Why are most of the camera manufacturers using AA batteries.?

Question

I want to buy a Digital camera with high optical zoom. I shortlisted Sony H5, Canon S3 IS. Both use AA batteries. It is difficilt to take out the AA batteries every time , put them in a charger and charge. Compared to lithium battery it is big hassle. Why are they using AA batteries ??

Secondly Canon has no built in memory in their cameras , could you explain the possible reasons for this and can some one from Canon reply to me as well.

Answer 1

they're available everywhere, and thats convenient. also, you can get a high level nimh battery set and charger for decent money, and they'll live a long time.

Answer 2

because if you use rechargeable AA batteries, it is cheaper than having to spend 40-60 on an info-lithium battery or something similar. Also it is a lot easier to carry around spare AA (and cheaper) than several of the more expensive kind. Also i used to work for sony...and the AA batteries were what more customers wanted because of the better price. info-lithium batteries are better in the long run if you can afford it because they wont remember a charge (if you charge some batteries for a short period of time, they remember the short charge and will no longer hold a the maximum they one did nicads (nickel cadmium) do this..infolithium doesnt do that)

And the memory issue? to make you buy a card...more sales for them. Many people buy just the camera and dont realize that it only hold 8 MB or 16 MB worth of pictures, which is generally just a few...so back to the store to get a memory card. They are a lot more affordable now than say 4-5 years ago. I bought an olympus that was 250.00 and came with a 1GB memory card for 40 bux...and i never fill the card its so large...back then you were lucky to find a 256 mb card for that. when sony first came out with a 1GB memory stick...it was around 850.00. And they sold! Its crazy how much the prices have come down.

Answer 3

As others have said AA batteries are (nearly) universally available. I've forgotten the charger adapter that came with a camera when going on a trip and had to "make do" on the charge I had. If it used standard batteries I could have bought some on my trip.

My Canon camera came with a 16 MB flash card--enough to show that the camera works, but not useful for taking pictures. I'd rather they left it out and dropped the price a few dollars. The camera does have a teeny bit of internal memory to store camera settings, but none for pictures. I'd rather have the pictures on removable media so I can swap cards and keep shooting. I can also take the card to a photo kiosk and get prints made without risking my camera.

Answer 4

you should always have a spare set or 2 of batteries in the charger so you can simply swap when needed. Any battery pack would be equally as hard to swap out, but AA's are much more common and way cheaper than custom battery packs that you can only order from the manufacturer.
And as stated by others, putting in a large amount of costly ram in every camerawould just make it more expensive than necessary for those that don't need it. They let you decide how much ram you want, and spend the appropriate extra on it.

Answer 5

See both AA and lithium has their pro and cons
you can user AA batterties everywhere if no charging provision is there. get some extra AA batteries. Lithium will create a problem there.
Canon provide just 16MB memory card in their cams. Sony gives 32 MB. May be selling accessory separately and earning money.

Answer 6

Because you can find AA batteries everywhere, (in case you're in need somewhere remote).
And why pay extra money for Canon to put in a memory card for you when you can do it for less... aaaaand, every individual needs to decide for themself how much memory they want or need?!

Answer 7

To add to what's already been said, you might want to get 2 or 3 cards in case you leave your computer, you can download the cards later.