As we know the life of digital camera battery is one of the most crucial factors in photography. Like other portable consumer electronic devices, digital cameras use batteries as their power source. All batteries have one major drawback - they only last for a limited span of time. If you disregard this fact, then you run the serious risk of missing an important shot.
Two kinds of batteries are widely available for digital cameras:
- Ni-CD (Nickel Cadmium)
- Ni-MH (Nickel-Metal Hydride)
There is a third type of rechargeable battery, Lithium Ion that is gaining rapid popularity. The distinct advantage of a Lithium Ion battery is, it offers better performance than the other two types. But the disadvantage is that they do not come in the standard AA battery size and as such you can not use them with most cameras.
Popular alkaline batteries are relatively inexpensive and widely available, but they drain at a fast pace. If you happen to use all of your camera's features, you can deplete a set of alkaline batteries in about 30 minutes. You should then consider spending a little more up front for a battery charger and few rechargeable batteries. Many digital cameras work with the popular, rechargeable nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries. Alkaline batteries were not designed to supply the high power drains demanded by digital cameras and other modern digital equipments. Despite having a large energy capacity, alkaline batteries are not capable of delivering their energy rapidly enough for your digital camera, causing it to shut down.
Generally speaking, the heavy energy consumers in a digital camera are the LCD screen and the motors that move the mechanical components of the camera such as the lenses. The other big energy consumer is the motor. Digital cameras have motors the move the lenses either to change the zoom or to focus. Motors consume relatively a lot of energy when moving the digital camera optical components. The flash is a big energy consumer too. Shooting photos using the flash consumes more energy that shooting photos without flash.
Digital cameras, and in particular their LCD screens, demand large electrical currents from your batteries. If you are using lots of alkaline batteries for your electronic devices you'll probably want to switch to rechargeable NiMH batteries ASAP. Not only will the NiMH batteries power a digital camera (or most other electronic devices) much longer than alkaline batteries will, but they are much less expensive to use.
Many digital camera manufacturers offer proprietary lithium ion battery systems with their cameras. These are indeed sophisticated batteries with very long life-span. Sony's Info-lithium battery system is perhaps the best example of this technology. Apart from offering very long life, this system can give an accurate measurement of the amount of operating time left on a charge. The minus factor of lithium ion battery systems is that these proprietary systems are very expensive.
When it comes to power, the ability to use a variety of battery types can be more important than any single type a camera may use. For instance, lithium-ion rechargeable batteries generally last the longest, but if you are out in some remote places, you have no way to recharge them, and you should probably have a backpack full of disposables. Your best bet is a camera that interchangeably supports rechargeables and long-life disposables.
Characteristics of Digital Camera Battery
