Battery troubles Canon A 580

[minthaka]

I have reaaally annoying troubles with my Canon A 580 camera. It works with two AA sized batteries, or at least it should. I had a couple of batteries, all of them around 1 years old, but as soon as I've recharged the batteries, and placed them into the camera, I've got messages "Low batteries, please change them". When I put the same batteries into a lamp, it shone for hours.

So I've decided to buy me a new set of batteries and a recharger, a Trust one, with 2700 mAh. I'm getting the same results.

Do I have to confront my camera with the wall?

Is it possible to overcharge the batteries? It usually takes 18 hours to recharge batteries, but it sometimes happens, that I'm leaving them for 19-20 hours.

I'm a bit angry!

[oz]

I've been round after round with digital camera batteries and battery chargers, and all those problems went away completely after I finally purchased some really good batteries with a really good charger.

They are both expensive, but you might be able to find them cheaper with some online searching:

POWEREX MH-800S8AAI C800S Eight Cell Charger

POWEREX MH-4AA270-BH 2700mAh 4-Pack AA NiMH Rechargeable Batteries

My old batteries wouldn't last 30 minutes after a fresh charge, but I now get 400 to 500 photos on a set of charged batteries and can go many months without having to recharge them.

I highly recommend both of the above items if you are into digital photography. The results are almost unbelievable.

[D-cat]

It is possible to overcharge a battery but most chargers these days know when to drop voltage to just a trickle (maintenance charge). I'm seeing the problem you describe now in batteries I've had for 5 years. New ones shouldn't be that bad. I will note though that with my Canon A570, I was getting sick of the half hr run time per charge at best with even new NiMH (when I avoided using flash), and have tried out the Energizer Lithium e^2 set. I put this pair in for AAC in November, I'm still using the same set. I'm starting to think the hassle of recharging isn't as cost effective as it's meant to be.

If I can ever afford to upgrade my camera again, I will go for one that either has a 4 AA set* (these just last a lot longer per charge for technical reasons) or its own Li-Ion pack. I have a rather demanding wish-list for features.

*I actually already have one, the DXG 505V. Using the same NiMH batteries, it easily lasts four times longer than the Canon. I'd use it more often if it wasn't such a toy (can't handle loud volume, below-freezing weather, and doesn't have an optical zoom).