Save the Environment: Rechargeables

I go through about 2-3 sets of these per shoot. Back in April I went to Taiwan and purchased 32 of these suckers along with a charger. At 1.2V (vs. 1.5V for the alkalines) and 2100mAH they hold a good charge and perform just as well as any alkalines that I've ever used. With the charger they recharge in about 4 hours which means that if I'm diligent in recharging my batteries, I can be ready for a full shoot the next day even if I go through 3-4 sets of batteries.

The really good thing about these things is that I CAN recharge them after every shoot. With alkalines you want to get your money's worth so you use them down to the last drop. However, as they start to deplenish in charge, they're also recylcing slower which means you're waiting longer and longer with each flash. The luxury of using rechargeables means you can use them 1/4 of the way down and then put in a fresh set of full-charged replacements while the other ones recharge. This ensures that you're always shooting at the maximum recycle rate. Typically I find this helps me the most when I have the Ray Flash ringflash adapter on the SB-800 mounted on the D3 because I need power to push enough light through the Ray Flash... which means I'm typically shooting at full power and quickly draining the batteries.

Sure, if I shot with alkalines I wouldn't have gone through nearly as many sets of batteries as I've charged my NiMH (Panasonic and 1 set of Sanyo Eneloop). Using rechargeables is good for the environment though. Also as a side note, I don't leave the batteries in the charger long after they're charged so the heat doesn't kill the batteries (when I remember to take them off the charger).