Beginner Battery grip: Can 6x AA batteries perform just as well as 2x DSLR batteries?

Tea and Crumpets

Tea and Crumpets

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Hello folks,

To make a long story short, I am going to London Comic-con on Saturday and have stupidly lost my charger so I am unable to charge the 4x batteries I have for the Canon 600D. Thankfully my battery grip has an alternate tray which accepts 6x AA batteries but I am worried how long they will last in comparison.

So, it's time to ask a stupid question: Would 6x AA batteries that are 1200mAh each perform worse, roughly the same as or be better than 2x DSLR batteries that are also 1200mAh each? A small part of me wants to believe that they will last 3x as long but the rest of me thinks that's too simple and it's really only half as effective.

I know it's a silly thing to ask but my brain is frazzled from worrying and I don't have much time to find a solution, at least this way I have an idea of how many packs of AA I should be buying at the last minute!

Thanks.
 
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Unless you are using lithium batteries, the discharge rate will be different anyway, but 2 x 1200 camera batteries = 2400mah so the AA,s should last half as long,.alowing for discharge rates being the same, as well as voltage drop off etc.
 
You need to work out the watt/hr rating of both options to compare their actual capacity. W/hr = a/hr Capacity of the cells x Voltage. A pack of 6 AA will be 2.6 a/hr x (6x1.2) = 18.7 Watt hr. A lithium battery of similar capacity will have more voltage thus slightly more power, 2.6a/h x 8.4 = 21.8 W/hr. Then you have the discharge curve mentioned above.
 
Tea and Crumpets said:
Hello folks,

To make a long story short, I am going to London Comic-con on Saturday and have stupidly lost my charger so I am unable to charge the 4x batteries I have for the Canon 600D. Thankfully my battery grip has an alternate tray which accepts 6x AA batteries but I am worried how long they will last in comparison.

So, it's time to ask a stupid question: Would 6x AA batteries that are 1200mAh each perform worse, roughly the same as or be better than 2x DSLR batteries that are also 1200mAh each? A small part of me wants to believe that they will last 3x as long but the rest of me thinks that's too simple and it's really only half as effective.

I know it's a silly thing to ask but my brain is frazzled from worrying and I don't have much time to find a solution, at least this way I have an idea of how many packs of AA I should be buying at the last minute!

Thanks.
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The AA cells will be effectively connected in series, as 6x 1.2v = 7.2v, which is the same as the camera battery. The effect is, that despite having 6 cells, it will still be 1200mAh, so in theory, it will last approximately half as long as 2x 7.2v batteries, which to maintain voltage would be connected in parallel, giving 2400mAh.
 
in practice - nowhere near in my experience - I once used one of these at a wedding with a 40D when i was experiencing battery shortage ... it did about 250 shots before it went flat , which was enough to last long enough for my camera batteries to charge off a wall socket , but nowhere near even half as long as the battery grip... admittedly that was with el cheapo AAs from tesco - rechargeable AAs or duracells etc might do better

my advice would be - you can if you really need to, but take a lot of spares and turn off all the non essential functions like lcd pic display after each shot - and don't even think of using on board flash
 
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Pookeyhead said:
The AA cells will be effectively connected in series, as 6x 1.2v = 7.2v, which is the same as the camera battery. The effect is, that despite having 6 cells, it will still be 1200mAh, so in theory, it will last approximately half as long as 2x 7.2v batteries, which to maintain voltage would be connected in parallel, giving 2400mAh.
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Not if it's a different battery technology.
 
st599 said:
Not if it's a different battery technology.
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While different technology has different discharge rates, the camera's current draw will remain the same, and you can assume that a 1200mAh battery will last considerably less than a 2400Mah one.
 
Pookeyhead said:
While different technology has different discharge rates, the camera's current draw will remain the same, and you can assume that a 1200mAh battery will last considerably less than a 2400Mah one.
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They'll also have a different internal resistance.
 
st599 said:
They'll also have a different internal resistance.
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I'm really not sure why you're doing this LOL. A 1200mAh battery, despite what kind will last significantly less than a 2400mAh battery in the same application. Maybe less than half, maybe more than half, but we can be absolutely confident it's performance will be significantly less.
 
Be careful, pretty sure the Canon grip instructions say do NOT use Lithium AA's, think they can cause a voltage overload
 
Pookeyhead said:
While different technology has different discharge rates, the camera's current draw will remain the same, and you can assume that a 1200mAh battery will last considerably less than a 2400Mah one.
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Exactly. Plus, typically, alkaline batteries have a much steeper discharge curve (i.e. the voltage "drops off" from its "nominal" value quicker) than the dedicated rechargeables that the manufacturers specify and use. So, you may actually find that despite having a "nominal" 1200mAh (say)... the camera's internal sensing will detect the voltage drop in the alkaline batteries, and report that they are actually exhausted well before that 1200mAh had been delivered.

Again, as someone who has been forced by circumstances to use AA's rather than proper batteries - a full complement lasted around 150 shots on my 7D before reporting as being flat as a pancake. Definitely recommend trying to grab a charger of some sort - even a "universal" charger - ultimately, you're going to need one anyway sooner or later, so you may as well bite the bullet and get one now.
 
First off, thanks for all of the posts and suggestions; I may have not replied until now but I had read all of them prior to the weekend and it really was appreciated, cheers!

I did what @omens suggested and reserved a Canon LC-E8 charger from Currys. I picked it up Friday after work and charged all of the batteries before I went to sleep, though I only used 1 and a half in the end as I was distracted by the Comic-con experience.

My photos aren't amazing but I wasn't expecting them to be with my lack of knowledge and the lenses I was forced to use indoors. Still, I am happy with what I took and I had a great day which is what counts.

Thanks once again.
 
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