2AA do not equal 1 CRV3, how many shots do you get w/ CRV3?

[alashas]

Hello Oly users,

I've got an Oly SP350 with Sea & Sea YS110 TTL, and the battery charger for CRV3 batteries stopped working before we left for vacation in Jan. I went to a battery store as well as a camera store, and employees in both stores told me that "2 AAs are the same as 1 CRV3." So I bought their most highly recommended rechargeable AAs, "eneloop" by Sanyo. I don't have the chance to try anything before we left, other than experiment with a few shots and am confident that everything is working well. I'm hoping to get around 60 to 80 shots or more on a 2 tank morning dive on the 2 batteries. By around the 10th shot or so, battery light starts blinking. I turn the camera off and on between shots and manage to get around 40 shots on the dive. I change the batteries between dives, same thing happens on 2nd dive.

Fortunately, I find a camera store on Virgin Gorda, and purchase his 4 remaining Rayovac non-rechargeable CRV3 batteries. The batteries worked well, but I did not want to take a chance on the battery dying in the middle of the next day's dives, so I replace the battery each day at the end of a 2 tank dive. However, I left the battery in one day when I did a 3rd dive in the afternoon, and got 250 shots with that 1 battery, and it was still working when I replaced it for the next day's dives.

So, I'm considering just using nonrechargeable CRV3 batteries on my next trip, and am wondering how many shots I can anticipate on one battery. However, I'd also like to get feedback from you if you use a rechargeable CRV3 in terms of the # of shots you get per charge, and, of course, wich rechargeable CRV3 you recommend.

Thanks, alashas honeymoon2's photos- powered by SmugMug

 

[wwunder]

I believe there is a firmware update to make AA's work better.

I just use a rechargeable crv3 and easily get over 100 shots without recharging.

Cheers,

Warren

 

[JCT_UCB]

I believe there is a firmware update to make AA's work better.

I just use a rechargeable crv3 and easily get over 100 shots without recharging.

Cheers,

Warren

Any particular brand? I was going to go with rechargeable AA's for mine, but as it turns out, my strobe won't take NiMHs, so I was thinking of going to CRV3 for the SP-350.

JT

 

[wwunder]

I'm not sure of the brand... You should do well with just about any crv3-r and charger. They are really cheap on ebay. I bought mine locally and it was about $50 for the batt and charger. I think the cameras were designed for the higher voltage (3.6v) of lithiums and thats why you get problems with AA's (2x1.2v).

I'm surprised that you S&S ys-110 won't take NiMH AA's... for such a modern strobe it seems goofy to not use modern rechargeables.

 

[RockyHeap]

I've done the firmware update on my SP-350, and run either ni-cad 2200 mA, or 2300 ni-mh.

I can get a dive out of a set of batteries, shooting 60-80 shots, yes even with the firmware update I still get the dreaded low battery light and slower response time during the end of the dive, I ALWAYS swap out batteries and memory chip between dives.

I travel with 8-12 batteries on a trip, and always have a set of 4 on a charger back at the room.

 

[alashas]

I had no problems using the eneloop AAs mentioned above in my strobe: SANYO eneloop | Ready to use Rechargeable Battery - The only battery you will ever need: Home I have no idea how long the 4 last, because I swap them out when I change the camera batteries.

When I was doing the above search for AAs and CRV3s I did find out why a different set of rechargeable AAs weren't lasting long in my Cybershot. Apparently the 60 minute recharger that was recommended by a local store was frying the batteries.

Thanks for the above advice. I'll look into another CRV3 rechargeable.

Cheers, alashas honeymoon2's photos- powered by SmugMug

 

[livewire]

Can't speak for an SP350 as I own an older Oly C-5050, but the rechargeable CRV3's definitely give me more shots than the NiMH AA's. Couldn't speak to how many shots as I don't keep track, but they're good for 3 dives compared to 2 dives on the AA's. I'm using three different brands that I bought on eBay and chargers that all came from eBay and they all perform about the same. All are some Asian made flavor of battery and none are a brand name.

 

[jjwdiver]

Last trip to Cozumel:
I'm using the energizer Lithium crv3 batteries and swap out every day before dives. 2 tank boat dives and over 200 shots per day and have plenty of battery to preview when back in the room.

 

[Larry C]

I've been using rechargeable CRV-3's since I got my SP-350. I get 2-3 dives on a charge, and they take a couple of hours to recharge. Both my batteries (I bought a spare almost instantly) are still going strong after 2 years. The nonrechargeable CRV-3's that came with my two cameras were used topside with my back-up/topside camera. They lasted about a month each, probably a couple of thousand pictures. I've never used AA's in my cameras and other than the first day on a new rechargeable battery, before it was recharged and had it's capacity improved, I've never had the low battery light come on. I'll usually do two dives on a charge, then leave the camera on for another hour or so reviewing and showing the pictures. I've also never downloaded the firmware update for either camera and never had any problem, as my CRV-3R's are about .75v higher than aa's, and even when they're low they have higher voltage than a fully charged pair of aa's.

 

[merxlin]

I've been using a recharable CR-V3 (Moby brand). I have two batteries that I interchange, but these are 2 years old and are just now starting to lose the length of the charge they hold. I bet they have 2000 shots each on them. And I use 2500Ma NiMH rechargables in my YS-90 and have never had a problem.