Web Analytics RiceHigh's Pentax Blog: LiFePO4 AA Batteries - Part 2: Unboxing (and Also Some New NEX E30/3.5 Macro Samples)

Thursday, November 10, 2011

LiFePO4 AA Batteries - Part 2: Unboxing (and Also Some New NEX E30/3.5 Macro Samples)

Continued from the last story, my LiFePO4 pack has just arrived today! :-D



The package I purchased including a dual-slot charger, which can accommodate either two AA or AAA sized batteries, four LiFePO4 AA batteries plus four dummy AA sized conductors, two 4xAA battery holder/case and a pack of 50 sheets of lens paper as the gift. These altogether cost me for RMB68 (roughly equals to US$11), delivery charge (RMB50) excluded.

Just side track a bit to mention that the free lens paper is not as clean and tidy as the Kodak one that I have been using for decades, but it seems to be softer and not as abrasive! :-o

I plugged in the charger and unpacked the rechargeables. The build quality of the charger seems to be quite good but the unloading action is not that smooth. It can be seen that when there is no battery in the charger, the LED light shows blinking Green and Red at interlace, although after the following photo shows that it looks like in green:-



The voltage values of two not yet charged batteries newly picked out from the pack are shown below, at about 3.3V and near 3.5V respectively (full scale defection was set at 12V):-





I inserted the batteries into the charger, the LED lights turned Red:-



Besides, the unboxing photos taken in this Blog post are all made with my newly purchased Sony E-mount 30/3.5 Macro lens on my NEX-3. I have tested the lens initially for some both indoor and outdoor shots and found that the lens is actually quite sharp, even at wide opened. The centre sharpness is unbeatable. See two selected original (i.e., not retouched) 100% viewing crops below:-


(100% Crop: E30/3.5 at f/5 and 1/50s, ISO 800 on NEX-3)


(100% Crop: E30/3.5 at f/5 and 1/50s, ISO 1600 on NEX-3)

Next, the batteries were fully charged within an hour, maybe the batteries had been charged somehow in the factory. After the charge was completed, the LED light shown Green. Before that, it toggled between Green and Red for some time, meaning that the charging was not continuous at that intermediate stage.

And I did also note that the charging channels of the charger are working independently, see this:-



After the charge was completed, the LED lights turned Green, I picked out the batteries to measure the voltage and found that both are now near 3.6V (open circuit, no load):-







Okay, now these batteries are ready to be tested inside my beloved K-x except for the annoying rechargeable battery issue, will test more thoroughly and report back later in the next part! To be continued..

Last but not least, more NEX E30/3.5 Large size sample photos will also come! :-D (I hope to post some real-world shots if it allows! ;->)