On Mon, 28 Sep 2009 15:28:47 +0100, Eddie wrote:

Does a new lithium ion battery need a few charge and discharge cycles
to be able to hold and delivery its full capacity?

ISTR a new lithium ion needed a few cycles but when I checked on how
much percentange improvement the extra cycles provided, I couldn't
find any clear recommendation.

Yes, new Li-Ion batteries can use a few full charge and discharge cycles
before they start to show their true capacity. I wouldn't go out of my way
and do this intentionally in some charger that offers a discharge cycle
because the gain doesn't seem to be all that great and you'd only end-up
losing out on a few charge cycles from the battery's life. I don't know the
exact percentage gained, and I'm sure it's dependent on each manufacturer,
but rough guess is maybe 10-20% more after a few cycles. It is apparent
they last longer (hold more charge) after a few uses. Just use them from
full to empty in your camera a few times and by the 3rd or 4th time they're
doing the best they can.