Originally Posted by AZjeff
Batteries are not equal. In digital cameras by all means use lithium batteries. Yeah more expensive but last way longer and they're designed to hold the voltage up and die very quickly rather than the voltage steadily dropping . Dollar store batteries are junk. Rechargeables used to be designed to be 1.2 volts instead of 1.5 so they wouldn't overcharge and smoke your electronics. Don't know if that's still the case or not but they don't last long in things that need a minimum voltage to work. BITD I sold cameras and kept up on batteries, not so much now. The video confirmed what most know, you usually get what you pay for.
Cameras aren't necessarily a great comparison to general purpose uses.
Of course most digitals these days use Li-Ions. Back in the days of cameras designed for primary cells, you often didn't have a choice on chemistry with the exception of cameras designed to use AAs. Autofocus film SLRs often used CR123As, which are lithium primary cells(the Nikon F6, which is the only AF 35mm SLR still in production to my knowledge, uses these unless you have the optional battery grip). In cameras that use AAs, you have a lot of considerations that go into cell selection beyond just the cell life-often times pro-quality cameras can run a half frame per second or more faster using Ni-Cds or NiMHs due to the lower internal resistance. Lithiums work at lower temperatures than most other chemistries. The internal resistance thing is also big in flashes, as most rechargeable chemistry gives faster recycle times than alkaline primary cells. Of course, there's also the solution of just tossing more cells at it-my Nikon SB-800 came with a battery door that allows you to fit a 5th cell(normal is 4) to shorten recycle time, and I often run it with a Nikon-made external pack that holds 6 AA-sized cells-even using plain alkalines, with that external pack plus 4 or 5 cells in flash, it will recycle from a full dump in well under a second(normally 3-5 seconds with alkalines in the 4-cell configuration). Then, if you really want to go nuts on flash recycle time, there are always sealed lead acid options-I use a Metz 60 CT-4 with my Hasselbad that runs on a 3-cell sealed lead acid pack that is mounted in a shoulder pack. For more conventional shoe mount flashes, Quantum still does a decent business selling the nice little belt packs that have three Cyclone SLAs(about the size of a D cell battery) in them.
Then you get into older stuff where the battery chemistry is extremely important. A decent number of cameras were designed to use mercury cells with a stable 1.35V for the meter. Alkaline cells have too high of a voltage and too unstable of a discharge curve to reliably use in these applications-many folks will either recalibrate for silver oxide(1.55V and stable) or use a diode to drop silver cells down to 1.35V. I use zinc-air hearing aid batteries, which have the same stable 1.35V but don't last that long(they're cheap, though). For many other cameras that only need the battery to power the meter, or otherwise have minimal reliance on the battery, but aren't picky about voltage I tend to select chemistries that will last the longest(and are less likely to leak) since the batteries will probably die from age before they are discharged. That usually means silver where I need an LR44(the Nikon F2, F3, FM, and FE series) or lithium where I need a PX-28(the only Nikons of note here are the EL and EL2, although I've had plenty of other cameras that used them).