How do you keep everything charged?

[RDRINK25]

With all my photo equipment how do you keep everything charged I usually take a weekend trip once a month. Although after the weekend the strobes,camera and batteries still have 90% percent charge. What does everyone do with them? Do you store or stick on a charger? Just dont want them to be dead for the next trip but does seem like a pia to do everytime.

 

[KeithG]

Depends on the kind of battery. Older tech batteries slowly discharged and did not have a long shelf life.

The new tech rechargables (I think the use the marketing term of something like low internal discharge) do not drain as fast on the shelf and will still hold a significant charge for your next months dive.


My old tech (lenmar) batteries are tossed on the shelf and then jammed into my fast charger just before I use them. My new tech (black eneloops) batteries are jammed into my fast charger just after I use them and are then tossed on the shelf. My lenmar fast charger handles 4aa in under 1 hour.

 

[Nemrod]

Every few months, between use or when not being used, I charge and cycle if possible.

N

 

[bvanant]

A lot depends on what kind of batteries you are talking about. I keep camera batteries charged at all times with no measurable deleterious effect. For AA batteries I use LaCrosse chargers at home and run the AAs through a recharge cycle once per year. Once that happens I charge the day before a dive and never had any big issues. On a liveaboard where you might dive 5x per day, batteries are all mostly being charged at all times.
Bill

 

[dfx]

I let everything sit at whatever charge it has (anything between fully charge and completely empty) and charge it up just before I need it. All batteries self-discharge over time (some types more than others) so it seems a waste to charge them up when you don't use them.

 

[Larry C]

I dive weekly and leave my Eneloops and focus light down till the night before. I charge everything up and put it in, and it's ready to use in the morning. On dive boats, I pull the batteries about every other dive and throw them on the charger while I eat. My Titanium charger will do eight at a time, but it's slower and they get hot. I've got a Duracell 15 minute charger with a built in fan that works great on the boat. They don't get any hotter than on the Titanium during a 2+hour charge, and they're done before I finish eating.

 

[Searcaigh]

I have both black and white Eneloops, they both hold their charge very well and will work continuously for several hundred flashes at half power on YS110a strobes

I also dive most weekends, I will charge everything the night before usually along with my focus light.

On dive trips, I alternate between the black and white Eneloops daily, one set charging while I use the other, the focus light is charged overnight.

 

[James R]

This hasn't really been an issue for me before, as I have only had cheap basic cameras in the past. I got tired of going on fantastic trips with a crappy camera, so I upgraded this year. I have two z240 strobes and a focus light now, so I ordered two sets of eneloop batteries for each and a Maha charger - MAHA PowerEX MH-C800S. I have three batteries for the Rx100 and a separate charger, so that's easy.