I find myself reluctant to buy a small digital that takes a proprietary battery instead of AAs. I have had the proprietary rechargeables fail to recharge, among other disappointments. And you have to have the charger and a power supply available to keep them running. It always seems so much simpler to rely on AA batteries that are available almost everywhere. Yet many to most of the cameras I have been interested in lately seem to take the lithium ion rechargeables.
Anyone else have advice on this? I am searching for a small digital to take to Africa in 2013.

My D3100 uses proprietary Nikon batteries.
I have four batteries for the camera. So far I've had no issues. The batteries are robust and hold a decent charge.
I have a car charger and a wall charger so I can charge them anywhere.
I use an external flash to save the camera batteries.
I've shied away from third party batteries. because some are not reliable.

As long as you stick to Nikon, Canon etc and use their batteries then proprietary batteries shouldn't be an issue.

While AA or AAA batteries are certainly available in most countries, I'm guessing that most of us would buy a bunch before travelling anyway, so you would be lugging around batteries that cannot be recharged. Also, "good" batteries aren't really available everywhere with certainty. By good I mean high end, capable of powering electronics.

Most countries have electricity and so do many hunting camps, if only for a few hours every day. I haven't had any problems charging my NiMh batteries and, like Zeke, I take several charged batteries with me anyway.

The best cameras, whether compact or large DSLR's, come with proprietary batteries that frequently have better and longer performance per charge than AAs. They are also much better cameras, which I think is a more important criterion for purchase than battery type. Just my two cents.

Thanks for making some good points, guys. I don't think I'll the batteries be an issue.

This is what I carried up the mountains in NZ, two AA s. Mine is a couple of years old now.

http://www.samsung.com/ph/cons...mpact/EC-ES10ZBDA/PH

Doug, that would be the camera you failed to use to snap a photo of the blonde at the gas station in Tekapo??

Could've used the Canon as well. Besides, I can close my eyes and see her with no chance of "anyone" asking why she should figure in an album.

I actually prefer to have a re-chargeable battery rather than AA.

I buy 2 or 3 spare batteries, and all hunting camps I have been in have electric power to re-charge them.

In fact, at Alan Vincent camps, he always puts a power socket in my tent, and I take a power adaptor with 4 outlets in iy.

That way I can charge my computers and cameras at the same time.

I think it is really 6 of one and half dozen of the other proposition. If there is electricity available, you can recharge either the proprietary or AA batteries, that may very well be required for your flash anyway.

Part of it is a marketing thing. My Nikon D5000 has exactly the same sensor, at least according to Nikon, as my Pentax K-x. Not top top of the line, but over 10Mp and DSLR and the sensors are the same. I use the Pentax more because of the AA batteries, and I can also use my 35mm lenses. I believe it is like other things, we need to sell you the camera and need to create more need for you to come back to US, so we make our batteries proprietary as well. More $$$ for us.

If you have power to charge, it doesn't matter which you pick. Just pick the one with the best pictures and features you want.