Does anyone have a recommendation for the best batteries to use for my CoolPix 900? Thanks!

-- Jody Kind (kind@telisphere.com), February 04, 1999

Answers

I heartily second the suggestion of NiMH rechargeables. One added suggestion, if you're a relatively infrequent photographer, and want to be sure your batteries are always fresh: Good batteries can remain in a low-current trickle-charger continuously without damage. We have several sets of batteries here from our advertiser Thomas Distributing. (www.thomas-distributing.com), along with a few different types of chargers. They have trickle-chargers that take about 25 hours to fully charge the batteries, but you can just plug the batteries into the charger, and forget about them until your next shooting session. I think the trickle-charger is less than $10. For more money, they have a slick little unit (the MH-C204F) that will fast-charge in a few hours, but then drop to a very low current level to keep the batteries topped-off. Highly recommended, and their batteries are both cheap and great quality!

-- Dave Etchells (web@imaging-resource.com), February 06, 1999.

I've had good results using a total of 12 metal hydride batteries and a Radio Shack (Cat # 23-410 Around $50) charger. The only problem with these batteries is the short shelf life of sometimes less than 30 days. But I get around this by charging every week whether I intend to use the camera or not. Someone who takes a lot more pictures than I do (100 a month) may have a different system. Hope this helps.

-- Bob Benson (benson@gbasin.net), February 05, 1999.

The Toshiba alkalines that came with my 900S were unbelievably good although they're not rechargeable. After much research before even getting the camera, we invested in the Quest NiMH batteries and charger. Saves expense in buying new batteries even though they don't necessarily last a lot longer than the good alkalines, at least you can recharge them and use them over many times. I've seen some postings on the net of good prices, but we got ours where we got our camera, $37 some dollars for charger and 4 batteries, $19.95 for 4 of the Quest NiMH batteries without charger. Until I can invest in more sets of batteries (at LEAST one more), I use my Nikon AC adapter when shooting indoors and I run out of batteries. (We do a fair number of reptile/amphibian shots..critters that don't move around a whole lot.)

-- Debora Chandler (djmchandler.lnk@ispi.net), February 07, 1999.