Lithium Batteries

Alpha · Jan 22, 2008

I use Energizer lithium metal batteries (not rechargeable Li ion batteries) in my equipment because they weigh so much less than other batteries. The motor grips in my both my 35 and my 645 take six batteries, plus my Sunpak 544 which also takes six. This makes for a huge difference in weight, especially when carrying multiple cameras. I noticed when I first switched over to Li that my motor drives were zippy as hell, though that could have been just the fact that the batteries were new. But I wanted to roughly test for any power difference, so I timed the recycle on my Sunpak when firing at full power, which was about 6 seconds. Then I loaded 6 new Duracell Ultra's into it and re-tested: 7.5-8 seconds.

jwkwd · Jan 23, 2008

I like Energizer Lithium', the only thing I noticed, which I heard beforehand is how they die all of a sudden instead of just slowing everything down. ( in motor drives )

Garbz · Jan 23, 2008

Yep no surprise there. I most definitely wouldn't want to keep paying for them though. I'd rather take the speed hit and be able to recharge. Money better spent on equipment / enlargements, unless of course you're in the position to desperately need to quick cycle time.

Alpha · Jan 23, 2008

Garbz said:
Yep no surprise there. I most definitely wouldn't want to keep paying for them though. I'd rather take the speed hit and be able to recharge. Money better spent on equipment / enlargements, unless of course you're in the position to desperately need to quick cycle time.

Well the recycle time isn't even that big of a deal. I'm rarely shooting my 544 at full power anyway. What makes the difference is the weight. And for that I'm willing to pay.

Big Mike · Jan 23, 2008

Are those rechargeable?

Trenton Romulox · Jan 23, 2008

In my SB-800, I use Energizer Lithiums. I got some rechargeable Li Ion batteries this weekend, but my Lithiums haven't died yet. And I'm not sure why I'm capitalizing things so liberally. Anyways, I use lithiums (there we go, proper capitalization), or have been using them, because the recycle times are noticeably better than regular batteries. But they were getting expensive, so now I'm gonna use the rechargeables, like I said. We'll see how that affects recycle time.

Big Mike · Jan 23, 2008

I don't like using non-rechargeables, because they probably end up in landfills.

Trenton Romulox · Jan 23, 2008

Big Mike said:
I don't like using non-rechargeables, because they probably end up in landfills.

Oh, they totally do end up in landfills. Rechargeables are the most 'green' way to shoot I think. And aren't Energizer rechargeables cased in green? Is that like, their way of saying the batteries are the most eco-friendly?

Alpha · Jan 23, 2008

Lithium metal batteries are non-rechargeable.

Trenton Romulox · Jan 23, 2008

Is there a difference between rechargeable and non-rechargeables in terms of battery life? Like, for one use of course.

Alpha · Jan 23, 2008

My guess is that the non-rechargeable ones will last longer than rechargeable ones in the same device.

Trenton Romulox · Jan 23, 2008

MaxBloom said:
My guess is that the non-rechargeable ones will last longer than rechargeable ones in the same device.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. I'll have to test it out sometime.

Big Mike · Jan 23, 2008

I've found that my 2500 mAh rechargeables last at least as long as alkaline batteries or longer.

Well, maybe the alkaline ones can 'hold out' for longer, but the flash recycle times will drop dramatically. Several times, I've had to replace the alkaline batteries with fresh ones, even though they still had power in them...just not enough to quickly recharge the flash.

Now that I use rechargeables, I just swap them out as soon as they start to slow down. When I charge them, I set the charger to cycle them with a full discharge and then a slow charge.

notelliot · Jan 24, 2008

i use the same energizer liths in my sb-800's and they're great. i get them cheap at work, but still have to keep buying.
i've heard some pretty bad things about the energizer nickel metal-hyrdride rechargables, and i wanted to try eneloop's but no one knows anything about them.
i'm almost tempted to buy one of the nikon quick recycle packs for sb-800s.