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Battery Question - Camera for Teenager
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 |
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Battery Question - Camera for Teenager
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. |
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Battery Question - Camera for Teenager
Ron Hunter wrote:
[] 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. Ron, G Both my cameras have Li-ion batteries and I wouldn't change that. I have two spare Li-ion batteries for the DSLR, but I don't think I've ever needed more than about 1.2 batteries (i.e. I needed to change once). For the compact camera I have just a single space Li-ion cell. My practice is to charge all cells each night I am away. I have a GPS with 2 x AA cells, but these last about 18 hours, so on a day trip I don't take spares. On a weekend or longer trip I take four spare AA cells and a 1-hour charger! Yes, I do wish the Li-ion batteries were restricted to a standard range of sizes like non-rechargeables. Cheers, David |
#4
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Battery Question - Camera for Teenager
On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 06:01:01 -0400, Shawn Hirn wrote:
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. Too bad, as you're misjudging today's cameras based on the memory of a poorly designed camera that's probably been discontinued for many years. Would you mind disclosing which camera that was? Today you can get small cameras that with just two (emphasized - *not* four) AA cells can take 400, 500 and more shots per charge. And that's with a high percentage of shots using the flash at full power. Up to 1,000 or more shots per charge for outdoor/daylight shots that don't require the camera's flash. You also seem to have missed hearing about the new "Eneloop" type of low self-discharge NiMH cells that retain most of their capacity even after a year or two since their last charge. This is much better than Li-Ion batteries as a number of photographers in this forum have discovered to their dismay. Failure to charge them for similar extended periods can fatally damage them, and that would be a *real* PITA. 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. I have some travel AA chargers that I'll bet are no larger, and are probably smaller than your Li-Ion chargers. While the smallest cameras available are usually designed to use Li-Ion batteries, they usually have several drawbacks, one of which is that tiny cameras are more difficult to hold steadily enough to take reasonably sharp pictures. Exacerbating that tendency is their tendency to also be designed without having viewfinders, whether optical or EVF. Two examples of very nice currently available cameras that use a pair of AA batteries are Nikon's P60 and Panasonic's LZ8. They're both small enough to easily fit in a shirt pocket, have VR/IS, can shoot for days on a single charge (from approx. 500 to over 1,000 shots, depending on how the camera is used), and produce very good images. They both have the usual plethora of predefined "auto" modes that some beginners rely upon. For any of their owners that may develop an interest in photography, they also have the manual modes (P/A/S/M) that are usually missing from typical P&S cameras. They're both fairly inexpensive, and the biggest difference I've noted is that the P60 is slightly more expensive. But that extra expense gets you a viewfinder and slightly more than one stop worth of better high ISO, low noise performance. Similar cameras are produced by other manufacturers, most notably from Canon. I went to DPReview to compare the battery life performance with that of cameras using Li-Ion batteries and found that the first half dozen checked were far inferior, averaging about 1/2 the number of shots that these two are capable of getting. Here's what Dpreview said about Canon's SD900 : Battery life, like most models in the SD range, is nothing special, though at approx 230 shots (CIPA standard) per charge it's no worse than many of its competitors. So with one of the previously described cameras and two pairs of charged AA batteries (two in the camera and another two in the camera bag) you're probably good for something between 1,000 and 2,000 shots. That should not only be good enough for a short vacation or extended hike, it should also allow most people to travel *really* light, since with that kind of battery life most people wouldn't need to bring along a charger! In short, while the type of battery a camera uses can be a factor in deciding which camera one should buy, it shouldn't be the primary factor. Good, well designed cameras are available with either Li-Ion and AA batteries, and a few rare models offer the choice of both types. My personal preference (if you haven't already guessed it) is for cameras that use AA batteries. But that won't prevent me from buying cameras that use Li-Ion batteries if the cameras have the features that I want or need. Battery chauvinists do themselves a disservice. |
#5
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Battery Question - Camera for Teenager
David J Taylor wrote:
Ron Hunter wrote: [] 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. Ron, G Both my cameras have Li-ion batteries and I wouldn't change that. I have two spare Li-ion batteries for the DSLR, but I don't think I've ever needed more than about 1.2 batteries (i.e. I needed to change once). For the compact camera I have just a single space Li-ion cell. My practice is to charge all cells each night I am away. I have a GPS with 2 x AA cells, but these last about 18 hours, so on a day trip I don't take spares. On a weekend or longer trip I take four spare AA cells and a 1-hour charger! Yes, I do wish the Li-ion batteries were restricted to a standard range of sizes like non-rechargeables. Cheers, David That would make life too easy, and too cheap. Grin. |
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