Nimh batteries? Eneloop?

With the C-9000 you can change the charge rate. I think the default is 1000mah, so batteries will charge in about 3 hours, give or take. The manual recommends against a very slow charge, apparently it makes it harder to work out when the cells are fully charged.

During a refresh cycle (charge, discharge, charge) it also tells you the capacity of your cells. Some of my older cells were at about 800mah, a breakin cycle bought them up to 1800mah again - not their full capacity of 2500mah but they're older and not the best brand, and had been in dumb chargers.

My 2700mah Powerex cells report as very close to rated capacity. The CTA Digital cells I bought from B&H (ABSOLUTE CRAP) held almost nothing, and in practice can barely power a flash. B&G refuse to accept them back or replace them, and the manufacturer didn't respond to a support request.

Thats what I like about the lacrosse BC-900. You can go down to 200mah and it lets you know when your batteries are full and what the status is while charging. Makes it easier to match the cells up as well by watching their charging rate.

Shrug, seems to work just fine for me....there are some situations where I need to be recharging my batteries during the wedding. I only have so many sets of batteries.

After having two energizer battery chargers die on me I bought a Pearstone charger from B&H and some of the Sanyo batteries. I like the charger because it also reconditions the batteries if you desire. I did some research and found out the Pearstone charger was well received as were the Sanyo Enveloopes batteries and I have used both for a month or so now without error. The charger helped me weed out dead battery cells and reconditioned the rest and most haven't needed recharging as of yet. and the Enveloops are in my 5800exII now and still holding a charge after several short sessions of flash use.

Wow looks like batteries are a bigger deal and have a lot more technical stuff than I originally thought!

I think I'll go with the eneloops and the Maha C9000.
Thanks.

Eneloops are great batteries,,the best rechargable batteries I've used.. I have two chargers, the designated Eneloop charger which seems to take forever to charge the batteries and a Sonshine quick charger which takes about 2 1/2 hours to charge 4 Eneloops..

Eneloops won't self discharge when not in use.. I have one set in both my 430 EXs and a spare set..

I agree with the good charger. I have a energizer charger that I swear is tearing up my batteries. My Bro has been using the lacrosse BC700 for over a year and swears by it. I just ordered the BC900 last week. Those cheap quick chargers arent good for the batteries and mine seems to be pretty unreliable.

I'm using Kodak -pre-charged NIMH and a Kodak 1HR charger. Got them together for $18 at walmart and they are as good as eneloops. The extra 4 packs are $9. I also have a pack of non-hybrid kodak 2650 mAh I use in my flash sometimes. The hybrids are only 2100 mah and the 2600 seems to help just a touch with recycle times. The cool thing about the hybrid or "pre-charged" ones is that you can leave them in your bag for months and they still have 80-90% of the charge.

Anyway, I though the Sanyos were overpriced and hard to find. The kodak are at every walmart and target and work just as well.

I get excellents results with Sanyo Eneloops and Sanyo 2700 in a Lacrosse 900 charger. In my experience, having a good quality smart charger is at least as important as using good batteries.

Thomas Distributing is a great place for this sort of equipment:

http://www.thomas-distributing.com/index​.htm

All that depends how you shoot with your flashes. Eneloops are great if you don't use them all the way at once just keeping them in your flash for different occasions. What I mean is if you are the person who needs fast flash recycling, goes thru whole set(s) of batteries in one event and also will remember charge batteries a day before an event, Eneloops aren't for you. There are many better options. Eneloops are great for those who like to keep batteries in their bags for a long time.

And yes, you can charge Eneloops in other NiMH chargers. Best results are from those 2-3 hour (or longer) chargers than 15 minute ones -> Let me use some analogy here: what tastes better? Turkey from the oven after 3 hours of cooking or same turkey from microwave after 15 minutes?

I want to add that first set of Eneloops I had came with 16 hour charger. After I lost it somewhere (camping) I bought another set which came with 3 hour charger...

ill add my .02 cents

im using the walmart k-mrt batteries,,,not because i think they as good as eneloops(they probably are not) but because i toss my batteries once a year and get new ones. im probably waaaay to anel about this but i have 3 chargers and i rotate my batteries out of the chargers for about 2 days before a shoot,,,, 4-5 hours on,,next set,,4-5 hours on. call me strange but ive have a 580 and 2 430's. thats 12 in the flashes and 12 in the bag in case one of them go down

it works. just had my 580 kill a set of batteries at a shoot,,,i had 12 more ready to go. so for me,,,,the walmart kodak 2500's work good.

i just purchased these new rayovac hybrid rechargables. some photog's have requested them and the guy tells me they are holding up well....im reading some good things about them but they are only 2100 mah.

If you had good quality batteries and chargers you'd not have to throw them out. If you had good batteries it's unlikely a single shoot could burn through a set of batteries, unless you're an ISO100 F8 shooter. Like I said cells I was charging using a cheap and nasty charger were actually holding about 1/3 their rated capacity until I put them into a decent charger.

I got Duracell rechargeables they say (1800 mAh). Ive had them about 2 years and I think they were about $14 for 4 batteries and the charger at a grocery store. They last a long time in my 430EX and my Canon S5 and I use my LCD all the time. They have a long charge time about 8 hours but its worth it as long as they keep their charge. I have been very happy with these batteries and best of all they were cheap!

Stop by Cosco and pick up an eneloop pack (over by the electronics stuff).
Comes with 8x AA's and 4 AAA's as well as a charger and the C/D cell sleeves.

I take a sharpie and number by batteries in groups of 4. Keep them bagged in small parts ziplocks matched up.

I currently run 4 sets of 4x Eneloops, 4 sets of 2750 Energizers and 2 sets of PowerEx.
I used 2 LaCross BC900's to keep them all in top shape. (you can even set it to do a deep cycle battery recondition. It takes a long time, but can make a older battery perform like new again).