{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-blogposting-js","path":"/blog/battery_hell","result":{"data":{"mdx":{"body":"function _extends() { _extends = Object.assign || function (target) { for (var i = 1; i < arguments.length; i++) { var source = arguments[i]; for (var key in source) { if (Object.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(source, key)) { target[key] = source[key]; } } } return target; }; return _extends.apply(this, arguments); }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutProperties(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded); var key, i; if (Object.getOwnPropertySymbols) { var sourceSymbolKeys = Object.getOwnPropertySymbols(source); for (i = 0; i < sourceSymbolKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceSymbolKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; if (!Object.prototype.propertyIsEnumerable.call(source, key)) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } } return target; }\n\nfunction _objectWithoutPropertiesLoose(source, excluded) { if (source == null) return {}; var target = {}; var sourceKeys = Object.keys(source); var key, i; for (i = 0; i < sourceKeys.length; i++) { key = sourceKeys[i]; if (excluded.indexOf(key) >= 0) continue; target[key] = source[key]; } return target; }\n\n/* @jsxRuntime classic */\n\n/* @jsx mdx */\nvar _frontmatter = {\n  \"date\": \"2007-04-16T07:00:00.000Z\",\n  \"updated\": \"2007-04-16T07:00:00.000Z\",\n  \"type\": \"BlogPosting\",\n  \"title\": \"Battery Hell...  I think I may be out of it?\",\n  \"entityId\": \"0456a830-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5\",\n  \"revisionId\": \"0456a831-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5\",\n  \"revisionNum\": 1,\n  \"tags\": {\n    \"arts.meta.photo_gear\": [{\n      \"@id\": \"batteries\",\n      \"objClass\": \"tag\"\n    }, {\n      \"@id\": \"charger\",\n      \"objClass\": \"tag\"\n    }],\n    \"arts.meta.techniques\": [{\n      \"@id\": \"arts.meta.techniques.strobist\",\n      \"objClass\": \"ontag\"\n    }],\n    \"arts.meta.review_compensation\": [{\n      \"@id\": \"arts.meta.review_compensation.uncompensated\",\n      \"objClass\": \"ontag\"\n    }]\n  },\n  \"sidebar\": \"I shot three rolls of IR820c so far. I've got the third one hanging in the shower right now. I'll talk more about IR film availability and stuff later this week.\",\n  \"srcImages\": [\"arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile\"]\n};\nvar layoutProps = {\n  _frontmatter: _frontmatter\n};\nvar MDXLayout = \"wrapper\";\nreturn function MDXContent(_ref) {\n  var components = _ref.components,\n      props = _objectWithoutProperties(_ref, [\"components\"]);\n\n  return mdx(MDXLayout, _extends({}, layoutProps, props, {\n    components: components,\n    mdxType: \"MDXLayout\"\n  }), mdx(\"a\", {\n    href: \"/blog/battery_hell/bc900_charger/\"\n  }, mdx(props.imgs.Img1, {\n    width: \"320px\",\n    align: \"left\"\n  })), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I\\u2019ve noticed that I suddenly have a lot of AA battery powered photo gear. There\\u2019s the A95 which serves as my light/flash meter and photographic sketchpad that takes 4 AA batteries. There\\u2019s 2 \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"/blog/sunpack_383_super/\"\n  }, \"Sunpak 383 Supers\"), \" and a 1 Sunpak 144PC, and each one takes 4 AA batteries. There\\u2019s the kinda cruddy \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"/blog/sunpack_digital_flash/\"\n  }, \"Sunpak Digital Flash\"), \" that is now just used to trigger slaves off of my RB67 that takes 2 AA batteries. Finally, there\\u2019s the \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"/blog/lighting_christmas/\"\n  }, \"Quantaray QS-1\"), \" that takes 2 AAA batteries\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Meanwhile, the \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"/blog/my_mamiya_rb67/\"\n  }, \"Mamiya RB67\"), \" takes no batteries at all, and the Canon TX takes a single button cell that lasts forever. But I think \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://photondetector.com/blog/2007/04/06/all-manual-cameras/\"\n  }, \"Nicolai covers how I can\\u2019t go on about how cool this is quite well\"), \". :)\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"If you count up, there\\u2019s clearly a need for fully charged 18 AA batteries at any time.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"The first battery charger was a dead simple trickle charger. If I took it apart, I\\u2019m sure I would find two channels of current limiters. Batteries are charged in pairs, overnight. I slowly started acquiring rechargeable AA batteries so that I could have a set for the A95 and the 144PC (which was the only battery-sucking gear at the time) and be able to swap out batteries.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"When I went to Peru, I picked up a universal-voltage charger. It was also a fast charger. This is when I started noticing battery hell. The symptoms are that I\\u2019d charge a battery but it would appear to be dead when I put it in the A95 instantly. I started carrying alkaline batteries as backups because I couldn\\u2019t trust that I\\u2019d have sufficient numbers of rechargeables. I figured that I just had grabbed the wrong set the first few times it happened. I\\u2019m sure if I took that one apart, I\\u2019d find some amount of circuitry that doesn\\u2019t quite detect when a battery is fully charged and very likely it also charges in pairs.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I got fed up and \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/lacrosseBC900.htm\"\n  }, \"read the reviews\"), \" about the \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"http://www.lacrossetechnology.com/900/index.php\"\n  }, \"LaCrosse BC-900\"), \" and got one.