Following a mishap I have to buy new AA batteries for my Retra flashes

I take this opportunity to take a look at what are the best products for underwater use.

I have always used Eneloop pro until now. Like many.

But now are there other alternatives?

I saw the ELV Powerex-Pile mignon AA NiMH 2700 mAh in a comparaison chart.. they was better as the Eneloop for a use in a (land) strobe.

They are probably other brandt what are your opinions over the curent AA products ?

Thanks

PS
I forgot that they are different version of the Eneloop Pro... some are named xx now.. any reliable information ?

Edited July 6Jul 6 by CaolIla

I found this
Eneloop PRO: info, tips, tests, pros and cons | Everything you need to know!

Well, for Retra I recommend rigging a car battery 😂

But jokes aside, Sanyo (Eneloop) also carries a 2700mAh battery, HR-3U, but I believe these have even shorter lifespan than Pro.

Not sure there is anything better in the AA NiMH world, at least not coupled with a reasonable lifespan/reliability. You would need to consider Lithium, but those, while better in some applications, might not be best suited to be used in flash units, due to quite the heat they produce under certain loads.

Below is a very detailed review of a XTAR 4150mWh 2500mAh 1.5V Rechargeable Li-Ion AA:

Gough's Tech Zone

Mega Review: XTAR 4150mWh 2500mAh 1.5V Rechargeable Li-Io...

Around two months ago, XTAR approached me with the opportunity to review their latest, highest-capacity 1.5V Li-Ion Rechargeable AA battery rated at 4150mWh or 2500mAh with a matching L4 USB-C 4-ba…

Towards the bottom he has also tried those in a flash:

"I did test the batteries in my Yongnuo YN560-II photographic flash unit as it is quite a power hungry device that chews through batteries and found that recycle times were not appreciably better than with Ni-MH and occasionally the unit would just get stuck and need a long time to recharge. Upon opening the battery bay, it smelled hot and a check with the Kaiweets KTI-W01 thermal camera confirmed the converters of the cells being extremely hot."

No idea how such would perform in Retra, depends how the battery compartment is designed and if it could perhaps act as a watercooled heatsink maybe.

XTAR now offers a 3000mAh variant as well:

https://www.xtar.cc/product/xtar-aa-lithium-lr-3000mah-usb-c-battery

And let's not forget the good, old HKJ battery website:

https://lygte-info.dk/

Edited July 6Jul 6 by makar0n

I started using Eneloop Pro and haven’t look back.

I had also 4 of the Powerex that in my case didn’t last much.

The mA-hr rating is only part of the picture, the main reason they are recommended as I recall is the low internal resistance, which means two things, first they push out the charge very quickly and secondly it minimises heat build up. I suspect the battery mentioned above that got hot would not perform as well as this indicates internal resistance is higher.

I use both the regular white eneloops and the eneloop pro. Particularly for local diving I find the regular eneloops are perfectly fine as I'll often just do a single dive taking 100 or so shots. I generally use the eneloop pros when on a trip though, doing 3-4 dives daily with 100+ shots per dive. The white eneloops I use in my land flashes a lot where changing them out is not a big deal.

Eneloops are best for strobes, better than Pro. I believe Pro is designed for digital equipment, so it stays above 5V longer then falls off more quickly. Eneloop has a more linear (but longer) taper better suited for strobes. @bvanant can explain the chemistry, I just buy what he tells me. :)

9 hours ago, jlaity said:

Eneloops are best for strobes, better than Pro. I believe Pro is designed for digital equipment, so it stays above 5V longer then falls off more quickly. Eneloop has a more linear (but longer) taper better suited for strobes. @bvanant can explain the chemistry, I just buy what he tells me. :)

I think that the whites one are only up to 2000 mAh, while the pro are up to 2500.

For me, it is not worth testing out seemingly cheaper alternatives to the Eneloops ("buy cheap, buy twice"). As long as they are intact, the black Eneloop Pros are a tick better for use in camera flashes compared to the white ones: 2500 mAh (black) vs. 1900 mAh (white). Therefore I started with the black ones, but after multiple diving holidays I not seldom had problems with single bad batteries, that were close to the end of their life cycle. This is, because the black ones can only be charged up to 500x, while the white ones are >4x more durable (up to 2100x; se e.g. here: https://www.panasonic.com/global/energy/products/eneloop/en/lineup.html#batterylineup). Since I switched to the white ones (not in order to save money, but the aim is to reduce troubles), bad batteries are much more seldom....

Edited July 7Jul 7 by Architeuthis

1 hour ago, Architeuthis said:

For me, it is not worth testing out seemingly cheaper alternatives to the Eneloops ("buy cheap, buy twice").

