I have a new Nikon Coolpix camera, and it is rated at 0.9A @ 3V. It is powered by two AA cells. I had to buy new NiMH rechargeables to power it, as my old NiCd rechargeables, which have seen a lot of use over the years, couldn't deliver this kind of current for long. The camera will also run with alkaline cells, but they have to be brand-new.

A little over a week ago, I bought a low cost MP3 player that runs from a single AAA cell. The expected battery life is 8 hours, but the cell that came with the player only ran it for about 5 hours. I measured the MP3 player's current drain at 130 mA (from a AAA cell!!)

I would have never thought that anyone would try to pull so much current from AA and AAA cells. I guess that short battery life is a problem that is only going to get worse as the demand for smaller form factors forces the use of smaller and smaller batteries. All the whining aside, I do appreciate that there are cameras and MP3 players that use standard-sized batteries. I won't buy equipment that uses special battery packs for fear that replacement batteries will become difficult to find when the product that they go into is discontinued.

I own 3 Canon DSLR digital cameras, the first of which I purchased in 2001. They all use the same Canon BP-511 battery pack. I'm not worried about it being discontinued, because there are millions of cameras using this battery pack out there, including 3rd party battery makers.

These cameras are extremely efficient on battery use. I can often shoot an entire day on a single battery (I mean, hundreds of pictures). Granted I'm not using a flash (most recent camera has no built-in flash). But the replacement batteries are cheap (only about $25 each for 3rd-party) and almost disposable. They last for at least 2 years at almost full strength. I'm quite happy with this arrangement.

On the other hand, I've had issues using rechargeable AA batteries in cameras. My Mom's always seems to run out of batteries. And it's kind of a pain to replace them (hers takes 4 AAs). She winds up using disposible AAs half the time anyway.

Just another perspective, Alfredo. :-)

Andrew

Thanks for the tip. I'm OK with battery packs that can be bought from 3rd party sources. For example, I have an old Icom 2 meter handie talkie, and I have been very easily been able to find replacement battery packs and cells. I am a bit surprised that the professional cameras seem to be a bit more frugal on the power than the consumer ones. My camera gets slightly warm to the touch in operation, even if the flash is turned off.

The flashlight folks have lots of discussions about battery types:

http://www.candlepowerforums.com/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=9

Topics range from things like "Anybody use NiCd anymore" to run-times/shelf life of various types, to concerns about exploding batteries. Some good reading there.

I was concerned once about the high prices of the LIP-8 (Li-ion) pack used in Sony MD recorders (about 35-50 bucks at the time), but the situation changed, this pack has found use in more devices such as cameras, and can now be found on-line for around 12 bucks! The other good news is that the original pack (about 10 years old) is STILL doing fine (perhaps 70% of new capacity).

I once purchased a portable MP-3 player that was not an iPod mostly because the battery pack could easily be replaced... turned out to be a bad deal, the cover was always falling off! I glued the cover in place, and have not needed to break it open!

The Li-ion pack in my 7 year old cell phone was still going strong when AT&T rendered the device useless by shutting down the TDMS service!

The bottom line is that I am now comfortable with Li-ion packs and really do not care much if they can be easily replaced.

Alfredo--
"A little over a week ago, I bought a low cost MP3 player that runs from a single AAA cell. The expected battery life is 8 hours, but the cell that came with the player only ran it for about 5 hours. I measured the MP3 player's current drain at 130 mA (from a AAA cell!!)"


What brand/model is it? And is its memory expandable (to how much would you say??)

The player is an Emprex MP1003. According to the manual, it will accept SD or MMC cards up to 1GB, although I have seen reports of some people successfully using 2GB cards with this player. I'm using a 1GB SD card.

Where did you find it? I went around six different places this afternoon and didn't come across one. (Three of those places--a Radio Shack, a Sears and a Fred Meyer's--only gave me a blank stare.) And how much do they cost?

FRY'S - $15

Thanks......

Take a memory card, formatted simple FAT, or maybe FAT 32, with some good mp3 files on it.

..and a AAA battery too.

These players vary some on the DAC side of things. I've two of them. One is just excellent. The other has noise artifacts. They are small <20Db or so, but are noticable on quiet passages.

Just try yours, if it kind of sucks, go and get another one.

My Motorola V360 cell phone has a built-in MP3 player but unfortunately the stupid thing can't accept more than a 512MB micro-SD card. I bought a 2GB card at Costco and it doesn't work, after Googling I realized the phone doesn't support big cards. Too bad, I have no desire to carry more than one piece of electronics in my pocket.

Andrew

One feature that I think is really great about the Emprex MP1003 is that it behaves like a USB mass storage device. You can thus use it with Linux, Windows, or Macintosh. When connected to a USB port, power comes from the port and not the battery. If you happen to be at a computer, you can thus play the MP3s on the player's SD card without draining the battery. You can also use the player as a SD/MMC card reader.

The drawbacks are that the display is purely numeric, so your MP3s are identified as 001, 002, 003, etc. I think that the numbering scheme corresponds to the order in which the files were written to the card. Also, this player plays MPEG 1.0 and MPEG 2.0 files but not MPEG 2.5.