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I found out that there\\u2019s a lot of weird myths and half-truths about rechargeables. For example, most times when a battery starts acting up, it\\u2019s not actually the \\u201Cmemory effect\\u201D. Often times, it\\u2019s that you need to discharge the battery all the way and the battery puts out low voltage that convinces the camera that the battery is about to die\\u2026 but there\\u2019s still plenty of power. Or the cells in a set have worn differently so one battery never quite gets enough charge or discharge. Things like that. The fun part is that if the cells in a set get too far from each other, you\\u2019ll ruin one battery out of the set.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"The BC-900 is nice because each battery has it\\u2019s own channel, so you can ensure that each battery gets topped off at the proper rate. All of my battery sets had some degree of imbalance between the individual batteries in the set, such that sometimes a battery would take an hour longer than the others to go through the charge/discharge cycle. This was most evident in the set that I caught acting like it was dead right after a charge. Now it works fine.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"It can also discharge a battery all the way down before it charges it, which will make the batteries behave better. Plus, there\\u2019s a \\u201Crefresh\\u201D mode for batteries that have low voltage problems that discharges and recharges them repeatedly. It even lets me specify how much of a rush I\\u2019m in, letting me charge it at a slow battery-life-preservation rate or charge it quickly if I need a fresh battery fast.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"I can tell that the LaCrosse has been designed properly even without taking it apart. The only real flaw is that the button interface is a smidge clunky.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"It got worse before it got better. I was in uber-battery-hell, where I had NO idea if the digital camera would work in a given situation, so I just stopped shooting the digital P&S camera at all unless I absolutely needed it. I ended up using the \\u201CRefresh\\u201D mode on the LaCrosse on a few sets and throwing one set out. I also got a few extra sets of batteries, so that I\\u2019d be certain to have backup batteries.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, mdx(\"strong\", {\n    parentName: \"p\"\n  }, \"Update:\"), \" The charger won\\u2019t always charge an almost-totally discharged battery. If it won\\u2019t charge one battery in a set, you can see about letting it sit for a few days and then charging it for a while in a simple dumb charger until it\\u2019s charged enough to charge on the LaCrosse. Also, the C cell adapters that come with it don\\u2019t always fit perfectly into all C cell electronics.\"));\n}\n;\nMDXContent.isMDXComponent = true;","id":"e1d85592-a995-5991-9341-4335aa1031f6","fields":{"sidebar":"<p>I shot three rolls of IR820c so far. I've got the third one hanging in the shower right now. I'll talk more about IR film availability and stuff later this week.</p>\n"},"frontmatter":{"date":"April 16, 2007","title":"Battery Hell...  I think I may be out of it?","type":"BlogPosting","description":null,"sidebar":"I shot three rolls of IR820c so far. I've got the third one hanging in the shower right now. I'll talk more about IR film availability and stuff later this week."},"srcImages":[{"id":"1233ccc7-602e-5ee4-a9ca-ee1f23ee71ab","key":"1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e","maxSize":1950,"size":766020,"srcSet":"/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_t.jpg 100w,\n/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_m.jpg 240w,\n/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_n.jpg 320w,\n/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_w.jpg 400w,\n/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e.jpg 500w,\n/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_z.jpg 640w,\n/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_c.jpg 800w,\n/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_b.jpg 1024w,\n/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_h.jpg 1600w","srcPath":"arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile","width":1950,"height":1881,"sqSrcSet":"/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_s.jpg 75w,\n/b2/arts.blog.battery_hell.bc900_charger-072642f1-f940-11e6-8d52-ffa6c436feb5-infile_1f06ba05dc922bc4f65c77eb7d18f90e_q.jpg 150w"}],"excerpt":"I've noticed that I suddenly have a lot of AA battery powered photo gear. There's the A95 which serves as my light/flash meter and photographic sketchpad that takes 4 AA batteries. There's 2  Sunpak 383 Supers  and a 1 Sunpak 144PC, and each one takes 4 AA batteries. There's the kinda cruddy  Sunpak…"}},"pageContext":{"id":"e1d85592-a995-5991-9341-4335aa1031f6","parent":"/blog","name":"battery_hell","depth":2,"title":"Battery Hell...  I think I may be out of it?","type":"BlogPosting","date":"2007-04-16T07:00:00.000Z","hidden":null,"breadcrumbs":[{"url":"/"},{"name":"blog","url":"/blog"},{"name":"Battery Hell...  I think I may be out of it?","url":"/blog/battery_hell"}],"excerpt":"I've noticed that I suddenly have a lot of AA battery powered photo gear. There's the A95 which serves as my light/flash meter and photographic sketchpad that takes 4 AA batteries. There's 2  Sunpak 383 Supers  and a 1 Sunpak 144PC, and each one takes 4 AA batteries. There's the kinda cruddy  Sunpak…","updated":"2007-04-16T07:00:00.000Z"}},"staticQueryHashes":["1062461325","1937434333","2193146810","2240196328","3649515864","815954065"]}