Uberlingcod:
I just bought a sea and sea 750G camera. It came with two Duracell AA batteries they did not last very long. The manual recommends using nimh batteries so I went and bought a set of rechargeable AA's. Charged them as per instructions but the battery life moniter is indicating that the batteries are still dead. After closer inspection of the batteries I noticed that the Nimh are rated at 1.25V not the 1.5V of the alkaline bateries. I have not tried to use the camera yet with its new batteries but my question is has anyone run into this and will they work or will I have to try and get 1.5V batteries. I have looked around and all the Nimh batteries are rated to 1.2V. The camera does not give a voltage spec but the ys15 auto recommends 2400mAh 1.5v, the batteries I bought are rated at 1.25V 2300mAh. I dive in cold water and will this lower voltage spec cause a problem once the battery cools down to the water temp of 8C or 45F?:06: :huh: Any information would be great.
NiMH or NiCads, preferably NiMH's. 45F (8C, brrrr!!!) is not an issue with any of these chemistries. All nickel batteries run 1.2 to 1.25V, but then, your disposable alkaline will also drop to 1.2V after just a few minutes of use. What kills digital cameras (more precisely, what renders them comatose) is that the disposable alkaline are unable to provide the bursts of high current to operate the electronics. After you take your dead alkalines out, you'll find that they operate a flashlight just fine.
That said, NiMH's require a few charge/discharge cycles to come up to full capacity (more than 1, less than 10). And for the higher capacity NiMH's (2300/2400 mAh), the brand does make a difference. Also, the charger quality does also make a difference for NiMH's. Trickle chargers can kill a NiMH if you leave the NiMH on the charger forever (e.g. more than 48 hrs). Spring for the more expensive quick chargers; even though theoretically, they reduce your possible charge/discharge lifetimes, the smart chargers prevent you from killing the batteries by overtrickling. Finally, NiMH's self-discharge (on the order of 30% capacity/month), so recharge them just before use.
If, after all these steps, the camera still kills batteries (or renders them comatose) after 10 pictures, exchange the camera. After all, there are two possibilities: (1) you got a bum set of batteries, (2) you got a bum camera...
Good luck!
