? Cameras that use AA rechargeables ? Solar chargers? anybody know how to find?

Good Day,

Does anybody have any reccomendations? Or how to find on this website without going through every single camera?

I am going to be hiking, looking for a quality point and shoot that uses rechargeable AA's - My hope is that I will be able to use a solar charger for the AA's, as opposed to a proprietary batteries. I'm open to suggestions for charging options also.
Thank You!

You did not say which type of camera your looking for but if it is a DSLR, the only one that still makes SLRs with AAs is Pentax. See the Pentax K100D, it is very well valued camera (there is also the similar K110D, which lack stabilization compared to the K100D). If you are looking for something smaller, the Canon Powershot A-series all take AAs (AFAIK). The Canon Powershot A710 IS is quite good for example. But there are many others in that series (A570 IS, A560, A550 etc). They are generally good with full manual controls and good image quality.

• Zak

Just in case I didn't name a camera that suits your needs, do you know that neocamera shows a AA icon next to each camera that used AA batteries? You just need to pick he size you want an look at the camera lists ( http://www.neocamera.com/guide_camera_models_compact.html ). Also, dcresource has a search feature when you can ask for cameras with AA batteries.

• Zak

Thanks, that's very helpfull.

I am looking for a small point-and shoot- I have a nikon coolpix 5200 now, and am happy with the performance for what it is, but need to update and upgrade to AAs
thanks,
Art

artnoll said:

Good Day,
Does anybody have any reccomendations? Or how to find on this
website without going through every single camera?

I am going to be hiking, looking for a quality point and shoot that
uses rechargeable AA's - My hope is that I will be able to use a
solar charger for the AA's, as opposed to a proprietary batteries.
I'm open to suggestions for charging options also.
Thank You!

Click to expand...

You might want to reconsider your requirement for AA cells. My Canon 30D can get up to 800 images per battery charge (dedicated L-ion). For less weight and cost than a solar charger, I can carry a half-dozen batteries - good for thousands of images.

Check out the cost and weight of a solar charger capable of charging 2,000 mAhr (x 2) in a reasonable amount of time (you'll be hiking in mid-day, right?). Even using AAs, you might be better off (cost and weight) with non-rechareable lithium cells
--
-Dave
http://pixseal.com

Thanks Dave,
These are exactly the kind of questions I need to resolve-

I want to be completely self sufficient as far as charging my batteries - AA's seemed to have the most flexibility of sources for a charge(or replacement)
I am not certain how often I will be able to plug in, hopefully not too often
More on the source of my reasoning-

I have sold my house and car and most of my posessions and Assembled a backpack full of ultralight stuff. After I close at the end of this month, I don't know where I will be. Plugging in and waiting for 6 batteries to charge could be a problem.

I do need to find info on non-rechargable battery life compared to L-ions

Also need to research solar chargers.

ThankYou,
Art

You might want to reconsider your requirement for AA cells. My Canon 30D can get up to 800 images per battery charge (dedicated L-ion). For less weight and cost than a solar charger, I can carry a half-dozen batteries - good for thousands of images.

Check out the cost and weight of a solar charger capable of charging 2,000 mAhr (x 2) in a reasonable amount of time (you'll be hiking in mid-day, right?). Even using AAs, you might be better off (cost and weight) with non-rechareable lithium cells

--
-Dave
http://pixseal.com

The key in your statement is that you use a DSLR. Those have much longer battery life when compared to compacts. Some compacts go to 500+ shots but those are the exceptions. AA are the most convenient by far. Not only can you get them really cheap (a set of 4 good ones is about $12) and cheap solar chargers ($25 ) but you can easily get cheap disposable ones nearly anywhere in the world. You can't have everything though because sometimes the ideal camera is not available in AA battery version...

• Zak

dherzstein said:

artnoll said:

Good Day,
Does anybody have any reccomendations? Or how to find on this
website without going through every single camera?

I am going to be hiking, looking for a quality point and shoot that
uses rechargeable AA's - My hope is that I will be able to use a
solar charger for the AA's, as opposed to a proprietary batteries.
I'm open to suggestions for charging options also.
Thank You!

Click to expand...

You might want to reconsider your requirement for AA cells. My
Canon 30D can get up to 800 images per battery charge (dedicated
L-ion). For less weight and cost than a solar charger, I can carry
a half-dozen batteries - good for thousands of images.

