Rechargeable AA Batteries for Sony DSC-P50

I just purchased a 2.1 megapixel Sony DSC-P50 point & shoot for everyday
crap. It uses 2 AA batteries or an optional Sony device, NP-FS11.

Here is a link to the camera (imaging-resource review):

http://www.imaging-resource.com/PRODS/P50/P50P.HTM

As you probably know, given that it uses 2 AA batteries it goes through them
very quickly. I took about 20 shots with it--maybe 1/2 of them flash--and
now it's done. Wow.

So now I'm looking into rechargeable options.

The Sony NP-FS11 is very high; I looked on eBay for similar
items--"equivalents"--and you're talking about $45 for one battery & a
charger. Good god!

I found this at Radio Shack which has four 1800mAh NiMH AA batteries & a
quick charger for $30. Catalog # 23-043

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...ct%5Fid=23-043

(the # is part of the link)

Is this the way you guys would go? Any other cheaper & just as good options
(or am I being a tight-wad)?

Or have any of you owned this camera before with the Sony NP-FS11 and found
it to be so superior you'd do that instead? Personally, I'm inclined towards
the AA option not just because it's cheaper (and would include a backup set)
but also because it is not propreitary.

Tips?

LRH

Larry Harrison asks:

As you probably know, given that it uses 2 AA batteries it goes through them
very quickly. I took about 20 shots with it--maybe 1/2 of them flash--and
now it's done. Wow.

So now I'm looking into rechargeable options.

The Sony NP-FS11 is very high; I looked on eBay for similar
items--"equivalents"--and you're talking about $45 for one battery & a
charger. Good god!

I found this at Radio Shack which has four 1800mAh NiMH AA batteries & a
quick charger for $30. Catalog # 23-043

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...ct%5Fid=23-043


http://www.thomas-distributing.com/

check out the 2300 mAh NiMHs.

The Ansmann charger is a bit pricey, but is about as good as it gets and is a
one-time purchase. Four of the 2300 mAh batteries should do all you need for
years to come.

Charlie Self
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or
not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy." Ernest Benn

Larry Harrison asks:

As you probably know, given that it uses 2 AA batteries it goes through them
very quickly. I took about 20 shots with it--maybe 1/2 of them flash--and
now it's done. Wow.

So now I'm looking into rechargeable options.

The Sony NP-FS11 is very high; I looked on eBay for similar
items--"equivalents"--and you're talking about $45 for one battery & a
charger. Good god!

I found this at Radio Shack which has four 1800mAh NiMH AA batteries & a
quick charger for $30. Catalog # 23-043

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...ct%5Fid=23-043


http://www.thomas-distributing.com/

check out the 2300 mAh NiMHs.

The Ansmann charger is a bit pricey, but is about as good as it gets and is a
one-time purchase. Four of the 2300 mAh batteries should do all you need for
years to come.

Charlie Self
"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or
not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy." Ernest Benn

On 2004-07-10, Larry R Harrison Jr wrote:
I found this at Radio Shack which has four 1800mAh NiMH AA batteries & a
quick charger for $30. Catalog # 23-043

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...ct%5Fid=23-043

(the # is part of the link)

Is this the way you guys would go? Any other cheaper & just as good
options (or am I being a tight-wad)?

Radio Shack seems a little bit behind on NiMH AA batteries. It's not hard
to find ones with 2000-2200 mAh. (A couple years ago, when I switched all
my battery-powered devices except the smoke alarms over the NiMH, 1200 mAh
was the norm).

The chargers have also been improving. My two year old charger takes about
8 hours to charge a pair of 1200 mAH batteries(the batteries have to be
charged in pairs). The charger I bought about a month ago does 1-4 2000 mAH
batteries in an hour. Now I see that model has been replaced by one that
does it in 30 minutes:

URL:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....97111512&skuId
=5835894&type=product

There are also special NiMH batteries that can be charged in 15 minutes in
appropriate chargers. They say "I-C3".

NiMH batteries are no longer the speciality item they were a few years ago.
They and their chargers are widely available at places like Best Buy,
Circuit City, Target, Wal-Mart, etc., so I'd suggest looking around at a few
local places.

--
--Tim Smith

On 2004-07-10, Larry R Harrison Jr wrote:
I found this at Radio Shack which has four 1800mAh NiMH AA batteries & a
quick charger for $30. Catalog # 23-043

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...ct%5Fid=23-043

(the # is part of the link)

Is this the way you guys would go? Any other cheaper & just as good
options (or am I being a tight-wad)?

Radio Shack seems a little bit behind on NiMH AA batteries. It's not hard
to find ones with 2000-2200 mAh. (A couple years ago, when I switched all
my battery-powered devices except the smoke alarms over the NiMH, 1200 mAh
was the norm).

The chargers have also been improving. My two year old charger takes about
8 hours to charge a pair of 1200 mAH batteries(the batteries have to be
charged in pairs). The charger I bought about a month ago does 1-4 2000 mAH
batteries in an hour. Now I see that model has been replaced by one that
does it in 30 minutes:

URL:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....97111512&skuId
=5835894&type=product

There are also special NiMH batteries that can be charged in 15 minutes in
appropriate chargers. They say "I-C3".

NiMH batteries are no longer the speciality item they were a few years ago.
They and their chargers are widely available at places like Best Buy,
Circuit City, Target, Wal-Mart, etc., so I'd suggest looking around at a few
local places.

