Steven Pam says: First Fuel-Cell Powered Camera on Display by Canon

This (rather ad-laden) story on Softpedia about a Canon fuel-cell powered camera is a few months old now, but it caught my eye.

At the end of last week, Canon presented at a technology expo in Japan a digital camera running on a fuel cell powered by hydrogen. The fuel cells are included in the handle of the camera, where regular batteries are now inserted. The cells Canon has presented offer the same energy levels regular lithium-ion secondary batteries of the same size do.
However, Canon promised to further develop these cells and improve the density, which could mean achieving three to five more times energy for these cells in the near future.

Here's what fuelcells.org, (which claims to be a non-profit project of a Washington, DC organisation called 'Breakthrough Technologies Institute') has to say about fuel cells as replacements for chemical batteries:

Fuel cell power sources are also being developed for portable electronic devices. In these applications, the fuel cell would provide a much longer operating life than a battery would, in a package of lighter or equal weight per unit of power output. The fuel cell would not require "recharging;" a liquid, solid, or gaseous fuel canister could be replaced in a moment. Fuel cells also have an environmental advantage over batteries, since certain kinds of batteries require special disposal treatment. Fuel cells provide a much higher power density, packing more power in a smaller space.

The engineering and materials challenges related to micro fuel cell applications are substantial and will require innovative solutions to bring them to commercialization. If these technologies can be commercialized, then the portable and micro application market could be the fastest to develop. There is a huge potential market.

Portable fuel cells carry environmental benefits comparable to fuel cells in other applications to the extent they replace combustion systems in homes, in business, or in recreation.
Productivity. Fuel cells carry productivity benefits in an increasingly mobile economy.
Allied Business Intelligence's report on "Portable Fuel Cell Markets" says portable fuel cells are being developed to respond to the "poor performance of rechargeable batteries by quadrupling the run time before refueling is necessary."
Developers expect a fuel cell powered cell phone to have up to 200 hours of talk time. Recharging fuel cell powered electronic devices could be as simple as inserting a small methanol fuel cartridge or hydrogen container.

Worth keeping an eye on!