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How To Get the Most Life From Camera Batteries

Dave — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 09:06:29 +0000

How To Get the Most Life From Camera Batteries

Image courtesy of www.digitalsnaphappy.com

You’re at a wedding or some other special event. You pull out your trusty digital camera, press the power button and … nothing. You press the button again and again, with the same result. Because your camera batteries died, you miss an album’s full of wonderful memories. Horrible. What can you do prevent this from happening to you?

One of the easiest ways to prevent this is to bring extra batteries. Especially if your camera takes regular batteries like “AA’s”, then it’s a cheap way to insure you get every shot you want. You can also get rechargeable batteries which are more expensive at first, but can pay for themselves over time. If the batteries for your camera aren’t common, having extra batteries can make your cost go up quickly. Again, the trade-off is never missing that once-in-a-lifetime shot.

Even if you get extra camera batteries, there are other ways to save battery life, and money. Most digital cameras have the large LCD screen, and a small viewfinder. To save a lot of battery life, turn off the LCD. It eats battery power quickly, especially if you don’t take a series of pictures quickly. Most cameras originally had only the viewfinder, and still took great pictures, so all you really need is a minor adjustment in how you work the camera.

Another huge power hog is looking at every picture after it is taken. The camera uses battery power for every operation it performs, and checking each shot right after you take it takes time and energy. On some cameras, it will actually make the camera take longer to reset before the next picture. With the huge memory that most cameras provide, you can take hundreds of high-resolution pictures without missing a beat, and simple odds say at least a few will be masterpieces.

Probably the single best advice for the longest life from those camera batteries is to turn the camera off when you’re not actually taking pictures. This is especially true when you don’t need to take a series of pictures very quickly, like at a sporting event. While you’re waiting to find that perfect shot, the camera is running the LCD (if you ignored the advice from earlier in the article), and the auto-focus if you have the camera set up that way. Each of these things burns through energy, and together, usable battery time is chopped way down.

With all the functions cameras perform, they use a ton of power no matter what you do. Follow the suggestions above, and you’ll be able to stretch the usable time of your digital camera batteries. If you are looking to purchase the best digital camera then make sure you do a lot of research and have a look at as many different brands and reviews as possible. If you are looking for some great bargains on digital cameras and other electronics then have a look at this cool site called Black Friday Sales. Performing lots of reasearch is the only way that you will be able to make an informed decision that results in the best digital camera for your needs at the best cost.

Make Sure Your Camera Batteries are Charged

Dave — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:39:17 +0000

Digital cameras have pretty much become the standard for taking pictures in any area of photography. Whether you’re a brand new photographer, or have been shooting for years and make a living at it, you have most likely used one. They allow for great flexibility and with the huge memories available though memory cards, you can take hundreds or even thousands of pictures and not have to worry that most might not be very good. The only thing that might keep you from taking those shots is camera batteries that have given up the ghost, either permanently, or because they need to be recharged.

All batteries, camera batteries included, only have a certain life expectancy. If they are not rechargeable, then they only give you one use. Rechargeables give you the ability to use them over and over, sometimes hundreds of times. This is all well and good, but one thing you need to keep in mind with batteries, is that they can leak their charge over time. Rechargeables are also subject to this problem, and if you haven’t used them in a while, you run the risk of missing that great shot because all the power drained away.

One thing to remember is to check that your camera is working, and, since most cameras have an indicator for low battery, you can usually tell how much charge you have left. This is especially important if you plan to take pictures of your grandkids, a wedding, or Christmas. Another easy thing to do is to have spare camera batteries so you can make sure your camera is always ready to go. You can also remove the batteries when you’re going to put it away for a long period of time. This will slow down the loss of charge when not in use, and if the battery happens to leak, it won’t destroy your camera, costing you money to replace.

Remember to put your rechargeable batteries on the charger long enough in advance that you know they will be ready to go for you when you need them. If you have easily available rechargeable batteries, like “AA” style batteries, get the charger that will recharge more than one set.

If you remember to use other methods to save battery life, like not using the LCD screen as a viewfinder, not using the flash unless it’s truly necessary, turning off the camera between shots, and not looking at each picture or watching videos you shoot right after you shoot them, you can extend the life of your camera batteries.

There are some great places to buy cheap digital cameras online and cheap camera batteries and all you have to do is find them. A little bit of research will help you in the long run when it comes down to getting the best price. Some of the smaller sites like the one above are really good in finding some great deals. The more sites that you look at, the better chance you will have of finding a deal. Another great idea is to find a really good digital camera buying guide. These guides can help you in your journey to find the perfect camera.

What Types of Rechargeable Camera Batteries Are There

Dave — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 00:29:47 +0000

Rechargeable camera batteries are a great way to get the most bang for you buck. Rechargeables can be used over and over, sometimes hundreds of times. Most of the difference is how long a battery lasts during use, and how often it can be recharged is the chemistry of the battery. The three most common are nickel-cadmium (NiCd), nickel-metal hydride (NiMH), and lithium-ion (Li-ion).

Nickel-cadmium batteries are one of the earlier types of camera batteries, and were very popular for a long time since they were fairly long lasting and easily rechargeable. They were relatively inexpensive and were more cost-effective than other rechargeable types. One disadvantage of nickel-cadmium batteries is that they tended to have a “memory”. That meant that if the batteries weren’t properly cycled between complete charge and discharge stages, they would soon only discharge to a certain point, which meant over time they would have less and less usable time. They are also highly toxic and difficult to manufacture. Another major drawback they have is that they have a tendency for “thermal runaway”. Basically as the temperature inside the battery rises during charging, the less resistance to electricity there is, which lets in more electricity, which heats the battery even more … this led to the battery accepting more and more electric current until the battery caught on fire or even exploded. This is very rare with proper chargers, but is still a consideration.

Nickel-metal hydride batteries are a newer design of battery and are fast replacing nickel-cadmium batteries since they have become cheaper to produce. They are also less toxic and have two to three times the capacity of a nickel-cadmium battery. They do tend to discharge, when not in use, faster than nickel-cadmium, although now there are NiMH batteries that have mostly overcome this problem. They are comparable and sometimes cheaper than NiCd camera batteries.

The last type of battery is the lithium-ion. These batteries are fast becoming the most popular camera batteries because they have a high weight-to-energy ratio, which means they have a lot of power for a small package. They don’t have any “memory” like nickel-cadmium batteries, and discharge much more slowly, when not in use, than other batteries. However, they “age” which means that from the time they are manufactured, they gradually lose capacity, unlike other batteries. Although very rare, li-ion batteries can catch fire or even explode, as seen when a laptop battery caught fire and forced a recall.

All these camera batteries have their advantages and disadvantages. Hopefully this article helped you to decide which rechargeable camera batteries work best for you.

If you are looking to purchase a good kids camera then this camera buying guide will help you to make the best decision. There are some great places to find really good value digital cameras but the above places are a really good starting point. The sites will help you to decide upon what you want and if it is suitable for you. They will also help you find some of the great digital camera deals and bargains that are out there.

Best Camera Batteries » battery

How To Get the Most Life From Camera Batteries

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