On Sun, 19 Mar 2006 09:35:26 GMT, Gunner
wrote:

I was fortunate enough this week, to swap for a minty Olympus C-3000
Zoom digital camera

Which for me..is better..NIMH or NiCads?

I have a couple of sets of RayOVac 15 Minute NIMH AA and AAA
rechargeables and like them a lot. The AAs are 2000 mAh. I use the
erratically and they hold a charge a long time - at least a couple of
months. The batteries and charger are available at Wal Mart. Radio
Shack rebranded the charger and the batteries, but they're available
there also, but at a higher cost than Wal Mart.

It's been awhile since I read on NiCad vs NiMH batteries, but I
believe the NiCads are supposed to have a longer life expectancy.
Technically I'm still using some 10 year old NiCads, but strongly
prefer the 15 minute rechargeables.

With regard to discharging: I routinely discharge my SINGLE CELL
batteries to zero volts - or near that, with a circuit I made using a
single cell battery holder and a 10 Watt resistor for each cell.
Components readily available at Radio Shack. It typically takes over
night or at most a day to completely discharge AA cells that no longer
have adequate reserve to power an electronic device. I don't know
if it's compulsive foolishness or not to do this, but I had read that
it helps to preserve the longevity of NiCads. NiMH's may be
different, but I'm discharging them fully until I read something
authoritative that says it shouldn't be done.

There was a site on the net called Battery University or something
along those lines that had a lot of good information.

RWL