Charger Reviews

We bought 2 pairs of radios and 2 charger kits. Nothing in the instructions warns against deep-cycling the batteries. I fully charged all 4 batteries the first time, then left the radios on until the batteries were fully discharged. Three out of four of the batteries would not recharge. I hope they'll replace the batteries, but still, we'll have to remember not to leave a radio on in a coat pocket or something.

UPDATE: I talked to Midland Tech Service. They sent replacement batteries but also suggested that I remove the old batteries for 15 minutes to allow the radios to re-set. The "bad" batteries then accepted a charge. A cute trick, but I had to call Midland to get it.

I picked up this charge in combination with my Nikon 3100 camera. Since the battery it came with lasted a whole hour, I thought that the rechargeable would be a better option.

It ended up being a yes and no. Yes, this thing is tiny, so it is easy to travel, carry and store. Yes it does charge in about 2 1/2 hours.

Only problem is, after 2 hours of charging you get about 15-30 minutes worth of usuage.

My recommendation is to go ahead and buy this, but get several pairs of batteries. This way you will have atleast one set ready to go, when the others die unexpectantly.

I bought this particular charger a few years ago when I bought my digital camera (back when rechargeable batteries were between 1200 and 1600 mAh - now they're 2100 mAh.) While this charger worked as specified and was reliable, I've outgrown it, but will retain mine. I upgraded this week to the Engergizer 30-Minute charger (item CH30MN) for $27.00 - less than what this overnight charger is listed for. This 30-min charger was necessary, since I don't use my camera a little at a time - I use it a LOT at a time - so a 30 minute charger was a necessity so I could have 6 sets of batteries charged up for a photo outting without having to remember to start the charging process a week in advance!

Bottom line: it works well, but, like computers, now you can get better for less.

This item is an ideal accessory for those of you who have a sony digital camera or camcorder. It frees up the camera, so that you can take pictures while your second battery is charging.

I bought a great digital camera, but didn't realize that it consumed 4 AA batteries in a short amount of time. My camera would shut down if I had taken two dozen or so pictures. I bought this Sony charger in hopes to slow down my cameras appetite for AA's. After charging them up, I haven't been able to burn them out! I've gone so far at taking 100+ pictures with the flash on and still I could not burn them out. These little guys are a must if you have a digital camera that eats up batteries. The only draw back is that it take up to 4 hours to recharge.

I've always been a bit of a nerd when it comes to battery chargers. And while this charger doesn't monitor the temperature of the battery as it charges, it certainly manages a good job nonetheless.

Recently I noticed dwindling capacity from the battery in my 2001 Audi S4 Avant ... go figure, it's been cold out in Michigan lately and this is the stock battery that has suffered several complete discharges on accident. Being a non deap-cycle design, letting it sit dead for 24 hours or more at a time is murder on it's lifespan. Its capacity was down to about 25% measured with a state of the art battery tester.

I had the choice of either purchasing a new battery- ~$90 my cost, or buying this charger for $50 at a local Wal-Mart. Not having a good multi-stage charger presently (My prized yuasa charger died a year ago)- I inspected this one carefully. It's "reconditioning" feature drew my curiosity.. and knowing I could return it if it didn't work, I figured what the heck.

My old battery now is up to 80% capacity after 48 hours of reconditioning. It does take a while, each cycle takes 24 hours beyond a normal charge. But, I'm impressed. This isn't some lame surface charge or slow trickle charge, it actually desulfated some of the plates on my battery.

Pros- small, lightweight, heavy gauge clamps and wires. Internal variable speed cooling fan and switching power supply exhibit proper battery charger construction.

Cons- too light. The wires weigh more than it does almost, so it's very easy to 'pull' the charger off of whatever you set it on, possibly making it fall to the ground and damaging it.

Summary: The packaging has a hailstorm of technical information that most buyers aren't going to read, including screenshots from a Fluke scopemeter showing waveform generation comparisons. I think most Wal-Mart buyers are going to look at the $50 pricetag and buy the el-cheapo $19.99 5/50A analog charger and move on, making this excellent product eventually dissapear due to lackluster sales. If you want a good charger, buy this one while it's available. It won't be around forever..

If you intend to bounce this radio down the street then you picked the right one but for listing purposes forget it! JUNK! I've bought radios at the 99 cent store that have better reception than this battery charger with a roll bar. Your workers will spend more time trying to find a station than working on their project. Unless you're in a situation where you need to defend your life by beating someone to death with this radio... make another choice!

I also have the Dewalt radio/charger; like everyone else I too am dissapointed by the reception. I love this radio/charger becuase it is indestructable (I have left it out in a pouring rain, knocked it off a 2 story roof,dropped tools and ladders on it and yet it still works like new.) It charges all my Dewalt batteries (9.6-18.) I can take it up on a roof, in the middle of a field, to the beach, camping, and the list goes on. the radio will never die during the day because of dead conventional batteries.
Think of the money you save right there. Many people complain that there is no cd player. This is fine with me because I would worry about dust on the lense or a jarring impact would ruin it. Also the dust/dirt would get on my cds and scratch them.
One final note: this radio is loud and the sound carries far and clean. I can hear this radio from at least 100 yds.

Too many times over I here folks complaining that DeWalt should have come out with a CD Charger or that this particular unit has a tough time playing in indoor environments. We need to be reminded that this is a Charger first with the ability to play Radio and line in CD/Tape. I find the DW911 particularly useful when it comes to charging different batteries (9.6 to 18 volt). The unit is tougher than it looks...only the antenna has given me problems, but they are an affordable replacement part. Good unit that is perfect for a small cookout or a resting stop during a long road trip.

