NiMh battery problems!

[dgn]

Hi,
I am using a PowerShot A570IS and decided to buy a set or rechargeable batteries for it. The user manual say use canons NiMH but it shouldn't matter if you buy another brand right? They all have 1.2V and its only the capacity that differs. I went to the supermarket and bought a energizer charger with 4 energizer rechargables (2450mAh). I charged them with the charger overnight and on the morning it had turned off as it should. I put the batteries in the camera and about 5 min later the low battery came on and 5 min later it turned of and told me I should change batteries! So what happened? I turned on CHDK and checked the voltage and it was between 2.4 and 2.5 as it should with NiMH, so is the camera not designed for 1.2V batteries or why does it turn off. I cleaned the battery connectors on the camera but no difference. Anyway I will try to return the charger today and get my money back and if you guys say it should work with NiMH I will go for Sanyo Eneloop because of the low discharge rate. Anyone tried these?

Thanks for any help!
Niclas

 

[RonFrank]

Hi,
I am using a PowerShot A570IS and decided to buy a set or rechargeable batteries for it. The user manual say use canons NiMH but it shouldn't matter if you buy another brand right? They all have 1.2V and its only the capacity that differs. I went to the supermarket and bought a energizer charger with 4 energizer rechargables (2450mAh). I charged them with the charger overnight and on the morning it had turned off as it should. I put the batteries in the camera and about 5 min later the low battery came on and 5 min later it turned of and told me I should change batteries! So what happened? I turned on CHDK and checked the voltage and it was between 2.4 and 2.5 as it should with NiMH, so is the camera not designed for 1.2V batteries or why does it turn off. I cleaned the battery connectors on the camera but no difference. Anyway I will try to return the charger today and get my money back and if you guys say it should work with NiMH I will go for Sanyo Eneloop because of the low discharge rate. Anyone tried these?

Thanks for any help!
Niclas

I'm confused. "They all have 1.2V"? "I turned on CHDK and checked the voltage and it was between 2.4 and 2.5 as it should with NiMH". I assume you checked the voltage of the battery, and it was 2.4?

It sounds like you are trying to use batteries with with the wrong voltage, but I can not tell from your post. DPReview indicates that this camera works with NiMH batteries, and they should give you about 400 shots. However the conclusion says that battery life is disappointing. That maybe compared to other similar cameras, or compared to as advertised, they don't say, and I did not read the entire review, feel free!

 

[Nemrod]

Hi,
I am using a PowerShot A570IS and decided to buy a set or rechargeable batteries for it. The user manual say use canons NiMH but it shouldn't matter if you buy another brand right? They all have 1.2V and its only the capacity that differs. I went to the supermarket and bought a energizer charger with 4 energizer rechargables (2450mAh). I charged them with the charger overnight and on the morning it had turned off as it should. I put the batteries in the camera and about 5 min later the low battery came on and 5 min later it turned of and told me I should change batteries! So what happened? I turned on CHDK and checked the voltage and it was between 2.4 and 2.5 as it should with NiMH, so is the camera not designed for 1.2V batteries or why does it turn off. I cleaned the battery connectors on the camera but no difference. Anyway I will try to return the charger today and get my money back and if you guys say it should work with NiMH I will go for Sanyo Eneloop because of the low discharge rate. Anyone tried these?

Thanks for any help!
Niclas

Not sure I understand your problem. I use either Duracell "Precharged" or Sanyo Eneloop in my three 570s and my Inon strobes with no issues. These two batteries if they are not the same they are virtually the same. I can see no difference in the way they perform.

You can purchase the Duracell "Precharged" with several matched chargers, fast or slow, and both chargers work with the Sanyo as well.

You will like either of these much better than the Energizer standard NiMh batteries.

N

 

[dgn]

I'm confused. "They all have 1.2V"? "I turned on CHDK and checked the voltage and it was between 2.4 and 2.5 as it should with NiMH". I assume you checked the voltage of the battery, and it was 2.4?

