Ricoh GR Digital II battery life with AAA NiMH. Hmm.

[Dante_Stella]

I ran a quick test of the GR Digital II with 2 x Energizer 800Mah NiMH AAAs. Much to my surprise (or maybe not), the camera got through over 200 pictures (non-flash). Test condition was with SanDisk Ultra II 2gb, indoors, with about a 10 second interval between shots.

My test with alkalines was pretty true to the 35-40 frame figures I have seen.

My surmise is that MiMH cells are much flatter across their discharge cycle, although they (nominally) start at 1.2V - and alkalines start high but rapidly dip below the voltage that the camera sees as "ok." I had a similar experience with one of the early Konica "flat" (folded optic zoom) p/s cameras that took AAs.

When I get a chance, I will measure the start and end voltages for each type of cell.

The NiMH thing (assuming it is not a fluke) is big - since you can charge 4 AAAs in 15-30 min (assuming you are not worried about shortening the battery's life cycle) - and it takes a couple of hours to fully charge a DB-60 battery. Good emergency power. This also says good things about the survivability of the camera after DB-60s are discontinued.

Has anyone dropped in the Energizer E2 Lithium AAAs? How did that work out?

 

[Larky]

That's impressive. I just bought the GX100 and will be keeping some NIMH's around just in case.

 

[ampguy]

Probably very good

Probably very good

for a 2 AA camera. All the P&S's I've owned use AAs or proprietary batteries.

I've used dozens of name brand and generic NiMH's and like the Sanyo Enerloops quite a bit, though for toys or applications where I may not recover the batteries, I like cheap alkalines, usually < USD $0.20 each in bulk.

I ran a quick test of the GR Digital II with 2 x Energizer 800Mah NiMH AAAs. Much to my surprise (or maybe not), the camera got through over 200 pictures (non-flash). Test condition was with SanDisk Ultra II 2gb, indoors, with about a 10 second interval between shots.

My test with alkalines was pretty true to the 35-40 frame figures I have seen.

My surmise is that MiMH cells are much flatter across their discharge cycle, although they (nominally) start at 1.2V - and alkalines start high but rapidly dip below the voltage that the camera sees as "ok." I had a similar experience with one of the early Konica "flat" (folded optic zoom) p/s cameras that took AAs.

When I get a chance, I will measure the start and end voltages for each type of cell.

The NiMH thing (assuming it is not a fluke) is big - since you can charge 4 AAAs in 15-30 min (assuming you are not worried about shortening the battery's life cycle) - and it takes a couple of hours to fully charge a DB-60 battery. Good emergency power. This also says good things about the survivability of the camera after DB-60s are discontinued.

Has anyone dropped in the Energizer E2 Lithium AAAs? How did that work out?

 

[minimicrite]

I bought a pack of AAA lithiums for my GRD over Thansgiving when I realized I'd left my spare battery and charger at home. I haven't been overly impressed with the Ricoh battery, and am very unimpressed with the generic spare, so I needed the insurance. Oddly enough, I went that whole weekend on the one battery.

So, long store short, I'll let you know 😉 I keep the lithium AAA's with me now, so I'll need to use them eventually.

 

[mackigator]

I've had great luck with Maha chargers and the Powerex brand of rechargeables. So much so its all I use now when I need a regular sized battery. Outlasts everything else NiMH. I've only seen them here: http://thomas-distributing.com/index.htm