H501 battery question from flashlight nitwit

I'm a professional nature photographer looking for a lightweight, compact flashlight that I can use both as a headlamp and without the headband. I'm looking for pure flood, so I'm thinking about the H501 or the H60.

I know nothing about batteries, and I have a question I hope you can answer: I often travel in remote areas without electricity, so without the possibility to charge any batteries. Regular AA or AAA batteries are available in even the most underdeveloped countries, which is why I prefer to use what I think you call primaries (I often use Energizer Lithium AA's).

I would like to know whether either of these (or any good alternative) headlamps can take AA or AAA primaries, and if so, if results are much worse than using special rechargeables.

Thanks for your help!

Marsel

Using lithium primaries are always best performance wise. Using alkaline primaries are always the worst. Using NiMH rechargables are nearly as good as lithium primaries are, and are much cheaper than either other option in the long run.


My question is: why do you necessarily have to charge batteries in the field? You charge them in civilization (similar to buying your lithium cells in civilization), use them in the field, and charge them back up when you get back to civilization to "refresh" your supply, just as you would normally buy more primaries when you return to civilization.

In a pinch if you run out, you can still use disposable primaries bought on site.

Best of all, using NiMH cells, carrying the same number as you normally would of alkaline, you will have approximately double the runtime, meaning you are carrying twice the power.

I recommend AA. Search here as there is a report of great results using Lithium primaries. Medical mission trip and I don't think they changed batteries the whole trip...carried lots of spares that weren't needed.
AA has much more capacity.
G27

https://www.candlepowerforums.com/threads/178839

If you want to dig dipper, you may take a look at the "NiMh Battery Shoot Out" and "Alkaline Battery Shoot Out" threads.

If staying with the convenient AA batteries format (quite a good decision, IMHO) you can generally use alkaline primaries, lithium primaries, NiMH LSD (low self discharge) rechargeables, NiMH non-LSD rechargeables, some variation of LiIon rechargeables (LiIon, LiMN, LiFePo4 etc.) or NiCd rechargeables. Different lights will accept different selections within these chemistries, some, including zebras H501s, can accept all.

NiCads are useful in some applications (high-current, IIRC) but will have lower capacity so here you can forget about them.

LiIons have substantially higher voltage than other chemistries (3.7V nominal vs. 1.2-1.7V). In some lights this voltage difference makes the high mode twice as bright when using LiIons than with other chemistries. This is not the case with zebras - in my tests I saw that the light is actually dimmer when using LiIons. If you don't use LiIons, I think there is no point in investing in them for zebras.

A big advantage of alkaline primaries is the fact that they are accessible practically everywhere. As far as I know this is also the only advantage. They have lower capacity than other chemistries so use them if you have to, but buy something else if you can.

The last three chemistries left are lithium primaries, non-LSD NiMHs and LSD NiMHs. All of them have some virtues and some drawbacks.

Lithium primaries are not rechargeable but (according to the tests quoted earlier) will have the highest capacity (e.g. ~4.5Wh @ 0.5A for Energizer L91). Their weight is also much lower than NiMH rechargeables (e.g. 15g vs. 30g for Energizer L91 vs. Sanyo NiMH 2700). Lithium batteries are also much less sensitive to cold than NiMHs. I use them mainly as last resort backup batteries.

Non-LSD (not low self discharge) NiMHs, like Sanyo NiMH 2700, will have higher capacity (e.g. 3.1Wh @ 0.5A for Sanyo 2700) than LSD cells but will discharge themselves when left not used. They are usually the first cells that I put into my equipment - they are charged a day or two before and placed inside for immediate use.

LSD (low self discharge) cells have lower capacity (e.g 2.4Wh @ 0.5A for Sanyo Eneloop) than non-LSDs but will keep the charge much longer. Eneloops are advertised as 85% of capacity after 1 year. I use them when I have no time to charge non-LSDs but want to be sure that the battery I took has some energy left inside. I also take them with me to use after non-LSDs are already discharged.


