Originally posted by SteveB The only time an ordinary high capacity NiMh will show any advantage is if you charge them up and use them the same day, you'll probably get 200 more shots under those circumstances. After a few days they will be on par and after a few weeks there's no contest.
The cross-over point between 2000-2100mAh LSD batteries (like eneloop, Hybrid, or Kodak Pre-Charged) and higher capacity regular 2500-2700mAh NiMH is about 30 days - ie: on par at about 30 days.
Regular NiMH lose about 15% of their charge in the initial 24hours, then tapers down to about 15% every 30 days thereafter (ref: BatteryUniversity.com) -
so they lose about 30% of their charge in a month (~45% at 2 months, and ~60% at 3 months).
So charge up regular NiMH on the day (or night before) the shoot - if one's going to shoot a lot - then charge up more than one set.
However as backup or to keep in the camera over long periods of non-use - use LSD batteries - but charge the LSD once every 6 months or so.