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Look familiar? Except for the black color, the BC-700 looks exactly the same as the better-known La Crosse BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger. Just like the BC-900, the BC-700 has four user-selectable operating modes: Charge, Test, Refresh, and Discharge. Trickle charge kicks in once the batteries are charged.
What’s the difference? The BC-700 charging current maxes [...]

Late last year, Maha Energy - the maker of Powerex batteries and chargers, introduced a low self-discharge rechargeable battery called the ‘IMEDION’. The IMEDION batteries are compatible with NiNH battery chargers and are available in 2100mAh capacity for AA size and 800mAh for AAA.
Maha states that IMEDION batteries retain up to 85% of their charge [...]

European consumer battery maker VARTA, founded in 1904, was acquired by Rayovac (now Spectrum Brands, Inc.) in 2002. Spectrum Brands sells rechargeable NiMH batteries under the Rayovac label in the USA. In Europe and Asia, the Varta brand is still used. I purchased a 4-pack of Varta Power Accu AA 2700 NiMH batteries at [...]

There is very little independent data on the discharge capacities of popular AAA NiMH batteries. Most of the attention has focused on the AA size batteries. Yet, AAA size batteries power an ever-growing list of gadgets that include not only cameras but MP3 players, Bluetooth headsets, cordless phones, remote controls, etc.

In the quest for the perfect power source for my Canon Speedlite 580EX, I purchased a new set of Maha PowerEx 2700 NiMH rechargeable batteries from EastGear here in Singapore. Then, I measured their discharge capacity using a LaCrosse AlphaPower BC-900 charger. (See my earlier post for tips on using this excellent charger/tester effectively.)