6,560 flashes - finding the perfect AA battery

[stubbsy]

Thought I'd share an excellent read on rechargeable batteries that I stumbled upon when recently purchasing some batteries at Servaas products. Essentially a whole slew of AA batteries were tested for repeated firings on two Canon speedlites (it would be interesting to know what impact this had on the life of the speedlites too!). The purpose was to look at things like recycle time, shelf life and performance issues. Both slow discharge (think eneloop) and more traditional NiMh batteries were compared. If you have a flash unit (or even a general need for rechargeable batteries) this is a great read.

Here's the link:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=677074


Disclaimer: The link to Servaas products is there because it's thanks to them I found the linked post. I received no special discount or offer in return for mentioning them.

[Matt. K]

Thanks Peter
Very useful. I'm still an Eneloop man.

[zafra52]

Thank you for sharing this with us. Very informative.

[aim54x]

A very imformative test, but i dont think 3 weeks is really a test of Low Self Discharge technology. Glen did some testing over a 3 month period on this matter.

Let me try to find that link again...
http://wolfeyes.com.au/news/?p=25

[servaasproducts]

Thanks Peter
Very useful. I'm still an Eneloop man.

For super high current devices over 4A, such as high powered LED AA torches, eneloop do out-perform the Powerex IMEDION low self discharge AA's, so we still sell eneloop AA batteries.

For all other applications, including speedlite flash photography and battery grips, IMEDION AA batteries outperform eneloop for number of shots fired, flash refresh rates, and self discharge, as shown in that Canon test, and in Glen's Nikon SB800 test. There is also an extensive test on the dpreview forum of self discharge rates here