Well, I'm not sure about the question but my answer seems to belong to the batteries section

Thank you both for your swift reply. :thumbsup:

Marduke said:

My question is: why do you necessarily have to charge batteries in the field? You charge them in civilization (similar to buying your lithium cells in civilization), use them in the field, and charge them back up when you get back to civilization to "refresh" your supply, just as you would normally buy more primaries when you return to civilization.

Click to expand...

On each trip I take over 55 pounds of photography equipment. Flying from Europe (I live in The Netherlands) there is a checked luggage limit of only 44 pounds. I try to put everything I need for my work in my photo backpack which I take on board, although it's way over the limit. The amount of cables and chargers and external drives that I have to bring next to the cameras and lenses is killing. The last thing I need is another charging device. Another nice thing about the primaries is that I will return with much less weight.

Does that make sense?

Thank you very much for your help - much appreciated! There's a whole world out there that I never realized existed; the world of batteries.

Marsel said:

Thank you both for your swift reply. :thumbsup:



On each trip I take over 55 pounds of photography equipment. Flying from Europe (I live in The Netherlands) there is a checked luggage limit of only 44 pounds. I try to put everything I need for my work in my photo backpack which I take on board, although it's way over the limit. The amount of cables and chargers and external drives that I have to bring next to the cameras and lenses is killing. The last thing I need is another charging device. Another nice thing about the primaries is that I will return with much less weight.

Does that make sense?

Click to expand...

You don't even have to pack a charger. Charge them up at home before you leave. Since they last longer than alkaline primaries, you can carry less of them. The only catch is you do have to bring them back with you.

Or buy exclusively lithium primaries which last longer and are lighter, but are a bit $$.

short answer - buy a zebralight, h501. (The warm tint is a bit less bright, you decide). it's basically just another battery, but also happens to be a wicked light. h501 works with any/every battery you can fit inside it. And it works great with run-down 10 year old batteries that have stopped working in other equipment. I bought some powerful new batteries when i ordered my h501, and aside from a short test, i've only run it on old used up batteries because it works just as well with them.
my advise - buy the zebralight h501 while you're making up your mind.

The larger zebra (h60) uses a 18650 cell, yes it is completely not available but look long and hard at the run times. You may not even use your spare battery during a trip. You didn't say what you had been using previously but I'll wager it had a fraction of the efficiency of the lights you'll see on CPF.
It's an odd situation that you don't want to take rechargable batteries or a charger b/c you're already taking too many cables and rechargers...

Glock27 said:

Medical mission trip and I don't think they changed batteries the whole trip...carried lots of spares that weren't needed.

Click to expand...

It's possible to use light with one battery for 2 weeks, but runtime declared in that report is simply unreal:

we got at least 75 hours of use on one battery, being pretty much "on" full time in each 4-6 hr daily chunk of use, in a mixed pattern of (roughly) 60% low, 30% medium, and 10% high level.

Click to expand...

10% from 75h is 7:30h runtime. Even on lithiums (usually rated as c.a. 4000mAh) it is not possible to reach that result, if on 2700mAh NiMH's it is just 2:20h.
Raw calculation: 2:20h / 2700mAh * 4000mAh = 3:25 h
And where is energy for the rest of those 75h?

To reach runtime of 75h on lithiums (take 4000mAh as battery capacity) the maximum level should be not more than 1% and minimum level not less than 90% of the usage.

Back to the batteries:
In some countries it is not that easy with alkaline "primaries". When I've been to Georgia last year, I made similar assumption for my GPS - I thought that I will easily buy AA alkalines "everywhere" so I didn't take any rechargeables.
The truth was that it was more easy to find a place when you can recharge NiMH's, than to buy alkalines. Even in Tbilisi it was hard to find a store with alkalines. You could buy "normal" AA batteries, but for my GPS runtime was c.a. 2h, when on alkalines it is c.a. 8-10h.
In fact, if I took NiMH's and small charger it would be better choice...

But still, solution based on AA's is more flexible than any of the solutions based on the Li-On's, like H60. You are not in a "trap" if your accu will discharge.