I just moved my red40 today and the cam is still on it's first set of AA rayovac alkaline get this... 4762 pics in 45 days and still going strong.The detection range is amazing to say the least.
I like the lithium's personally, In one of the red 40's I'm running 6 energizer lithiums and have around 3,000 pics with 100% battery life. I have one that I put 12 lithiums in and thats well over 10,000 pics with 100% battery life. I think when you'll notice the difference in batteries is going to be more when the temps drop. I found 36 energizer lithiums on ebay for 40 bucks last year so to buy them and not have to worry about changing batteries all year is a bonus.
Thanks for covering this guys ! I am a busy boy in gods country this weekend packing up to move south ! FWIW I got an email that asked if 58,000 pictures is normal on a set of batteries