What kind of batteries do u recommend?

[yongwanee]

Uh... I have a rechargaeble battery made by a no-name company. I checked and it had 600mah. I think that's the reason why the battery keeps going dead so quickly. What kind of batteries do u recommend for me? I hear energizer rechargables are good. Any thoughts?

[FlameGrilled]

600maH is kinda low capacity - AA's dont come in anything much less than about 700mah these days.

Either :-

1) buy bulk packs of good alkaline cells, you can buy (in the UK) a pack of panasonic AA alkalinesx30 cells, for about £10.

or

2) Hunt down and order some good ni-mh cells (1800 mH or better) and a suitable charger

What you spend on the ni-mh cells, and charger, will repay itself greatly - trust me on this, i've hardly ever resorted to alkalines (only kept one or two on me for last-ditch emergency use).

3) If using Ogg for the compressed audio format, reconsider it..

Ogg decoding is literally a battery killer on the iFP, much as such on the iHP (but the iHp has better battery capacity) and not so much better on the iMP series.

If you are gonna work with Ogg, until either the excessive battery consumption problem is resolved, go with hi-capacity ni-mh cells and carry spares.

Observation
-------------

If you were expecting walkman type battery life using an mp3 deck (40hours-80 hours per two AA's ala walkman, 20-40 hrs on a single cell source) - then i'd suggest you forget that little fantasy... :P

Mp3 units are massively power-hungry vs a walkman. The only really moderately good power-consumption decks are the CDP kind, as flash decks usually draw power off the internal cell during upload/downloading as well as during playback - and it's not exactly dragster run speed territory when it comes to transferring 256Mb of audio from PC to iFP-390 over USB 1.1

iHP's have an excuse for being 'in the middle' for running time - the HDD is a power hungry beastie, so it's the price you pay for days/weeks/months of continous shuffle-play capable content selection.

Energisers are simply part of the Every Ready range. I'd go with Duracells for alkalines, Panasonic alkalines second out of preference in alkaline terms - as i've picked up En's before to use on pocket instrumentation devices.. and i've yet to buy a pack of En's that weren't duff or in a bad state of charge.

At least, from experience (my walkman proved it) Duracells are a good example of getting what you pay for (the item packaged with the iFP was a duracell OEM supply item) - i use duracells in pocket instruments and panasonics (when i need to) for when i used an iFP (long gone now).

FG

[gdog]

Another option might be to go to a camera shop and grab some of their AAs. We buy them for my wife's flash and they do seem to have a longer power curve than the typical alkaline. Nothing scientific to back that up, but hey I gotta do something to convince myself the price difference is worth it

gdog

[FlameGrilled]

No mystery there, gdog, the ones you mentioned are simply OEM's of the high quality alkalines

En's are literally damn near the bargain bucket of the alkaline world - hell, shop 'own brand' cheapie alkalines are often better performers.

Panasonic items are damn near as good as duracell, and when you can buy them in 30's for not a lot (look out for 'power tower' packs) - it's healthy saving if you dont wanna go down the rechargable route.

FG

[gdog]

FG,
For the myriad of kid's toys, electronics and non-camera money pits that we pour our money into in the shape of batteries we typically pick up Duracell's or the Kirkland brand at our local Costco store. Keeps us from going broke I guess. I've long believed that the major toy companies are really front's for the battery consortium of the world. Of course I also believe that there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll....and more recently, that there were no WMDs

gdog

[Reagulator]

Or get the batteries from Ikea. These batteries have been proven to be better then any other alkaline but cost less then most name brand batteries.
http://lists.altadena.net/pipermail/...er/002971.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tim.sneller/battery.htm

[FlameGrilled]

<off-topic.'Of course I also believe that there was a second gunman on the grassy knoll' - well, snipers often work in pairs you know.. one's is a spotter :P

WMD's - sure there were.. it was called the local sewage system :P </off-topic>

FG

[gdog]

Originally Posted by Reagulator

Or get the batteries from Ikea. These batteries have been proven to be better then any other alkaline but cost less then most name brand batteries.
http://lists.altadena.net/pipermail/...er/002971.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/tim.sneller/battery.htm

Now if they could just figure out that they need to put all that furniture inside the Volkswagen, they'd have it all figured out!

[FlameGrilled]

gdog.., that's easy.. you gotta make sure when you buy your VW.. you get the most important optional extra from the main dealer.. the TARDIS option - or by one of those unobtainable examples they use for demoing how much can be fitted inside one load area :P

FG

*loading a car is easy.. if the last box dont fit.. give it a bit of welly.. apply a good kick*

[gdog]

Originally Posted by FlameGrilled

gdog.., that's easy.. you gotta make sure when you buy your VW.. you get the most important optional extra from the main dealer.. the TARDIS option - or by one of those unobtainable examples they use for demoing how much can be fitted inside one load area :P

FG

*loading a car is easy.. if the last box dont fit.. give it a bit of welly.. apply a good kick*

FG this sounds amazingly like a blivet, and a messy one at that. Now if only we could find batteries with the same characteristic!

gdog

[Doctor K]

No hype here guys. I've been using POWEREX NiMH rechargeable AA batteries exclusively for 5 years now and wouldn't change for anything. I use them in my Canon 420EX flash and my iFP 300 series iRivers. There's NOTHING out there more powerful.

They are made by http://www.mahaenergy.com and can be purchased in their online store. Another great distributor of their batteries is http://www.thomasdistributing.com. They sell other batteries, but once you go maha you'll never go back!

Go read the Great Battery Shootout on http://www.imaging-resource.com/ACCS/BATTS/BATTS.HTM. This article is packed full of information regarding the finer points of rechargeable batteries! It is a little dated and doesn't include MAHA's 2500 mAh or their new 2700 mAh batteries.