I was given a Nikon flash for Christmas which I am loving (and have a lot to learn). ; It takes 4 AA batteries. ; I was looking to get some rechargable ones and see that there are choices. alkaline - what I am using now (I think just regular battery) lithium - longer lasting non-rechargable (I think) NiCad - ; rechargable NiMh - rechargable So my question is, what is the difference between the last two? ; I was looking on B&H and only came a across the NiMh ones. ; Any suggestions?
I use NiMh for all my flashes. They don't suffer from the "memory" issue that you can get with NiCad so they can don't need to have a full discharge before charing. And I believe (someone can confirm this) that NiCad is a lot more of a hazardous waste issue. NiMh last a LOT longer than alkys, plus they recharge the flash a LOT faster. With a fully charged set of 2800 (or so), I can shoot a LONG time. If I know I'm going to be flashing a lot, I'll bring two additional sets of charged batteries but usually I'm only needing a second set (and that's more to speed up the recycle time). With the relatively inexpensive costs for rechargables, the only restriction that I've run into is allowing enough time for charging. I used to carry a set of lithiums for backups but after a year of non-use I went ahead and cycled them out. Only carry NiMh nowadays.
What Tom said. ; I've been using the precharged kind (Eneloop is one brand) now and it seems to do just fine. ; The precharged kind usually have a lower mAh rating but can supposedly hold their charge better once off the charger.
