Battery Farm

In the realm of the camera there are two kinds of batteries. You’ve got the re-chargeable battery, which offers far more freedom for the camera, because you don’t have to keep buying new batteries all the time. You can just attach a lead to the camera, stick the other end in and mains electricity supply you can scavenge and away you go, it’s refuelling itself. Alas, there is still a bunch of cameras locked up in a pen.

For Christmas my beloved girlfriend bought me an Olympus digital compact camera and I absolutely love it. It gives me a chance to develop my interest in photography to a level exponentially higher than what I could before. Prior to Christmas I was using a half-dead phone as my main source of photography. Now I have a proper 12MP snapper and I’ve already taken at least 1,000 shots with it.

Inevitably, there’s just one small niggle. The complaint isn’t with the camera itself, the actual snapper is absolutely perfect for my requirements and I simply love it to bits. My girlfriend got me just what I wanted. The complain is in the battery department, because in place of a rechargeable battery are two holes in which to insert regular, AA batteries. Why is this such a big deal?

5 days after Christmas the first batch of batteries were already running out. Also, because AA batteries use a stored chemical as their source of energy, if I tilt the camera to take a photo, switch it off while in that position, and then try switching it on again at another angle, it says that battery is empty, so to turn it on again I have to fiddle around with the batteries! It’s all a big palaver really.

So off I went to the French hypermarket with my girlfriend and her mother, to take a look around before I caught my plane back to England. There was the most beautiful sunset you’ve ever seen. I pull out my camera and the battery really is empty. After five days of use the AA’s had already ran out. Off I went to get some more and when I came back the sunset was gone. It’s just a little bit bothersome at times.

But I don’t care, I love the present! If I had a rechargable camera that would probably run out at vital times as well. And if I did run out out juice with a rechargeable I wouldn’t be able to just pop in a shop and get some new ones! So there is an advantage to using regular batteries. Soon enough I’ll write a post describing the opposite side of the argument. Rechargeable batteries, prepare to be battered…