Delkin RCR-V3 usage report update

Just an update on my findings about the number of shots I get from a set of fully charged Delkin RCR-V3's. They seem to hold their charge very well, certainly no noticable drop over a month (the max I've left them unused)

I found that they improved dramatically after the first 3 or 4 full charge/discharge cycles. Currently I average about 600+ shots per set (I have 2 sets) on my D.

I rarely use the built-in flash.
I set auto-review to 1 sec
I do a fair bit of chimping and reviewing/showing, probably 20-30% of my shots.
I always shoot Raw.
I have AF engaged 99% of the time.
I use 1GB CF cards.

I had a 4GB, but stood on it and cracked it! :-( - Now debating what to do regarding more CF cards or using SD in a CF card adaptor.

My first usage rate was about 150 shots per charge, so you can imagine my disgust after using AA lithiums! This is now similar to the usage rate I achieved using 2300 maH NiMH AA's, so I'm well pleased with them as I now get the same benefits as with standard CRV3's or AA lithiums, fast AF and reliable battery stability.

Hope this is useful to others, as the Delkins are one of the few RCR-V3's that have a guaranteed 3.15V ouput voltage, most are higher and can over-volt the camera causing battery outage/regulator shutdown, or even damage in the worst case.

The cheapo Chinese charger that came with them died very quickly, you need a stable 6v charger, but my Nokia 6630 (5.7v,) phone charger works fine with the Delkin charger cradle. I do find that the cradle contacts are a bit poor and the batteries are a bit of a loose fit and show a charged state when they are not completely charged. I wedge a thin rubber shim between the bottom of the battery and cradle to push the battery more firmly onto the contacts, this seems to work fine.
--
Richard Day - 'Carpe Diem!'
Gloucester UK

As this dissapeared very quickly, I've bumped it, as I thought this may be of reasonable interest to several folk.

But I shan't do it again if no one responds.
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Richard Day - 'Carpe Diem!'
Gloucester UK

richardday said:

As this dissapeared very quickly, I've bumped it, as I thought this
may be of reasonable interest to several folk.

Click to expand...

It was interesting Richard, at least to me.

richardday said:

But I shan't do it again if no one responds.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't have done except I know (from experience) that "no replies" is very disheartening. I also know it doesn't necessarily mean nobody is inierested, as in this case. It's just that I didn't have anything worth saying in reply ;-)

However, this is indeed useful information.

--
John Bean

PAW Week 32:
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Iindex page: http://waterfoot.smugmug.com
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http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=19572660

You won't get any reply... Some people asking stuff thinks you/we are a google machine and thus don't need replies to work well.

Ordinary life I guess,

--
regards,

Jonas

--
[nt] means 'No Text'

Richard,

How do you get on with charging the two batteries separately? Do you use two chargers or do you charge them independently in one. I've always wondered about how well that would work. I would expect to charge the two together, as they get used/discharged together. I've been a bit concerned about unequal charge in them and the rumours about higher voltage have put me off using them. Good to read you're getting on with them. Gives me an incentive to investigate it again.

Thanks for the info

(been very busy and forum seems to be extremely popular, need to look at several pages down to keep up)

Mike
--

Further recent info then, another battery report if you scroll down a bit.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1036&message=19483361
--
Jonas

richardday said:

The cheapo Chinese charger that came with them died very quickly,
you need a stable 6v charger, but my Nokia 6630 (5.7v,) phone
charger works fine with the Delkin charger cradle. I do find that
the cradle contacts are a bit poor and the batteries are a bit of a
loose fit and show a charged state when they are not completely
charged. I wedge a thin rubber shim between the bottom of the
battery and cradle to push the battery more firmly onto the
contacts, this seems to work fine.

Click to expand...

Good to know. Need to find my old Nokia charger now just in case.
--
Alan Chan
http://www.pbase.com/wlachan/

Glad to here they are working fine. I been using CR-V3's in my Ds since i bought it, but now at nearly 2500 images i am thinking of buying these RCR-V3. I am not too sure of how much of an economy it will be, with only shooting around 250-300 shots a month.
--
Andy

Does Pentax's manual not explicitly say that only single-use (non-rechargable) CR-V3s are to be used, as opposed to AAs where rechargeables are OK?

If I buy a K100D, I'm not sure what I'll do about batteries... I understand Pentax's logic for choosing AA batteries but I really like the convenience of the Li-ion rechargeables I've had in my Olympus and Canon SLRs.

Doug

Hi Mike

I just use the one charger cradle, they charge reasonably quickly and I've had no problems with unequal charge.

I bought them from Ffordes, who are an old established UK photo dealer, they had the best prices on their ebay store at £9.99 each. No charger listed at the moment, but I'd give them a call about that.

The financial aspect is not that beneficial, but the recycling/waste issues are a consideration. If you have 2 sets (4 batts) and charger, you have to shoot around 15,000 shots to begin to save money compared to using AA lithiums which can be bought for £4.39 for 4 from 7dayshop as you'd get about 12 sets for the same money (about £50)! If you use AA's in your flash gun, then the used AA's seem to last for a while longer in the flash, making further savings. I keep a couple of AA lithium packs handy for long trips / standby / emergency usage.
--
Richard Day - 'Carpe Diem!'
Gloucester UK

AndyDs said:

Glad to here they are working fine. I been using CR-V3's in my Ds
since i bought it, but now at nearly 2500 images i am thinking of
buying these RCR-V3. I am not too sure of how much of an economy it
will be, with only shooting around 250-300 shots a month.
--

Click to expand...

