Shawn Hirn wrote:
In article .net,
"ben brugman" wrote:

Am I being overly cautious by thinking we should limit our choices to
those that use (eat?) AA batteries, especially for a 16YO?

Most camera's can take hundreds of pictures with a litium ion battery.
AA capable camera's are often larger.

Camera's with AA batteries do not have to be replaced once the battery goes
dead, just replace the AA's. For litium ion batteries by the time they are
gone
(few years), you probably will not bother to buy new litium ion batteries,
because
they are expensive (especially for an older camera), maybe not available.

Taking one or two spare set's of batteries with you and you know how much
power
you have left (fairly accurate). The indication for the litium ion is not
very lineair.
So with AA you know what you have left (outside the camera). And if you run
out
AA's are better available then any type of battery.

I think that AA is definitly a advantage over litium ion. (But the camera is
larger).
So choices being the same I vote for AA.

(My DSLR and my point and shoot both do not have AA capability, so I went
for
other features above AA. This to place the preverence for AA into a
perspective).

Ben

To each his own. There's no way I would use a digital camera that takes
AA batteries again. When I travel, I shoot hundreds of photos a day. I
tried a camera that used AA batteries and it was a PITA. I had to carry
bulky sets of batteries with me, change them two or three times a day,
and make sure I kept each set separate from the other sets, plus they
would discharge fairly rapidly when I wasn't using the camera for a few
weeks, so I had to recharge them all each time I went out with the
camera.

With the li-on batteries, I carry ONE spare and most of the time, I
don't even need it because the capacity is so high, plus they hold their
charge much better then AAs do when they are not in use. With my Sony
P&S shoot camera, I can usually shoot around 300 photos easily per day.
With my Canon XSi, the battery gives me around 600 photos per charge.
Both camera's batteries are about 1/4 the size of a four AA batteries
(which is what the AA cameras I had required). Not to mention, that when
I travel, I like to pack as light as possible, and the li-on batteries
and their charger are considerably less bulky then AAs.

Well, they are also lighter. For most people, I suspect that the
Lithium-ion rechargeables are an advantage, but for a teen, a camera
using two AA batteries would probably be better. In the event the
batteries in the camera do die, they aren't going to miss shots because
they can pick up batteries almost anywhere. And, they don't have to
cart a charger around.

Both my cameras have AA batteries, and I wouldn't change that. I have a
GPS with Lithium-ion battery, and I am always concerned about charging
it. I like the long 'run time', but having to worry about charging the
thing all the time on a trip is a bit of a pain.