[pct-l] digital camera batteries

[Trekker4 at aol.com (Trekker4@aol.com)]

I agree that finding a camera that uses AA batts is  preferred; otherwise one 
has to  carry at least 1 extra, rechargeable,  proprietary battery in the 
pack; and probably the wall charger also .  Trusting the charger to a bounce 
bucket might not work, because there are a  couple of places, as I recall (VVR for 
instance), where that bounce bucket can't  be mailed on down the line or is 
expensive to do so. These proprietary batts are  relatively expensive to buy, 
even at a street price, but over time would  cost less than any kind of AAs. 
    Very few cameras use AA batts, but one can find the  batts anywhere; the 
problem is that regular alkaline AAs don't last very  long. The new improved 
alkalines last longer, and the new Lithium AAs from  Eveready last longest. The 
first 12 pack I bought in Nov at Sam's  said they last 5 times as long as 
(presumably) alkalines; I bought another  12 pack in Dec, which said 7 times as 
long, and the latter did have a  different product, item, or "model" number.
    Doing some math, the 12 pack costs $20; sales tax  is usually less, but 
let's use 10%; so, the 12 pack costs $22. Dividing by 12  gives a cost of $1.83 
per batt; but, using a conservative 5X life  and dividing by 5 gives 37 cents 
per battery for cost comparison with  alkalines.  I don't know offhand what 
regular alkalines cost at Sam's, but  I doubt it would be much less; and 
eliminating the hassle of frequent  battery changes would be worth a lot of pennies. 
I'll never buy anything but Li  AAs from now on. I believe they're available 
in AAA size also, for headlamps for  instance, but apparently not at Sam's.
    A personal example is that I carry a  microcorder journal, which uses 2 
AA batts and gives me 2 hours of talk  time per 90 minute cassette. I used to 
put a fresh set of batts in every  time I changed the tape, to make sure I 
didn't run into low batt problems on a  2nd tape; I'd then put the used batts in a 
flashlight. Now I can presumably  go through 5 cassettes per pair of batts; 
This will greatly  reduce the hassle of replacement batts: fewer to carry, 
ship, worry about, or  dispose of properly. 
    
Check it out at your local battery emporium, 
Bob 
Big  Bend Desert Denizen
(Naturalized Citizen, Republic of  Texas)