If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below. |
|
|
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#11
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking experienced advice:
Dave Platt wrote:
In article , Whiskers wrote: I used to use rechargeable AA batts with my Fuji S7000. I had absolutely horrible luck with them. Various brands, no good luck. I could charge them until the charger indicated a complete charge *and they checked out at 1.6x volts with my voltmeter*, put them in the camera immediately, and get a batt warning light. Sometimes I could get two or three shots; sometimes it would just shut itself down. I wanted to recharge, but I just couldn't. I'd query the accuracy of your voltmeter. NiCd and NiMH cells won't deliver much more than 1.2v - but they do stay at that level until almost completely discharged. The open-circuit voltage of a NiCd or NiMH which has just come off of a charger can be well above 1.2 voltl During the charge cycle it will rise to above 1.5 volts (or more depending on the charge rate) before it hits the zero-rise inflection point which indicates full charge. Good info. My 1.6x readings were taken with two different voltmeters. It'll drop quite rapidly when discharged - to 1.3 almost immediately and to 1.2 once about 20% of the charge has been withdrawn. A normal digital voltmeter has such a high input impedance that it wouldn't load the battery down at all, and thus you'd probably read a rather high open-circuit voltage for a cell that has just come off of a charger. I'm with you... I suspect that the original poster's camera has a low-battery detector That's me. which is improperly calibrated or adjusted - most likely it's set for alkaline cells rather than NiMH/NiCd. A detector set in this mode would tend to interpret the normal (plateau) voltage of a rechargeable battery as if it were an alkaline battery which is just about to die. Well, then it would be nice if they had a battery-type toggle for that in software. The Nikon point-and-shoot cameras I bought for my wife's use have a three-way battery-type selector in the menu - standard alkaline, rechargeable, and AA lithium non-rechargeable. As I understand the manual, this setting controls the detection threshold for the low-battery indicator. Hah! Yeah, like that. My camera is but a lowly Fuji. From a quick look through the FinePix S7000 manual, it doesn't look as if it has this degree of adjustability. Unfortunate! Bingo. But thanks a lot for the above information. That situation bugged the snot out of me. Even more so than just having to revert to nonrecharble batteries. It was the WTF aspects that got to me the most. I've had varying luck with NiMH batteries... there does seem to be a fair bit of brand-to-brand variability. On the "poor" side, I had disappointing results with Lenmar "NoMem" cells... even when freshly charged they'd often "go flat" after about half of the expected use (based on battery rating and the radio's known current draw during operation). The new generation of low-self-discharge NiMH (e.g. Uniross Hybrio, Rayovac Hybrid, Sanyo Eneloop) seem to be much more consistent. My wife took her L11 point-and-shoot on vacation a couple of weeks ago with a fully-charged pair of Hybrio batteries in it - when she got back, the low-battery indicator was on the screen, the camera still worked, and she'd taken over 500 photos (many with flash). Wow. Thanks again for the good info, Dave. -- Blinky Killing all posts from Google Groups The Usenet Improvement Project: http://improve-usenet.org Blinky: http://blinkynet.net |
#12
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking experienced advice:
On 2008-03-13, Blinky the Shark wrote:
Whiskers wrote: On 2008-03-13, Blinky the Shark wrote: C0mdrData wrote: [...] Re bulky casings: Side note: Those rechargeables - brand aside - didn't fit in the battery caddies for my Vivitar 283 and 285 strobes. I wish I'd slapped my dial calipers on 'em. I *could* get them into the caddy, actually, but then the caddy woudn't fit into its bay in the strobe body. The caddies were obviously engineered to be a very close fit; I wouldn't have had that problem using them in a typical clock or Walkman or something like that. And not only were the batteries from various manufactureres, but I tried aftermarket caddies from two sources *and* the original Vivitar caddies, while scratching my head and mumbling obscenities. [...] I believe there is an international standard for the dimensions of [LR06|AA|HP7|MN1500|Mignon|...] batteries, but NiMH cells seem to err on the large side of the tolerance - and there may be no specified dimension for the amount by which the positive button extends beyond the top of the casing, so battery makers and appliance makers can both claim to be working to the same standard yet end up with products that don't work together. -- -- ^^^^^^^^^^ -- Whiskers -- ~~~~~~~~~~ |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
Seeking experienced advice:
Whiskers wrote:
On 2008-03-13, Blinky the Shark wrote: Whiskers wrote: On 2008-03-13, Blinky the Shark wrote: C0mdrData wrote: [...] Re bulky casings: Side note: Those rechargeables - brand aside - didn't fit in the battery caddies for my Vivitar 283 and 285 strobes. I wish I'd slapped my dial calipers on 'em. I *could* get them into the caddy, actually, but then the caddy woudn't fit into its bay in the strobe body. The caddies were obviously engineered to be a very close fit; I wouldn't have had that problem using them in a typical clock or Walkman or something like that. And not only were the batteries from various manufactureres, but I tried aftermarket caddies from two sources *and* the original Vivitar caddies, while scratching my head and mumbling obscenities. [...] I believe there is an international standard for the dimensions of [LR06|AA|HP7|MN1500|Mignon|...] batteries, but NiMH cells seem to err on the large side of the tolerance - and there may be no specified dimension You just reminded me that I *did* mic those batteries, and yes -- they weren't out-of-standard but were at the high end of case diameter. And I guess I didn't actually say, earlier, that it was case diameter that was my fit problem with those strobes. -- Blinky Killing all posts from Google Groups The Usenet Improvement Project: http://improve-usenet.org Blinky: http://blinkynet.net |
|
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Thread Starter | Forum | Replies | Last Post |
Seeking experienced advice: | Ken[_4_] | Digital Photography | 17 | March 19th 08 03:54 AM |
Newbie Seeking Advice | Bill H. | Photographing Nature | 6 | November 4th 06 01:28 AM |
Amateur seeking advice | Fran | 35mm Photo Equipment | 14 | August 24th 06 12:36 AM |
Amateur seeking advice | Fran | Digital Photography | 7 | August 21st 06 05:45 PM |
Amateur seeking advice | Fran | Digital SLR Cameras | 7 | August 21st 06 10:47 AM |