Wooddust I have a Cuddeback, but I'm not to sure that if I was doing it again that I might buy the Leafriver, the picture quality of both seems pretty comparable but the Leaf river's flash seems to range out a little farther and I think they cost just about the same.
I don't know about battery life with the Leafriver though, but I know that one set of 4 D-cell batteries on the Cuddeback will take about a thousand pics over a 2 month period.

IMO a digital is the only way to go if you are going to take very many pics.