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Wednesday, July 18, 2012

You need a battery tester

You need to not just carry extra batteries, but a battery tester as well.
Spare batteries

Everyone knows you must carry extra batteries. I am using rechargeable batteries most of the time today.  I have a few types of rechargeable batteries, but highly recommend eneloop batteries.  These are great and highly recommend them.

Here is a good blog on the eneloop http://www.stefanv.com/electronics/sanyo_eneloop.html


As we all know the battery will run out of juice sooner or later. This is why we carry extra batteries.


Battery Tester Saves

Years ago I was using rechargable batteries, but found them a pain.  The earlier ones I used in the 1980's just didn't hold a charge and while I had them in the bag charged, they would loose so much power I found them dead when I got ready to use them.

For many years I was using the alkaline batteries and then came along the lithium batteries. These were great.  They weighed so much less and lasted 8X longer than the alkaline batteries.

The newest Lithium AA batteries cost about $2 each and last up to about 8X longer than other traditional batteries.
If you have used them you know they are expensive and this was inspiring me to test them and see if they were all bad, so I would bring those batteries I replaced home. I would test them with a battery tester and found most of them were still good.

Here you can see my Nikon SB-800 in my ThinkTank bag and my spare rechargeable batteries.
While having all these batteries with me is great when I would replace the batteries I would often toss the ones I took out that were Alkaline or Lithium, until I found out that of the 4 batteries three were still good and only one was bad.

I am finding that on my Nikon SB-800 and Nikon SB-900 that usually only one battery is dead when the flash says the battery is dead.
Here you can see the pocket size battery tester I use all the time.  They cost between $3 to $10.
I carry my charged batteries in this PowerPax holder. This carries 12 AA batteries.
I carry the battery tester in my ThinkTank Airport Security™ V 2.0 Rolling Camera Bag.

When I pull the batteries out and test them. I find the one battery that is dead. I am often only replacing one battery.

Be sure in your camera bag you carry a battery tester--it is a great investment.

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