Quote Originally Posted by Maya & Inka's mommy
The best advize!!
One question though, sorry if it sounds a bit silly . How do you get your batteries totally dead? And how do you know they are??

I suppose the simplest answer for me would be simply use them until they don't work any longer??? In my Fuji that was rather easy to do - it didn't take long since it drained batteries like no other - so I went to rechargeables and problem was solved. With my new Fuji that was one of the issues that sent it back to the Manufacturer. I could put freshly charged batteries in it and it wouldn't even turn on. Both sets of rechargeable batteries and chargers are less then a year old so I know that they are ok. I guess its just not charging them until your ready. I also was really bad about keeping them in the charger - charging all the time - I have thought about chucking the one set of batteries not the charger tho - but then what if its the charger and not the batteries?
Anna reccommended the 15 minute charger it was definately worth the extra money. The one I have now that I mentioned before is a one hour charger.
With my Fuji camera - I would have to replace batteries several times during the day - at the Memorial day meeting I even kept them plugged in at the shelter house to no avail - the camera still didn't do very well. The Canon S2IS now I am still using the batteries that came in the camera and have taken probably 300 pics and a few movies and u/l the pics with the same batteries. I did buy a set of 4 Lithium batteries to take to Cali just in case the rechargeable ones putz out.