24Aug High Capacity Maha Powerex 2700mAh AA Rechargeable Batteries and Charger
I was loading my old Energizer 2000mAh batteries into the Yongnuo YN 565EX speedlite to start doing a little bit of testing and found that they no longer hold a charge. So I started doing some research to find a modern day replacement to my three year old batteries and decided to go with the Maha Powerex 2700mAh batteries. At about a 1/3 more capacity, they seem to be a good upgrade to my old batteries.
The nice thing is that the batteries come with individual 4 pack cases as well as a nice padded case for storage. That should make it easier to identify which batteries are charged and which ones need to be charged.
Sold separately, the Powerex MH-C800S 8 cell smart charger, gives you charge indicators for every battery plugged in. It also acts as 8 individual chargers so single batteries can be removed when charged. I know many of these chargers say that can charge your batteries in under 2 hours, but I’ve always opted for the slower charge if the battery charger supports it. The batteries don’t get as hot and it seems like they last longer.
My old batteries made it 3 years, so I’m guessing if I take good care of these I should get another 3 to 5 years of use out of them. If you’re trying to decide what batteries to get for your speedlite I usually recommend Ni-Mh (Nickel–metal hydride) batteries with mAh (milli-Amp hour) ratings of 2000 or above. The NiMh batteries give you much faster cycle times after a flash and the high mAh rating usually means they’ll last a lot longer, usually 300 to 500 flash operations depending on conditions.
Considering a 16 pack of off the shelf Duracell batteries runs around $12 you only have to recharge these batteries 5 or 6 times to make them worth the price. Plus the faster recycling times speeds things up if you’re shooting portraits, or doing work at a wedding. They’re definitely a good investment if you do even a little bit of flash photography work.
August 24th, 2012 at 3:24 pm
I use these batteries and like them. A lot of people recommend the Eneloop batteries (that have slower discharge) but I tend to recharge batteries before big jobs and these have better capacity.
August 24th, 2012 at 4:41 pm
The charger is cool but the battery capacity increase should be confirmed by testing. I have been using the Eneloop batteries for a year and IMHO they do a great job. Therefore I would recommend a few tests to compare these Powerex with the Eneloops.
August 24th, 2012 at 7:36 pm
What mAh rating of Eneloops batteries would you like to see tested? I could get 4 of them and do a flash off between the Eneloops and the Powerex batteries to see which lasts longer and check cycle times.
August 25th, 2012 at 3:46 am
The Eneloop AA’s are rated for 2,000mAh … so less juice than the Powerex, but the Eneloop’s claim to fame is very low self-discharge – i.e. you can pick ’em up after a year (or more !) of non-use and they’ll still have decent charge. But yea, if you are good about making sure your batteries are charged up, that’s not too much of an issue.
A shoot-out would be kinda nifty to see as I’m not sure the mAh rating tells the whole story in terms of real world performance.
August 25th, 2012 at 8:56 am
I’ll grab a 4 pack of the 2000mAh off of Amazon and try and find some time to film a quick test next week. Seems like a question that could use an answer.
August 24th, 2012 at 9:14 pm
I have had the charger and batteries for some time. I never found the batteries to last long on a charge. They just did not hold a charge over time. I had to use them right away. Went back to regular AA’s for reliability.
September 2nd, 2012 at 1:00 am
Most of the time when a photographer tell me that they use alkaline because they had a very bad experiences with rechargeables, they used very crappy chargers or “just good” batteries.
The best two chargers in the market are The 8-Cell Maha Powerex MH-C801D, and the 4-cell Maha Powerex Wizard One MH-C9000.
And the best batteries are Powerex 2700 and the Eneloops XX (low discharge and a little more expensive)
August 25th, 2012 at 9:48 am
little hint: I have a 10 battery AA case and I indicated a + an a – on the case for when the batteries are full. When They are empty I put the upside-down in the case. This way I easily keep track of wich ones are empty or not. I would have never bought these bateries though. Give me XX by Eneloop from Sanyo as they don’t discharge that easily.
August 25th, 2012 at 10:29 am
That’s a good battery management tip. I usually run all of my batteries through the charge the day before I head out so I don’t think i’ll have a problem with the discharge rate. But I could see how it could be a problem if you don’t have time for that or forget to charge them.
August 25th, 2012 at 11:37 am
What might be even more interesting is to also test the 2500 mh XX Eneloops. Pretty pricey but quite a bit more capacity and with slow discharge.
August 25th, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Not sure I’m willing to toss $18 at a 4 pack just to run a quick test, I didn’t really need the 2000mAh Eneloop batteries I just ordered for the test. Anyone want to pony up the $18 to get the 2500mAh XX Eneloops added to the test?
August 26th, 2012 at 6:50 am
Hey DeeJay,
I’m kinda curious to see this test (plus I really appreciated your quick handling of a DS214 adapter a while back) … so Email me your snail-mail address and I’ll have Amazon ship a 4-pack of the Eneloop XX’s to ‘ya.
alek
August 26th, 2012 at 11:31 am
E-mail sent, Thanks Alek!
August 26th, 2012 at 1:27 pm
Just placed order and used my wife’s Amazon account, since she has PRIME for faster shipping – should be there by Wednesday at the latest. Looking forward to your shoot-out … and thanks for all the great info DeeJay.
August 26th, 2012 at 4:17 pm
I’m glad my tests, reviews, and random thoughts can be helpful. I’m Also interested to find out if those XX batteries are worth almost double the price.