You may be having an issue with one of the batteries. If you have a tester
you can use it to see if all the batteries are experiencing the severe self
discharge issue of just one (or maybe two). Then get them replaced (if you
have any bad batteries) so the batteries are all performing within about 5%
of each other - 10% max. The battery that is the weakest will make the
camera stop working regardless of the charge state of the others.

Alternatively, if you do not use your batteries very regularly, you can
consider getting some of the ULSD NiMH batteries that are on the market.

They do not have as much capacity if used all in a day or two but maintain
their charge longer. This is my favorite NiMH AA battery because I do not
use my Kodak camera very often. They also work well for other devices that
do not have a high drain, like flashlights, etc.

Hope that helps.

Sincerely,

Curtis

P.S.- I add your email to the blog by bccing the blog email address (I don't
publish the address so I can moderate the content)

-----Original Message-----
From: Orrie Frutkin
Sent: Saturday, December 22, 2007 10:19 PM
To: curtis@greenbatteries.com
Subject: Sanyo 2500 NiMH AAs shelf life

Hi Curtis,

I bought some Sanyo 2500 NiMH AA's (model HR-3U 1.2v) batteries and a
GBTurbo 4000 charger from Green Batteries to use with my wife's Canon
PowerShot A540 camera. The batteries seem to charge normally, and can shoot
what seems like a fair number of pictures, as long as the photos are shot
within a very few days - less than a week.

If freshly charged batteries are put in the camera -- or just stored in
their little plastic case --and then not used immediately, they seem to lose

their power in about 7 to 10 days. They are either dead and will not respond

at all when the camera's on/off is pressed, or, they will only put out a
feeble amount of power to start to boot up the camera, then quit. This seems

like far faster and deeper draining than the losing "40% of their charge
within a month" mentioned in GB's NiMH FAQs. The camera and batteries are
kept on a desk at room temperature.

Since my wife does not use her camera every day, this means we have to
charge the batteries almost every time she wants to take picture. If she
shoots, say 5 to 10 shots on a weekend, and then nothing during the week,
the batteries are likely to be dead when she picks up the camera the
followeing weekend. In effect, we have to keep keep charging batteries that
have done no useful work. Is this a characteristic of the batteries or
charger? Or could there be something in the camera that causes the batteries

to drain? It seems to work properly while the batteries are recently
charged. Will this usage (or non-usage) and charging pattern harm the
batteries; for example, by not allowing them to take a full charge?

My wife now prefers using ordinary disposable alkaline AA's because they
actually take more pictures without the bother of recharging all the time.
I'm not happy about the waste and "green" and aspects of this, but it's hard

to argue that she should continue to wait for the NiMH batteries to charge
rather than just pop in a couple of alkalines.

Thanks for any help and advice you can provide.

(By the way, I visited your blog, but could not find a way to add this
question to the blog discussion. How doe it work?)

Orrie