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I've ordered 18650 3.7V 2600mAh Li-ion batteries for my Sealife strobe. I am pretty sure that they will do me much better than the standard 1.5V AA off the shelf batteries. Is there anyone reading this that use the same spec batteries or are there other suggestions that is tried and proven?
The 18650 battery is not compatible with an AA battery. It is physically bigger and has over double the voltage. I have touches that come with an adaptor, they can use 3xAAA or one 18650.
Edit
I have not flattened a set of batteries in the strobe in a day's diving, and do up to 4 dives in a day with 300+ photos.
With the fast charger they recharge in about an hour or so.
No issues with shelf life, but I do dive regularly so it would be rare that the batteries would go over a month without use/charging. And I always ensure all batteries, camera and strobe, are fully charged the day before the dive.
The energizer (or other brand) lithium batteries perform vastly better than Alkaline batteries in photo strobes. They actually perform so much better for my Nikon (land) strobe I think they justify the price premium. You produce less waste with lithium as well, I get about 5x the shots from a set of lithium batts (vs alkaline).
Give them a shot once, I bet you'll be hooked.
I've also used the hi capacity NiMH like the eneloop pro (another brand, same chemistry). The thing to remember with these is that they have a short shelf life. You'll want to make sure to charge them not long before you use 'em because they will self discharge over time. It's been a while but I think they give more from a charge than a set of Alkaline disposables. Not comparable to lithium in terms of life per charge, but obviously over time they're far cheaper and less wasteful.
It's also possible your strobes may not like NiMH. Alkaline and Lithium are 1.5v where NiMH is 1.2v. Some devices don't deal with the lower voltage well.
The newer Eneloop NiMH batteries hold a charge very well, and are very popular in Sea&Sea and INON strobes. I have 16, and am using 8 in my two strobes while charging 8 in an 8-cell MAHA smart charger.
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