Rechargeable Batteries on Digital Camera: Amperage Question

Gentlemen,
I am shopping for a set of rechargeable batteries for my brother's HP Photosmart 735 Digital Camera. Believe it or not the manual doesn't specify what kind of batteries the camera takes, so I called HP and I was told to get two NiMh AA batteries with 1.2v and 1600mAh.

I keep on finding great deals on batteries with amperage above 2000mAh (2150mAh to be exact), and I was wondering whether I could use these units with higher amperage without risk to damage the camera.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Walter

Short version - you want the highest mAh rating you can get. It's essentially the capacity of the battery, so if you can shoot 30 pictures with the 1600mAh batteries, you could shoot 40 pictures with the 2150's.

ObieWan said:

Short version - you want the highest mAh rating you can get. It's essentially the capacity of the battery, so if you can shoot 30 pictures with the 1600mAh batteries, you could shoot 40 pictures with the 2150's.

Click to expand...

Awesome. Sorry for the ignorance in electrical terms.
One last question: what rule should I follow when it comes to chargers? Are chargers independent from battery Amperage?

Thanks for the answer.

Walter

Any modern charger should have no problem with higher capacity batteries like that. They will just take a little longer to charge. http://www.thomas-distributing.com/ sells many models, most which can charge a pair (or more) of 2000mAh+ batteries in under an hour.

Just remember that NiMh batteries, like all rechargable batteries, self discharge. If you charge them up and let them sit for 3 or 4 weeks without use, don't be suprised if they are nearly dead. This is a trait common to ALL types of rechargable batteries!

The elaborate a little of what mAh means: mAh = milli-amp hours. This is a way to measure battery capacity. For example: If you have a device that constantly draws 1000 milliamps, when you hook it up to a battery with 1000mAh capacity it will last one hour. If the device draws 100mA then the battery should last 10 hours, if the device draws 10mA then the battery should last 100 hours, and so on........

Yeah, think of a battery as the gas tank of a car. The car's rate of fuel consumption is akin to the current draw, while the size of the fuel tank is akin to its capacity (mAh). Now you can easily make predictions about how long the car will run, based on rate of fuel consumption and gas tank size...same goes for battery-operated devices.