Digicams can use up batteries at a terrible rate, particularly if you select the incorrect sort of batteries. You can drain a group of AAs within 15 mins! But do not despair; there are batteries that may keep your camera going for ages. You've just got to know what to ask for.When it comes to AA batteries, the kind of battery that lots of digital cameras use, you have got your selection of nearly six families or types. Which one is the best for you is dependent on your shooting style (more on that later). Before summarising their traits, here is a fast word about power ratings. Batteries are rated in milliampere-hours (mAh). This is a measurement of how much electric current a battery can put out and for how long.

Rechargeable cells are better at handling the high output currents needed by electronic cameras and notwithstanding the indisputable fact that some types have a famously poor product life - the period they will hold a charge - they are generally the cheapest option in time. They come in a selection of types:

Nickel cadmium (NiCd): Doubtless the strongest and usually available chargeable battery. Good for about seven hundred charge and discharge cycles, they lose about 1% of their power a day while not in use and suffer badly from "memory effect" - the accumulation of gas bubbles on the cell plates of a battery which has only been partly discharged before recharging, which causes a decrease in the plate area in the battery and so its capacity.

Nickel metal hydride (NiMH): Best for in the 500-1000 charge and discharge cycles, NiMH batteries offer about 40 percent more capacity than NiCDs but at a noticeably higher cost. They have a little worse active life than NiCds in the key, have the crucial merit of not being subject to "memory effect". Lithium ion (Li-ion): Li-ion batteries offer about 2 times the capacity of a similar fashion sized NiMH battery and are good for roughly 5 hundred charge and discharge cycles. However, they need their own special charger and are way more costly than other battery types. Their gigantic advantage is a long storability: up to a decade. Because of this, they make great emergency spares.