Using NiMH batteries purchased from "Battery City" my recently purchased Olympus D320L will frequently refuse to turn on, or will turn off abruptly. Installing alkaline batteries eliminates the problem. I have tried several different sets of NiMH batteries (Toshiba), all new and freshly charged, all with the same results.

Olympus suggested that the problem may be the difference between the amperage of their own 1300 MA/hour batteries and Toshiba's 1200MA/hour units. They do not believe that the voltage difference (1.5 vs. 1.2) between NiMH and alkaline is an issue.

Battery City had no recommendation other than putting a wad of aluminum foil under the + end of the battery to make sure it is making contact.(?)

Any ideas or suggestions?

-- Ronald Bozeman (dvineyard@hughes.net), August 03, 1998

Answers

I have apparently found a solution myself. After getting a very strong opinion from Battery City that the problem was with my camera not with their NiMH batteries or charger, I tried the batteries in the floor demo D320L at the store I bought my camera from and found they didn't work in it either. Back to Battery City.

Well, it seems they HAVE had problems with several of their chargers, so I am now sending back mine and will get it exchanged.

-- Ronald Bozeman (dvineyard@hughes.net), August 04, 1998.

I to have purchased from Battery City, got 2 sets of charger/4 batteries and found that they randomly won't work with my Ricoh RDC 4300 camera..after much comparing witha set purchased from Radio Shack, I noticed that the Bat City batteries had a smooth negative post i.e. not raised or humped like the Radio Shack, I "jostled" the camera and the flat batteries made contact and worked...I have to do this almost each time I install a recharged set, I checked the voltage output of all three sets andd they were virtually the same, lower than a set of alkalines !!!! which work all of the time...It is my belief that both the lower voltages and somewhat different shape cause the problems...anyway "jiggle" away, for the price, who cares !!! they will work.

-- Paul Kobetz (paulk@pacific.net), August 05, 1998.

You're right, the terminal voltage of NiMH (and NiCd) batteries is less than that of alkalines. Another difference though, is that they hold that voltage more or less constant until their charge is almost entirely exhausted. This will cause some cameras to indicate only a partial battery charge (we're testing an HP C20 right now that does this), but they'll keep on working for a long time. The biggest plus with NiMH (and NiCd too, for that matter) is that they can handle very high current drains without getting their internal chemistry whacked out. Alkalines (and Lithiums too!) can heat up a lot under high load, and end up depleting their chemicals around the internal cathode/anode structures. The result there is a battery that dies after only 10-30 minutes of use, when its capacity says it should run for a couple of hours...

It seems like the issue with the shape of the end terminal may be the cause of some folks problems - thanks for the tip! (It does sound as though Ronald got a bad charger though.)

-- Dave Etchells (hotnews@imaging-resource.com), August 05, 1998.

This doesn't really answer your question, but I thought I'd point out that I got great results with Rayovac Renewal rechargable alkalines while I had a D320. I still have a few sets which I use to download things from my D600L when the NiMH are charging.

BTW, I took about 85 HQ pictures (only a couple with flash) on one set of NiMH with my D600L the other day. Actually the batteries didn't run out, I filled 20M worth of smartmedia! FWIW, my NiMH are from Radio Shack.

-- Ben Jackson (ben@ben.com), August 07, 1998.

FYI, I got a new charger in exchange for the one I was originally shipped. And after charging a set of batteries, I put them in the 320 and it would not turn on. I looked carefully at how the contacts on the battery compartment cover lined up with battery terminals and everything seemed to be OK, but it still would not work. I opened the battery compartment slightly and moved the locking lever to the "locked" position, opened the lens cover and the camera turned on. I then closed the battery compartment cover all the way, and the camera has turned on successfully ever since.(?)

I am still certain that the original charger was bad, because I could get the camera to turn on before, it would just turn off abruptly before I could take

-- Ronald Bozeman (dvineyard@hughes.net), August 08, 1998.

Arrgh! Memories of my own embarassment, compounded by a failure to remember it in time to aid another! I recall almost calling Oly when we first got the 220 & 320 in for testing, thinking they were defective, because I couldn't get them to turn on. Turned out it was the battery cover lock! (I think I even included this in the review to warn others.) Sorry I didn't remember it in time to do you any good! Glad to hear it all worked out. Battery charger would undoubtedly have been the problem if it in fact did turn on initially...

-- Dave Etchells (hotnews@imaging-resource.com), August 08, 1998.

That is why I purchased the NEXCELL batteries from Thomas Distributing.

The NEXCELL batteries have a very large button on the positive post I no matter how I try they will not shake loose or loose contact in my camera. They have the same dimensions as standard "AA" batteries.

http://nimhbattery.com/batteries.htm

-- Bill Peters (storm@comwares.net), August 31, 1998.