Question for SunPak 383 users

My 383 arrived from B&H yesterday and I'm about to go out and buy batteries

for it so I can play! However, the instruction sheet has raised some questions.

 

The instruction sheet recommends either Alkaline or Ni Cad batteries. Well,

where I live in the Midwestern USA, you can't FIND any Ni-Cad batteries. All

the rechargeable batteries are Lithium ion batteries. Which if I understand

the reasoning is they are less dangerous to humans and the environment and

have a superior power profile.

 

My questions are these. . . .

 

 

Have you any experience with the Lion batteries in the 383 and do they work

the same as/better than/worse than Ni-Cad and or Alkaline batteries?

 

Do the comparisons found in the instruction sheet between Alkaline and Ni-Cads

remain true for a comparison between Alkaline and Lion batteries (i.e. more

shots with Alkalines, but faster recycle times with Ni-cad).

 

Any advice or comments on this issue would be welcomed.

Sorry! I meant NIMH batteries not Lithium Ion Batteries!

When the instructions were written for the 383, NiMH batteries were not yet available, and the only commercially available rechargable AA batteries were NiCads.

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I use NiMH in my 383s with no problems. They work very well.

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Theoretically, NiMH have a slightly higher internal resistance than NiCads, so brand new fully charged NiCads should offer slightly faster recycling than NiMH batteries. But NiMH offer a lot of other advantages, not the least of which is that they're more widely available these days.

Probably OLD text. For most applications you can use NiMH in place of NiCad. NiMH is similar in operational use to NiCad but with much greater capacity (2500+mah for NiMH vs 500mah for NiCad).

I also run the MH batteries in my 383. I have 2 sets color coded with plastic tape. One set is in the flash the other is in the charger or in the bag. Keep the set or sets together, don't mix them with others. They work great.

While we're on the subject of the Sunpak 383... besides rechargability, do modern NiMH's (eg. around 2500mah) offer any advantages over alkaline? Will they charge the flash faster? Or offer more flashes per set?