On 4 Mar 2006 13:48:38 -0800, Adam M wrote:

Do you think if I purchase a couple of sets of lithium batteries and
charge them up before I leave then they would last three weeks?

It's hard to know what you mean. Nobody knows how long the
batteries will last if you're talking about the number of shots
you'd take over a three week period, not knowing the proportion
taken using flash, and how much "chimping" you do. But if you're
wondering if the lithium batteries would lose their a significant
amount of charge (through self discharge) as NiMH batteries can, the
answer is no. If you don't use them, lithium rechargeables can
retain most of their charge for months.

If you're talking about buying a couple of sets of lithium
rechargeable batteries for your 5 year old camera, that's probably a
waste of money. Put it towards a new camera that will take much
better pictures and might even allow a single set of batteries,
whether rechargeable or not, to last a month or two. And if it's
really, really cold where you're from (icecubeland?), consider a
camera that uses AA batteries, as lithium AAs can operate in much
colder weather than even rechargeable lithium batteries can.