Hi Andy

If that's all you shoot I wouldn't opt for re-chargeables, It would take you years to recoup the cost!

I would stick with lithium AA's or CR-V3's, the Energizer lithium AA's are available at many places very reasonably priced.
--
Richard Day - 'Carpe Diem!'
Gloucester UK

The issue is that the output voltages from many rechargeable CR-V3's can be as high as 3.7 - 3.8 volts, which is outside of the design specs for CR-V3's. The Delkin ones have a special voltage limiter circuit which ensures that they don't go over the specification voltage and are safe to use. JonasB has also found another make (see his post above for the link) that have a regulated output voltage. This has been the subject of many threads on the forum in the past.

You cannot get re-chargeable AA lithiums (the technology prevents it), only NiMH or Nicad AA's. They have a lower output volatage (4 give just under 5 vollts) which, while safe, significantly reduces the AF speed, especially with big tele lenses where you need all the speed you can get, and sometimes gives early and intermittent battery depleted problems.
--
Richard Day - 'Carpe Diem!'
Gloucester UK

richardday said:

I found that they improved dramatically after the first 3 or 4 full
charge/discharge cycles. Currently I average about 600+ shots per
set (I have 2 sets) on my D.

Click to expand...

This is a surprise to me. The low number of shots, combined with the LOOOOOONG recharge time is what prompted me to just chuck 'em in a corner after a couple of cycles. So I should have held out and kept with 'em for a bit longer?

I also found that the "I'm done" characteristics were a little disconcerting - it would focus and frame the shot but then not trip the shutter. That would be the only clue that they were done and needed to be recharged.

richardday said:

My first usage rate was about 150 shots per charge, so you can
imagine my disgust after using AA lithiums! This is now similar to
the usage rate I achieved using 2300 maH NiMH AA's, so I'm well
pleased with them as I now get the same benefits as with standard
CRV3's or AA lithiums, fast AF and reliable battery stability.

Click to expand...

This gives me hope. Time for another go-round then!

-Charles

Hi Richard,

This is interesting and useful information - thanks for posting it (and bumping it)! It's true that the forum seems to be quite busy at the moment, and as I only read it every couple of days I miss quite a lot of useful stuff...

I definitely want to try rechargeables, as I don't like the idea of throwing batteries away. I'll try the AA rechargeables first though, and see if I get any bad battery drain using my Tokina 80-400.

Cheers,
-Steve M/

richardday said:

The issue is that the output voltages from many rechargeable
CR-V3's can be as high as 3.7 - 3.8 volts, which is outside of the
design specs for CR-V3's. The Delkin ones have a special voltage
limiter circuit which ensures that they don't go over the
specification voltage and are safe to use. JonasB has also found
another make (see his post above for the link) that have a
regulated output voltage. This has been the subject of many threads
on the forum in the past.

You cannot get re-chargeable AA lithiums (the technology prevents
it), only NiMH or Nicad AA's. They have a lower output volatage (4
give just under 5 vollts) which, while safe, significantly reduces
the AF speed, especially with big tele lenses where you need all
the speed you can get, and sometimes gives early and intermittent
battery depleted problems.
--
Richard Day - 'Carpe Diem!'
Gloucester UK

Click to expand...

Richard, I noticed the very same thing with the Delkin charger, I had some 1/16" cork from a craft project left over and I doublesided taped that to the charger to get a better battery fit also.

Great review, I am still working on my first charge, so far two weeks of minimal use and only about 200 images half w/flash and it still shows full charge.

--
Bud - CP5700, PZ5KAF, GX-IS, EF500 Super, various pieces of Pentax glass.

My wife and I have 8 Delkin RCR-V3 and 4 chargers each. Between us we've taken over 100,000 shots on our istDs without any problems, one of the 16 cells died after about a month but was immediately replaced by our supplier.

The most shots I've got out of one set was when I was duplicating a batch of 35mm trannies using the autobellows A with copier attachment and got 1183 shots in high quality jpg , but with MF, no previews and no flash. On average I get around 700 shots in raw, but again its mostly MF, no flash and very view previews.

I agree that the only annoying thing about them is that the abruptly terminate operation without any warning.
dave

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Thank you, Richard. Now I have to consider going out and buying a bunch of them. I have two *istD bodies and I use them both with the battery grip, that means four RCR-V3s per camera, plus a full back up set for each, that makes a total of 32 new batteries plus sundry chargers. I'll have to decide whether to do that or buy a new lens and stick with my 2400NiHMs.

As a (much cheaper) RCR-V3 alternative, I finally found an online shop (in Singapore) that will ship Sanyo Eneloop batteries to the UK (about £8-9 for a pack of 4 without charger, not including shipping). I'll test them when they get here and post my results in another thread. Should be a week or so.

I expect reasonable life (only 2100mAH according to the only actual testing I've seen so far, and listed as 2000mAH), very little discharge when unused and slower AF than RCR-V3's.

Pete

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