Reviews

Final tally of Energizer’s Advanced Lithium battery life

It’s been well over a year since I put the Energizer Advanced Lithium batteries in my Canon 580EX II speedlite. In February 2009, I was contacted by an ad agency working for Energizer, and invited to test out the batteries. I’ve been using them in my speedlite ever since, and they finally gave out about a week and a half ago, on June 10, 2010.

According to Lightroom, I have 1,209 photos in my library that were taken with the speedlite since February 4, 2009. That’s how long four of these Advanced Lithium batteries lasted in my speedlite! I think that’s quite impressive, both in terms of battery life (how many shots I could take) and shelf life (how long they lasted inside the speedlite).

Another thing to keep in mind is that I delete about 10-20% of my photos as I winnow. That means, theoretically, that I got about 1,330-1,451 photos with these batteries.

It’s also worth mentioning that I got 1,872 photos from my Canon 5D when I used these batteries in its vertical grip (six of them fit in there).

Given my sort of use for the speedlite, where it sits in my bag and only gets used from time to time, I think these batteries are the perfect choice for it. Those who work in the studio quite a lot, or use their speedlites out at events may find that rechargeable batteries, which have a much shorter shelf life but can be recharged hundreds or thousands of times, work best for them.

If you’d like to give the Advanced Lithium batteries a try, they’re available from Amazon.

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Thoughts

That lovely sense of wonder

A kitten’s curiosity is such an endearing quality. They manage to look so adorable while exploring their surroundings, with their tiny, slender bodies, big heads and large ears. They’re so focused on what they’re doing, so concentrated on observing an insect, or why a leaf rustles when they paw it, that you can’t help loving them.

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Thoughts

A neat talk by Peter Tyack at TED, entitled “The Intriguing Sound of Marine Mammals“, in which he explains the effect of human noise on the sounds made by marine mammals, and what’s being done to correct the situation. A few tidbits:

  • Better propeller designs decrease propeller noise by up to 90%
  • Insulating the engine chamber from the hull reduces engine noise by up to 99%
  • Slowing down the ships by 50% decreases overall noise and reduces fuel consumption by 30%

There’s also a cool cartoon at the end of the talk, called “Good Vibrations”, made by Jeremy Clapin.

Marine mammals, underwater sounds and shipping noise

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Thoughts

The pattern behind self-deception

Michael Shermer, the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine and the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, gave a talk at TED about self-deception — how our mind (sometimes) plays tricks on us. A couple of interesting tidbits:

  • Dopamine antagonists decrease the patterns we see
  • Dopamine agonists increase the patterns we see

Wonderful stuff!

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Places

Larriland Farm, Maryland

Larriland Farm is a place where you can pick your own fruits and vegetables. It’s in Woodbine, Maryland, well into the countryside, so it’s a nice getaway from the city.

They use integrated pest management techniques to grow their crops, which means insecticides are only used as a last resort. This makes their fruits and vegies healthier than the stuff you generally find on supermarket shelves.

We went there to pick strawberries. That’s our MINI parked near the strawberry field.

If you’d rather not go out into the fields but would still like the benefit of farm-fresh produce, they do have ready-picked bushels available for you to buy. And they have a few goats for your kids to play with, too.

No self-respecting farm would do without a red barn, right?

I like farm machinery. Don’t you?

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