For me the question was not about cheaper but about more quality and/or power
I wanted to show if they are some news GOOD AA product on the market.

Edited July 7Jul 7 by CaolIla

1 hour ago, Architeuthis said:

but after multiple diving holidays I not seldom had problems with single bad batteries, that were close to the end of their life cycle.

I had the same problem... one battery made problems... than an other... And i'doubt that they was charge near 500... some of not 100 times

This point is also a reason for my question about AA

2 hours ago, CaolIla said:

I had the same problem... one battery made problems... than an other... And i'doubt that they was charge near 500... some of not 100 times

This point is also a reason for my question about AA

500x vs. 2100x charging is the maximum under optimum conditions (and what the company claims, so probably also under optimum conditions one can subtract some percentage). I fear most of us do not treat the batteries like little gems and the outcome is accordingly.

At least, according to my limited and subjective experience, the white batteries are at least 4x more reliable compared to the black ones and under comparable conditions (I treat my batteries always the same), maybe the black ones are even more sensitive to bad treatmjent. The white ones have only little and, to me, unimportant trade-offs compared to the black ones...

I am also interested to know whether "better" models exist (to me "better" means the battery is least prone to failure), but the Eneloops have a very good reputation...

Edited July 7Jul 7 by Architeuthis

1 hour ago, Architeuthis said:

I fear most of us do not treat the batteries like little gems and the outcome is accordingly.

For sure..

The batteries have a hard life... in the strobe they be heated some times in the sun... after go down in "cold" water come up travel in the sun back at the resort etc... Not the best condition

11 hours ago, canislupus said:

I think that the whites one are only up to 2000 mAh, while the pro are up to 2500.

Bill has a Powerpoint slide on this. Despite the higher power, Eneloop 2000 lasts longer in a flash than Eneloop Pro because of the way the power tapers off. I'll leave to him to explain why, I'm a musician. ;)

Billllllll where are you ?

I recently bought eneloop pros because my regular eneloops were getting on in years. They are crap. My old white eneloops last well longer and recharge way faster than these new black ones - I actually miss shots now, which has never happened before. I'm kinda grumpy about it, tbh. YMMV

12 hours ago, jlaity said:

Bill has a Powerpoint slide on this. Despite the higher power, Eneloop 2000 lasts longer in a flash than Eneloop Pro because of the way the power tapers off. I'll leave to him to explain why, I'm a musician. ;)

Really?

I had always believed that higher mAh, and therefore higher capacity, meant longer battery duration.

I need that powerpoint 😅

1 hour ago, Kristin said:

I recently bought eneloop pros because my regular eneloops were getting on in years. They are crap. My old white eneloops last well longer and recharge way faster than these new black ones - I actually miss shots now, which has never happened before. I'm kinda grumpy about it, tbh. YMMV

I had always used the black ones, Pro, and never had a fail.

I must admit to being puzzle by the negative comments on the Eneloop Pros. Yep, agreed that the white non-Pros ones seem to last for years before they start to show even the slightest degrade. My oldest Pros (I've got about 32 of them) are maybe 4 years old and have certainly been recharged many times over many dive trips in USB-driven EBL fast chargers but, so far at least, are as a good as gold.

But maybe I have just tempted fate.....

3 hours ago, Kristin said:

I recently bought eneloop pros because my regular eneloops were getting on in years. They are crap. My old white eneloops last well longer and recharge way faster than these new black ones - I actually miss shots now, which has never happened before. I'm kinda grumpy about it, tbh. YMMV

I came across some articles about counterfeit eneloops such as this one:

Baltrade

We are testing cheap batteries signed with the Eneloop lo...

Recently, our customers and readers have been receiving disturbing information that Panasonic Eneloop rechargeable batteries of dubious quality have appeared on the market. After analyzing the info...

It's a possibility these are circulating and worth checking your batteries. I checked my white and black eneloops and found they both had the rough porous looking material on the -ve terminal that is mentioned in the link.

I should mention I have not noticed a noticeable difference between the black and white eneloops from just using them, they should perform similarly and the difference detected would need to some additional effort like logging numbers of shots taken and potentially discharge testing to be able to pick if you are getting more shots from one vs the other.

Hi @Oskar - Retra UWT

Can you give us your/Retra opinion over Eneloop White or Black ?

Many thanks in advance

They do mention Eneloop Pros on their website with weights ect, so im sure you cant go wrong with them.

On a lighter note...

This is now almost like the black caulk vs white caulk video that was going around social media year ago, just with black and white Eneloops.

