beecherbowers.com

I bought a Kodak Z712IS digital camera for shooting pictures to complete some web development work and got tired of feeding AA alkaline batteries to my camera. That model camera does drain batteries pretty well, but that will come later in my camera review. Anyway, the camera had shipped with a CRV3 lion (lithium ion) battery that lasted for a couple months. Not having purchased a CRV3 battery before, I was suprised at the expense.

My initial purchase was a pair of nicad CRV3 batteries, one to use and one for a spare. My mistake, the manual suggests li-on batteries and now I know why. Li-on batteries don’t lose their output over the life of the battery like the nicads do. The z712 reports low battery power after about three pictures with a standard rechargeable battery.

I started hunting rechargeable lithium ion batteries and found an wide array of prices and suppliers. I like to find the best product price as well as the lowest shipping cost, which is hard to do. A lot of suppliers will sell the product cheap and jack up the shipping cost to make up for it. I finally found a supplier that had the best of both worlds, and here’s my experience with them. (I am not affiliated with Thomas Distributing, nor am I getting paid for this review)

I found Thomas Distributing on Google. Their price on the Moby Power CRV3 rechargeable li-on battery was decent, so I found a combo battery/charger and a spare battery then decided to check shipping. Shipping was calculated to less than $8 for two batteries and the charger, so I ordered it all. Since I only paid $8, I figured a week later I’d get my stuff. Boy, was I wrong.

I immediately got a confirmation of my order via email. I was uncomfortable with the confirmation, however, the password for my account at their site was included. I can understand wanting to help the customer, but I prefer sites not to email me my password unless I request it. It reduces the chances of it going to the wrong email address, etc… Anyway, the order amount was complete so I waited for my stuff to arrive.

Two hours later, I checked my email since I was expecting several client’s files. I received an order shipped email from Thomas Distributing! Well, I’ve received those emails from other places before only to check the details and see it was awaiting pickup by the carrier, but I decided to check it out. I had a tracking number and the item had already left their location.

Two days later, my batteries and charger were delivered to my door from IL to VA for less than $8. They even threw in a coupon for a discount on future orders. Needless to say, I am very pleased with Thomas Distributing and will check their site prior to ordering anywhere else for batteries in the future.