How long will batteries hold a charge?

I have a question about the battery packs most digitals use. I am in the market
for a digital camera, and the ones I like the most have the rechargeable
battery packs. I am taking a trip in a few months, and a portion of it will be
without reliable electricity for nearly 2 weeks. If I were to buy extra battery
packs, and charge them before the trip, how long would they last? I'm sure they
would slowly discharge over time, but I think they would hold for the 3 weeks
that I will be on the trip. Does anyone have any experience with this?

TIA

Todd

 

Id say that strongly depends on the camera. I'm a Marine, and when
going to the field I bring along my Sony CDMavica. Fully charged that
camera tells me I have about 150 minutes. Note that isn't too
reliable. The number can jump every once in a while by 10 minutes.
Depends on what your doing with the camera.
Also I think that "150" minutes will get me about 80 high res
pictures.

-Sean

 

Ni-MH AA cells are the most common rechargeables for digital cameras. They
self-discharge at a rate of about 1% per day. After two weeks they would be
down about 13%. To be safe take along some alkalines and lithiums.
Expensive but worth it. You can find AA cells in remote places where you
are not likely to find proprietary batteries, so avoid cameras with those
proprietary types. For about $100 you can get a solar charger setup. See
http://www.batterymart.com/battery.mv?p=ACC-04062

 

I've put the BP-511 Li-Ion batteries on charge for my Canon G5 that
have been sat in my bag for a month or more to top them up before use,
and found them charging for a matter of a minute or less, if you can
call that charging. They have exceptional life too. The G3, G5 and 10D
take these.

MJ

 

Rechargeable NIMH batteries would lose up to 30% of their charge in 3
weeks, which shouldn't be a major concern. Lithium Ion batteries would
lose much less.

 

I use Canon A series at work and use 2100 mA hour Nimh cells. When the
camera reports low power I pop in the 'fresh' set and put the old set on
charge. It's generally about 4 weeks between changes and I suppose I take a
few pictures several times a week (over half with the flash). If I had to
estimate it then I would say I get 4 to 5 hours of use from what I call a
fresh set of cells, in reality they are sat in the draw for 4 weeks after
charging. So a real fresh set should get me 6 hours or so - if only I knew
when to freshly charge them. Does the output voltage of the cell drop as
they discharge in the draw?

If I were going somewhere with no electricity for 2 weeks (shudder) I would
probably take 3 sets of freshly charged AA Nimh cells - should give me a
good 15 hours of power. I pay £7.00 ( around 12 dollars at the moment) for a
set - a lot less than a solar charger but, of course, less certain.

John

 

with a dayly self discharge (at no load!) of 1-2% for NiMH this may only be
true the first day and only if one uses the highes capacity batteries
available ..

 

While battery options are up to you, I'd avoid the battery packs, and I do.
I was going to purchase a Sony Cyber-Shot afew months ago, until I found a
TON of reviews concerning Sony's problem with their recharging batteries.
Maybe it's just the one model, but I figure if you buy new batteries as
needed, rather than relying on a battery pack, you'll have more options.

I like electronics that take widely available batteries, such as AA or AAA.
That way, they're relatively cheap, plentiful, and you get a new battery
instead of counting recharges until your pack is less than useful.