Pika, the risk of sounding picky, if those AA's you bought were primary (non-rechargeable) cells they were not Lithium ion , just Lithium. There is a difference. There are true Lithium ion rechargeable cells in AA form but their voltage is much higher. Li-ion chemistry is what you will see in most cell phone and proprietary rechargeable camera batteries.

Sorry to be so darn nikpicky but this stuff is my hobby <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Thanks, Trailrunner, I thought that the Canon website info sounded too good to be true! And thanks for all the great tips and for the site reference for Thomas Distributing. I'll get a charger and some rechargeable batteries (better for around home, anyway) and do a bunch of experimenting. That's disappointing that they lose juice over time! I'll get the batteries you recommended.

In the meantime, I'll spend a lot more time with the instruction book and learn how to turn off the LED screen. As I mentioned, it's useless in sunlight anyway. The viewfinder isn't all that great (smaller area than the actual picture) but I can crop once I've uploaded the images to my computer.

In the meantime, back to the original topic--we'll all wait for a solar recharger that works! If anyone can invent a nice lightweight one, I will be one of the earliest in line!

Costco sells the Sanyo batteries with the charger. I saw them the other day when I was out there on a trip.

If the thin film technology is ever used correctly by an outdoor gear minded manufacturer; then a folding soalr panel would be nice. It could fold to the size of a deck of cards for packing, then unfold open to the size of a 2 x 2 ft square or something. That's my dream and I'm sticking to it.....much closer than say 25 years ago <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

This is what prompted me to switch to Lithium disposables. I couldn't believe how quickly the Eveready 2500 mah cells discharged simply by sitting unused in my camera. I wonder if they would discharge any quicker in colder weather.

Alan

Yes the Eneloop are the way to go. Using a Canon A510 I gave up testing it after having taken more than 500 shots over several weeks. The Eneloop will keep the voltage at just over 1 volt till the end, this is the minimum required by most digital still cameras. They also work well under freezing point.
Franco