Handheld UHF opinions please

[chicaboo]

Hey Adam,

Strathfields price doesn't even come close to the value of Andrew's.
ie: GME TX610, 4x650mah batteries and A/C charger for $77 delivered.

Choice bro,
Gav.

[mrpayner]

Hey Gav..

Yeh I realise mate.. it was just incase someone didn't have credit card information [or is squimish about online shopping] and had a store that was local to them..

If the GB goes ahead through Kitty [which i hope is still going on], i'll most likely get 2 GME units.

Regards
Adam.

[KittyKatSmack]

Hmmmmm, my group buy price still isn't anywhere near as good as that Strathfields price........

Adam, if you can get it delivered to you for $77, then

[starskynhutch]
Do It
Do It
[/starskynhutch]

:lol:

[sacah]

I would definatly recommend www.AndrewsCom.com.au they have really cheap prices, free delivery Aus wide and are really nice (-:

[mrpayner]

Do Andrew's have an online store or do you have to email/phone/fax them?

Regards
Adam

[sacah]

I gave em a call, gave CC over phone, I don't think they have an online store, but I didn't actually look for one.
(-:

[sacah]

Yah, got a new unit today back from Andrews, had to email them on Monday asking whats happening, and one turned up today, so if you deal with them, on repairs or replacments they might need reminding, but they were more than happy to replace my faulty unit.
(-:

[mrpayner]

Ahh.. well.. I found a place in ballarat that sells the GME unit.. The shelf price they had listed was $120 for just the unit itself [ie no charger or batteries].. The trickle charger [45mA] was $20 and the batteries were $20 for a set of 4 900NiMH.

I got the lot for $100.

I'll be using it over the weekend.

AP

[mrpayner]

Erm.. a quick question if i may. Is there any indication that the unit is charging when you're charging it?

AP

[chicaboo]

Hi Adam,

The batteries should get warm for the first few hours and by the time your finished after 12-16 hours they should be what I call hot or very warm. A nice charger has an indicator light to show there is a closed circuit, and a really nice one will cut the charge off when it knows their fully charged (reaches 1.5v?), or atleast revert back to trickle afterwards... Don't charge in the handheld if you can avoid it!

Gav.

[mrpayner]

Ahh ****... I knew i should've bought a seperate charger.. the GME one is definately a trickle charger [45ma] and even at 90Ma as stated on the batteries they take 15 hours to charge fully from dead..

Looks like i'm buying a better charger.. :roll:

AP

[chicaboo]

Nah man, don't sweat it on the charger, I have an el cheapo that came with my bundle, it's only trickle too. Hey the batteries last so long in the Handheld it's amazing, you really don't need to be fussed at all I think. Only way you can go wrong is forget that it's on, which I've done once, so I got a 24+ hour charge on handheld batts, OOPS!!!

[mrpayner]

Yeh.. i've seen an Energizer charger at Kmart for around $100.. it's a 1 hour charger and i was thinking about getting it for the digital camera batteries too.. Might have to get one for myself for christmas! :wink:

AP

[chicaboo]

$100, yeah I know what you mean. A really decent AA/AAA charger will cost you $80-100+ for something that can do a fast charge with auto cut off, and sometimes even come with some nice 2100mah batteries too. I used to have one of those that I used with my Canon A70, but I killed it by putting 2 batteries in and forgetting to flick it over to 2 battery mode.

[mrpayner]

Yeh.. Those 2100's look appealing.. I have often wondered what output those Energizer E2 Lithium batteries are.. They're expensive but **** they last a long time.. I can get about 300+ photos from a set of those using the LCD all the time and flash about 20%

AP

[twilightprotege]

2100 batteries are Ni-Cd. they have a memory effect. Ni-MH are generally better batteries as they have no memory effect in them.

[chicaboo]

NiMH DO come in 2100mah, I have 4 right here that I use in my big flash for the camera. I've seen NiMH in 650, 800, 1300, 1800, 2000, 2100, 2400 and 3000. Don't ask me the logic of how the cells work, but it's not like the old days when everything was divisible by 2 in general...

[twilightprotege]

but not in AAA...

900 is the largest i've seen in AAA (which is what i got)

[mrpayner]

Crap! those 3000 puppies must be expensive.. Where'd you find those? If I can get a couple of those for the digicam that will be awesome..

AP

[chicaboo]

I've heard you have to be careful with those 3000mah batts, they charge fast and DISCHARGE fast aswell, that means all that power gets rammed up your camera's frontbum really quickly. The pure cost and anxiety of worrying what damage they'd cause has always stopped me from using them in a camera. I've heard they can even burn out electric motors in model RC cars! Hence the motor usually needs thicker wiring or a bigger capacitor/heatsink...
I'm gonna stick to 2100mah myself, I get great longevity off the flash with those anyhow...

Gav.