I've written a digital camera battery guide. It's a basic introduction about all the different types of batteries you can use in your digital camera and contains some tips on caring for batteries and how to get the most from your batteries.

Let me know what you guys think!

Very nice KJ!! Great tips!!

It all sounds good to me. However I’m not sure about “Most often it is best to choose a camera that uses normal sized AA batteries”, It sounds like a decisive buying point. Perhaps it could go along the lines of: Whilst a camera that takes AA batteries will make it easy to find replacements, carrying a spare proprietary battery or two will ensure you don’t run out of power at a vital moment. Just a suggestion. You have created a very useful guide that I’m sure a lot of people will appreciate.

Seeing as it’s about batteries. We have an ancient slide viewer, the info sheet tells us that “It is better to be removing batteries when unusing long time”. It cracks me up every time I read it.

I disagree...my Canon S2 IS takes AA batteries and it's Grrrreat!! I have the rechargable ones and can get over 425 snaps on a single charge (I also have spares waiting in the wings), but it's nice to know I can go to pretty much any gas station, Wal-Mart or other place 24/7 and pic up some regulare AA's if need be in a dire emergency.

Touché

I’m glad you’re happy with your camera. However my point was that the type of battery shouldn’t be a deal breaking decision for which camera they buy.

Agree, no...not a deal breaker!! But something to consider, that's all baby!! :~)

all you have to do is get a camera like a d70 whose battery hardly ever dies.

or buy a battery grip ( for c 20 d ), 2500 shots in one loading :-)

the battery grip if the option is available is always a wise move becuase of the greatly increased shooting capacity and generally the grips vastly improve the ergonomics of the camera body - especially with the duplication of controls for portrait shooting.

Very well written KJ. I found the 'prolonging battery life" useful myself :). There were a couple of things I don't know about~
One of the things that I have done recently is purchase a car charger for my camera battery. It is a propriety battery (I have 2). If I am out and we have a car available, I can pop it into the charger. It has certainly made a difference for me.
Thanks for posting that :~)

i don't know if this is helpful or not, but i use an ac adaptor for when i use the camera at home (uploading or whatever) and coupled with a dc to ac car adaptor, one could use their camera in the car ( road trip photos, etc)

My partners mother recently had to buy a new battery for her camera because the old one was completely dead. THe guy who sold it to them advised them to try putting the old battery in the freezer (overnight I think) and see if they could get any more use out of it... it worked apparantly, although he said it would only be useful as a backup. Don't know if theres more detailed info out there anywhere.

Thanks for all the great input guys. I appreciate it! I think the choice between AA and propriety batteries is a decisive buying decision (at least for me). Being in the middle of nowhere it is often times extremely difficult to get a hold of replacements for propriety batteries.

But if you are smart and charge your battery then it never happens. Also if you are in the middle of nowhere (like on a mountian) you can't buy batteries anyways.

I meant "middle of nowhere" figuratively. I'm not close to any large cities so you really struggle to get hold of even the most basic tech related things. The only real halfway reliable method is to order online, and then the waiting period is normally around 2-3 weeks minimum.