Check out the cost and weight of a solar charger capable of
charging 2,000 mAhr (x 2) in a reasonable amount of time (you'll be
hiking in mid-day, right?). Even using AAs, you might be better
off (cost and weight) with non-rechareable lithium cells
--
-Dave
http://pixseal.com

Click to expand...

I would consider..If I was in the market for a new P/S... the Canon A 530 or A540. Small, lightweight, excellent ouallity for the money. Most P/S eat batteries for breakfast... so I would recommend AA lithium( At least in the camera bag just in case)...two packs.
--

Soon! Oh Soon the light. Ours to shape for all time, ours the right. The sun will lead us, our reason to be here.

Here's my favorite solar charger:
http://www.siliconsolar.com/Solar-Battery-Charger-AA-AAA-C-and-D-p-135.html

Unfortunately my main camera doesn't use AAs anymore (I had other requirements), but most of my other electronics do.

• Zak

Look at all of the Canon "A" series P&S cameras. They use AA batteries, have an optical viewfinder along with an LCD (of course), have good speed and response and excellent image quality. The optical VF can be indispensable in bright outdoor situations. Their battery life is rather remarkable. Even alkalines yield acceptable results in a pinch.

I personally think your preference to AAs is spot on. For rechargeables, a set or two of Sanyo Eneloop NiMH batteries hold their charge far longer than standard NiMH and would work well for your purpose. You could also consider using AA Lithium (non-rechargeable) as their battery life is extraordinary in these cameras, plus you would lose a few grams as they are 2/3ds the weight of NiMH, or less. They also have very good cold weather performance.

An A710IS - with 6x zoom and image stabilization - using two AA lithium batteries will get about 500-600 shots. My A640, which is a bit larger and heavier, and uses four AAs, gets about 900-1000 shots from AA lithium. Even if you decide on the rechargeables, I would still consider taking along some spare AA lithiums. In reality, for me personally, I would forgo the rechargeables altogether and use only the AA lithium. You can carry quite a few of them for the weight of some NiMHs and a charger.

That combo would work well.

Rick

artnoll said:

Good Day,
Does anybody have any reccomendations? Or how to find on this
website without going through every single camera?

I am going to be hiking, looking for a quality point and shoot that
uses rechargeable AA's - My hope is that I will be able to use a
solar charger for the AA's, as opposed to a proprietary batteries.
I'm open to suggestions for charging options also.
Thank You!

Click to expand...

zaxsan said:

Here's my favorite solar charger:
http://www.siliconsolar.com/Solar-Battery-Charger-AA-AAA-C-and-D-p-135.html

Click to expand...

In practice, given perfect charging conditions, how long to charge a pair of 2000mAh cells?

How long in real-life conditions? (overcast sky, the charger moving and not always pointd toward the sun)? Useable in rain?
--
-Dave
http://pixseal.com

I know they say 3-4 but I'd say 4-6h. The charging works under most weather conditions, even mild rain. I did not try under snow nor under heavy rain, then again I'm not taking pics those days. As a backup I also carried some disposable AAs but rarely got to use them. I also carry a charger with 12V for charging in a vehicle. That was a few years ago because my new camera does not use AA batteries but at least it is a DSLR so two batteries can be enough for quite a while. There were other requirements for the choice of camera, but if there was a model that suited my needs as well which used AAs, I'd choose that one.

• Zak

dherzstein said:

zaxsan said:

Here's my favorite solar charger:
http://www.siliconsolar.com/Solar-Battery-Charger-AA-AAA-C-and-D-p-135.html

Click to expand...

In practice, given perfect charging conditions, how long to charge
a pair of 2000mAh cells?

How long in real-life conditions? (overcast sky, the charger moving
and not always pointd toward the sun)? Useable in rain?
--
-Dave
http://pixseal.com

Click to expand...

zaxsan said:

You did not say which type of camera your looking for but if it is
a DSLR, the only one that still makes SLRs with AAs is Pentax.

Click to expand...

The Canon 20D and 30D can use AAs with the vertical grip.
--
-Dave
http://pixseal.com

Looks like it might take 8 hours of full bright sunlight to charge 4 AA's. In the desert, it might work. In a rain forest, not much chance.