Sorry it was a bit confusing. Normal AA alkaline batteries has a voltage of 1.5V but rechargables have a voltage of 1.2V(even canons NiMH have 1.2V). So when I measured the voltage with the CHDK(canon hack developers kit it has a function to measure the voltage of the batteries) it is the voltage for the two batteries in the camera. Because they are connected in series in the camera the voltage for two NiMH would be 2*1.2V = 2.4V. I will read the review and see what they say!

 

[dgn]

Not sure I understand your problem. I use either Duracell "Precharged" or Sanyo Eneloop in my three 570s and my Inon strobes with no issues. These two batteries if they are not the same they are virtually the same. I can see no difference in the way they perform.

You can purchase the Duracell "Precharged" with several matched chargers, fast or slow, and both chargers work with the Sanyo as well.

You will like either of these much better than the Energizer standard NiMh batteries.

The problem was that even if the batteries are fully charged the low battery starts to flash. If the camera was not designed to use NiMH batteries it would make sense because when normal alkaline has dropped to 1.2V they are low. And if I then put in NiMH even if they were fully charged the camera would not work because the voltage is to low. But as you say it works for you and therefore the camera is designed to run at this voltage and something must be wrong with my camera or the batteries.

 

[RonFrank]

Some camera's have a setting for using NiMH batteries. I have no idea if yours does or not, but it's worth checking.

 

[herman]

Try using a different set of batteries. It is not unheard of for new NiMH batteries to be defective. While not a good test, discharge the suspect batteries then put them back in the charger. Closely watch them, if one recharges a lot quicker than the others, something is wrong. If they were used in the same application together then they should be at the same discharge level and therefore should require roughly the same amount of time to recharge. Very different recharge times indicates something is amiss.

 

[Nemrod]

The problem was that even if the batteries are fully charged the low battery starts to flash. If the camera was not designed to use NiMH batteries it would make sense because when normal alkaline has dropped to 1.2V they are low. And if I then put in NiMH even if they were fully charged the camera would not work because the voltage is to low. But as you say it works for you and therefore the camera is designed to run at this voltage and something must be wrong with my camera or the batteries.

No, no, they do NOT work for me, the batteries you have will NOT work for me. The standard NiMh batteries do NOT work for me. The Duracell "Precharged" type and the Sanyo Eneloop types WILL work for me and work much better than any other type. If you are not using the Duracell "Precharged" or the Sanyo Eneloop then it is quite possible your camera will show a low voltage.

The Eneloop and Precharged hold a higher voltage and have a flatter discharge longer through the discharge cycle than standard NiMh batteries such as you purchased.

N

 

[Puffer Fish]

No, no, they do NOT work for me, the batteries you have will NOT work for me. The standard NiMh batteries do NOT work for me. The Duracell "Precharged" type and the Sanyo Eneloop types WILL work for me and work much better than any other type. If you are not using the Duracell "Precharged" or the Sanyo Eneloop then it is quite possible your camera will show a low voltage.

The Eneloop and Precharged hold a higher voltage and have a flatter discharge longer through the discharge cycle than standard NiMh batteries such as you purchased.

N

There are some very nice diagnostic chargers out there right now...I have the Powerex one. I used to use the really high rated one (2700 - 2900)...but with that charger, you can test how good they actually are, and see how uniformly they discharge (and charge)...

Those regular batteries:

1. Just dropping from a table to the floor will damage them.

2. They tend to have different resistance, so they discharge differently, sometimes all the power will come from one battery, and when it dies, the device dies.

3. It is a shell game, where they get the rating by using a lower voltage point.

4. They can get very hot if used for a lot of pictures in a short time.

I have switched to slow discharge ones... they are more uniform, don't heat up... tend to actually have more power than the regular ones...

It is all I use now...

 

[dgn]

Thanks for all the tips! I manage to get at full refund for the batteries and charger so now I have ordered a set of eneloop. I couldn't find them in any of the stores here so I ordered from ebay. So I have to wait a couple of weeks before I can try them out!