Rechargeable batteries

At one time it was recommended that rechargeable batteries be used and charged in common sets.

Does this still hold true for newer ones such as PowerX or Eneloops?

I'm not sure, but I still do it. Force of habit, I guess.

Why not do it? If nothing else, it should make sure the whole set is at a common lifetime. I take mine and write a number or something with a sharpie so I can keep the sets together.

Same here. I'm even a bit overly OCD about it and keep them in sets for both strobes, so both strobes' batteries always have the same life cycle...

Yep, like echo2600 and Vondo.....

I'm impressed with the OCD you guys practice! I use 12 AAs per dive (two strobes and one focus/video light) so have 36 Eneloops in my kit - one set in the gear, one set ready to swap out, one set charging at any given time. They get jumbled all about and I have never kept track of individual "sets". Once a year I put them through the reconditioning cycle on a Maha smart charger. I do about 4-6 dives per month year round and these batteries have been going for 5 years now with no noticeable loss of performance. At a price of roughly $2 per battery, if they all died tomorrow I would have spent $15 a year and would not complain. But they show no signs of slowing down so I could not be happier and could not be bothered to track them precisely.

It is very important to use a charger that can charge each battery equally. There have been issues with some strobes where each has not been charged equally. I had issues twice due to this and had to send the strobe to Japan. Of course they never gave the proper reason why the strobe malfunctioned but a fellow pro photographer friend pointed out the reason. So i now use this charger :

https://www.jaycar.c...-ni-mh/p/MB3551

Eneloops are your best bet Pro's or the white ones.

Diggy

The latest Eneloop packages are now also coming with a 4-channel charger that looks almost like the old 2-channel charger. For the price, it couldn't be beat. I recondition mine once a year or so in an expensive Maha 8-channel charger too, but that's way to bulky to take along.

I use Eneloops in a lot of stuff around the house too, so I make a point before a dive trip, to exchange dive and non-dive batteries. I've been using them for 7 years now I think and have not had a single casualty.