Every Photographer Needs A Good Battery Charger

To power flashes all professional photographers either go through a lot of disposable AA batteries, use expensive hip battery packs, or pack rechargeable batteries.

Personally I use a combination of disposable Lithium AA Batteries (as their longevity justify their higher price) and rechargeable batteries. But one thing I quickly found is that the cheap battery chargers you find at the supermarket (and even the expensive chargers at the camera store) simply don’t work well. With most battery chargers, they only have one LED so you don’t have much indication what’s really going on. It’s either impossible or hard to tell if all the batteries are fully charged, if one or more are non-fuctional, or if they’re loosing their power holding ability. (All rechargeable batteries begin to wear out after a few months of heavy use.)

The La Crosse Technology BC-900 AlphaPower Battery Charger solves all these problems. It has 4 separate LCD displays that specify the charging current, charging cycle, and will notify you if you have a dead cell.

You can also set it to trickle charge or increase the current if you should need a quicker charge. Other cycles include test cell, discharge/refresh cell (to recondition older cells), and break-in cell. The exclusive break-in mode conditions cells for their first use.

I’ve found the Sanyo 2,700 mAh AA NiMH Rechargeable Batteries last pretty long and have the power needed to keep my flash cycle times short. I also like to keep some Sanyo Eneloop Pre-Charged Rechargeable Batteries in my bag and the car as they retain their charges much longer and are great in a pinch.

Get it with Two-Day shipping for FREE or Overnight shipping for $3.99 with Amazon Prime or get FREE Super Saver Shipping on qualifying orders over $25.

Pricing, rebates, free super saver shipping, and other promotions maybe subject to availability and restrictions.