However, I've been pretty successful with a less expensive solution: I bought
a set of Power2000 2400mah AAs when I bought the DS. They came with a charger
... it's a two circuit unit, fast charger ... that promises a full charge in
1.5 hours. Does a good job, it seems, because I regularly get 500-700
exposures per charge from these batteries. Whole package was $29 from B&H.
The Maha seems very good from all the reports, the LaCrosse sounds even
better.
I think part of my issues have been that most of my NiMH aren't
that high of quality. I got a set of two here, two there, four there, and
a deal (about 18 months ago) on some 2050mAh cells. I kinda dabble in
battery charger technology since working on a hybrid electric car awhile
back, so having lots of information has been useful to me. What I've
found is interesting (expecially with cheap cells):
- Individual charging circuits a must... especially for non-overnight
chargers. Even allegedly equal cells can have much different capacity.
- Cells discharge noticably after a few weeks
- A conditioning (charge/discharge/charge) cycle is fairly important every
month or two if you don't use the batteries much. I've gotten 50-100%
*more* capacity out of a few cells by doing that. The classical thought
is the, "new batteries need a few cycles before coming to full capacity."
I've found they need it periodically to maintain (but then again I don't
use any one set too often).
My opinion is that most of the Maha chargers are probably fine... at least
the ones that have individual circuits. It's really good to have some
real information (LCD readouts)... I've got one set of four batteries
where three ready 2200mAh capacity, and one was about 1100. If I would
have had the charger earlier I would have taken them back for a
replacement. Tough to find out that information without individual cell
data.
-Cory
--
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* Cory Papenfuss *
* Electrical Engineering candidate Ph.D. graduate student *
* Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University *
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