The charger is not bad although charging time is very long. Well, the price is low and it is said that slow charge is better for the battery. But the battery is really poor... From the words on the battery, I guess it is 1700mah, however, someone told me that it is 1600 mah. I compared the battery with the panasonic 1600mah ni-MH battery I got...panasonic worked 5 hours and 45 minutes, while Millenium worked only 4 hours and 30 minutes. Poor battery! I will never buy batteries without capacity on its label. It is sure that the manufacturer is not confident about its capacity/quality.

I ignored previous reviews that the charger base's so-called green light (indicating a full battery charge) frequently didn't work. Lo and behold, the green light indicator didn't work on my charger base. Who cares? After the suggested 14 hour charge time, I checked the batteries in a tester and noticed they were fully charged. My daughter uses the batteries in her portable CD player instead of going through alkaline batteries like candy. She gets over 10 hours of continuous MP3 play with these beauties. We are saving money by avoiding the purchase of umpteen alkaline batteries and saving precious space in our local landfill. In my opinion a win/win situation.

I use these batteries in my portable CD player, my digital camera, my electric toothbrush and my electric hair-curling brush. They are very convenient and work well. Not sure yet how long they last in the camera, but I'l be testing that in August.

They completely recharge (the little light chnages from red to green ont he charger) in about a day and half, so it's a good idea to have an extra set. It's still better (and cheaper) than buying Alkaline batteries and throwing them away.

with usb, you just have to simply plug it in and it charges for you.
however with the com port charger, this is so unstable and disfunctional.
If you can, please get the USB compatible hotsync cradle charger.
it is so much smaller and you won't regret like i am right now.
Sincerely,
Ryuk

The Palm V Synch is great. It lets you copy all the data from your Palm to a desktop or laptop, but i find the price of this way too expensive. I want a cradle for my home and one for work, and considering that Palm V's go for about $250 now, i think it is ridiculous that the cradle itself is $50, whereas you can get ones for the Palm III for ~$20. Granted you can recharge the Palm V, i wish they would make a cradle only (no charging capabilities) for people who want to sync their palm in two different places.

I bought this Palm V Hotsync Cradle as a replacement to my old one that had been stolen...The cradle itself works great. It is easy to install and required no extra software if you already the Hotsync software installed. A good product.

I purchased a Coolpix 885 in April 2002. Within a few weeks I encountered a "SYSTEM ERROR" message. I got the camera replaced because it was under new camera warranty. I recently tried to use the custom settings to take pictures in poor light and encountered the "SYSTEM ERROR" message again. I believe there is a problem with using this mode. Based on other reviews and given the lack of positive action to address this issue I could not recommend this camera. I have given it 1 star because I have taken around 950 good pictures using the auto modes only.

I loved the camera when it arrived. The first "serious brand" camera I've ever purchased (my prior Kodak DC200 digital had serious design flaws in the battery compartment, causing power "dropout" problems) and I really liked the compact size and the flawless optics.

But, I'm now about to ship the camera back FOR THE THIRD TIME for repairs for the exact same problem. The zoom lens assembly has a recurring problem that causes the auto-focus to "lose it" after several zoom-in/zoom-out shots in sequence, and then all it'll do is say "SYSTEM ERROR" on-screen and refuses to power up.

Needless to say, this has (Murphy's Law) happened during:

1. A wedding;

2. A 50th Anniversary;

3. 5 birthday parties;

4. A Christmas family reunion, some relatives arriving from Australia.

It's also got a very disappointing power management issue. Well before the "low battery" icon appears, the camera will sporadically power down/reboot upon shooting a picture that requires the flash unit. Yes, it DOES flash, and yes it DOES store the picture. But then you miss the next 2-3 shots because the camera is busy rebooting. Really annoying.

I am DEFINITELY unhappy with Nikon, and I receive no response whatsoever to my letters. My next camera will NOT be a Nikon. Plus, now I have to sell nearly a thousand dollars worth of accessories and batteries on eBay.

Nikon's lost a customer for life here...

As a first time digital camera user I found the Nikon 885 extremely simple and user-friendly. The user manual is very easy to understand and it is easy to find what you need. The small size is great for traveling. The shutter speed seems fine to me although I heard some people found it to be very slow on their cameras.

One of my favorite things about the camera is the movie feature. You can make a 40 second movie without sound and play it on your computer. I was impressed with the quality and even in fine mode the 'movie' only takes up the memory space of 7 or 8 pictures. Which is hardly anything if you have the 128 mb card which takes 80 pictures in fine mode, 157 in normal mode and 302 in basic mode.

One of the bonuses of owning a Nikon is that the memory card that it takes is made by several different companies and therefore cheaper and easier to find. The Sonys, on the other hand, only accept Sony Memory sticks, which is very annoying because some computers and printers do not accept the Sony disk, while almost every device will take the one used for Nikon. I bought a device to plug into my USB port that I can insert the disk into to download onto my computer so that the battery of my camera isn't running out while it uploads. Oh while I'm on the subject of batteries another great thing about Nikon is that it has an adapter to charge your battery outside of the camera so if you have 2 batteries, one can be charging while you're using the camera. Oh, and if you are on vacation or something out sightseeing and your battery goes dead you can run into a shop and buy regular camera batteries b/c Nikon made their cameras to accept them too.

Another one of my favorite things is the scene modes. This is something that was important for me because I know very little about photography. I really needed a camera that I could just point and shoot and Nikon was the only brand the scene selection feature where you don't have to focus it and decide whether to use flash or not and all that stuff. The twelve scenes are portrait, party/indoor, night portrait, beach/snow, landscape, sunset, night landscape, museum, fireworks show, close up, copy (black & white), and back light.

Well I hope you found this review helpful. Obviously I'm very happy with my Nikon 885. If your looking for a cute, compact, easy to use camera then this would be a good choice. Good luck!