The comments in this thread made me curious about the difference between the two types of batteries. Since I don't feel like doing anything this century, I asked ChatGPT 😝

I'm not responsible for errors or omissions 😇

---

Both Eneloop white and Eneloop Pro black AA rechargeable batteries are high-quality NiMH (nickel-metal hydride) cells, but they’re designed for different usage profiles.

Here’s a quick summary followed by a more detailed comparison:

Feature	Eneloop (White)	Eneloop Pro (Black)
Typical Capacity	1900 mAh	2500 mAh
Recharge Cycles	Up to 2100 cycles	Up to 500 cycles
Self-Discharge	70% charge retained after 10 years	85% charge retained after 1 year
Continuous Discharge Current	~1–2 A without rapid degradation	Up to 3 A or more for high loads
Min Operating Temp	-20 °C	-20 °C
Price	More affordable	More expensive

---

1. Eneloop White (Standard)

• Typical capacity: 1900 mAh

• Excellent cycle life: up to 2100 charge/discharge cycles

• Very low self-discharge: can retain charge for years in storage

• Best for low to medium drain devices, such as:

  • remote controls, wireless mice and keyboards

  • LED lights, alarm clocks, basic sensors

2. Eneloop Pro Black

• Higher capacity: 2500 mAh

• Lower cycle count: up to 500 cycles

• Slightly higher self-discharge (but still excellent for NiMH)

• Designed to handle higher discharge currents, ideal for:

  • camera flashes, gaming controllers, motorized toys

  • high-drain LED lights, professional audio gear

---

Discharge Current (your key interest)

Both are solid performers, but:

• Eneloop Pro cells are built to handle higher continuous and peak discharge currents — they’re better for power-hungry devices or short bursts of high current (e.g., camera flashes).

• Standard Eneloop (white) cells can’t deliver as much peak power but are more than sufficient for most everyday devices.

Conclusion

• Choose Eneloop White if you want longevity, reliability, and a lower price — ideal for general-purpose use.

• Choose Eneloop Pro Black if you need more power and higher current output, even if it means fewer charge cycles and a higher cost.

Here a link to a comparison of Eneloop white and black with alkaline batteries (by Panasonic, no other NiMh accus are mentioned): https://www.panasonic.com/sg/consumer/energy-solutions/battery/rechargeable-battery-learn/article/eneloop_pro.html?srsltid=AfmBOorLhUvSrvP5lDzmxA6c5RAOdMLn817I0YwOQFbFv0xLK1uig5MI

The conclusions are similar to the ones by ChatGPT (longevity vs. power). The advantage in flash charging time was also tested and the black Pros charge approx. 20% faster compared to the whites (they give no numbers; estimated from the graph "Faster flash charging and longer life")...

If the numbers in continuous discharge current, given by ChatGPT are real (1-2A for white vs. 3A for black), this means the current that can be supplied by the battery continuously without leading to damage of the battery (I guess). At a given voltage, the output current depends entirely on the internal resistance of the flash (law of Ohm: Current (A) = Voltage (V) / Resistance (ohm)). During charging, when the load on the batteries is high, the voltage of the accus goes down a little (also depending how freshly charged the accu is), the black ones maintain their original voltage (1.5 V) a little bit better compared to the white ones, leading to the approx. 20% faster charging time...

Edited July 8Jul 8 by Architeuthis

I'm using since several years in my Retra Pro X, both Eneloop pro (2500, black) and IKEA LADDA (2450, now grey, white before).

I'm not able to see any differences between them. In terms of recycling time or number of pictures.

Ikea Ladda batteries are also made in Japan, and my understanding is that they are build in same factory than Eneloops.

you can find many comparison tests on internet, and conclusions are that they have same capabilities, probably only the branding is different.

The major difference is the price. Ladda is half the price, perhaps even less.

When you have Retra with extensions and want 2 set of batteries, 32 AA are needed. So if you can save a little...

my 2 cents...

49 minutes ago, Architeuthis said:

Here a link to a comparison of Eneloop white and black with alkaline batteries (by Panasonic, no other NiMh accus are mentioned): https://www.panasonic.com/sg/consumer/energy-solutions/battery/rechargeable-battery-learn/article/eneloop_pro.html?srsltid=AfmBOorLhUvSrvP5lDzmxA6c5RAOdMLn817I0YwOQFbFv0xLK1uig5MI

find on this page


Caution

• Do not disassemble.

• Do not dispose of in fire, put in backwards, mix different battery types, use with non-rechargeable batteries, or short circuit.

• Do not connect the (+) and (-) ends with metal objects.

• Do not use in water-proof flashlights or in any device with an airtight battery compartment. Doing so may result in explosions or leaks that may cause personal injury.

• Keep batteries out of reach of children. If swallowed, contact your doctor or local poison control center.
  
  
  
  ☹️ or 🤣 I don't know