How does the current affect shot taking in a digital camera? Does it allow me to shot the next picture sooner? Is this current in any way a function of the energy life of the battery stored, ie longer capacity? Also, a charger that takes 8 hours to charge should have no effect from a 1/2 hour charger right other than the length of time? The current capacity of the 2100mAH battery is almost twice that of a 1300mHA battery. mHA means millie amps per hour. Digital cameras are a power hungry lot, especially if you leave the LCD on. My first digital camera was a Minolta Diamage, they said you could use regular alkaline batterys in it, but, in practicale application, it would flat line the batterys after the 5th shot. Current is in a way a function of the energy life of the battery in the sense that when the batterys are drained, the batterys are dead and in nead of a recharge. If you mean will the higher mHA rated batterys go totally dead sooner (in the long run), no, not if you practice good recharging techniques. How quickly they drain is dependent upon your camera and how you use it, i.e. always with the flash on, if you leave the LCD on (or have too). Your best bet on recharging your Ni-MH batterys is to get an intelligent recharger. That is one that will discharge your batterys down to zero before it recharges them back up. The Diamage mentioned earlier, I purchased two sets of batterys for it, a total of 8 @ 9 bucks a pop. To protect that investment I also purchased an intelligent recharger. I still have and use those batterys to this day, and these are 9 year old batterys now. As with anything, Heat is the worst enemy. When you use the quick rechargers, you are in essence cramming it all back in and in a shorter period of time. The by product of this action is higher tempretures in the recharge process. These higher tempretures will over a period of time destroy the chemical process in which the current is developed (inside the battery). But the flip side to that coin is that the batterys have become so cheap you can afford to replace them once or twice a year. So to your question of what is the differance between the 8 hour charge and the half hour charge, is just how long those batterys will be effective batterys. The quicker recharge will have an effect on the total life span of the battery. My recomendation is to buy the most mHA battery that you can find, I have seen 2600 mHA and 3200 mHA batterys on the market. The current is not actually in the battery. The amount of current drawn from the battery is determined by the equipment attached to the battery. The current capacity or "charge" in the battery will determine how long you will be able to use the equipment, in this case your camera. (so the 2100mAH will give you more time between recharges) it will not determine the speed of the camera, this is to do with the circuitry and the motor mechanism inside the camera. That said, a battery going flat will definitely operate the equipment slower.
Both chargers will charge to the same capacity. However it is recommended to occasionally charge a battery on slow charge to prolong its life, say every 4 or 5 charges. Constant fast charging can internally damage any battery, and over time the battery will have a reduced charge capacity. |
