I've been running lithium batteries in my trail cameras for the last couple years, and they are great. I get ton's of pictures per set, but at $16-$20 for an 8 pack, the cost's quickly add up over a season. At this point, I'll be running 3 cameras w. 8 AA batteries each. So It would be almost $60 in batteries to get the cameras out in the field. I'll be interested to see how many pictures I get on a set of these Tenergy 2500 mAH. I bought enough, that I plan to just swap batteries each time that I swap cards.
yeah let us know on how they work i have always thought about using a rechargeable batteries but i never really know how well they would work...
I know they didn't use those kind, but my father works for a high school that has key fabs on all entrance doors for teachers/faculty to enter prior to doors being unlocked. They tried rechargeable and they just couldn't last...now lithium only. Hope they work though! Keep us posted for sure!
Once you go with rechargeables, you'll never go back. No they won't last as long as lithiums but there's no comparison in cost over batteries that you spend $18 bucks a pack, use once and throw away, to buying good rechargeables that will last for years. I use them in all my cameras, about 15 units, and I'll tell you this, if I had to buy batteries all the time, I'd probably give up this hobby. I noticed in your post that you bought Tenergy's. These are about the best there is. Good luck! Blessings.......Pastorjim
Have you looked into the external rechargable battery packs with a solar panel? I didn't even know they existed until this past week, but I'm wondering how long they last. If they last long enough, it may be more beneficial to go that route over the long run. Would be expensive up front cost, though.
the tenergy batts last a lot longer than your duracell, energizer, or rayovac rechargables...and another great rechargable is sanyo Eneloop....they do have various capacity batts as well so check the mah on them - I use the 2300-2500mah tenergy and the eneloops are supposed to be better(and cost a little more) but I'd swear a full charge a 2500mah tenergy will last as long as any lower priced alkaline and maybe even the energizer and duracell brands...they also work better in the homebrews with sony cameras especially. Thing is you can bring a change of batts with you when ever you card check or everyother and you aren't going to be wasting any time or batteries with just not enough charge for another 2 weeks - or lose operation time in the woods because you wanted to eek out that last little bit of juice in the batteries and they went dead 3 days before the card check. Powerizer was another good brand...not sure how they stack up against the other 2 lately though.
I run Moultrie M80 cameras. The cheapest I have found the 12V Solar Power panel used for the cameras is about $70 each. I have 3 cameras out, and will probably be adding more in the future. I caught these batteries on sale and was able to get 48 batteries and the smart charger for $103.00 shipped to my door total. Basically $1.42 each plus the price of the charger. I am contemplating buying one of the solar panels and using it with a camera that I will set on the Plot Watcher time lapse mode. That mode does burn through battery quickly.
Sky...amazing price! For that price I'd have done if the cash wasn't an issue at the time, sick price on like others have said "top of the line" rechargeables...keep us posted on life of them.
Definitely interested...I dont even want to add up what I pay in batteries a year for the trail cameras...Keep us posted Skywalker
Im running sanyo eneloops, i have some of the Tenergy premiums and they're a great battery too. Good choice on the charger!
Update after my first camera pull. I have only had them out for a little under 2 weeks. I have one camera over a mineral site and got 1200 pics. One thing I noticed is that my cameras, Moutrie M80's, do not read the correct amount of charge. Fully charged, the cameras said they had about 51%. After the 1200 pics, it registered at 34%. I just plan on swapping batteries out when I swap chips, so that shouldn't be a big deal. I will also be swapping one of my cams over to plot watcher pretty soon, and will see how long I can stretch these batteries in that mode. So far so good.
What is the voltage of the tenergy batts. My recharge batts are 1.2 volts but my lith are 1.7 also my alkiline batts are 1.5 My point is some cam manufactures reccommend not using recharable batterys because of voltage issues but you can test your own cams for yourself. my covert 3.0 cams are running rechargeable and so far so good. I have been buying rayovac alkilines at home depot 48 for 15.00 and my cams run easy 3 monthes on them.
After one season with tens of thousands of pictures + videos my M80 is still using the same Energizer lithiums today. No battery change or resetting the camera to my personal settings. My routine... turn off, change card, then turn back on and move on. Also I got an 8 pack of the lithiums on sale with a mfg coupon for around $1.00 a battery. I ran the recharge for 2 years, then the lithiums came out and I will never go back to rechargables.
The Tenergy's are 1.2V also. I really like the performance of the lithiums, but the cost is just out of this world. I ran down a set using the plotwatcher mode in about 3 weeks. Now that's about 2000 pictures a day for 15 days. So roughly 30,000 pics, which is amazing, but still very, very expensive if you are running lithiums.
