So I've invested in a new fleet of cams for this season to help me cover the different properties I'll be hunting come fall. I've seen a bit of discussion here and elsewhere online (mainly cam reviews) that lithium batteries are better. I'm wondering though if they are really that much better considering how much more expensive they are. Based on current prices on Amazon, I can pick up 60x Energizer Ultimate Lithium's for $95 shipped to my door. I can pick up 60x Rayovac regular alkalines for $20. Am I going to get 5x the battery life or pictures out of the Lithiums? Why should I spend 5x more?
I tried the lithium batteries last year for the first time and was very pleased, they lasted the entire season for me and then some. I will be investing in them again this year.
Lithium's can usually last me close to a full year depending on location and how much activity that area gets. There has been a few times where I get to the property and notice one was dead so I had to run to the corner store and get regular batteries for the time being. Regular batteries will last a pretty long time but from what I have noticed they don't last half as long as the lithium's do. I'm sure someone will chime in with a more accurate answer for you.
I run the cheap Rayovac in all of my cams... I had a Covert MPE5 out all last fall and entire winter here in central MN and it was still taking pictures a month ago. It did take some black pictures because it was -30 and had 3 battery life left... Don't think I'll ever spend money on lithiums.
I only buy the regular rayovac's and I have been doing that for a number of years and I spend way less than I used too.
I run energizers in my 3 cuddeback's and they last almost all year so I'm pleased with the performance for the money vs higher lithium batteries Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I've been running a combination of Rayovac's, Duracell's, Energizer Lithium's and Tenergy Rechargeable's in my 13 trail cameras. My experience: Lithium's outperform all the others by a long shot. Am I going to get 5X the number of pictures from the the Lithium's? I'd say pretty close but I also don't have to worry about the camera being dead for two weeks before I get back to check and find out I don't have any pictures. I have a couple 4 battery Bushnell Security cams that have gotten me 2 full season and still have plenty of juice left in them. If your doing video in a high traffic area, lithium's will end up costing you a fortune though. The Duracell's are pretty decent but have the same problems as Rayovac's. Extreme cold will affect their performance. Example would be in my Covert Outlook Camera. I have it set to video with Rayovac's. It will only give me a second or two worth of video at night with the IR illuminated because it read the battery as being too low. It will take full lenght daylight videos. I like the Tenergy Rechargeable's the best because I can take new batteries out with me every time and if it looks like the batteries are getting low, I will go ahead and replace them. I'm not wasting batteries this way and I'm also not leaving a dead camera out in the woods for a couple weeks getting me nothing. Best case scenario would be a rechargeable lithium, but the technology and price isn't there yet.
I forget who tipped me off to it but I bought a 100 pack of Duracell AA's on Groupon.com for about $30. The batteries were good and I expect them to last me years in camera use.
In my opinion, money on batteries is better spent on rechargeables. I like Nimh low self discharge with as high of mAh as you can find Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I think lithiums are worth it. My cams ranged getting three to six times the use out of lithiums as normal alkalines over last fall and winter. It depended on the camera, length of time and what temperature/wind chill exposure the cameras got. In some cases regular alkalines went dead in two weeks out where the wind was really hitting the cameras hard and wind chills were way below zero while the lithiums lasted over a month. Besides it was nice not having piles and piles of old batteries to dispose of.
I've only changed batteries once in my Red 40 in 1.5 years. I have NiMH eneloops in my others (Mpe5, Black 60, 4 homebrews). Same result. Haven't tried lithiums and haven't felt the need to.
I recently purchased my first set of Lithium batteries and they are doing really well. I bought them at Batteries Plus. They have been out for 2 weeks now. I will check them next week and see how well they are doing.
I stock up at Menards on rayovacs and never had a issue. -37 degrees not including windchill I had 2 cams in and they clicked off pics. I understand lithium batteries but I can't justify the cost. Plus cameras battery meter don't read them right. I thought I had 56% left on some lithium's and it took day pics. I wrote off no night pics due to a few factors other then the camera. But low and behold the camera didn't have enough juice to record a night pic at the time I needed it. Lot too depends on the camera. I seen cams get 20-30k pics on rayovacs and my moultries/browning strike force I got to watch more closely.
The problem with using lithium batteries in trail cameras is that no cameras read lithiums correctly. You can never tell when they are going to go dead unless you remove each one and check them with a volt meter. There is no warning when they are getting low. All of a sudden they die. It's not a gradual process as with alkaline batteries.
I think lithiums are worth the extra $ but I think rechargeables are more worth the money. Invest in a good set of rechargeables and a good charger and you'll wonder why you ever used anything else. Blessings. ...........Pastorjim
Yes, that's kind of the nature of lithiums in anything. My drills are 20v lithiums and they give no warning either like the old drills did, the lithium battery drills just pretty much quit all at once. My cameras, I just let them go flat and change the batteries. So far I've never lost more than a couple of days and that's really no different than performance with normal batteries except the lithiums last longer. I'm going to get some rechargables and try those this year. I'm really partial to lithium performance in cold weather, maybe go lithiums over winter and rechargables the rest of the year.
