[Dabhand16]

Most branded batteries I've had say to extend the first charge for anything between 16 - 24 hours - even when the lights indicate a full charge has been reached. Only exception I've seen is my Son's Panasonic video camera. This said (from memory) 1.5 hours! He bought a third party battery for it for about £10, and that seems to be fine.

Also the instructions tend to say that in the first few uses to drain them right down until the camera tells you it is flat before fully re-charging again.

NiCd are the worst, although are not common now. You have to run them down every time before re-charging to avoid the 'memory effect' where they will not accept a full charge. NiMh are better and once the first few cycles are over you can 'top up' even when not fully charged, and Ni-ion are best.

I've got some third party batteries for my video camera, and have not had any problems with them.

Some say to store them long term discharged, and others say about 40% charged.

You often see batteries with vastly different prices, and the dearer ones often have longer warranties, but I'm not sure if you can use this as a measure of quality. There are lots of sites that specialise in batteries, but again, I don't know if they are any better that any others.

I've used keene electronics in the past, not the cheapest, but were recommended by others. They were about half the price of branded ones.