I’m guessing that by now most sound recordists will be using rechargeable batteries in their radio mics. If you use your mics regularly using rechargeables really cuts down on the cost and waste of standard batteries – gone are the days of buying 50 at a time for a job. I always hated the amount that I was putting into the recycling every month too.

So how many hours use do you get out of your batteries? Well I tested this out yesterday with an ipower 9v 520mAh Lithium in an Audio Ltd 2040 radio mic. I was very impressed to get over 7 hours out of a fairly new battery. I’d been playing save and changing them after 5 hours which now seems quite conservative. I have to say they have been very reliable and I highly recommend them.

I’ve also had good results using rechargeable NiMh AAs in the Sennheiser radio mic G4 system. I just got the highest mAh I could from Maplin which was 2500. They had some quite good deals on batteries with a fast charger at the time. I only use them for headphone feeds so it’s less critical, but the life seems good so far.