AA" Battery Life Information

AA" Battery Life Information

Some Nikon compact digital cameras use standard "AA" size batteries for power. There are several types of these batteries on the market, and while they are all the same size, the chemistry that they use varies greatly which effects how long they can be used to power a camers.

Standard Alkaline batteries have a steady decline in power over their usable life, this is fine for low-drain devices like flashlights and radios, but high-drain devices like cameras need a minimum level of power to operate. When batteries drop below this minimum level they can no longer power a high-drain device even though they still have plenty of power for low-drain devices.

The graph below illustrates this. The red line represents the minimum power required for the camera, while the blue line shows the "power curve" for standard Alkaline batteries. Notice how the battery output quickly drops below the require line. The green line shows the power curve of a NiMH battery. These batteries have high-output over life of the battery and then quickly fall off. The chart below is for illustration only and does not represent actual test data.