A universal charger w/o built in plug weighs almost nothing, and can charge a set of batteries in 2 hours or so. I don't know of many places in the world where you couldn't find an outlet every few days.

For much less of the weight of 8 AA's and a solar charger you can carry 4 proprietary batteries and a universal charger, good for maybe 1500 pictures non-stop.

Since two years ago when I looked into them. The charger you linked to is very nicely priced at $25 - the last time I looked into one the price was above $150. I was going to make my own solar charger using parts from radioshack, but ended up not doing it. It would be quite easy to do if you dno't require a LCD screen to display time and/or voltage, but probalby would cost the same at $25 or slightly less.

Ended up that for the price/weight of one charger ($150+) I could buy more than enough Li-ion batteries to last in between charge sessions.

I used the BLM-1 from Olympus which lasts 400+ shots on the C-8080 with the LCD screen on and not using flash. At 5 batteries, I had more than enough juice to keep going.
The BLM-1 in a DSLR is even better, at 600+ images.

Thanks for the link.

zaxsan said:

Here's my favorite solar charger:
http://www.siliconsolar.com/Solar-Battery-Charger-AA-AAA-C-and-D-p-135.html
Unfortunately my main camera doesn't use AAs anymore (I had other
requirements), but most of my other electronics do.

• Zak

Click to expand...

--
Tim
'Be the change you wish to see in the world.' -Mahatma Gandhi
http://www.flickr.com/photos/timskis6/

Proprietary batteries are available aftermarket from $5 to $20, which is what convinced me to drop AA's. They seem to work, some worse than OEM, some better.

Being able to use AA's doesn't mean you can use disposable batteries. The better cameras have a high peak current requirement that can only be meet by rechargeable AAs. Some of the low end digital camera's will use disposable batteries and work just fine though. Look at the low end (sub $200) Canons.

Still, if you can find AA's to buy you can probably find a power outlet . . .

zaxsan said:

I know they say 3-4 but I'd say 4-6h. The charging works under most
weather conditions, even mild rain. I did not try under snow nor
under heavy rain, then again I'm not taking pics those days. As a
backup I also carried some disposable AAs but rarely got to use
them. I also carry a charger with 12V for charging in a vehicle.

Click to expand...

Oh this could be another use case for Eneloops (or similar charge-retaining AAs) instead of single-use disposables.

zaxsan said:

• Zak

dherzstein said:

zaxsan said:

Here's my favorite solar charger:
http://www.siliconsolar.com/Solar-Battery-Charger-AA-AAA-C-and-D-p-135.html

Click to expand...

In practice, given perfect charging conditions, how long to charge
a pair of 2000mAh cells?

How long in real-life conditions? (overcast sky, the charger moving
and not always pointd toward the sun)? Useable in rain?
--
-Dave
http://pixseal.com

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
New blog: http://1001noisycameras.blogspot.com
Current blog: http://photographyetc.livejournal.com

artnoll said:

Good Day,
Does anybody have any reccomendations? Or how to find on this
website without going through every single camera?

Click to expand...

One rule of thumb is the small size of cameras: The small, highly stylized "bijou" cameras are too tiny to use AA batteries, such as the Canon SD/Ixus/Ixy/Elph (did I forget any of their names?), Olympus Stylus, Sony T-series, Pentax T-series, Casio EX-Z and -S series, Panasonic FX-, etc, etc.

Traditional AA-based model families: Canon A-series, Fuji S-series, etc

artnoll said:

I am going to be hiking, looking for a quality point and shoot that
uses rechargeable AA's - My hope is that I will be able to use a
solar charger for the AA's, as opposed to a proprietary batteries.
I'm open to suggestions for charging options also.
Thank You!

Click to expand...

--
New blog: http://1001noisycameras.blogspot.com
Current blog: http://photographyetc.livejournal.com

The Canon S2 IS and S3 IS use AA batteries (4 x AA). They're point-and-shoot cameras, although not small point-and-shoot cameras.

Small P & S and AAs are not necessarily compatible. The batteries add weight and bulk and, as a previous poster pointed out, some of the very compact cameras are too small for anything but a lithium battery.

The Canon A series use AAs and are excellent, but they're not real compacts. My wife has a 610 and I use a 640. They don't fit in a pocket - unless you have big pockets - but carry nicely in a case. Both have good IQ, full controls, fast flash recycle and are comfortable to use.