--
--Tim Smith

On 2004-07-10, Larry R Harrison Jr wrote:
I found this at Radio Shack which has four 1800mAh NiMH AA batteries & a
quick charger for $30. Catalog # 23-043

http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...ct%5Fid=23-043

(the # is part of the link)

Is this the way you guys would go? Any other cheaper & just as good
options (or am I being a tight-wad)?

Radio Shack seems a little bit behind on NiMH AA batteries. It's not hard
to find ones with 2000-2200 mAh. (A couple years ago, when I switched all
my battery-powered devices except the smoke alarms over the NiMH, 1200 mAh
was the norm).

The chargers have also been improving. My two year old charger takes about
8 hours to charge a pair of 1200 mAH batteries(the batteries have to be
charged in pairs). The charger I bought about a month ago does 1-4 2000 mAH
batteries in an hour. Now I see that model has been replaced by one that
does it in 30 minutes:

URL:http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....97111512&skuId
=5835894&type=product

There are also special NiMH batteries that can be charged in 15 minutes in
appropriate chargers. They say "I-C3".

NiMH batteries are no longer the speciality item they were a few years ago.
They and their chargers are widely available at places like Best Buy,
Circuit City, Target, Wal-Mart, etc., so I'd suggest looking around at a few
local places.

--
--Tim Smith

"Tim Smith" wrote in message
link.net...

There are also special NiMH batteries that can be charged in 15 minutes in
appropriate chargers. They say "I-C3".

Those look nice. Wal mart sells a very entry-level device that includes 2
I-C3 (looks like AA sized) batteries and a charger for $28

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...3A57907%3A4402

Do those last as long as regular NiMH batteries that take 1-2 hours to
charge? By "last as long" I don't mean number of rechargers (though if you
know that you can share). I mean how long before you have to recharge it.

LRH

"Tim Smith" wrote in message
link.net...

There are also special NiMH batteries that can be charged in 15 minutes in
appropriate chargers. They say "I-C3".

Those look nice. Wal mart sells a very entry-level device that includes 2
I-C3 (looks like AA sized) batteries and a charger for $28

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...3A57907%3A4402

Do those last as long as regular NiMH batteries that take 1-2 hours to
charge? By "last as long" I don't mean number of rechargers (though if you
know that you can share). I mean how long before you have to recharge it.

LRH

On 2004-07-10, Larry R Harrison Jr wrote:
There are also special NiMH batteries that can be charged in 15 minutes
in appropriate chargers. They say "I-C3".

Those look nice. Wal mart sells a very entry-level device that includes 2
I-C3 (looks like AA sized) batteries and a charger for $28
....
Do those last as long as regular NiMH batteries that take 1-2 hours to
charge? By "last as long" I don't mean number of rechargers (though if you
know that you can share). I mean how long before you have to recharge it.

They should. The number you want to look at for a battery is the mAh
rating. I believe those batteries are 2000 mAh. "mAh" means "milliamp
hours" and is a measure of the total energy the battery can deliver. A 2000
mAh battery could theoretically power a device that needs 1 milliamp for
2000 hours, or a 2000 milliamp device for 1 hour, or a 500 milliamp device
for 4 hours, and so on. (Batteries have other limits, such as maximum
current, so not all of these combinations are possible--it would not work to
try to power a 7200 amp device for 1 second!).

The Rayovac I-C3 batteries are NiMH, just like the other common
rechargables, so should work basically the same. The only real difference
is that they can be charged in 15 minutes in an I-C3 charger. The reason
for this is that they put some circuitry in the battery itself to control
the charging.

I read a review somewhere on the net when these things first came out that
said that the I-C3 batteries get *VERY* hot while charging. I don't know
how sensitive to heat digital cameras are--does anyone know if it would be a
bad idea to put a very hot battery or two into a camera?

I haven't tried the I-C3 system yet, because I've found my current 1 hour
system is fast enough. It does up to 4 at a time, and cranks out charged
batteries faster than anything I have consumes them, so there has been no
need for something faster.

--
--Tim Smith

On 2004-07-10, Larry R Harrison Jr wrote:
There are also special NiMH batteries that can be charged in 15 minutes
in appropriate chargers. They say "I-C3".

Those look nice. Wal mart sells a very entry-level device that includes 2
I-C3 (looks like AA sized) batteries and a charger for $28
....
Do those last as long as regular NiMH batteries that take 1-2 hours to
charge? By "last as long" I don't mean number of rechargers (though if you
know that you can share). I mean how long before you have to recharge it.

They should. The number you want to look at for a battery is the mAh
rating. I believe those batteries are 2000 mAh. "mAh" means "milliamp
hours" and is a measure of the total energy the battery can deliver. A 2000
mAh battery could theoretically power a device that needs 1 milliamp for
2000 hours, or a 2000 milliamp device for 1 hour, or a 500 milliamp device
for 4 hours, and so on. (Batteries have other limits, such as maximum
current, so not all of these combinations are possible--it would not work to
try to power a 7200 amp device for 1 second!).

The Rayovac I-C3 batteries are NiMH, just like the other common
rechargables, so should work basically the same. The only real difference
is that they can be charged in 15 minutes in an I-C3 charger. The reason
for this is that they put some circuitry in the battery itself to control
the charging.

I read a review somewhere on the net when these things first came out that
said that the I-C3 batteries get *VERY* hot while charging. I don't know
how sensitive to heat digital cameras are--does anyone know if it would be a
bad idea to put a very hot battery or two into a camera?

I haven't tried the I-C3 system yet, because I've found my current 1 hour
system is fast enough. It does up to 4 at a time, and cranks out charged
batteries faster than anything I have consumes them, so there has been no
need for something faster.

--
--Tim Smith