Battery Chargers For Digital Cameras 101

Executive summary by David Michael Brewster

Battery chargers allow your digital camera to keep functioning till you get that perfect shot; because digital cameras tend to be one of the most demanding electronic instruments on battery capacity, these chargers are in high demand.

In order to get the most out of your batteries, and your digital camera, you not only want to have batteries with high capacity NiMH cells, you also need to have a good-quality battery charger. Others actually overcharge and eventually damage the batteries. Choosing the best for your digital camera will allow you to get optimum use from your batteries and your camera.

Advancements

Although the 204F offered support for NiCd cells, the Maha Powerex C-204W only supports NiMH batteries.

Quality Testing

In order to compensate, some chargers switch to a ‘trickle off’ mode once the fast charge is complete, so that the charger can ‘top off’ the batteries. A battery charger that consistently overheats batteries will prematurely exhaust the batteries and shorten its life.

Tests have found that the Maha Powerex C-240W is a smart battery charger. This keeps the charger from overcharging or undercharging battery cells that have diverse usage patterns.

The Maha Powerex C-240W battery charger is reasonably priced at approximately $30. It’s important to keep the quality and the price in mind when choosing battery chargers for digital cameras.
Taking Care Of Your Rechargeable Batteries

Executive summary by Bill Fowle

There are three major types of rechargeable batteries used in digital cameras: Nickel cadmium (NiCad), nickel metal hydride (NiMH), and lithium ion (Li-on). If you try to recharge them sooner, the ‘memory effect’ kicks in and the battery will not charge fully. NiCad’s can not take as much of a charge as the newer kinds batteries, so they will not last as long in a digital camera.

Then came along NiMH batteries. They work really well in digital cameras as they have been able to pack a whole lot more power into each battery. If you check the fine print, they make batteries now with 2700 mah (milli amp hours), basically a rating of how long a battery will last (the higher the mah the better). The other advantage to NiMH is the charging. These batteries like to get charged. They work best when discharged to 40-60% capacity, and then recharged.

All rechargeable batteries tend to loose their power a bit even if they are not being used. This way each battery gets the proper charge it needs, not just a charge averaged over all four. If you get one of the newer fast chargers be aware that the batteries get very hot while charging. Be careful how you store the fully charged batteries. Please take care.

For reference of camera battery charger, please click here.