Why I will never own a camera w/ proprietary batteries again... About This Page:

[graygables]

Hubby lost my battery charger so I have no camera for this trip!!! A replacement at my local camera store was $50 : and there's no time to get one from eBay. I know, I know, I should have looked earlier...

[CRCrazy]

I had the same issue a couple of weeks ago for Sarah and Jennie's dance recital. I love my little Sony. I found a replacement charger at Staples.com for $15, but they didn't have any at our local store. They did, however, have a clearance deal on a camera that used the same battery!!! So - for $90, I got a W-70 (or something like that) which included the G battery ($50 any time, and never goes on sale), the charger, as well as a camera body!!! While the camera doesn't have the nice features that my newer one has, it is still a great camera, and 7.2 megapixels, so I used the charger to charge both batteries, and ordered another charger, so that when that one comes in - Amanda's got herself a decent camera. She's been using my old P-8, which was nice, but only 3.2 mp.

Can you have a charger shipped to your hotel? I know Staples promises next day delivery to most places!

[Tigger71]

Most camera stores and even Disney's will charge up your battery for a fee (usually a rip off but far cheaper than a rip off new one at full price! )Memories are priceless and I know from experience...in Hawaii last year my charger broke and I was gutted that our trip to a water park the next day was not going to be in our album. I visited a local camera store and they charged up my battery for $8. After taking my broken charger there the next day, they couldn't repair it, so I purchased a new one and the $8 was discounted off the price. (At that stage I would have paid $100 for a new one - anything to get my photos - LOL! Yes and I still use the same camera now)

[emtpej]

Did you check with Radio Shack for a comaptible charger?

[Pax]

... I have to say, there is an advantage to a camera that takes standard AA batteries. Even though my Fuji S5700 takes four of the blighters, and takes only ~500 pictures on the four of them (at 2500mA each) ... at least, ANY AA batteries will work. Worst case, pop some duracells in there, and it's back to picture-taking.

I hope you find a solution that gets your camera working for your trip!

[WillCAD]

Yeah, it sure was a nasty transition for me when I got my Canon Digital Rebel and could no longer use standard AA batteries.

I still only have the one charger, but maybe I should get another from Stirlingtek, just so I have a backup...

[mattjs]

Keep looking and maybe call around. Another store around you might carry a third party charger for that battery. BestBuy, Staples, another camera store, etc.

As Will mentioned -- Digital Camera Batteries Chargers Memory Cards Readers -- is great for battery stuff. You could almost certainly have a charger Fedexed overnight straight to Disney (even with Sterlingtek's high overnight rates) for less than $50.

Sterlingtek chargers run around $15 for most battery types. They charge $17.95 for Fedex overnight (and 2nd day Fedex would be less than that). I've ordered from them 4 or 5 times over the last 6 years or so, and they've always been real quick/reliable/easy to deal with.

[RobDVC]

That's one of the factors in my decision-making too.

[mattjs]

The proprietaries are tricky if you're in a pinch but I actually like em. Only because of the third party sellers like Sterlingtek though. The brand batteries (Canon, etc.) are ridiculously overpriced and don't even give you as much life per charge.

Like with my camera right now. It came with a Canon battery, and a charger. Right away I ordered two backup batteries from Sterlingtek (for $10 a piece) and a spare charger for $15. Rotated, those three batteries will easily last me a year and a half (more if I wanted to push it). And three batteries are more than enough for a whole day of pictures even on vacation.

Every year and a half I just replace em with three new ones for another $30. So batteries are costing me a total of $20 a year, and I only have three I have to keep track of (in terms of what's charged and what isn't) which is nice too. If the brand batteries were the only option it'd be different story though. Canon gets $50 for the battery I need. Ridiculous.

[lisamarie]

I bought a new Canon in January and promptly purchased 2 extra batteries. The Canon battery took 5 days of WDW pictures (total of 620 pix in 8 days). One of the replacements lasted 5 hours in the camera. The other one does better but does not beat the Canon battery. I, too, like having 3 batteries and 2 chargers. I buy my extra battery supplies at Batteries Plus.

[bradk]

i can shoot for well over a day (over 1000 photos) on a single charge (which takes 3 hours at most) on my battery, so I'm not going to complain.

but i made sure to buy an extra battery/charger just to be on the safe side.

disney has outlets all over the parks. i once charged mine in the seas pavilion while waiting for crush

[Mares75]

Have you checked Amazon for anything? I love Amazon, find tons of products much cheaper than in stores, and delivery is pretty quick.