My new Fujifilm digital camera manual tells me to not use NiCad batteries. They instead reccomend either alkaline or NiMH batteries. This is really inconvenient because I happen to have a NiCad battery charger. My question is, how will the use of NiCad batteries hurt my camera if they are the same voltage?
Notes- I am aware they will not last as long as NiMH. The batteries are size AA.
Ni Cad - at best - will have a very short life (before charge) in the camera. At worst they may damage the camera (apparently)
My old fuji camera (finepix 2600 zoom) said definately don’t use ni-cads and only use alkalines if you have to.
I reccomend you get some NiMH batteries and a charger. NiMH actually last longer than non-rechargeables (alkaline)
Which camera have you got?
NiCad batteries won’t damage your camera, but they are not reliable. They suffer from “memory leak”. The battery holds less and less charge every time you use it if you overcharge it. You have to COMPLETELY drain the battery during each use, which is of course not practical. Also, they drain while not in use, which sucks as well. It just may be Fuji is considering that your particular camera needs more sustained juice? I don’t know the specs, so I couldn’t speculate. I hope that helped a little.
I don’t think they make NiCad batteries anymore due to ecological reasons.
nicad batteries are still indeed produced… but you are correct about the environmental damage. From what I remember, Cadmium is dangerous simple because it has no known biological role on earth. It can be devastating… and I do believe some counties have banned it for that reason.
Oh, and back to the camera, if the manual says not to use them, don’t use them.
Good. Lord.
Using the wrong batteries won’t damage your camera.
The worst thing you risk is having a picture screwed up when the battery goes flat when the camera doesn’t expect it.
For the record:
A properly handled NI-Cad will out live a Ni-Mh battery. The Ni-Cad will run through about 1000 charge/discharge cycles, possibly more. A Ni-Mh will last about 500 charge/dischrge cycles.
A Ni-Cad that has been mishandled can be regenerated at the cost of a few charge/discharge cycles.
Ni-Mh batteries come in higher capacities than Ni-Cad, and therefore will last longer on a single charge than a Ni-Cad.
Ni-Mh batteries have a slightly higher cell voltage than Ni-Cad, so that a device that expects a Ni-Mh battery will (falsely) report as discharged a Ni-Cad that still has useful capacity.
Ni-Cad batteries are still produced in large numbers. Nearly all battery powered hand tools use them. They have a higher discharge current than Ni-Mh, which is important for that type of use. Also, Ni-Mh batteries don’t like high discharge currents. Discharging a NiMh at more than .2H times the AH rating will cause loss of charge/discharge cycles.
Ni-Mh batteries self discharge faster then Ni-Cad. Take two batteries, one of each type but of the same capacity and charge and store them for a week. The Ni-Cad will have retained more of its charge than the Ni-Mh. Ni-Cad self discharges at about 5% per day, Ni-Mh at 10-15% per day.
Finally, a word about environmental “friendliness.” The rechargable lithium batteries you will find in most cell-phones these days have a useful life of about three years. Stored or in use, a lithium battery loses capacity all the time. After about three years, the cells have lost about half of their original capacity. This, compared to Ni-Cad or Ni-Mh batteries whose useful life depends more on usage and handling than on simple time. If I don’t use my phone (with NiMh batteries) for a couple of years, all I have to do is run it through a couple of charge/discharge cycles and it will as good as the last time I used it. Ni-Cads are a little different - it depends more on proper preparation before storage - but similar. A lithium battery will have lost two years of capacity. If it was one year old when I last used it, and I didn’t use it for two years, it will have lost half of its capacity forever. Lithium batteries lose capacity because the lithium (which is the third lightest element and very chemically active) migrates out of the cell - right through the housing and into the environment and gone forever. Lithium also has a limited number of charge/discharge cycles, something in the hundreds of cycles.
Which is more environmentally friendly, a battery that can be used for a longer time but has poisonous elements (which can be recycled) or one which basically self destructs after a few years and whose most important element disappears forever?
Hmm. The short answer to your question:
If you use Ni-Cad batteries, then you will be disappointed in the number of pictures you can take per charge. Otherwise there is no real danger in using them.
I’ll second what Mort Furd said. I’ve used both types in all sorts of things, and the only problem caused by NiCd that I’ve come across is:
The “nominal voltage” of both NiMh and NiCd batteries is 1.2V, Alkalines are 1.5V. Alkalines are poor choices in high drain devices like digital cameras as their voltage curve and internal resistance is bad. (I.e., they lose voltage quickly while heating up.)
