Per songbird:
rechargeables or fresh manufactered ones?

which are your favorites?

Depends on the application.

Back before cameras on cell phones, I consciously picked cameras for the
wife and 2 daughters that used AA alkalines. Reason: they're both
stone technophobes and would leave rechargeables laying in a drawer for
months at a time and then wonder why the batteries were dead when they
went to use the camera. In that case even lithium batteries would have
gone flat between uses.

For my small tools, I like lithium batteries because of the shelf life
between charges - as opposed to NiCads which probably give similar
performance for less money for somebody who uses the tools daily.
But I'm an infrequent user and like having a full battery when I pick up
the tool.
--
Pete Cresswell