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Which Battery is Right for Me?

NiMh, Nickel Cadmium, Lithium-Ion; what does it all mean and where does it all end? With all of the new battery technologies available today, you may feel that only an electrochemical engineer can truly understand how they differ from one another.

Thankfully, you do not need to be an electrochemical engineer to purchase the best battery for your needs. All that you need is a little insight into the sometimes-subtle differences between the different chemistries. I hope to offer you some insight so that you may make a more informed purchase and feel confident that you made the correct choice.

First things first: Chemistries. B&H offers four different battery types or chemistry types: Nickel Cadmium, Nickel Metal Hydride, Lithium-Ion and Lead Acid. Chemistry is the catalyst that is used to produce energy within the battery. Each chemistry offers advantages and disadvantages over the others. For example, Lead Acid offers a long run time, but at the expense of added weight, whereas Lithium-Ion offers a long run time, and low mass but at a higher per-watt cost. Please refer to our "Battery Chemistry Guidelines" for a more complete description of the different battery types.

When choosing a battery chemistry, you need to ask yourself:

1. How long do I need the battery to power my equipment?
2. Do I need to be mobile?
3. What am I powering?
4. What voltage does the equipment manufacturer recommend?
5. How much did I pay for the equipment that I want to power, and how much am I willing to pay to power it?

Probably the three most important things to consider when deciding which battery would be best for your needs are application, application, and application. Like anything else, all of the different battery chemistries available today have their pluses and minuses. Some are lightweight but do not offer much of a run-time. Some offer hours of run-time but weigh a ton (or so). Obviously, if you need to power a camcorder and you know that you will probably be running around all day with the camera on your shoulder, you might want to consider the chemistry that offers the lightest weight battery with an appropriate run-time. Conversely, if you need to power a field monitor, weight is probably not as much of an issue as run-time is.

A majority of professional camcorders operate on a 12-volt system. As per their design, most camcorders will activate a low voltage warning or even cease to operate when they determine that the battery has fallen below 11-volts. Since a 12V battery must be discharged to 10V for a full discharge, the camera will always lose power before the battery is fully discharged. This can cause some serious problems during a shoot, since the battery will indicate that there is still plenty of potential power available, but the camera is about to shut down. Therefore, a professional camcorder operating on a 12V battery will always lose power before fully discharging the battery. Most equipment manufacturers suggest that a 14.4V battery, which has a full discharge rating of 12 volts should be used whenever possible.

How fat is your wallet?

The cost/performance ratio of your camcorder versus your battery requires some significant consideration. Important considerations include:

1. Bottom line (how long will it take to amortize the equipment cost)
2. Cost of equipment that you need to power
3. Cost of battery
4. Cost of peripheral battery components

Although some camcorders are offered by the manufacturer with a proprietary battery and charger/AC adapter system as standard equipment, most professional cameras offer you the option to choose a third party battery system that works best for you.

B&H offers batteries from many different manufacturers, with products that range from the very affordable to "How much did you say?" Which is why an informed consumer is a happy consumer. There is probably very little need to purchase a $500 battery for a $2,000 camcorder.

You need to consider that when buying into a new battery system, that you are also buying into all of that systems peripheral equipment as well. Batteries, chargers, adapters, etc. are usually part of a closed system. So it is always wise to minimize the sticker shock by checking prices on all of the peripheral equipment that you may need in future purchases.

Choosing the correct chemistry is not easy. Luckily, B&H offers you a very powerful tool to help you decide which way to go - our salespeople. B&H offers highly trained salespeople, many of whom use the same equipment after hours as working professionals. Who better to help with an equipment purchase than someone who is not only trained by the different manufacturers but can offer comparisons, recommendations, insights and tid-bits based on his/her real-world experiences with the products?

I hope that this article has helped steer you in the right direction. Please do not forget to see our Battery Glossary and General Rechargeable Battery Guidelines for more information on battery usage.

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