On Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:53:37 GMT, David J Taylor wrote:

At 340g the S5100 weighs about as much as a 12oz. can of Coke.

Is it an error that DP Review says it's 480g, or is that simply with and
without batteries?

The S5100's manual only provides the weight without batteries, at
340g. I also used the weight without battery for the D80, since
Nikon's manual also gave it that way. I don't know if DPReview used
alkaline or NiMH to get the 140g. for the four AA cells, but they
probably weigh about the same. Hold on, I'll check the data sheets.

Ok, DPReview used NiMH cells to get the weight up to 480g.
According to Energizer's data sheets, NiMH == 30g., alkaline == 23g.
and lithium == 14.5g. So with alkaline batteries the S5100 would
have weighed 432g. and with lithiums, 398g.

BTW, as I've said before, SMS is mistaken when he says that
lithium batteries have much greater energy density by weight and by
volume. I agreed about the weight, but said that NiMH's volume
remained nearly constant but nearly tripled in capacity since the
early NiMH cells. The high capacity NiMH cells are now at least up
to 2,700mAh and Energizer's lithium batteries are rated at 3,000mAh.
I've also noted before that lithiums can last much longer than
alkalines in some cameras, but not much more in others. Unlike the
other types which don't change *too* much at different current
levels, alkalines are very sensitive to current. They're rated from
1,500mAh @ 500ma to 2,500 @ 100ma and 2,900mAh at 50ma.

That's why the little analog radios can last so long using
alkaline AA batteries, since at what I call moderate volume (and
others might call low volume) they can draw less than 15ma from the
batteries. Used this way, lithium batteries wouldn't power the
radios much longer than alkaline batteries are able to. It's also
why it doesn't pay to use lithium 9v batteries in smoke detectors.