Battery capacity ratings are meaningless when used to compare different types of batteries or to compare the capacity of batteries powering different types of devices.

This means that you may not be able to predict how long your electronic device will run just by looking at the capacity rating of a battery. For example AA alkaline batteries typically have a capacity rating of over 2,500 mAh and AA NiMH batteries have rated capacities of only 1,200 to 1,900 mAh. But when it comes to actually powering an electronic device like a digital camera, the NiMH batteries will often run the device for three or four times as long.

Alkaline batteries were not designed to meet the very high power demands of today's electronic devices. Alkaline batteries have a high rated capacity, but they can only deliver their full capacity if the power is used slowly. (See chart). Electronic devices such as digital cameras place a high power drain on batteries, so it is much better to use rechargeable NiMH or NiCd batteries for these type of devices. Lithium batteries also work well in high drain applications but they are expensive and are not designed to be recharged.

Then there can be a wide variety of quality in rechargeables. The 2300 mAh Sealife rechargable NiMH batteries seem to be very good, much better than the name recognizable rechargeables you find in Walmart, etc. I do wish that Sealife's charger had a conditioning feature, but the fact that it does not is easy enough to work around...

If you use the AA batteries week to week in a regular camera like I do, don't recharge until they run down;

Carry a couple of AA high powered storage batteries as back-ups to switch out on the go if you're shooting when they do run down;

On a dive trip, forget the above and charge as often as possible when not shooting.​

Some will claim that NiMH batteries do not have a memory affect like their predecessors the NiCDs; no not as bad - but they do have one so I like to drain before recharging when convenient, certainly after a dive trip. Even Lithium rechargeables like in your cell phone have a lessor memory effect and it's good to let them die once a month if convenient, altho not nearly as important.

Well, that's a lot of typing for a little information; still with me? Either...

Use the expensive Lithium throw away batteries, changing or testing on a meter often; or

Use Sealife or Thomas 2300+ NiMH rechargeables and drain before recharging between dive trips.​

Hope that was helpful...?

My experiences the last few years have been with the DC500 which uses rechargeable Lithium batteries designed just for that camera (and aspect I avoid in most camera shopping), using rechargeable NiMH AA batteries in my Sealife external flash and in land cameras carried by family, friends, and myself - mostly Canon point & shoots.

 

[peteytheweasel]

Thanks to all who responded.I'll take your advice to heart and invest in quality rechargeables.

 

[DandyDon]

Ah, I forgot one more aspect. Not all chargers are created the same at all. I'm sure that Sealife's charger is good quality, even tho I prefer the conditioning chargers Thomas Dist. The rechargers also sold at Walmart are often so bad that I suspect that they're designed to create new sales in batteries. Maybe not, but Sealife & Thomas are all I will use now.