Nearly everything these days (well small portable stuff like cellphones, digital cameras, etc) come wih their own proprietary batteries. Usually the newer ones are Li-Ion, very few are still using the older NiMH, while nearly none are using the extinct NiCd.

Unfortunately, some items use normal penlights (AA) batteries. E.g. Garmin, Olympus, etc. Now you either have a choice of 3 types of batteries:

  1. Normal (non-chargeable) alkaline
  2. NiMH chargeable
  3. "Litium" non-chargeable.

What gives? Why a Lithium which isn't chargeable. Everything else uses Litium Ion chargeables in proprietary batteries.

The reason I'd like to see Li-Ion in AA format is the following: I'm using a Garmin Colorado for tracking during my hiking trips. So I've bought a few sets of AA NiMH batteries - power varying from 1800mAh to 2900mAh. All of them die within 2 days (± 12 hours of use) - some worse than other brands. So going to a normal alkaline "Duracell" - this lasts a whopping 5 days, no recharge though. And then I tried the so-called "Lithium", all I can say is a full 9 days worth, still no recharge .

I've found that this is the case with other stuff as well. Have 2 similar digicams, a Olympus SP-570 and a Lumix FZ18. The Oly uses 2xAA, while the Lumix uses a Panasonic Li-Ion rechargeable. I can take a max of 120 pics using the Oly with 2x NiMH 2900mAh. The Lumix fills up a full 4Gb SD (that's about 1000 pics) and then there's still power for another 200 or so. I can take about 600 on the Oly with Duracells (Haven't tried the Litium bats yet).

Why is there no Li-Ions in AA format. Or for that matter any standard format.