Battery recharge question

[bago100]

Some people say one should always let rechargable batteries discharge completely before recharging. Well, that's what my wife says.

The D70 battery seems to hold a good charge for a long time and then when it is low, discharge very quickly.

Do members wait for the battery to fully discharge before recharging or can you recharge the battery whenever you want regardless as to the remainng charge left in the battery?

Would appreciate members opinions on this

Thanks

[Matt. K]

bago
The D70 battery is a metal nickle hydride battery.
You can top it up any time and it will not harm it. In fact, it will love you for it.
It's only the NiCads that need to be fully discharged before recharging.

[Greg B]

Yes, two of the big advantages on the NiMh batteries over the older NiCads are more capacity, and no charging memory.

[bago100]

Thanks Matt and Greg

The charger is on as you read this.

Cheers

[mudder]

G'day,
I'm probably not up with the new technology batteries, I've always let one fully discharge before charging... If I don't have too (not even now and again to remove any memory of levels etc?) then bewdy...

Cheers,
Mudder.

[Onyx]

Correction: it's lithium ion.

Charge whenever you want. In fact, don't drain it completely before recharge because Li-Ion don't like that. Treat it just as you would your cell phone battery (and expect it to fail within 2-3 years at most too, no matter how often/occasional you use it).

For me personally, I wait until the battery indicator drops 1 bar. That's when I know within 20-30 shots it'll be completely dead, so I'll stop shooting then and change batteries. It's handy to have a spare EN-EL3 cell instead of relying on CR2 primaries in the holder - they're not known to have good life in the D70.

[Matt. K]

I stand corrected Onyx. It is Lithium. Can I sit down down?

[gstark]

I stand corrected Onyx. It is Lithium. Can I sit down down?

Were you really standing?

My guess is that you'd need to stand first in order to sit.

Stay!

Roll Over!

[paull]

Onyx is right on the money - Lithium Ion does not behave like older tech batteries. Check out the following link:

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm