Battery empty signal

[Indianarick]

I just received an Olympus SP-350 for Christmas and purchased rechargeable NiMH AA batteries and a recharger. I then followed instructions and charged all the batteries the required amount of time. The problem: A few times, with the rechargeables in the camera, I received the "battery empty" signal after taking a number of pictures. I then pulled those batteries out and replaced them with freshly charged batteries and got the same "battery empty" signal. I then proceded to replace those with two others with the same result and then with a third pair with the same message, "battery empty."
However, when I put in new regular throwaway AA's the camera works perfectly and then if I put those same recharged batteries back in, prior to the throwaways being depleted, they seem to work just fine.
Has anyone experienced this? If you have do you have any ideas as to what's going on.

[kakapo]

I ran into the same problem with my recently purchase SP-350. Bought $40 worth of rechargable NiMH and chargers (which I could always find a use for). I think the problem has to do with the 1.2v voltage of the NiMH battery compared to the 1.5v alkaline. The SP-350 thinks the 1.2v NiMH doesn't have enough juice. I know, it stinks because using AA batteries was a factor in deciding on the Olympus. I ended up ordering a rechargeable Li-ion (http://www.thomas-distributing.com/mpc-c301.htm) from Thomas Distributing for $27. But I plan on doing some travelling and road trips this year so having the option to use alkaline AAs is still appealing.

And here's a link to another forum thread (http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1008&message=16236744) that discusses this issue.

[Norm in Fujino]

Has anyone experienced this? If you have do you have any ideas as to what's going on.

Nothing specifically to do with your issue, but you might check this thread (http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15752&highlight=battery) for some background reading on rechargeable batteries:

[Jaykup]

problem fixed...new firmware available....