Digital Photography: The Missing Manual

Batteries

Compared to other 21st century electronic devices, digital cameras are near the top of their game. They’re not like those cell phones that still drop calls, or wireless palmtops with their slow Internet connections. Digital cameras are reliable, high quality, and rewarding in almost every way.

Except for battery life.

Thanks to that LCD screen on the back, digital cameras go through batteries like Kleenex. The battery is likely to be the one limiting factor to your photo shoots. When the juice is gone, your session is over. Here’s a guide to the various battery types for digital cameras:

• Proprietary, built-in rechargeable. Many smaller cameras come with a “brick” battery: a dark gray, lithium-ion rechargeable battery, as shown at top in Figure 1-2. These subcompact cameras are simply too small to accommodate AA-style batteries.

  The problem with proprietary batteries is that you can’t replace them when you’re on the road. If you’re only three hours into your day at Disney World when the battery dies, you can’t exactly duck into a drugstore to buy a new one. Like it or not, your shooting session is over.

  Some cameras come with a separate, external battery charger. If you have an external charger, by all means buy a second battery (usually about $50) and keep one battery in the charger at all times. When the main battery gives up the ghost, swap it with the one in the charger, and go about your business. For a full day at the theme park, fully charge both batteries and take them with you.

  All this recharging roulette is a pain, but it beats any system in which the camera is the battery charger, which is the case with some cameras. When the battery dies, so does your creative muse. You have no choice but to return home and plug in the camera, taking it out of commission for several hours as it recharges the battery. Even with a separate charger, though, proprietary batteries can’t match the convenience of rechargeable AAs, described next.

• AA batteries. Some cameras accept AA-size batteries (usually two or four), and may even come with a set of alkaline AA batteries to get you started. If you learn nothing else from this chapter, however, learn this: Don’t use disposable alkaline batteries in a digital camera. You’ll get a better return on your investment by tossing $5 bills out your car window. Alkalines may be fine for flashlights and radios, but not even “premium” alkaline batteries can handle the massive power drain of the modern digital camera. A set of four AAs might get you 20 minutes of shooting, if you’re lucky.

  So what are you supposed to put in there? Something you may have never even heard of—AA-size rechargeable nickel-metal-hydride batteries (NiMH) (Figure 1-2, bottom). They last much longer than alkalines, and they’re far less expensive, since you can use them over and over again. You may also be able to use disposable photo lithium batteries. Like alkalines, they’re not rechargable, and they’re much more expensive than alkalines. But since they last many times longer, photo lithiums are ideal to keep in your camera case for emergency backup.

  In a pinch—yes, during a day at Disney World—you can hit up a drugstore for a set of standard alkaline AAs. Yes, you’ll be tossing them in the trash after 20 short minutes of use, but in an emergency, 20 minutes is better than nothing.

Figure 1-2. Top: Many digital cameras come with proprietary batteries (quarter not included). They’re not very big, and neither is their capacity, so invest in a spare.Bottom: If your digicam takes AA batteries, use alkaline AAs (right) in emergencies only. In the long run, you’re better off investing in a couple sets of NiMH rechargeables (left). You generally won’t find NiMHs in department stores, but they’re available online and in national drugstore chains. A charger and a set of four NiMH AAs cost about $30.

Note

Some cameras offer the best of all worlds. Certain Nikon CoolPix cameras, for example, come with a lithium-ion battery and matching charger and also accept all kinds of AAs, including alkalines, rechargeables, and the Duracell CRV3 battery (a disposable lithium battery that looks like two AAs fused together at the seam). You should always be able to get juice on the road with these babies.