Buying Digital Camera Batteries

Digital Camera Batteries - keeping the juice flowing

Keeping our digital camera batteries juiced up and ready to go is critical in order to always be ready to take those great images. This information is meant to help you find and get the best set for your kit.

Buying Digital Camera Batteries

By Steve Gargin

The battery is probably the most important digital camera accessory. Some cameras can consume power at an alarming rate, providing no more than a few hours of continuous shooting time before the battery is drained. Other cameras are renowned for their long life which allows users to snap away with barely a thought to power consumption. It is important to know how you intend to use your camera and what type of battery it needs.

There are two types of battery. The most widely available is a standard AA-size battery. The other type is a rechargeable battery that is made by the manufacturer, otherwise known as a proprietary battery.

A proprietary battery offers the advantage of being lighter and more compact, but they are substantially more expensive, making the prospect of buying one or two backup sets much less appealing.

The alkaline AA-size battery usually has a very short life - less than an hour in extreme cases - when used in a digital camera. This type of battery makes an acceptable emergency backup, especially if you are travelling with your camera. However, the Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) digital camera battery can be used instead of the alkaline ones with a charger and this rechargeable NiMH digital camera battery has a substantially longer life at an affordable price.

Another type of AA-size battery is the non-rechargeable Lithium batteries and rechargeable Nickel Cadmium (NiCD) batteries. The lithium digital camera battery has a superior life to alkaline AA's and offers good cold-weather performance but their price and non-rechargeable nature make them less useful than rechargeable NiMH batteries. It is also important to ensure that your camera can take a lithium battery. On the other hand the NiCD battery offers the advantage of retaining their charge while unused, unlike NiMH cells, but have shorter lives and need to be discharged completely before recharging which can be extremely inconvenient.

The LCD screen of a digital camera is responsible for consuming the most power so it is worth only using the LCD when necessary to help conserve the battery life. Always try to carry at least one backup set of batteries, especially if you plan on being away from power outlets for an extended period of time. The universally-available alkaline AA-size battery can make a convenient emergency backup if your regular digital camera battery fails.

About the Author: Steve Gargin is the administrator of http://digital-camera-reviews.helper-guru.com/dsc717/index.html which is a great website dedicated to giving free advice on Digital Cameras.
Source: www.isnare.com

So what do I do about digital camera batteries? Well I invested in three sets of Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries for my main camera kit. One set lives int eh camera ready to go. Another set lives in the camera kit as a back up and the last set remains in the charger until I need to cycle them through to my kit. This keeps me ready to shot digital images at any time. I shop here for digital camera batteries.