By TOMMY WILLIAMS / L’Observateur / January 11, 1999

WOW! As a child, universally, I would have to say that the term “wow” was normally defined as a new bike or an unbelievable magic trick. As a teen-ager,the term was closely associated with the thought of a Friday night date or driving Dad’s new car/truck.

As an adult, “wow” tends to mature into something called marriage or a new home of your own. From time to time though, if you allow yourself to, evenadults can have one of those short but enjoyable childhood “Wow!” experiences.

Don’t be embarrassed; it could happen.

Well, you can probably guess by now that I recently had such a moment. As thesports environment has changed from football to basketball, I suddenly began to realize that the recycle duration for our flash equipment was to long to handle the rapid action of basketball when using normal A-batteries. Upon the adviceof an old photographic friend I tried rechargeable nickel cadmium (Ni-Cads) batteries. All I can say is, “Wow!” Using rechargeable nickel cadmium batteriesgreatly reduces the recycle time for flash equipment, and it is cost effective.

Rechargeable nickel cadmium batteries reduce the recycle time for your flash equipment by 60 percent or better. For example, on the average, flash recycletime was reduced from 20 seconds to only seven seconds. Faster flash recycle time allows me to keep up with the action.

Rechargeable nickel cadmium batteries have an average cost of about $9 for four AA batteries and can be recharged an average of 70 to 100 times under normal operating conditions. Rechargeable nickel cadmium batteries pay forthemselves by the third recharge when you consider the fact that normal AA batteries cost about $3 per four pack. Nickel cadmium batteries can berecharged in about three to seven hours depending on the design of recharging unit.

Besides just camera equipment, rechargeable nickel cadmium batteries can meet the needs of many of the different types of electronic equipment around the home, such as a radio, a CD player or a flash light. Just check themanufacturer’s instructions before using them in the equipment.

So, by this point in the article, you should be saying to yourself ” Wow!” I didn’t know that.”

Back to Top

Back to Leisure Headlines

Copyright © 1998, Wick Communications, Inc.

Internet services provided by NeoSoft.

Best viewed with 3.0 or higher