NiMhs generally have higher capacity than NiCds. This can be important in certain types of high drain devices as they can deliver the right current for a longer period of time without overheating.
I strongly suspect the reason NiCds are advices against in the Fuji digital camera is due to heat possibly being a problem. Substitution of NiMhs by NiCds might therefore risk damaging the equipment as well as starting a fire. (There have been several recalls/warnings about burns and even fires in digital cameras due to battery problems.)
You hit the nail on the head here. Pound-for-pound, NiCad’s have lower source impedence than NiMh’s. This makes them better suited for applications that require high current, such as power tools. However, I have seen one tool manufacturer come out with a NiMh drill. It’s a classic trade-off; it has less power than an equivalent NiCad drill, but will last longer on a single charge.
Not true. Alkalines have a very flat discharge rate, comparable, if not better, than any other type. Maybe you are thinking of the old carbon “heavy duty” batteries. Alkalines are an excelent choice if you do not use the camera or otehr appliance much. They hold twice as much as a NiMH battery. The only thing is you can save money with rechargeables but if money is no object alkalines are the best choice.
As appears to be the case - there is some disagreement on the subject.
So if I were you - I’d play it safe and do what your camera instructions say - use NiMH batteries, and buy a NiMH charger.
Using something other than what the manufacturer recommends may also void your warranty.
Well, just to add some more spice, how about those Renewal rechargable alkalines?
(Perfect OP, I’m in the exact situation the OP is in, new digicam, and a NiCad recharger.)
I agree with all the above (except the stuff that’s wrong). Consumer electronics don’t know whether the electrons are from Ni-Cad, Ni-Mh, Alkaline, Heavy Duty, Lithium, cold fusion or a hamster on a wheel. If you provide the right polarity, voltage and amperage, the unit doesn’t care.
In case it’s not readily obvious to you, the flash and LCD viewfinder are two of the more power-consumptive features of your camera. If you shoot a few photos at a time in daylight, use the LCD sparingly, and don’t mind recharging your batteries overnight, go ahead and stick with the Ni-Cads and your old style charger.
This is the least expensive solution. If you need more power for whatever reason you’ll have to spend some more money.
As far as owner’s manuals go, I would take the manufacturer’s recommendations with a grain of salt. Every consumer electronic product manual I’ve seen has come with the admonition to use only the manufacturer’s own proprietary AC adapter. But with very few exceptions, so long as you meet the polarity, voltage, and current requirements, you can use any source of electrons you choose and the unit will never know.
Thanks for the great posts. The camera is a FUJI FinePix 3800 and it’s excellend, but it goes through batteries fast. I have decided to try one set of NiCad batteries and if all goes well, keep using them. If not, I’ll just buy the charger for NiMH batteries. It should pay off, I’ve been through about $12 in alkaline batteries just this week.
I’ll still take reccomendations on websites comparing the types of batteries.
I’ve used NiCads and NiMH in my digitial camera. Trust me, you’ll quickly buy the NiMH/charger.
I have used fresh AA alkaline batteries in a digital camera - a Fujifilm, in fact - and they were not at all viable. They lasted for perhaps 4 minutes and under a dozen pictures. The AA NiMH batteries that I purchased shortly afterward can last for half an hour or more, and for 50-150 pictures.
If you don’t use your digital camera much, and don’t want the hassle of making sure you’re charged-up before using it, try disposable lithium cells, which have the grunt to get some work done and excellent shelf life. They cost a fortune, of course, but so does 10 sets of alkalines.
This is not true in this context. In very high drain devices NiCds have a flat discharge curve, not alkalines. Alkalines in low drain vs. high drain devices behave very differently. (I.e, you get noticable voltage depression quite quickly with digital cameras.) “If you don’t use the camera much” is a very odd statement. To keep alkalines going in a digital camera for very long you would have to extremely careful turning it on and off, not using the LCD, etc. Of course alkalines last even better if you don’t use the camera at all!
Some links 1 and [2](http://www.starbatteries.com/batteryfaqs.html#Are alkaline batteries).
“The AA NiMH batteries that I purchased shortly afterward can last for half an hour or more, and for 50-150 pictures.”
I looked in my digital camera manual & they said I could get 400-800 photos (regular resolution) from one set of batteries. ha. Thing is my AA NiMHs have to stay in the charger all the time to be fresh.